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A pretty contentious exchange this afternoon between "Which Way, L.A.?" host Warren Olney and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa began with the mayor quipping "long time, no interview." Olney then started peppering the mayor with questions about why he was gone from the city for 15 of 30 days last month — "Are you going to be an absentee mayor?" — and why interests in Chicago and New York are funneling money his way. Olney also asked about schools and gangs and why so little of the mayor's trash fee hike went to hire cops. "There's a truth in packaging issue," Olney said, at which point the mayor explained that when you add cops you need to add cars and equipment. The LAPD force is the largest it has ever been and will soon be at 10,000, Villaraigosa said. Villaraigosa tends to chuckle and refer to "you people" when media questioning gets under his skin, and at the end he told Olney, "Haha, I love it." Listen at the link above: it's a lot more entertaining than the softball questions that Ryan Seacrest mouthed at Villaraigosa this morning on KIIS-FM.
Also: Mark Lacter of LA Biz Observed was on in the first part of the show to talk about the IndyMac situation.