Results tagged “michaeljacksonmemorial”

When City Attorney Carmen Trutanich sat down with the L.A. City Council a couple weeks ago, he said his investigators found both "civil and criminal aspects" in their research that could lead to potential lawsuits. He would not discuss details publicly, but did go into a private session to talk about the civil aspects.

City Attorney Carmen Trutanich announced this afternoon in a session of City Council that his investigation into tax payer money being used for the Michael Jackson Memorial has revealed "civil and criminal aspects." He would not speak publicly about details, including a lawsuit's target, but offered to go into closed session about the civil aspects. City Council agreed and went to the back chambers to discuss at 12:30 p.m. As this publishing, they are still in closed session.

Yesterday, Controller Wendy Greuel lambasted the city's Emergency Management Department for spending $30,000 over what she thinks they should have on lunches for LAPD officers covering the Michael Jackson memorial service. Not only that, the near $50,000 spent was with a business 80 miles outside city limits. Speaking to the LA Times, Jim Featherstone, manager of the department, responded, saying the vendor is able to prepare large amounts of food within 24 hours. "We have to feed the 3,000-plus responders who are in a ready-response posture. They checked in before dawn and had potential to go for 12 or 15 hours. It wasn’t just a boxed lunch." The lunch included two sandwiches, two drinks, desserts, a candy bar, trail mix, chips or crackers, a granola bar and a pack of gum.

Just a week on the job and City Controller Wendy Greuel is kicking butt. The city's Emergency Management Department was charged with feeding some 3,200 officers that were deployed for the Michael Jackson memorial service in case the crowds outside the Staples Center grew, possibly to a million people.

Estimates peg yesterday's massive memorial service for Michael Jackson costing the city at around $4 million, but "one economist says Los Angeles may end up breaking even," according to abc7. "Jack Kyser says the event costs may be offset by the money spent on food and lodging from all the fans and media who came to L.A." To help cover the unexpected expense, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office established a website yesterday to collect donations. However, "newly-elected city attorney Carmen Trutanich says his staff is investigating how to make sure the city is not put in this position again."

Although the Jackson family held a private memorial service this morning at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in the Toluca Lake/Universal City area, Michael Jackson's death certificate--obtained by TMZ--shows that the location is listed as temporary. The Celebrity Gossip website says the final burial ground will be somewhere else, but that location is unknown. After today's public service at the Staples Center, the family headed to the Beverly Wilshire hotel for lunch before heading back to the family home in Encino.

The millions expected to show in downtown Los Angeles today did not appear. While that was good on the city's resources, it meant bad business for hundreds of vendors selling t-shirts, buttons and other items.

       

Along with that golden ticket and wristband the lucky 17,500 people received to attend today's memorial service was the golden program book. Inside, it is simple, basic and touching: large photos cover pages with messages from La Toya, Tito, Rebbie, Evvy and other family and friends.

Say what you will about the entertainer, the headline-maker, the musician, the defendant, the humanitarian, and the man who was Michael Jackson, but as she briefly took the microphone on stage, surrounded by her siblings, aunts, uncles, and grandparents, 11-year-old Paris Jackson's few tearful words said the world about Michael Jackson--her dad. "I just wanted to say...Ever since I was born...Daddy has been the best father I could ever imagine...and I just wanted to say that I love him...so much."

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa may be out of town until the end of the week, but his office is still working to keep the finances of the City under control. One unexpected expense this week: The estimated $4 Million cost of hosting the public memorial service for the late King of Pop Michael Jackson. Although City Councilmember Jan Perry, acting in her capacity as Mayor pro tem, went public with a plea for donations, much like the manner in which the costly Lakers Championship parade and rally was funded, no major donors, including the Jackson family or Staples Center owner AEG have come forward with funds.

       

In plans that were revealed only this morning, Michael Jackson's casket journeyed from the private family service held around 8:30 a.m. at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills to inside the Staples Center where it was put on display during the public memorial.

       

Up to a million people were expected to be hanging around the perimeter of Michael Jackson's memorial service this morning at the Staples Center. But walking downtown streets a few blocks away, the scene was relatively normal, save for the heavy police presence, the constant drone of helicopters and a handful of vendors selling Michael Jackson buttons and t-shirts.

Police quickly surrounded a man who was allegedly scalping on the corner of Figueroa and Olympic in front of the only major crowd outside L.A. LIve. Once in handcuffs, the crowd cheered as he was escorted into the security perimeter to a detainee holding area. A security guard placed on the rooftop of the Grammy Museum and Club Nokia said he had witnessed various people throughout the morning get arrested for the same thing.

People with the heralded golden tickets to the Michael Jackson memorial service are still trying to sell them on Craigslist, some as high $600 bucks and with posts after 8 a.m. Whether these are scams or not, lots of them are being flagged for removal.

Fans hoping to head to Hollywood & Highland to watch a live simulcast of this morning's Michael Jackson memorial service shown at the Mann Chinese movie theatre--steps away from Jackson's Walk of Fame star--will have to make other plans. The venue has just announced that they are canceling the broadcast, according to a press release. The request to cancel this viewing opportunity came by the Los Angeles Police Department, "resulting from the overwhelming demand of individuals in the Los Angeles area to participate in the memorial service." Jonathan Dern, president of Cinedigm Entertainment Group, the company hosting screenings in dozens of US cities said: “The security of those in the Los Angeles area must come first. While we wish we could bring the service to more local fans, the right decision is to remove the Mann from our group of theatres providing this event." Screenings in Buena Park and Monrovia at Krikorian theatres will continue as scheduled.

