Former gang member, now community activist Najee Ali, 45, was sentenced to four years in prison yesterday after pleading guilty for attempting to bribe a witness in a case about his daughter. He normally would have recieved two years, but the doubling was due to a 1992 robbery conviction and a 2004 parole violation, according to the LA Times. Ali has been a consistent figure in local activism, once being appointed to a city commission......

Today, July 1, Los Angeles gets a new mayor. Just in the past, pre-inaugural week, Antonio Villaraigosa has been working, and getting some anticipatory scolding. First he helped broker a compromise between management and striking workers of local hotels, winning praise for being hands-on and helping people reach consensus. Now, on inauguration day, the LA Times and the LA Weekly both point out how much it would cost to keep some of his campaign......

The election of Antonio Villaraigosa as Los Angeles mayor continues to have a "musical chairs" effect through city politics, as the players jockey for better seats to get their issues heard. This time it's the unions aiming for the political equivalent of floor seats at Staples Center. Los Angeles Tenth District City Councilman Martin Ludlow has been nominated to head the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. The labor federation has to find a......

When the biggest splash your public relations firm makes involves getting itself itself in the headlines on charges of fraud, that’s probably not a good sign. Two former executives at the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm, Douglas R. Dowie and John Stodder Jr., were accused yesterday of inflating the number of hours for which they charged the city for the firm’s work, and of working on projects for former mayor James Hahn on a contract......

Today people are buzzing about the LA Times poll that says Antonio Villaraigosa leads James Hahn by 18 points in the race for Mayor. The Angelino calls the news "devastating" for Hahn. While LA Voice scoffs at voter apathy and the tiny number of likely voters (suggesting a write-in for Xeni Jardin), the poll hits the national blogsphere on Daily Kos and the AP isn't far behind. BoiFromTroi reminds us that last time around,......

Although we don't know who's winning the first round of the mayor's race -- which will likely end up with two finalists facing off on May 17 -- we do know that tonight two candidates will be celebrating. The three who don't make the finals may share their sadness with the people who worked hard to make their campaigns come to life. Who's sharing where the parties start? Richard Alarcon: Cha Cha Cha in Encino......

The first LA mayoral debate, hosted last night at the Museum of Tolerance, probably wasn’t on the radar of local voters. Many are still worn out from the long presidential campaign that ended just a month ago; others are simply wrapped up in the holidays. KNBC forged ahead, though, sponsoring and airing the debate, which featured the station’s Colleen Williams as moderator. She was joined by panelists Jose Ronstadt of KWHY, which also aired......

LA Mayor James Hahn has apparently resolved a "scheduling conflict" that aides said would have prevented him from participating in a Mayoral debate next week, clearing the way for all 5 major candidates to square off in the first rhetoric rumble of the campaign season. Hahn had been taking a beating from his challengers over his initial refusal to debate, especially from Bob Hertzberg, the former Assembly Speaker who mounted a web-based petition drive......

Tired of politics? You'd better get your second wind because local politicos descended on City Hall Monday to file the paperwork for the city wide election on March 8th. Should be a noisy fight as 26 incumbents and challengers launch campaigns for Los Angeles mayor, eight City Council seats and a handful of other offices. The Los Angeles Daily Breeze reported "the crowd of [mayoral] hopefuls included Mayor James Hahn and one of his......

The RAND Corporation has produced a new study of Mayor James Hahn's proposal to expand and realign LAX, and they have concluded that the $9 billion plan will do little to enhance the security of the airport. Besides spelling out several chilling terrorist attack scenarios, the study finds that the most effective method of preventing a devasting attack on the airport is to limit the concentration of passengers in any one place. However, creating......

The Daily News and the Times are both reporting on the Federal investigation into allegedly corrupt City Hall bidding and contracting practices, a probe that has led prosecutors to subpoena Mayor James Hahn's emails. This development will add a juicy subplot to the political drama of the upcoming city primary election, which already features the much-hyped Bernard Parks vs. James Hahn Cage Match and a growing feeling among Valley voters that the DWP hornswaggled......