U.S. Congress

Silver Lake's Gay Rights History...As Told By Puppets

See also: *5 Artsy Things to Do in L.A. This Week *L.A.'s Best Experimental Puppet Theater *Move Over, West Hollywood -- Silver Lake Is the True Gay Mecca *Silver Lake Has Always Been Gay, Readers Say Let's face it, puppets are cool. Automata, the non-profit experimental puppet theater and workshop ... More >>

Los Angeles City Council District 3 Primary Results: Bob Blumenfield Wins Over Joyce Pearson

Despite his massive spending, Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield barely gained the votes needed to beat neighborhood council activist Joyce Pearson in Los Angeles City Council District 3 race in the West San Fernando Valley. Blumenfield, one of the more audacious job-hoppers from Sacramento, who has nea ... More >>

Proposition A Sales Tax Increase Will Slam Los Angeles Poor, Profs and Students Say at Protest

Please also read Proposition A Sales Tax Increase: Do People Trust the L.A. City Council? By David Stamp Los Angeles City College poli-sci teacher Salvador Sanchez says "Nobody has time for this but we have to do it" -- it being to ask L.A. voters to defeat Prop. A, a tax increase on the March 5 b ... More >>

Meatless Mondays: L.A. City Council's Wealthy, $178,789 Salaried Members Tell Los Angeles Households, Many of Which Rely on Frijoles

Also See: L.A. City Council Approves Meatless Mondays in Squid Ink. The Los Angeles City Council really failed a pop quiz showing how disconnected, overpaid and puffed-up its 15 elected politicians have become, when it voted 14-0 to urge L.A.'s 3.8 million residents to adopt Meatless Mondays. Woul ... More >>

Tony Kushner Explains How He Adapted Lincoln for the Age of Obama

Tony Kushner isn't shy about politics. He's opinionated, and he stirs up controversy. In his own words, he's a "man of the left." His 1992 Tony Award-winning play Angels in America tackled AIDS at the height of its epidemic. In 2005, he co-wrote Steven Spielberg's Munich, which took heat for its po ... More >>

VIDEO: L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa Debates Romney Republican on 'Which Party Better Suits Latino Voters,' Loses

Despite the increasing, oft-hilarious attempts of Republican candidates to convince the crucial Latino voter base that its interests are best served by the red party (including a fugly new outreach website), Latinos still swing Democrat more often than not. Because name-dropping Sen. Mario Rubio (R ... More >>

California's $100B Bullet Train 'Not Feasible' at This Time, Says Peer Review Group for the High-Speed Rail (Surprise, Surprise)

The Bullet Train: Even more expensive a pipe dream than the L.A. mayor's "Subway to the Sea."​How many more warnings will it take for starry-eyed California politicians to realize the voter-approved $100 billion Bullet Train is a budget disaster waiting to implode? On top of skepticism from t ... More >>

$100 Billion Bullet Train

Democrats fray as cost skyrockets, feds bail, and Amtrak starts to look good

Venice Residents Still Fuming Over Santa Monica Airport's Self-Serving Flight Pattern

New York Times, circa 2007Still annoying.​Update: L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl says he has some tricks up his sleeve to possibly take down the airport before 2015. Also, he calls it "a health emergency for the lungs of my people." More drama below. Originally posted October 18 at 12:50 ... More >>

'Rampture' Looms: Three-Month Closure of Wilshire Ramps to 405 Freeway Will Mean 'Carmageddon' for L.A. (Really This Time)

MetroThe Wilshire Boulevard on- and off-ramps to the 405, post-Rampture.​L.A. officials earned the respect and admiration of many far-off governments with the wildly successful PR campaign that was Carmageddon -- so named by crafty L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. And the Supe is back a ... More >>

California Citizens Redistricting Map Shakeup: Why Disgusted Voters Took Control of Senate, Assembly and Congressional Electoral Borders

While the U.S mourned 9-11 the California State Legislature went behind closed doors to rig their elections.​By Hillel Aron and Jill Stewart Here's why California citizens today produced new, non-sleazy, non-trickster-y redistricting maps that starkly rejigger how communities are represented ... More >>

Theater Reviews: The Cradle Will Rock, Alceste, 100 Days

Also Love Letters to Women, Dangerous Beauty, Camino Real and more

California Election Results: Statewide Democrats Fend Off Republican Wave, Barack Obama Should Study Golden State for 2012

Colin Young-WolffPresident Barack Obama at USC​On a night when the Republican party took over the House of Representatives and made things tight in the U.S. Senate, Democratic President Barack Obama should study what California Democrats did right in their statewide races, fending off possibl ... More >>

California's Proposition 20 and Proposition 27: Gerrymandering And Election-Fixing And Why You Should Give A Rip

By Hillel Aron California's "Ribbon of Shame" Congressional District 23 stretches more than 200 miles from outside Camarillo to the Monterey Co. border, narrows to 100 yards and is said to "disappear at high tide​Update: Before Nov. 2, read about shadowy Michael Berman, a map-making guru who ... More >>

Carly Fiorina Vs. Barbara Boxer

Running as a flat-out conservative, is Carly crazy, or crazy like a fox?

