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Villaraigosa takes a furlough day
The mayor asked other employees to do it, so today he goes off the books and will lose $858.26 in gross pay. He still has a full plate of public events scheduled. DN wires
Geraldine Ferraro didn't like being in Obama speech
Continuing her appearances in the Daily Breeze, the former VP candidate responds to being mentioned alongside the Rev. Jeremiah Wright: "To equate what I said with what this racist bigot has said from the pulpit is unbelievable," Ferraro said. "He gave a very good speech on race relations, but he did not address the fact that this man is up there spewing hatred." Breeze
Is Donald Sterling's Skid Row center real?
Despite all the ads proclaiming it and related hubbub, Patrick Range McDonald writes, "Sterling’s vow to help the homeless is looking more like a troubling, ego-inflating gimmick dreamed up by a very rich man with a peculiar public-relations sense...From homeless-services operators to local politicians, no one has received specifics for the proposed Sterling Homeless Center. They aren’t the least bit convinced that the project exists." LA Weekly
Racial edge to killings called real despite Bratton
Deputy district attorney Anthony Manzella, who prosecuted the Mexican Mafia, says "I agree with the chief that the fact that the Mexican Mafia wants to ethnically cleanse their neighborhoods does not mean that the city has a larger racial problem. But there’s no question that among Hispanic gangs the Mafia gave orders a long time ago that the Surenos were supposed to move African Americans out of Hispanic neighborhoods. There’s no question about that. That’s documented." Adds Joe Hicks of Community Advocates, Inc.:
I’m still a bit amused at broader claims that there are no racial implications to what we’re seeing from Watts to South Central to the Valley. And I’m sure Chief Bratton is aware of that information also. He’s a very bright guy.
U.S. Attorney defends disbanding corruption unit
"I guarantee that we will be filing more public corruption and civil rights cases than we have in the past," says Thomas O'Brien. Lawyers in the unit, however, say they are being punished for bad-mouthing the boss. LAT, Last week's post
Jervey Tervalon on Obama's Rev
What Obama is, and where he comes from, can be somewhat difficult to explain to middle-class Americans, Tervalon writes. But it's OK because many blacks have a Jeremiah Wright in their past and are better men for it. LA Weekly
Budget crisis in City Hall, says Zine
Councilman Dennis Zine tells CityBeat he has called for eliminating the paid Board of Public Works and the consolidation of the Department of Aging, Disability, Commission on Status of Women, Children and Families and Immigrant Relations into a Department of Human Services. CityBeat
Are you at all worried that this is going to reflect on upcoming elections?Reelection is not for another year.
But people will remember.
No, they don’t remember. They don’t remember September 11 when New York was attacked. People forget. We used to have flags everywhere and a sense of people coming together as a country. People have a quick lapse of memory, so I’m not worried about that. It’s not about reelection. It’s about what’s right for the city.
Union keeps up fight against SWAT women, other changes
Statement from Tim Sands, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, says that "for reasons that have nothing to do with our competence, professionalism or success, but have everything to do with public relations and political correctness, the department is unilaterally planning to make changes that will threaten the strength and capability of SWAT moving forward." LAT
Upset over Boyle Heights mural
Some think the mural going up at the Hollenbeck police station has too many stereotypes about Latinos and the neighborhood. Some don't. "It's very contentious and dynamic in Boyle Heights," says neighborhood council president Robert Jimenez. "There's differences along linguistic lines and nationality. You have homeowner versus renter, English versus Spanish." LAT
Tom LaBonge for mayor of Hollywood
He is Patt Morrison's nominee. LAT Op-Ed