Results tagged “mayortony”

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has once again set off for another city that is not his own to help a candidate that has no stake in running Los Angeles. And you could be paying for it.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has begun to get the word out that he plans on running for a second term. According to the LA Times, Mayor Tony made mention of his plans, along with "his most personal remarks to date about the political fallout from his extramarital affair" on Wednesday during an interview on the Charlie Rose show.

It seems the Valley isn't the place to be if you're a gang-affiliated criminal.

In El Salvador there are two prisons that are purely devoted to two gangs that originated in Los Angeles. How did this transnational network come about? Deportation for one. When a gang member serves a sentence in California and then deported to their home country, the gang business moves with them. Bruce Riordan, director of anti-gang operations in the LA city attorney's office told the New York Times that, "these gangs are the new and emerging organized crime in America."

As 2007 winds down to its close, local law enforcement agencies anticipate the year's homicide numbers to be lower than the low set in 1970. The Daily News is reporting that "As of Dec. 15, 379 people had been killed in Los Angeles this year, with about 200 of those incidents gang-related. The overall homicide rate is down 17 percent from last year." In 1970, 394 people were killed in Los Angeles.

Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Fiscal Year 2008 Omnibus Appropriations bill, which included a provision authored by Congressman Henry Waxman to lift the prohibition against federal involvement in the construction of the “Subway to the Sea” (less we not forget that it was Waxman himself that authored the original ban in the 1980s). We've reported on this before and it was likely to pass, but it's nice to know that day is here.

Mayor Tony calls the federal government's failure to address issues such as poverty, housing, and infrastructure "absolutely criminal" in this short video interview produced by The Nation and The Drum Major Institute.

If you happened to miss the December 3 Downtown News, you haven't seen the personal ads Jon Regardie suggested to help Mayor Villaraigosa get a New Year's Eve smooch. They're pretty hysterical from top to bottom. My favorite one begins with the perfectly awkward hook: "Looking for My Energizer Lady Bunny: Hot bilingual mayor has an opening on his staff - for love!" In the same edition, peep Evan George's report on the uneasy relationship...

How apropos; today on LAist it's Sex Saturday, but today also happens to be World AIDS Day. Several events took place yesterday and will happen today in order to remind the world community that HIV/AIDS remains a global threat. The LA Times reports today on President Bush's public appearance yesterday at a church in northern Maryland, and that his speeches did not propose new plans or funding, but rather focused on humanitarianism. According to the...

Los Angeles' most-powerful bachelor just got more eligible. After being outted by a sex-blogger nearly a year ago that his marriage was on the outs, it soon became news that Mayor Tony was playing hide-the-taquito with the hottest anchor on Telemundo. Tonight the LA Times is reporting that the Mayor has one less Christmas card to send out this year. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and television news reporter Mirthala Salinas have ended their romantic relationship,...

Two explosions ripped through a convoy carrying former Pakistani premier and maybe the country's best hope for Democracy, Benazir Bhutto, following her triumphant return after an eight-year exile. She was not hurt, but hundreds were killed and injured. How did the White House respond? By tying it back to the war on terrah, of course, saying, "Those responsible seek only to foster fear and limit freedom." A dump truck is in a "precarious spot"...

The identity of one driver caught in the horrific fire on the I-5 Friday night might now be identified by the last call he made. Reports surfaced that the fire in the tunnel was so hot, the concrete began to melt. But, things are going smoothly today, officials said. Or as smoothly as rush hour on the I-5 can be. A cockfighting raid in San Diego over the weekend netted 4,400 birds at a...

The LA Department of Water and Power seem to think that LA will just sit back and let them raise rates, hide money, and allow themselves to get rich. In the last few weeks the public utility has been exposed for a few troubling trends and actions that we quietly await to see what Mayor Tony, and our other elected officials, will do about it. On Sunday the LA Daily News discovered that over...

George Bush issued the fourth veto of his presidency today, nixing a bill that would have provided insurance to poor children. Bush said the program was too costly, apparently cool with the fact that the Iraq war now costs over $455-billion. That's B for billion. And B for Bitch. Curbed LA takes a gander at a new development planned for West LA. In as much as the structure looks like a monument to cubism,...

Mayor Tony V. signed an ordinance Monday allowing the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery to have free admission. The Department of Cultural Affairs hopes the freebie will encourage more Angelenos to visit the gallery, which has been serving the community since 1951.

Mayor Tony stood before a media gaggle at 7th & Fig in February and announced the birth of "LA Version 2.0." Free citywide Wi-Fi for all within two years, he proclaimed, momentarily appeasing critics and activists who have called for municipal funds and programs to help bridge the digital divide. But the skeptics among us are well aware of the extensive headaches and limited progress of the once-supposed trailblazing municipal Wi-Fi proposals in Philadelphia and...

The recent political scandal involving married republican senator Larry Craig, who is accused of soliciting homosexual sex in a public bathroom, reminds me of just how unscrupulous politicians can be. Craig voluntarily pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct, but then tried to retract and cried, “I’m not gay, I made a mistake pleading guilty.” It was political suicide, although he had already hung himself. The arresting officer, Sgt. Dave Karsnia, is...

Last year Kaiser Permanente donated $1.2 million to the city to help keep 15 city swimming pools open an extra two weeks at the end of the summer. This year Kaiser cut their donation by 90%, and still, magically the city announced that thanks to the HMO, 14 city pools will remain open two weeks longer than originally scheduled. Because of a $121,000 donation from Kaiser Permanente, 14 swimming pools operated by the Los...

At least a camel is much more entertaining and inspiring than Patch Adams.

Not letting the bedbugs bite is getting harder than ever these days. Deeming it "troubling" and "unacceptable," Mayor Tony is urging federal officials to take steps to prevent a repeat of this weekend's Customs and Border Protection computer glitch that stranded some 20,000 travelers. The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag warning - signifying a higher risk of wildfires - for the L.A. County mountains that will remain in effect until Wednesday...

Photo by ellwoodite via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

Mayor Villa (will his soon-to-be-ex-wife really let him keep the Raigosa?) is proving to be quite the crafty politician this summer, weaseling his way through some rather public, personal crises. We can now add the Gopher Issue to the list of Tony V's lamest and greatest excuses. In spite of his call this summer for Angelenos to consciously conserve 10% more water, the LA Times scoured DWP records and found that the mayor and...

We thought we knew uber-blogger and writer Luke Ford. He's best-known for his probing stories about the porn industry (nsfw), and most recently admired for being the first reporter to state that Mayor Tony's marriage was dunzo. But it wasn't until this week's interview with the Jewish Journal that we learned how real Ford keeps it. From his 300-square-foot Pico-Robertson crib, the fact that he used to live out of his car, or the...