Virtually every mainstream media outlet will be broadcasting today's memorial service for Michael Jackson at 10 a.m. PST. It will be wall-to-wall: TV stations, radio and internet galore. If you're stuck at the desk and want to watch here on LAist, click play on the above NBC player after 9 a.m. and you'll be covered.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton revealed this morning during a live radio interview that despite days of plans indicating otherwise, the coffin containing the body of the late King of Pop Michael Jackson will be taken from the earlier private funeral at Forest Lawn Hollywood Hills to the Staples Center, where it will be on stage during the memorial event.*

With the eyes of the world on downtown Los Angeles today, the LAPD took an abundance of caution, more than doubling the amount of officers to work announced yesterday. "Past events including the 1984 Olympics 'pale in comparison to what we have assembled today,'" reported the LA Times, quoting LAPD Deputy Chief Earl Paysinger. The department has two main concerns for today: the "cold zone"--the space immediately outside the security area where large numbers are expected to gather--and the airspace, where the FAA granted a the city a temporary flight ban below 2500 feet.

Today might be a little chaotic, but remember this: what usually would take months in planning was done in only a few days. Yesterday, various agencies alerted the media and public of closures to streets, freeway on and off-ramps and public transit service changes. Here's what you need to know...

       

A lot of people wouldn't be caught dead in downtown LA around midnight. But to catch a glimpse of the dead? That's a whole different story. One of several dozen fans standing on the corner of Olympic and Figueroa checked her iPhone and squealed when TMZ reported that Michael Jackson's body may be brought to the Staples Center for today's memorial service, even though she didn't have tickets.

A private funeral for Michael Jackson will be held tomorrow morning at Forest Lawn cemetery, according to sources with the LA Times. "Sources said some family members will start at the Jackson family compound in Encino and go to the cemetery before going to Staples. It's unclear whether there will be a procession from the cemetery to Staples, though sources said law enforcement is against such an idea," the paper reported.

Metrolink has announced the addition of extra trains leaving Union Station to accommodate the expected mass of ticketed and unticketed popele that will hit the streets of downtown tomorrow. A 2:15 p.m. train will leave on the Ventura line ending in Chatsworth, a 2:30 train on the Antelope Valley line will go only as far as the Via Princessa Station and a 3 p.m. Riverside Line train will stop at the Industry Station. Additionally, a few morning downtown-bound trains that experience high volumes of passengers will have extra cars added to them. Those include Orange County trains 603 and 605 and Antelope Valley Line trains 204 and 206.

Tomorrow morning's public memorial service for Michael Jackson has not only been an epic ticketing drama and financial burden, but will also impact how vehicle and public transit traffic moves--or, rather, doesn't move--through the streets of Downtown Los Angeles tomorrow.

Details about the Michael Jackson memorial event tomorrow have been kept under wraps, but the Jackson family has just come forward with a list of people who they expect to be participating in the highly anticipated service, according to KTLA. As of now, "the list includes family friend Ron Boyd; Kobe Bryant; Mariah Carey; Andrae Crouch Choir; Berry Gordy; Jennifer Hudson; ``Britain's Got Talent'' finalist Shaheen Jafargholi; Magic Johnson; Martin Luther King III; Bernice A. King; John Mayer; Lionel Richie; Smokey Robinson; the Rev. Al Sharpton; Brooke Shields; Pastor Lucious Smith; Usher; and Stevie Wonder." Prior to this public memorial, which will be broadcast live on all three major US TV networks, the King of Pop will be laid to rest in a private service at Forest Lawn in Hollywood Hills. Jackson's ex, Debbie Rowe, mother to his two eldest children, will not be in attendance at the Staples Center.

              

Of the 1.6 million who tried to get a pair of tickets and wristbands for tomorrow's downtown Michael Jackson memorial service, only several thousand were chosen for admittance into either the Staples Center or to the Nokia Theatre to watch a live feed. If you did get a ticket, part of the deal was to head to Dodger Stadium today for pick up. That meant thousands of people descending upon Echo Park and Elysian Valley, many of them during rush hour.

1.6 million people signed up to be eligible to win tickets to attend Tuesday's highly anticipated public memorial service for late music icon Michael Jackson, according to MyFoxLA. The Staples Center's website caved under the pressure of the hits several times since the lottery was announced and until the cut off time last night at 6 p.m. local time. Initially the registry was open only to US residents, but soon expanded to allow anyone around the world to sign up for the chance to win a pair of tickets to the event, about which few details are known, save that there will be no funeral procession, and that it will cost the City of Los Angeles a pretty penny to host.

So the City of Los Angeles is going to put their hands deep into the Piggy Bank to pull out the cash needed to foot the bill for Tuesday's public memorial service for Michael Jackson at Staples Center. That means shutting down the streets around LA Live's Downtown "campus" and lots of bucks to pay LAPD officers to serve as security to police the anticipated throngs of crowds. And don't bother showing up if you aren't on the list: "Officials said that there would be no funeral procession and that no one would be allowed inside a large area around Staples unless they had a ticket and a wristband, a media credential or could prove they live or work there," notes the LA Times.

The beyond ironically-named "Love Crusades" of Westboro Baptist Church is on its way to Los Angeles to demonstrate at Michael Jackson's memorial. The crusades are part of a hate-based mission started in Kansas by the WBC and Fred Phelps in order to picket the funerals of people who had died of AIDS, demonstrate against the "fag lifestyle" and other loving Christian activities. It appears their main beef is well, Michael Jackson's very existence, his death, and any mourning by anybody. If you are still unclear, here is the official announcement from the website's picket schedule. I am intentionally not linking to their site, because this is probably more attention than they deserve already.