Mayor's Race and Death Threat charged; Where's Tony?

MAYOR’S RACE- PART 1:
The mayor candidates are coming down the home stretch for Tuesday’s election and my choice, David “Zuma Dogg” Saltsburg, was pulled away from a mayoral forum event on Thursday after another of the 10 running for mayor, Craig X. Rubin, complained to the police. The other candidate’s charge: Rubin said that Zuma Dogg had called him and made a death threat. The news reports say it was "recorded on an answering machine." Then, it wasn’t recorded, said Rubin, among the events claimed to have happened.

Zuma Dogg will speak his mind, very clearly and sometimes very loudly. Sometimes people just don’t like what they hear, especially if it is about them and if it is bad. Rubin is an advocate for marijuana legalization and his complaints of being hassled by the DEA just have others saying he’s a paranoid. There is a lot to say bad about him, rightly or wrongly, but he’s become very sensitive, judging from his past behavior and may over-react, I’d say.

Well, Zuma Dogg was met by the police at the event Thursday as the Rubin “death threat” complaint had to be checked out. Lots of people don’t like Zuma Dogg for revealing lots of behind-the-scenes stories or for pushing for changes to the history of sweet deals between the politicians and developers who build non-stop around the city, making some big money on it all, and moving on to another deal..

People around city hall especially don’t’ like other people to “rock the boat,” especially if it can affect their paydays. The LAPD released Zuma Dogg after doing their investigation and were satisfied that he was not a threat to Rubin or anyone else. They are done. If the D.A. wants to charge him with something, they might need a few things; one being a “credible witness” and some evidence might help. For now, it looks like an overly sensitive candidate making a big deal of something he imagined.

MAYOR’S RACE- PART 2:
There is another mayoral forum set for today at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood, and Craig X. Rubin is claimed to have made a request that David “Zuma Dogg” Saltsburg not be allowed to participate in further mayoral forums. He’s asking another candidate, Walter Moore, to join him. That was reported in Mayor Sam’s city politics blog this afternoon. http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/ , “Saltsburg Responds to Rubin and Moore Debate Threats.” An audio clip lasting just under 2 minutes that contains the recorded response from Zuma Dogg is attached, where he says he’s not stopping his campaign and they do not control that, and he denies that any of the charges made by Rubin are true, and that’s why the police investigation is finished.

And that’s what you might have heard on the news- “death threats made by Zuma Dogg” that really is all the T.V. news does, looking for “sensational” things to get better ratings. You don’t hear them telling you where the candidates will be holding their events, or rolling any tape to show you what happened in debates. They usually don't even follow up to say nothing more came out of the story. They don’t report something unless it’s a big deal- and that’s why I say television news is not your best source of news.

Mayor Villaraigosa still keeps his smug, arrogant and take-your-vote-for-granted position unchanged. He’s making a tour of spots to get his face in your face, but they are carefully planned so that he doesn’t get challenged with questions that he cannot answer truthfully.

Tony has over 2 million dollars-nearly 2 million dollars- to throw around to be sure there’s that party atmosphere for everyone to “feel good” about Antonio. Do you think he wants the voters to read on the measures? Then they would know more than he does about what’s going on.

Villaraigosa is still the guy puling strings, though and he’s the one who’s getting all his things in order to head to a Governor’s race in 2010. He will spend most of his days on NON-City business until that election, like he did with the Presidential election. THAT is his plan, THAT is his priority.

A story in the L.A. TIMES today shows that the budget deficit is much worse than earlier thought, "L.A. budget gap could hit $1 billion," By Phil Willon, February 28, 2009, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-la-budget28-2009feb28,0,4878373.story and Tony is looking for drastic steps such as selling off city parking lot rights for a lump sum- leaving HIM high and dry and YOU AND I will be left with parking fees rising HIGHER. Meanwhile, he’s gone to the next political office and we are stuck with the bill. He doesn't care about that and you need to see it before it happens.

VOTE TUESDAY but NOT for Villaraigosa

I say Zuma Dogg would be better, but you have some choices. David Hernandez is among the civic minded group who's also worth considering. Walter Moore if you are so inclined, and he is smart. Phil Janerjahn is just not very deep into what's needed, but then, Neither is TONY- he needs notes from assistants to tell him about what each city item is about, he's gone that much. Phil is too kind to Tony, though and there's no reason for such forgiveness.

A runoff election will likely be the best outcome, so vote for ANY OF THE CHALLENGERS to Tony and FORCE A RUN-OFF election. If the Mayor does not get OVER 50% of all votes cast, there will be a runoff. That's why voting for ANY one of the challengers will be A GOOD THING. Those votes take us to a run-off - or maybe even enough to defeat TONY there without a run-off election.

REMEMBER, A LOW-TURNOUT MAKES EACH VOTE THAT IS CAST THAT MUCH MORE SIGNIFICANT- come out to vote Tuesday. My guess is 5 minutes of your time, no lines, no waiting if you mark your sample ballot first.

Carrie Lopez, the "Dir. of Dept. of Consumer Affairs", billed transportation costs to state to attend Timberlake concert with her daughgter.

There's a lot of Gov. Arnold's top administrators who are ripping off taxpayers by charging the state for their personal activities. The story is carried on many outlets today and Carrie Lopez, Director of Consumer Affairs is one who got caught among ten top staffers. Lopez is supposed to be in charge of watching over to be sure that consumers don't get ripped off, and now we see that she and others are ripping off taxpayers themselves.

When he first took office, Schwarzenneger had a policy of requiring top officials to live in Sacramento to save travel expenses and time. Then Arnold did not enforce that restriction and now we have all the abuse as these politicians can get their thieving little minds to pull on us, and travel expenses fall into the plans.

A couple of words to insert here:

"reimbursement" and "resignations,"

and maybe a third word,

"prosecution."

The expense sheets they turn in to get money ususally require a sign-off as true and correct, sometimes with a "declaration under penalty of perjury." And if ANY do not, then THAT needs changing.

Too severe? You might recall how President Obama's nominees could not continue with their appointment process for problems with unpaid tax bills. At least they are already "charged tax" and just need to "pay" it. But HERE, the trickery was done with the idea that no repayment or refunding was ever going to be done. That's stealing and when you have it in government, it's also "corruption."

Removal from office would be some sign of attempting to keep the offices "clean," preserving some level of integrity. We all know there's much more that needs attention, as well. Allowing these offenders to keep their jobs without seeking resignation just gives everyone the sign that "you can cheat but we will just slap your wrists if we catch you, and come up with some phony speech to cover it, but you still keep your job." AND THAT'S A WRONG message- especially when lay offs of people in government are happening for lots who TRY to do a good job and do not violate rules or steal.

That's just at the state level. If you are local, it's not that much different. But deal with what you have now.

Decline of Los Angeles- Some lies from City Hall revealed here for your review

There's an enlightening article about L.A.'s development and it reflects something I have noticed over the recent years in a very revealing piece. It clearly is important now, during the reign of Emperor Villaraigosa- the same man who made the pronouncement a few years ago that the days of houses with big yards is over and he pushed harder for more "densification" development in Los Angeles to pack in more people more tightly.


