Jill Stewart

Grim Times and Crimes in Famed Melrose District

The below press release sheds light on what some have begun to call an overwrought hyper-focus on gangs by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and LAPD Chief William Bratton. As the Weekly has reported, Villaraigosa and Bratton in 2007 hyped a fake "gang crisis". It was bunk—as experts predicted, it was a......

"Valley Vote" and the "All About Me Mayor"

I guess they really do read LA Weekly in the San Fernando Valley. Monday night, Weekly writer Patrick McDonald was covering a meeting of Valley Vote, which spearheaded the Valley secession movement in 2001-02 and is still a highly active voice in questioning the leadership at Los Angeles City Hall......

Schwarzenegger may make history with a budget veto

Staffers to the governor are giving media outlets strong indications that Arnold Schwarzenegger will tonight go on the air to announce that he is vetoing the California state budget — which was approved weeks late by Sacramento legislators — because it is filled with accounting tricks and contains the seeds......

Villaraigosa's Pose for Madame Tussaud

Weekly writer Patrick McDonald has a great scoop today about Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's purported "16-hour" work days, which are filled with ceremonies, PR events and travel -- including a recent session in which the "All About Me Mayor" posed for a wax statue of himself for Madame Tussaud's. We scoured......

North Hollywood High or McCain Mansion?

How hilarious to see Talking Points Memo and other bloggers track down that interesting "mansion" used as a set piece behind John McCain last night at the RNC. McCain must be trying to match, in his own way, the fake, creepy Greek columns chosen as Barack Obama's backdrop by some......

Scientist Kelman wins libel suit against Mold Queen Kramer

News just came in that toxicologist Bruce Kelman, targeted by people who have an almost religious, misguided fear of common household mold, has prevailed in a key case against Mold Queen Sharon Kramer. Kelman emails the Weekly: "Kramer was found guilty of libeling me." Their bitter battle was detailed in......
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Donald Trump, Ed McMahon and Toxic Mold

It's been unsettling to watch the massive layoffs at the LA Times and Daily News, but when you read a sanitized story like today's Los Angeles Times California section report on The Donald's effort to save Johnny Carson sidekick Ed McMahon from foreclosure, it's a reminder that newspapers have a......

Juicy City Hall War: Delgadillo vs. Chick

Most Angelenos still don't realize that the "$4.2 million" DWP/Fleishman-Hillard scandal that led to Mayor Jimmy Hahn's defeat by Antonio Villaraigosa ended in a whimper in court last summer, raising serious questions about Hahns' key accusers -- City Controller Laura Chick and City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. It's delicious to now......

Villaraigosa abandoned by Ace Smith?

Has Antonio Villaraigosa fallen so far back in the 2010 race for California governor that his former consultant and negative research hound Ace Smith, who dug dirt on Villaraigosa's mayoral rivals, is migrating over to help Attorney General Jerry Brown become governor? The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting today that......

Cell Phones Crash in a Modest LA Quake

For an hour or longer, hundreds of thousand of residents of the Los Angeles Basin lost their cell phone service, following a very moderate earthquake that left little damage in most of the areas that felt it. Swaying chandeliers in the City Council Chambers downtown, vitamin bottles leaping off the......