Desmond Tutu Criticizes President Barack Obama's AIDS Strategy

Rev. Desmond Tutu​AIDS Healthcare Foundation president Michael Weinstein isn't the only person slamming President Barack Obama's AIDS strategy, which L.A. Weekly reported last week. Now Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu has spoken out. "I appreciate that tough financial times require the ... More >>

Froot Loops, Other Kellogg Cereals Recalled

Flickr/ZanastardustConsumers have complained of a waxy, metallic or soapy odor and taste. ​ Do not open that box of Apple Jacks. According to a report Friday in the Christian Science Monitor, Kellogg Co. is recalling the apple-cinnamon-flavored cereal along with Fruit Loops, Corn Pops and Hone ... More >>

Bold Prediction: Mickey Kaus Will Poll in the High Single Digits

Mickey Kaus sets expectations low​The polls are open as of 7 a.m. Sometime before they close, at 8 p.m., lay down a bet on how Venice-based blogger Mickey Kaus will fare in his anti-campaign for U.S. Senate. Kaus told Calbuzz that if he gets 3% of the vote, it will be a historic repudiation of Ba ... More >>

Conservative Radio Talkers John And Ken Endorse Mickey Kaus

​Mega-blogger and candidate for U.S. Senate Mickey Kaus announced over the weekend that conservative talk-show hosts John and Ken have endorsed him in the Democratic primary Tuesday. Kaus, who is critical of illegal immigration and the stranglehold unions have on his party, said he's not surpr ... More >>

Lieutenant Governor of Paper Clips

Janice Hahn, a product of the L.A. City Council, hopes to be a heartbeat away from governor of California

American Craft Beer Week: Declare Your Parabola Independence

drinkwiththewench.comBehold: Craft Beer​ Welcome to American Craft Beer Week, the "We Are The World" of good beer. Today through Sunday, we have an official excuse to celebrate this country's sudsy best by indulging in craft beer specials around town, signing the Declaration of Beer Independe ... More >>

President Obama In L.A. Monday For Boxer Fundraiser

​President Barack Obama will be in Los Angeles Monday afternoon to boost the profile of a fundraiser for fellow Democrat Barbara Boxer, who is running for reelection to the U.S. Senate. Obama will be at the California Science Center at 700 Exposition Park Drive, said Boxer spokeswoman Sheila ... More >>

California's Big Whiff on Education-Reform Money

What the hell led to the "Race to the Top" rejection from Obama?

Mickey Kaus' Blog Has New Home

​Journalist and pundit Mickey Kaus officially moved his well-read blog from Slate to his own, independently hosted URL, kausfiles.com, after filing to run in the Democratic primary against U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer. He had stated that he wanted to tap into his sizable audience and use his blog ... More >>

Kaus Pulls 'Files' From Slate, Goes Indie

Courtesy of Stephen KausMickey Kaus.​Indicating the seriousness of his spirit in waging a Quixotic campaign for U.S. Senate against incumbent Barbara Boxer, mega-blogger Mickey Kaus announced Thursday that he's moving his blog away from Slate and hosting it himself in order to drive more traff ... More >>

In U.S. Senate Race, Kaus Really Files

​Venice-based journalist and mega-blogger Mickey Kaus on Friday filed papers to run for the U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Barbara Boxer. We reported at the beginning of the month about his intention to run. Via this post, Kaus listed some of the stances that would differentiate him ... More >>

CORRECTED: Mickey Kaus Takes Out Papers For U.S. Senate Run

Mickey Kaus.​Pioneering political blogger Mickey Kaus took out papers filed to run for U.S. Senate in California, he told LA Weekly. The Venice resident said he'll run this year against Barbara Boxer for her seat. He said he took out filed papers at with the Los Angeles County Registrar of Vot ... More >>

"Thriller" Video Named to the National Film Registry: Ten Other Great Music/Film Collabs in the Archive

Yesterday the Library of Congress named its 2009 selections to the National Film Registry, America's official record of films deemed worthy, in the words of the Registry, of being "preserved as cultural, artistic and/or historical treasures for generations to come." Included on the list is Michael J ... More >>

Mayor V. Bows To The Westside As He Dedicates Eastside Rail

Eastside son Antonio Villaraigosa beamed Saturday as he helped to dedicate the Metro Gold Line extension train that runs from downtown to East Los Angeles. Free rides are being offered Sunday to celebrate the opening and to lure the bus-riding masses. And while a vast majority of county transit user ... More >>

Should L.A. City Council Agree to Slash Its $178,789 Salaries?

15 richly paid politicians are happy to cut their pay — by 2.5 percent

Schwarzenegger's Lost Year

The Austrian Oak is beaten by a bureaucracy he swore he'd change

Animal radicals banned from UCLA profs' homes

By Max Taves A judge handed UCLA a big victory over its animal-rights tormentors in Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday. The judge’s order won’t be made public until sometime today, but here are the two most immediate effects: 1) The personal information of UCLA researchers and administrator ... More >>

Immigration Rites

Requiem for a movement. The real aliens are in Congress

The Greatest Good for the Smallest Number

The Republican Congress doesn’t like to legislate, and it shows

How to Cure Hollywood’s Summertime Blues

12 Steps to better box office

Back From the Fallout Shelter

It’s no wonder the Senate Democrats can’t win an election

Bush’s Watergate

If it happens, keep your eye on Texas

Aborting Abortion Rights — Then and Now

New details from Blackmun’s papers show how 1992 begets 2004

Atrocity Alert

Shock and Awe

Pro-war propaganda

Do Not Go Gently

Hollywood secessionists cling to victory even as the fat lady sings

Teaching Peace

Colombian schools try to free children from guns

DiFi’s Dilemma

That tax-cut vote is looking mighty bad

The Alphabet Killer: What Makes Mike Schaefer Run? And Run?

Labor’s Pain

Barbara Ehrenreich talks about clerking at Wal-Mart, living on the minimum wage, and her new book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America

It’s Weird Out There

Politicians provide comic relief from election madness

Impeach the President!

Well, not really, but it sure as hell would screw the GOP, and might just save Social Security

Get Out and Vote