This article, "The Decline Of Los Angeles" in Forbes Magazine, 2-24-09, is written by Joel Kotkin, who manages the blog, newgeography.com , http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/23/villaraigosa-economy-unemployment-jobs-opinions-columnists_los_angeles.html

I am glad to say all the things I have noticed that were in conflict with the story-spinning going on at City Hall by council members, the Mayor and their stooges, were not unnoticed by others. Support of industry when coversions were going on full speed to wipe out areas housing such areas. Rezoning like in the area between Boyle Heights and downtown, is the reality.

Trying to back up and CREATE industrial areas just won't happen. Too many people will make complaints especially when you pack more in smaller spaces. Example: all the airports, but particularly in Burbank where residents constantly complaing about flights and hours, even when quieter jets are used. THINK ABOUT THIS- Who was there FIRST? AND when you moved there, DIDN'T YOU SEE there was an airport already there?

All that goes for all airports that get residents to later complain about their very existence. The same happens now for industry. On a smaller scale, even just auto repair shops in Eagle Rock are the last of their kind on Colorado- when they move or close, another auto-based business cannot come in- it's going upscale there and restaurants and such are preferred in the plan.

So please read this article and it will also tell you more of the "they say THIS, but they do THAT," style you see from Mayor Tony and the supporting council members, mostly all of them very cozy with Tony.

Judge all for yourself, and that's the statement that you don't get from politicians.

Read and see. It might help you decide to actually vote for some changes.

Today's Top Five - 45 Years Ago and Some Lincoln Heights Memories

Well, getting away from the political and news topics for a moment and I have to show you what bit of nostalgia that the musical feature in today's laradio.com brings to me. It was this date in 1965, and the Beatles had already a year of exposure through Beatlemania under their belt, making their famous U.S. debut a year earlier in February 1964 on The Ed Sullivan Show from New York, appearing on three Sundays in a row that month, quite an achievement as they began their first American tour. See some more nostalgia about that time- 45 years ago to see in Consumer Reports online, http://blogs.consumerreports.org/home/2009/02/the-beatles-first-appearance-on-ed-sullivan-february-9-1964.html

The L.A. radio stations were still A.M with music ranging all across the spectrum- the eclectic mix, pop, British Invasion, Surf music, some country tunes, and the novelty songs, with folk rock and protest songs beginning to be more popular. It was a thorough musical mix and all the songs below could usually be heard playing on the same pop stations without having to tune the dial to a particular type of music like you have to today.

Who would have known that a few more months, as summer school was coming to an end in August, the famous Watts Riots would break out and last for days? The Lincoln Heights Jail was re-opened to handle all the arrested people and it was quite an unwelcome scene as we bicycled by on Avenue 19- it was the first time that I can really say my friends and I were ever called "white boys" as the inmates yelled out the windows. I recall the rest of the phrase was, "If I had a brick I would throw it at your ass." Well, he didn't have a brick and he was all locked up, but we still didn't like being called names, even if they missed on the color chart. But we couldn't say anything back- as terrible as that might sound that we thought it- since the street had lots of people coming to try to bail these folks out, so we just rode on as we did have some common sense, even as teens.

In those days, "Mexican" was considered by many, including African-Americans, to be a derogatory term. Instead we would be referred to as "Spanish." Sometimes that's still the preferred term by people, both on the speaking side and the listening side.

The National Guard moved in to block off access to the area in the following days. I could see the soldiers stationed at one emplacement on Pasadena Avenue and Avenue 18 (where City Ford was located at that time) whenever I went out in front of my house. That close-up view through my 50x telescope of them with a jeep with a mounted machine gun made it pretty hard to ignore that this was a serious time.

This list below is from a time very different from now, but what isn't. I think that every one of the songs below was played on the Eastside by the countless bands that sprung up in that era, and I remember how the Lincoln Park Gym would be the scene of some pretty good dances, six hours of live bands was what we had for the big dances. And there were the local music stars and radio DJ's hosting these events. And then you may remember the dances in El Sereno, too, and occasionally scheduled to be competing events.

From L.A. RADIO.COM today:

Top Five Flashback, February 26, 1965: This Diamond Ring by Gary Lewis & the Playboys, You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling by the Righteous Brothers, My Girl by the Temptations, Downtown by Petula Clark, The Jolly Green Giant by the Kingsmen.

* * *

Checking this list again, maybe "Downtown" was not quite on the playlist for bands- you need a female vocalist to do it really well, and it was nearly an all-guy environment then, but it's still one of the iconic hits of the day.

And let's not forget that the Kingsmen was the band that took another song, "Louie, Louie." to pop prominence. Did you know that there's a Kingsmen website? http://www.louielouie.org/ And did you know that they STILL perform WITH some "original" members? http://www.louielouie.org/modules.php?name=Kingsmen_Lineup

Well, today's vinyl and cd DJ's just don't quite match up to live music that we all took for granted in high school when bands were plentiful. Somehow, some things were not improved by changes brought by technology, and replacing live music by small boxes of electronics loses a bit in the translation when it comes to live bands at dances and the energy they radiated. "Cheaper" and "more convenient" does not always mean "better" in these things.

Granted that the upside is all of the new things we can do through technology- but those live bands, often called "garage bands," have simply dwindled over the years and become another of the icons of the time.

LAUSD legal woes for school administrators' missteps in fighting campus crime.

There are a couple of LAUSD schools in the news with some legal troubles for administrators and students arising from the way they handled situations on their campuses. That makes two high-visibility problems in two days but student conduct isn’t the main problem, it’s the staff being held responsible for actions taken, apparently from the school principal and on down at each school

The more recent of the two stories, can be found in the L.A. TIMES today, “LAPD probes drug sting run by school; Three Porter Middle School administrators were removed from the Granada Hills campus after L.A. Unified learned they had asked a student to buy pot from another student,” by Jason Song, 2-26-09. The administrators’ problem is that their crime fighting activity used a student in setting up a drug buy. As it turns out, you just can’t put minors into situation where they risk injury or you are going to be getting stung, as in this case. But that conclusion should not have been a new concept for school personnel. The principal and two other employees were removed from the school while an investigation continues.

In the same story, you also find the news that hit in the past few days that Taft High School was the scene of a hazing, that some might view as serious pranking, often used for initiation stunts. The problem here is that hazing is against the law, having been the cause of death for students in cases where the risk of harm became realized as the outcome in the hazing activity.

Taft High’s problem happened last month and six administrators were reassigned away from the campus while the investigation is underway and four students have been suspended. Taft students appeared on the television news as cameras were on the scene of the story. One student gave his opinion on the hazing, saying it “started out as a joke and then someone got hurt.” Another student said that it was “just crazy.” They were not involved, but like many students, have heard about the stories that circulate on campus.

The hazing involved the boys’ volleyball team, which was apparently discovered by the administration but they did not report the incident as fast as they should have- and with hazing, it needs to be “immediately.” Thus, you have another case of a principal with some staff being removed from the school for some bad judgment. The original story on that appeared yesterday in the L.A. TIMES, “Six Taft High employees reassigned over hazing allegations,” http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-taft25-2009feb25,0,6025693.column by Jason Song and Eric Sondheimer, 2-25-09. A meeting at Birmingham High on Tuesday of 450 student athletes and staff included some review of how such cases have to be reported immediately, according to the story.

