Jeffrey Anderson

Cardinal Untruths

Confidential documents and sworn statements by Cardinal Roger Mahony were released last week, ending two years of legal maneuvers to shield "his eminence" from examination in the Catholic clergy sex abuse scandal. The cardinal’s testimony, memos and letters offer a rare glimpse into Mahony’s formative years as a priest and......

Blessed by the Devil

Photo by AP/Wideworld Observers of the Catholic Church sex scandal saw for the first time last Friday what passes for mass closure in these parts. The Diocese of Orange agreed to pay $100 million to 87 victims of 31 priests — minus 40 percent for the victims’ lawyers. Comes out......

Minister of Marijuana

Scott Imler’s voice is less urgent, less ravaged, than it was two years ago, when he was on a hunger strike to save the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center, which he founded in West Hollywood in 1996. He exudes tranquillity, now that his struggle and a bout with cancer are......

Speaking Softly

THE CASE OF Patricia Surjue v. The City of Inglewood has ended. Last Wednesday, after a jury was chosen and trial was set to begin in her three-year police-brutality saga, Surjue accepted a settlement on behalf of herself and her two sons. Surjue and her sons will receive $250,000, which......

Tapping Pension Funds

A CRITICAL VOTE next Wednesday by the Department of Water and Power’s Retirement Board could reduce the DWP’s contribution to its pension fund and threaten long-term retirement benefits. The board’s two elected members were surprised to learn of the proposal last week, and how the DWP is dealing with a......

The Rise of Empire

Sandra Miranda remembers the little warehouse on Lamar Street, near the San Antonio Winery in downtown Los Angeles. Empire Cleaning Supply started there as a mom-and-pop operation that sold floor stripper and mops and the like to the city since the Great Depression. As a custodian at the Department of......
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Dirty Laundry

A procession of Department of Water and Power employees seized the floor and railed against harassment and retaliation recently at a Board of Commissioners meeting, causing jaws to drop and commissioners to avert their eyes. Ordinarily the board conducts the DWP’s weighty business in a dispassionate manner, sparing little time......

The Man in Red

Photo by Slobodan Dimitrov Cardinal Roger Mahony has been compared to a mafia don for his obstruction of criminal and civil justice inquiries into the Catholic clergy pedophilia scandal. Survivors of priest sexual abuse and even the usually tepid Los Angeles Times have called for his resignation on similar grounds......

One Mean Chick

As chief financial watchdog, City Controller Laura Chick has turned up the temperature on high-profile targets in the city’s pay-to-play drama, but in the lawsuit brought against her by fired former investigator Dan Carvin, she is the one feeling the heat. Chick is fending off charges that her swift firing......

Veil of Secrecy Torched

After months of blessing the Catholic Church’s near-sacred insistence on secrecy in a criminal probe of clergy sex abuse and an alleged cover-up by Cardinal Roger Mahony, retired Los Angeles Judge Thomas Nuss this week ordered church lawyers to turn over documents to a grand jury. With two priests under......