Mars Melnicoff

Scott Svonkin, San Gabriel Unified School District Board member, is running for the powerful L. A. Community College District Board. Thanks to major Democratic backing and union campaign contributions, Svonkin is the strong favorite. In response to poor fact checking in a Frontiers article on Svonkin, we thought we'd set......

L.A. City Council member Bill Rosendahl calls it "gold in the gutter." L.A. watchdog Ron Kaye likens it more aptly to "pennies in the gutter." They are talking about what is actually changeable in Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposed 2011-12 budget. 85 percent of the problem is salaries, pensions and benefits......

Scott Svonkin has made a lot of enemies in the three years since he joined the board of the small San Gabriel Unified School District. He now is running for the...

Last week, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced his proposed 2011-12 budget, designed to stop City Hall from overspending by $1.25 million per day, or $52,168 per hour. Next, the L.A. City Council must tell Villaraigosa thumbs up or down, line by line, page by page. And there are nearly......

Scott Svonkin, San Gabriel Unified School District Board member, describes himself as the "only one who cares about the teachers." He is running for a seat on the vastly more powerful Los Angeles Community College Board and will face Lydia Gutierrez in a runoff election on May 17. Last night,......

San Gabriel School Board member Scott Svonkin pounds on tables or car windows when he is displeased. He yells with his mouth full of food, which sometimes shoot...

So far, four candidates have announced they will be running for mayor of Los Angeles in 2013. When you announce, it gives the green legal light to start raising funds to campaign. YJ Draiman, one of the four, is not a widely known name, but he is certainly interesting. Here......

Updated after the jump: SoCal Connected Executive Producer weighs in on early feedback, possible government reactions. The Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) is a billion dollar agency responsible for providing shelter for L.A.'s most vulnerable residents - and as uncovered by KCET's SoCal Connected: also responsible......

Yesterday evening MoveOn, a political action group, hosted a "Rally to Defend the American Dream" outside of the west side's Palms Ranch Library. The message? It was for Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein: "Stand strong against attacks on the 'American Dream' and workers' rights by republicans." About 70 people......

As reported yesterday through very rose colored glasses by the L.A. Times, Marina Del Rey is in a process of "renewal." "Leaseholder Jerry Epstein will raze his 202-unit Del Rey Shores apartment community on Via Marina and replace it with a 544-unit complex in fewer, taller buildings, that will be......