This shows that LAUSD needs continued training in what the rules are and what the penalties are for employees when they are disregarded. When that doesn’t happen enough, you have violations and in some situations, a lawsuit with potential to have some large payouts by settlement or court decision.

The LAUSD needs to be more consistent in determining and applying the appropriate training for prevention of problems like the ones shown in the L.A. Times’ stories. Sometimes, like what happens with teaching students, the lesson is “taught,” but it’s not “learned” so that you now have inadequacies in education happening at the school management level. It’s another thing that LAUSD needs to put on their list of things to get done and done right.

"What about the costs for this?" Proper training to avoid such problems and to stay in compliance with laws, regulations and court decisions is usually cheaper and more useful than waiting to see if a preventable problem develops. That’s a lesson that can be learned by watching how the LAPD management approached situations- or more accurately stated, how they did NOT approach situations.

That is another decision that upper levels of management has to decide, namely, the LAUSD Board of Education, and if they can’t do it right, it’s litigation time for their own training opportunity.

Some songs hits to help you think of younger days.

Just to take a break with some memory-jogging thoughts now, brought out by a couple of L.A. Radio.com bits of information from yesterday and today- meaning February 24 and February 25. These last two postings, presented below, really brought back some memories for me of some different times- and, has it been that long since these tunes came out?

For this date in 1997- do you remember where you were? (or how young you were?)

"Top Five Flashback, February 25, 1997: Wannabe by the Spice Girls, Unbreak My Heart by Toni Braxton, Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down by Puff Daddy & Mase, I Believe I Can Fly by R. Kelly, You Were Meant For Me by Jewel. "

(Credit fully to LARadio.com, and to Steve Thompson - he "spends hours checking and double checking the accuracy of LARP Rewind")

** ** **

Then for yesterday's column in LARadio.com that went back to 1983- And how long ago was that? Well, None of the students I had taught at Lincoln High were even born yet, so you know it's going way, way back.

"Top Five Flashback, February 24, 1983: Baby Come To Me by Patti Austin & James Ingram, Shame On The Moon by Bob Seger, Stray Cat Strut by the Stray Cats, Billie Jean by Michael Jackson, Do You Really Want To Hurt Me by Culture Club.

Trust your DWP Solar bill to a City Council Member? Are You Kidding?

This is my comment on the item in the "RonKayeL.A." blog yesterday ,"Apathy, Defeatism and the Solar-At-Any-Price Argument for Appeasement," speaking of Measure B, the Solar Energy proposal on next Tuesday's ballot that is going to cost a pretty penny- well, more like billions of dollars, that to get that to that size, you have 1,000 x 1,000,000 (one thousand times one million = one billion). See blog article: http://ronkayela.com/2009/02/apathy-defeatism-and-the-solar.html#comments

Council Member Bill Rosendahl said that first he opposed it and now he supports it, and he will make sure that everything is run so that there's no abuse when it comes to money, so go ahead and vote for it.

Nice Idea. It's only an idea, and what's Bill using for making good on his guarantee for anything if something goes badly? Political talk.
----------------------------------------------
Now, the comment:

First, who said that this is the ONE AND ONLY opportunity for a Solar Energy Project to occur for Los Angeles? I don't hear anyone saying "It's now or our choice will be forever barred in the future." Then why act that way.

Informed decisions are the best ones and impulsive or uninformed types ("I heard that...," and, "From what I know ...") are missing any secure basis to make a call.

Measure B lacks as much information needed for a true informed decision as it has proponents with everything to gain. Too many "interested parties," to use the legal term, to trust their judgment, especially when big dollars AND power will go their way. They don't even have any risk attached- that's all going to the DWP consumers. How much sweeter can it be for them?

Yeah, some real fatalists out there and that's what the Measure B "interested parties" including the IBEW, and the Mayor with his City Council rely on to get over, WITHOUT a full airing out of the facts. "Just trust us," is not enough for me to buy into this rigged game.

Would people get on a plane for their vacation, board the plane, and then have the destination and costs decided IN FLIGHT? You just about have the same condition here, and it's not going to be over in a few weeks as would be the case with the situation offered for illustration.

The Idea Man, Bill Rosendahl is so much the wrong guy to handle any watchdog function. First, he's a council member and can be voted out or recalled and so is not always going to be there. Besides, to stay in office, he'd throw the watchdogger advocates overboard if it meant staying employed.

Next, his judgment rests on what foundation? The elephant exhibit fiasco showed his inconsistencies. The decision for Billy, the elephant, was to ship him out to a sancutuary to be with other elephants and we stop going forward on the $42 million (so far) project for his home here at the Zoo.

Well, Bill changed his vote from NO as to project continuation, and that would send Billy out, to a vote of "YES." It was all Bill's style. First, the idea of keeping Billy in the best situation for Billy's health seemed to rule, and the construction was still not complete anyway. But a finance person with the city went on to present a tale of obligated expenses from STARTING the project- it wouldn't be all the $42 million, but still a few more from what already was spent.

O.K., so all by itself, a significant matter. Then the impact on "JOBS" THAT WOULD BE LOST gets tossed up for the consequence of stopping the project.
Now Bill is swayed, "Well if it means we'll lose jobs then I'm changing my vote."

What happened to the "Billy's best interests for health" that was pivotal to many advocates on both sides of the argument? For BILL, eff that, its "jobs" and so what if MORE money is thrown down if the work stops because we will stop the project and still cut our losses.

Now with Bill (the council member, remember the elephant is "B-I-L-L-Y"), it's like he's now an dollars-and-cents man, and the magic word, "JOBS" was spoken. Billy's welfare is now being completely overriden by finance, and finance not to the city but finance benefits to those "jobs" and, of course, they probably are UNION jobs, meaning VOTES for Bill.

If Billy's case was so heavily based on a moral question as many or all sides viewed it, how did money usurp that value to change the decision? Because it's related to votes and special interests and you just can't rely on people whose own jobs are swayed by all that.

The jobs issue sounded good, and the entanglement's additional costs per contract commitments that would have continued for a time should not have been bought at face value.
The decsion should not have been made on that day with the fressh information tossed in that had not been shown before this meeting.

Bill Rosendahl is FOR Measure B and his judgment and rationale are among the most fallible on the City Council. The track record in the recent example is very revealing as to Bill's decision making process.

The opportunity for a solar energy plan is still open and this last minute attempt to slide it by voters and to "trust" anyone in government is another exercise in the city council's deceit. And THAT deceit is fact, not opinion, for anyone willing to think back to the past examples of city council sponsored ballot measures.

Vote No and ask for a COMPLETE PLAN next time- with $, Dates, Names, and all INFORMATION that THIS PLAN IS MISSING

Some events at LHS- but what are they?

The news on events happening at Lincoln High is something that takes a bit of effort to discover, and in the day of the Internet, it's a little easier. Promotion of events and activities that could serve to better inform the alumni of what today's Lincoln High is about that might enlighten th current environment and activities.

There are still many around who remember when LHS always had two separate senior classes on campus, with at least a mild rivalry between them, at any given time. The "Senior 'Ayes' " and the "Senior 'Bees'" was what I remember how the daily bulletin would write it them up; A student was in a grade with an "A" or "B" designation to represent the first or last semester in the grade before advancing to the next level. The A-10 class, for example was a semester ahead of the B-10 tenth graders, and up the ladder you progressed, to be in the B-11 next semester.

A graduation at the end of every semester gave us those Winter and Summer classes for each year. That's what those notations mean on the class plaques in cement by the entrance to the Andrus Theater (formerly the auditorium).

I see there a lot of information, at least a lot of linked pages, and heard the "Daily Announcment" for Tuesday that's an MP3 recording of what goes out over the P.A. system, like it or not. Today brings Mentor Day, connected to Gear Up. That's was a complete mystery to me, and there wasn't a quick description of that. The quick web search might have the answer, using Occidental College in Eagle Rock for the rest of the information on the program. See "There Goes the Neighborhood; Occidental students participating in the Neighborhood Partnership Program reach out to youth in the surrounding community and serve as mentors through academic obstacles." by Kelsey Longmuir, Issue date: 10/15/08. And after that partnering program discussion, I see it was founded in 1997-1998, and LAUSD became a partner in 1999, with 2002 bringing a grant from LAUSD for the program. More details in this article.

I still don't know what's happening today at Lincoln on Mentor Day, but I figure it's part of the progam described in the Oxy newpaper that lists Lincoln as one of the participating schools, administered by the LAUSD. While I was at Lincoln on the faculty side, I have to say, this was not widely publicized and I tend to look for things and did not hear of this until seeing a student painted poster on the wall announcing the event this week. This was noticed as I came by for the alumni meeting or it still would be an unknown item.

Another poster I saw and heard about on the recorded "Announcements" for Tuesday was the Shakey's Night, for a fundraiser for one of the school groups. Lots of what happens in schools could be better if maybe a little publicity was condidered. A Shakey's Night usually involves getting more people to go to the facility and turn in a reciept or mark something for credit to go to LHS, a percentage of the bill. More people doing this means more money generated. Woudn't more promotion bring more people out?

The lack of promotion and cryptic descriptions in the web site really don't facilitate all that these events can produce, and it doesn't take much to do. Alumni and parents could use an easily usable resource for such things and the MP3 recording is a task to hear; printing out a transcript could be a time-saver for staff and students who want to read what was spoken. And by the way, when I was at Lincoln, the printed Bulletin had a canned statement included that urged groups and teachers to make announcements in the written bulletin, and not rely on the P.A. as some rooms had no speakers. Well, all mine did, and there was no volume control to bring down the sound to an EPA-safe volume level. Ouch.

There's lots more that looks to be happening, but as to details, I have to assume it's internal to the school. Still, you would get a better idea of what's going on if access was not turned into an adventure in search skills. If you say, "Well, parents will be informed by notices they get.' OK, that's one way and one audience, but it's the minimal effort- why not use more avenues of information to do that and generate some image of Lincoln as actually doing something for the benefit of the students and community? It could only help and maybe get a better picture that the general LAUSD drop out reputation that loses over half of a 9th grade class of students before graduation.

Yesterday was another Professional Development Day, and your children were out early, and I hope you notice. Some say that's not trusting students when you check up on them, but it's also considered neglecting your parental responsibility to have no idea where your children are or what they are doing. The better practice is to try to stay in touch with activities of your students, and a benefit of that is that it shows THEM that you CARE what they are doing.

A lot of caring is missing in today's environment with some negative consequences a result.

VIDEO OF MAYOR-But it's not at a debate. It's his San Fernando Valley campaign office opening

There a place you can see Mayor Tony but it’s not in a debate, but YouTube from last week where he went to the San Fernando Valley to open a campaign office you can see he has no apologies for ducking debates and ignoring his responsibility of telling voters WHY WE SHOULD RETURN HIM TO OFFICE. He’s just so smug, but there’s a little bit more that you should consider before you simply roll over and accept another term of this mayor’s abuse of office and people, us. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b05_bIOMg7w #3 of 3, 6m 19s.

I NOTICED A CURIOUS THING IN TONY'S VIDEO, he bragged about the transit tax passing "in a recession" and noted that it's not supposed to happen. TONY forgot the lies that he and his political friends pushed on the voters for all the measures, as always, hiding the ball, saying whatever needs to be said to get their vote. Then he uses the results to add to what he's achieved. Another sales tax boost, 1/2 %, a regressive one at that, like all sales taxes, impacting disproportionately on those less able to absorb the added financial impact.

His speech style is just too poor and everyone there in this video is on HIS side- he would easily melt in a debate with anyone. It's all due to him lying with every word and thinking about how not to get caught.

IT'S A STUPID CONCLUSION if he’s proud of that outcome, since TONY manipulated people to screw themselves (again) but he thinks it's an achievement or some sort of true public approval- the public never really got any truth given to them by TONY’s side to even be able to properly consider what they were voting for. It’s the lambs being led to slaughter there, and meant more as literally than figuratively when you think about the real-life impact on the lives of people now. THAT result should not be something to be boasting about, TONY. It just shows that TONY is completely self-absorbed with his own career ladder-climbing, and his mind is as far as it can be in considering the impact on the public.

TONY is truly a demon when you see the impact that more taxes have had on the most financially vulnerable, the FIXED income elderly or disabled persons who get no chance for a raise or promotion to compensate for rising taxes and “fees” that the government imposes. The city council is relentlessly following that “revenue generation” instruction from TONY to cover the excesses in city spending that THEY approved and now refuse to accept that as having been caused by them. The really unforgiveable part is that the Council and Mayor did this spending while also ignoring all the warnings given and available months or even years ago.


Well, all that just leaves me very unsure of expecting that "the right thing" is going to be done by even mildly informed people, many of whom will buy into having another disaster of a second term of TONY as Mayor. Too many people rely on television news that is really an “info-tainment” show now, and any resemblance to real news is purely coincidental.

Television won’t give real news to viewers and I believe polls have found that, even with that warning, this is the main source of news for most people. Only very lightweight amounts of serious knowledge are shared about critical issues so no real news is delinered to the public. But you can bet that there will be television news cameras at the polling places on Tuesday, March 3, to cover their “news reporters” saying the predictable things like, “The election is bringing out a very small turnout.” What kind of news is that?

Television news, while always hunting for ways to get you to tune in for ratings, is the poorest of all the sources for anyone to get news on any kind of story. It’s absolutely fine for visual images, like car chases, but television news is mostly for looks, not for substance. Another poor source of real facts and any truth would be to see Tony's campaign mailers and video spots. Chief Bratton, who endorses him, is simply another of Tony's puppets, depending politically on Tony for all that he has.

Vote next Tuesday- and you already know what TONY'S about- pick someone who cares about improvement for the City and the people. You have your choices, and I support Zuma Dogg, who knows the issues and the processes from years of bringing his views to Council, with all the theatrics used to deliver the messages, many of them bearing unwelcome news and opinions to Council and the Mayor. But you have your own choices, make them informed ones, not rubber-stamps for Tony.

THE LA TIMES Makes an Ass-Backwards endorsement of ANTONIO FOR MAYOR

L.A. TIMES made another endorsement Saturday and this one is for the MAYOR- pure half assed L.A. TIMES style they have adopted of late. The to-the-point title is all it means: "Reelect Villaraigosa, The mayor deserves a second term. But we hope he'll keep his focus on L.A., not Sacramento" http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-mayor21-2009feb21,0,2274323.story The basis for this is a self-delusional view of things in Los Angeles, more like comments that a Villaraigosa employee would say about his boss than an objective evaluation.

All the bad things listed and the more villainous things- power broker and such- are what they HIGHLIGHT as positives, ignoring that as the "red flag" warning for seeing his personal exploitation of the office. A truly puzzling approach and miserable assembly of a conclusion when you think of making a current crisis even worse by a re-election of Tony.

The L.A. TIMES editorial person has listed numerous errors of the Mayor, but did not think they were errors, like being out of the city so often and rarely being found in his office where you might think he would be. The L.A. TIMES says that’s a good thing. So many reverse things in this assessment of the Mayor’s first term in office. The “power” of the Mayor is another item that wins over the L.A. TIMES. So, getting the people to vote a monstrous amount that will tax them for decade before they ever see it, it it’s done at all is supposed to be a “good” thing, according to the editorial.

And the editorial says, in effect, “Well, we endorse him and he should stay a full term if he’s re-elected to finish what he started.” Well, L.A. TIMES, you must be living in a parallel universe and see too much backwards.

NOT ONE mention of Tony's obsession for climbing the political ladder and TONY’S fresh announcement that CANNOT promise to serve a full term if elected as mayor since he’s considering running for Governor. “Considering?” That has been in his plans for years- who is he kidding? L.A. TIMES, what about that?

Purely a job of wishful thinking by the L.A. TIMES, as it did with WENDY GRUEL’s rap-sheet list of problems, including being so very close to the Mayor and his views, then giving her the endorsement for the office of “City Controller.” What?

Why endorse her at all or Tony? There's more there past what meets the eye and it can’t be good.

The LA TIMES also badly misinterpreted as more "positives" all the self-promotion and manipulations by Tony to get what they call his "achievements." Are they traveling out of town with him and miss seeing what’s going on in L.A. or what?

For one example: It's so clear; he's effed up people with his accelerated trash fees from the gradual step-increases planned to spread over years to 2011. He “asked” city council to move it all up as an urgent need, to begin in September 2008, the to be able to claim that 1000-officer boost to the LAPD. $11 a month is now about $36 a month, billed with your so high DWP bill every 2 months, so about $72 now is there per bill for each home. Ouch. On top of that, the money was not all spent for hiring the cops as “promised” and MORE money was still needed. It never ends.

So what if TONY’s career boost has jammed everyone's personal budget, and creates more financial distress for people already stretched thin on money? The IMPORTANT thing is that Tony gets another paragraph of “achievement” to add to his campaign brochure for the next office, and who knows how much of our money he will spend to get himself there if re-elected.

Tony's whole show is all about that and the L.A. TIMES missed it completely- no credibility there at all. They might as well have just printed TONY’s campaign mailer if they don’t want to waste time with examining REAL facts. It must be that parallel universe explanation. Anything else would be a crime.

In Lincoln Heights, Town Hall meeting on complaints in services and fees

I received an announcement from a friend who passed it over to me. There's a Town Hall meeting scheduled for Monday evening in the Senior Citizens Center on Workman St. just south of North Broadway adjacent to the playground.


Items to be discussed include Parking Meter fees quadrupling and hours changes impact on people and businesses, cuts in mental health and CVS pharmacies in communities.



The RSVP date was Friday, but attendance to such meetings is usually encouraged and a call will answer that question. (click the image for a bigger picture for easier reading)


I know those Dollar-an-hour meter rates now are making people either think about parking in advance and avoid such areas or just payout more and even then, have exposure to more expensive tickets if you are short on coins and slow on returning. Ah, those crafty council members.

Garcetti even commented that the more expensive parking rates would be a way to get people avoid using cars so much and instead, use public transportation methods, so it gives us less traffic on the streets. That is the way they think about you and me, ladies and gentlemen. You see that it's not very well. And Garcetti is running for re-election in his CD, along with all odd-numbered CD's on March 3- Tuesday.

Academy Awards tonight- Did you want your Tax Dollars given to them?

Well, it's Academy Awards time again, and the City Council for our city is still not getting the message to cut excess spending when they grant this even SPECIAL EVENT WAIVERS- that means, the extra expense to the city that "your" event will create in police, traffic, fire and trash and other services from the CITY OF LOS ANGELES is FREE to you. The taxpayers will absorb the cost. It comes down to who you vote for and "do they care about 'YOU'?"

So watch the Academy Awards or not, you are paying for a chunk of it by City C0uncil's 11-0 vote for it, $410,000.00 in fees and salaries that the City will eat, while going beyond the parking meter hikes, trash fee boosting rampage and other people-gouging measures to meet nearly $450 million in the red for city operations. Actually, "we" are the city, and the $410,000.00 is taken out of the General Fund, the city's "piggy bank," that we have to re-fill.

"First Grammy, now Oscar gets fees waived by L.A. City Council," L.A.Times, by Maeve Reston, 1-30-09. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/01/first-grammy-no.html This brief news item (It's no wonder lots of people don't see these things happen under their noses) also reminds us that Council approves $5 MILLION dollars each year for special event fee waivers. Some might be justified for community benefit where all are welcome and have a common interest, but I still have not ever received an invitation to the Grammys or the Academy Awards shows for all the dollars my city government spends for them.

"Los Angeles City Council votes to waive fees for Academy Awards," UPI News Service, 1-30-09. http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/los-angeles-city-council-votes-waive-fees-for-academy-awards-1015876.php Another short item- very little splash in the news, but it's an example of special interests continued influence, all credit for the business it brings included, but REALLY, DID THEY EXPECT the Academy to pack up and take it's business elsewhere?

The Academy needs L.A. to bolster its image as much as L.A. wants to keep them pulling in some dollars this night will generate. The economy is in a recession, and in case you haven't noticed, the movie industry really has less and less of real MOVIE STARS and good movies each year. The glamour days of Tracy, Gable, Hepburn and that era are gone. Even the action heroes are getting to be covered by lesser knows. Fine that some movies are outstanding, but we have a time now that PEOPLE of the city are covering the bill, and it somehow doesn't make me feel better, and certainly not "warm and fuzzy," when you see this kind of money-spending going on in such tough financial times.

No, you might have a hard time seeing that the City is in a crisis, even the mayor was gleeful in noting the passage of more TAX measures (sales tax increase) for transit in "a recession." The guy just loves to spend money on things that VILLARAIGOSA WILL TAKE CREDIT FOR, even if things like subway to the sea will not be done for 30 years or MORE, by estimates and will remain all taxpayer's responsibility to cover meanwhile.

So enjoy the "stars", most of whom really are "celebrities" and not "stars" because, in terms of talent, many of them are interchangeable with one another, some just get more publicity to make them more noticed- and you might see that the publicity does not have to be all "good publicity" to help their careers.

More reasons to go VOTE on Tuesday, March 3, and show your displeasure- or maybe, as some I have talked with say, "Oh, they are all like that," and "What difference will my vote make?" A low voter turnout multiplies the influence of the few voters who DO come out. You have sample ballots- mark them BEFORE you get to the voting place and you will be done in a flash. Again, you know I have little admiration for most politicians, not just the city ones. And they need to be rotated OUT- are you getting your money's worth from the $186,000.00 salary that each council member makes? (and they get their 20 person staff, and 8 free cars with gas credit cards to "work for YOU.")

Again, you are the people in charge- not the representative. Can you FIRE them if you don't like their performance? YES, It's all about voting. Don't let the tail wag the dog.

I say, if they are ALL are like that, at least get some NEW ones in to begin different connections that will break the current choke-hold on city government. A biased and corrupt government benefits from voter APATHY, and if you don't vote, don't complain- you only get this chance for SHOWING your views to Council and Mayor ONCE every 4 YEARS. Don't ignore it- their special interests groups sure won't be missing this vote.

Do not let the developers continue with all the other special interests, to tell THESE elected officials what they want. Did you know that some of these guys get private meetings with the council members very easily when most in the public don't have the privilege of the same consideration? And it's all connected to "how much did you say you contributed to my campaign (or "favorite charity," etc.)?"

Voting is free and with 11% OF REGISTERED VOTERS IN THE CITY being the predicted turnout- EACH vote means an enormously significant part of the decision. Besides, the ballot is short, there probably won't be ANY lines for voting and parking meters WITHIN ONE BLOCK of the poll are NOT to be observed- FREE to go vote. 5 minutes and you are done.

The poll workers will be the most bored people at work on Election Day with such a small turnout- be part of that, give them some company for five minutes and stop assuming you don't matter. If you don't vote, you REALLY don't matter.

IN Lincoln Heights, are you happy with Ed Reyes' job? HE IS part of all this and if you don't like it, voting does send a message, especially when HE TAKES THE VOTE FOR GRANTED, like his boss, MAYOR VILLARAIGOSA who refuses to debate and thereby avoiding big time embarassment- Ed can win, but he doesn't have to get it with YOUR vote.

The same goes for other areas besides just Lincoln Heights- our poor performing, loud talking LAUSD Board member MONICA GARCIA is running unopposed because of power of the political machine, NOT MERIT- and, as VILLARAIGOSA'S team player, she's done nothing to make any real changes to boost performance of your child or your neighbor's child. Handpicked by the mayor is not a good sign, so what did you expect- she's a pal of Jose Huizar, worked for him when HE was LAUSD president (and that was a sad performance, too, but JOSE still doesn't see it as such). IT'S ALL POLITICS and you need to act NOW, and not when the next bunch of changes is dumped on you. That's too late.

Art Walk band "Killsonic" gets L.A. Weekly coverage

Being informed by alumus Mike Ibarra that his son and band, Killsonic, featured in the L.A. TIMES a few weeks back in the downtown L.A. "Art Walk" monthly event, are getting more publicity, I am compelled to relay the following information to you.

So, as I do when the rare occasion arises, I will pass along such news and features contributions as presented to me by members of Lincoln's alumni. Here again, it's that band that is anything but gentle, and the place to see the story, "Killsonic: A 24-Piece L.A. Big Band's 'Cloud of Noise'," is the L.A. Weekly in print, February 18, 2009, or online, http://www.laweekly.com/2009-02-19/music/killsonic-a-24-piece-l-a-big-band-39-s-quot-cloud-of-noise-quot/2

It is really the right band to describe as having a "unique" sound, and maybe even "loud."

This Saturday- LHS Alumni Association's monthly meeting on campus.

It's the third Saturday of the month, March 21, and the Alumni Association meeting is here again.

Saturday, March 21, 2009
9:30 a.m.
Student Cafeteria

Open meeting, All invited and it's a group picture day, too. (This one is supposed to wind up in this year's LHS yearbook.)

Tax Hike in store for you- State budget passed.

You have some big tax impact coming from the State budget finally approved by the last vote needed. Abel Maldonado (r) was holding out for some concessions, which really meant that he WAS eventually going to vote FOR the budget and FOR the additional billions to be covered BY taxes. [Update:"California Legislature finally approves new budget" in L.A. Times today-http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-budget20-2009feb20,0,5263469.story ]

Look for the details that will become law when Arnold signs off on it. Not a pretty picture. The plan is to continue for 5 years, with some review in 2 years when voters can act again, I am told. Meanwhile the taxes-on-taxes (surcharge on state income tax bill) and double car tax and spending increases will roll on.

Democratic Speaker of the House Karen Bass continued to say "do the right thing" and she meant "approve the tax hikes" not 'let's continue to work on terms and solutions" that would include a few more frugal moves.

Bass and the other politicians were cleverly changing the vocabulary used, "taxes" was used no more, instead they call it "revenue"- they come out the same for US in the end, but the word tries to sidestep the slogan that SOME Republicans were still following, "No More Taxes" (that's no "additional taxes"- "no more taxes ever" would be nice).

Lots more to the picture. Maldonado's "work" before caving in does not give you, the taxpayer, much of anything to hold onto when you balance it all out. All politics on all sides.

CONSIDER WHAT A RESPONSIBLE STYLE OF GOVERNMENT DOES.
Today's L.A. Times shows cooperation happening in the city of Redlands in San Bernardino County, about an hour (in no traffic) east of L.A. They have their budget woes, too, and their solutions involve serious measures taken that demonstrate what can happen with ALL players working together AND working for the benefit of the City and the people. "A spirit of sacrifice sweeps over Redlands City Hall"
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-redlands19-2009feb19,0,7916203,full.story

There in Redlands, the financial pain was spread around to enable all to survive instead of just wiping out some segments completely. You can see in the story that a certain built-in value of greed is present, shown where other unions criticized the Redlands police officers and their union because that sets a precedent for other unions to share in giving up some things in negotiations.

That's a tradition that is not good in these times and works to shift the burden completely to others, like a hot potato or a case of musical chairs- some are the big losers and others are the big winners. Spreading out the whole pain would maybe even make the "untouchables" see what changes are needed in spending, especially at a state-wide level, if they were included in the "sharing."

In L.A., you have too many people protected in government. The DWP situation highlights that and the terms proposed in Measure B even work in a plan to get new members FOR THEIR UNION and to have training paid for before they get their jobs. As the consumer, YOU get to pay their bill in YOUR DWP bill , where it all shows up sooner or later. In Sacramento, Arnold already signed off for SEIU workers to be guaranteed a no-layoff status, I think it covered 93,000 workers.

Politicians or union leaders don't highlight that sort of deal-making and you see why. There is something inherently wrong when "some" are made to be untouchable and not feel any of the pain. But that's the reality of politics in action and why various unions get too powerful. A trade for favors- "Do what I want and my members will vote for you"- so that get's done. It's not costing the politician anything personally when taxes go up, when new programs get approved, worthy or not, and need funding. You will pay for that. This makes the case for "The tale wagging the dog," or "Who's working for who here?"

L.A city elections coming up in less than two weeks. The voters to come out to show you don't just let things happen. If you don't vote on March 3, you have no basis to complain about what happens in this city later. That would be called rolling over on your back like you see on Cesar Milan's T.V. show "The Dog Whisperer"; it give you a demonstrations of dogs doing that, going into a "submissive" condition- showing either "complete trust" or "fear." You have little reason for any complete or partial trust of incumbents. WE NEED new blood there, and if you vote for these incumbents, it just may be out of fear.

For me, keeping them to do more damage is what I fear. Time for change.

All the odd-numbered council districts are up for election March 3rd- including Ed Reyes' CD-1 that covers Lincoln Heights and over to Pico Union. The only challenger Jesus Rosas is not perfect but Ed has become just too comfortable as a career politican who needs to move on to shake off all those entanglements he's built up with special interests, lobbyists and unions that have so obviously seen Lincoln Heights for their own development profiteering opportunities.

They will object to that view, but this is when the voters make the difference.

Wendy Gruel's T.V. Campaign Ad doesn't match her actions.

Wendy Gruel, current CD-2 council member, is being termed out of office and needs a new job. She is running for the office of CITY CONTROLLER, now held by Laura Chick since Chick is herself being termed out of that office. Wendy is the Mayor's choice for the office, and she has always been his pal, never challenging Tony's decisions in any significant way, and that's not a good quality for any candidate for City Controller where you are expected to watch how money is spent.

Well, it looks like the L.A. TIMES, in a story by David Zahniser, one reporter who unerringly sees through most of the political smokescreens so often thrown up by office holders, has found some problems with Ms. GRUEL'S television ad. She's against now something that she approved in connection with the Housing Authority, and, next, she did nothing to act on another matter with the Animal Services department after she learned about it from an audit produced by Laura Chick's office, until bringing it up now. See:

"Greuel attacks program she approved;
L.A. councilwoman's 30-second spot names three city programs she says she would tackle if elected city controller. She voted for one of them and did not intervene on a second," a February 15, 2009 story, http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-greuel15-2009feb15,0,2829452.story.

Getting caught on conflicting details that show some real bad memories or plain outright "fibbing" on advertisements is just so enjoyable to see when you know they try so hard to hide it from us and then they still manage to mess up and not keep their stories straight. Reporter Zahniser used to work for the L.A. Weekly before the L.A. TIMES hired him away, doing the same detailed work on city hall stories that the L.A. Weekly continues to present with other reporters taking up the task.

Zahniser's story's ususally present the truest picture of all the reports on what's happening with politicians and he's often the one to discover problems with these officials.

The L.A. Times puts up a "City Elections" stories page that makes for some good reading

The Los Angeles Times has collected their stories on the City Election and for those of you who don't like to rely on television ads for "truth." This page, with the stories and comments, brings some really refreshing actions out into the public view, some things that would not be getting out if some candidates and other politicians had their way.

There is a story about Jane Usher an attorney who resigned from her position as the President of the city's Planning Commission after seeing some real problems going on and making her views public. The views were not what the Mayor wanted to hear or be spoken from somebody he put into the position and she resigned a couple of months ago.

"Sharp words in race for L.A. city attorney
Prominent ex-planning commissioner backs Nuch Trutanich, takes a swipe at Jack Weiss' 'reliance' on lobbyists, " by David Zahniser, February 12, 2009.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-city-attorney-race12-2009feb12,0,4018471.story

Ms. Usher has decided to endorse Trutanuch as City Attorney hopeful, and that means a complete split from Villaraigosa, who supports JACK WEISS for the office. (Do not confuse Jack Weiss [bad] with Noel Weiss [good] both running for City Attorney.) For Jack, think of Mayor Villaraigosa saying "Jump!" to "JUMPING JACK FLASH" WEISS, who will answer "How high?"and you will have an easier time sorting out who's who with the Weisses. Noel will say "NO"- so that image should help.


But read the story, very short and to the point. Ms. Usher just makes her displeasure so clear, and the descriptions of JACK WEISS and current City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo are pretty much so on-target. Other politicians who, like the Mayor, endorse JACK are all Tony's political buddies and the phrase, "What do you expect them to say?" applies here. They are doing the favor for old Tony, as some of them got Tony's help to get into their own offices.

"Election Central: The race for L.A. City Hall" - the page on the L.A. Times to see the election news and the slick and not-so-slick moves.

Just for your convenience, you can see the L.A. Times has their city election stories here to view, under the title of, "Election Central: The race for L.A. City Hall; City of Los Angeles elections: Primary, March 3; General, May 19"
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-local-election-2009-sg,0,5285563.storygallery

You can start off with Steve Lopez' column, today about politics that gets right into L.A. problems and some sleazy strategies, "An L.A. activist has had enough of politics as usual," http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez18-2009feb18,0,1993560.column

If you like boxing, wrestling, or contact sports, this is the political version where people are making some very significant comments and some are not nice to their fellow politicians.

Mayoral Forum for Candidates Thursday Night in Eagle Rock

All of the candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles were invited to a Forum

for each to give their positions, telling us why they should get our votes.

It's tomorrow night in the Eagle Rock

Date: THURSDAY NIGHT, February 19, 2009

Time: 7:00 to 8;30 p.m.

Place: "Center for the Arts" (the "old" library by the Bank of America). 2225 Colorado Blvd, L.A. 90041

"Your chance to hear and speak with the candidates for the mayor's office."

Co-sponsored by The Eagle Rock Association ("TERA") and
the Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council


Parking at Bank of America (west of Center for the Arts), and street parking.

Further information: 626-285-1482


(The mayor continues to ignore all challengers and all debate invitations or information forums before the election. Actually, to be completely accurate, he did not "ignore" the invitation but had his spokesman reply with a "scheduling conflict" as the no-show reason. They could put that on a single recording to use for each invitation offered.

That was probably the only item of "transparency" that we'll ever see from his administration.

What does that tell you about what he thinks about how important YOUR right to know anything of what he's doing for YOU? And he STILL expects your vote anyway? /r.g.)

Solar Measure B- a union job program on your dime.

As if there were not enough reasons to reject the Solar Measure B ballot item- AS IT IS WRITTEN- I see an item in the Wall Street Journal that is reported in other sources too, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123457326090086555.html , "A New Gang Comes to Los Angeles: Solar-Panel Installers; In Tough Economy, Homeboy Industries Trains Ex-Cons for Brighter Prospects" by Miriam Jordan. The story tells about the progam at the East L.A. Skills Center by Lincoln Park where it joins El Sereno's side and the LAUSD sub-district office. The Skills Center does an admirable job to get people employable and at a reasonable or no cost. Many students in LAUSD were trained in construction trades to be part of the work force in the bond funded school building program.

Problem: DWP is a utility company. Function: to supply electricity and water and related service of the utilities usage and supply sides.
DWP is not a social agency or an employment agency to conduct job training programs with the money that it's given.

But a job training program is exactly what is included in Solar Measure B's terms, as Brian D'Arcy, DWP union head of the IBEW, and the man that was in charge of putting the UNION's side of a wish-list in the ballot proposal.

A job program is the newest revelation to hire people, many with low or no marketable skills, and put then into the "solar energy" side of construction. This is part of the plan and it favoring ex-offender, ex-cons, felons or whatever label you apply to formerly incarcerated individuals after conviction of a crime.

I am for programs to rehabilitate anyone. The thing that I don't think is right is that the public money is used for this when IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE USED FOR SOMETHING ELSE. Here it's the DWP being a social agency and for the Union.

Check the artcle and consider that lots of people are left OUT of the program and it's for making the UNION bigger and stronger. The Mayor already gave them some sweetheart terms at the last contract negotiations and they have this sent their way by TONY, AND they get to make it ONLY the IBEW who will be doing the work.

The UNION tailored this for their benefit, not for the consumers. That's the job of the UNION SO you can't be too mad for that. But you don't have to allow them to control it in the first place, like the Mayor did. THAT'S getting a little too friendly with the other side of the negotiation table and SELLING OUT the consumer just to make this be ANOTHER sweetheart deal for the UNION.

Where's the part that says taxpayers-consumers have to help them do that?
Where's OUR union rep?
IT'S YOU AND YOUR VOTE on March 3rd.

Let them write a NEW DEAL WITH FACTS for the next go round.

Vote "NO" on Measure B, a change that leaves cost increases OPEN, after NOT EVEN KNOWING the EXACT cost of this plan. We don't sign "blank checks," and this isn't "now or never."

Another rainy day- Still not a "full" day at LHS, City elections nearing, and some news stories to notice

After the 3-day weekend, LHS students ease back into school with a shortened day via a "Professional Development Day," and will be out at 1:34 p.m. today. Not so for the teachers who have the time cleared for some training and information sessions on these days.

The City Elections will be held in 2 weeks on Tuesday, March 3, 2008. Most registered voters got out to vote for the November Presidential election, but the City election is coming with a LOW profile, hardly considered by the residents. People thought they were doing something important in voting heavily for Obama in California- not so much as you might think, since the Electoral College system minimizes your individual vote. Electoral College votes matter, and individual voters are only important in CLOSE elections which was not the case in California.

The CITY elections are completely opposite, with EACH voter's choice becoming very important. Back in around 2001, in the CD-1 race, it was only a matter of around only 32 votes needed by a friend, attorney Robert Nakahiro, a Roosevelt alum, who missed forcing a run-off with Ed Reyes, and that's when Reyes came to office. I do think Robert would have resisted being taken over by special interests and maybe it turned out better for him to stay out of that contaminated environment. But now we have to clean things up, like a clogged sewer that's backed up and cannot be ignored.

The city election is the lowest turnout of all, and 11% of the registered voters are predicted to come out, if that many. I've given my views on the candidates and the sleazy treatment that city residents have been handed by elected and appointed representative. MAYOR TONY is the latest mover, refusing ALL debate invitation to say WHY he should be re-elected.

TONY refuses since his hand-shaking, partying-style of controlled meetings with the "public" and phony "news" conferences to publicize himself and get face-time on T.V. will be what he is depending on to do the trick, and it IS a trick. Like the NBC public announcement slogan a few years ago, "The more you know....." but for TONY, the more you know, the more you should see he needs to be shown the door.

The voters can come out and get rid of the Mayor in two weeks. If Tony gets less than 50% of the vote, he still has to face a run-off. The political machine is what gets the benefit from the city officials now. Once in a a while, the actually do something right or good for the city, but mostly they wind up costing us more just to live here. Next year you will be paying 25 cents a bag, paper or plastic, at the stores in L.A.- and ED REYES was 100% behind that, for example.

A low-turnout election gives more leverage to each voter. Suppose, as an example, 1,000 votes were cast and Candidate "A" got 60%, that is, 600 votes and the others got the rest, 400. That's over over 50% of the votes for "A" and he's a winner. But if the other side gets OVER 50% plus 1 vote, there is a run-off. The Candidates, "B" and "C" and others could force a run-off by getting 201 more voters to show up and have them vote AGAINST Candidate "A".
"A" gets 600 votes
"Others" get 601 votes. RUN-OFF TIME.

That's a LOW turnout example. But suppose 10 times the number came out, 10,000 voters. And keep the same percentages for all, so for Candidate "A" that would be 6,000 votes for "A's" side, and 4,000 votes for Candidate "B" and "C" and the others combined.

To force a runoff, the challengers' side needs 50% plus 1 vote or 2,000 and 1 more voters to add to their side for a total of 6,001 votes, forcing a run-off.

Compare how powerful the fewer voters' effect is in the low turnout number of 201 to force a runoff in our example, to the higher turnout requirement of 2,001 more voters to make the run-off happen. Grabbing your friends and neighbors and relatives to come out to vote with you can swing the results with ENORMOUS effect in local elections. Just the newly registered young voters coming out of LHS in the last few years would form a significant group of voters.

But don't be fooled by TONY, or by Wendy Gruel, city controller (the city "watchdog" for abuse, waste and corruption in city business) since she's Tony's too-good-of-a-buddy to come down on his case if problems are found. In fact, SHE's part of the problem using the phony phone tax scam and term "limits" EXTENSION disguised as an "ethics reform" to fool voters and get the phone tax embedded and enlarged for taxing at 9% when it was going to ZERO percent, but the council did not tell you that. Wendy was fully aware of that. All of them, even ED REYES. And ED's fellow committee member JACK WEISS needs to be rejected, with his weasly style of doing business, when he finally decides to show up at a Council meeting. JACK is running for "City Attorney" not even having any legal experience in the last 2 terms since he's only been CD-5's council member. ALL OF THESE CMs are on TONY'S TEAM- reject them.

ED REYES also was hip-deep in the stuff with term limits since he would have been looking for a new job after this term ends but the Proposition EXTENDED the term another 4 years. You bet he did not tell you that. So Ed's up for re-election and taking it for granted he's winning. I would vote for the sole challenger Jesus Rosas just to shake up ED and let him know the vote is NOT AUTOMATIC and he can't take voters for chumps, like his boss, Tony does. If you work for him, of course, you at least have a reason to vote to keep that bad condition going on some more. If you've got Ed swinging money your way by favorable votes for programs, including lucrative non-profit's making their proposals, that's got to continue for you- whether you are doing a good job or not. But that doesn't help us, the common people, the members of the public.

THE average citizen needs to come out to vote. You KNOW the interested parties WILL be there, like the ones needing their jobs and money flow to continue like I just showed above. Unions (getting more jobs and city contracts) and developers (getting permission to be excused from following existing codes and policies, and grabbing subsidies and tax breaks) control your representatives, not you. Vote to even up the playing field.

One more story on slippery dealings by elected representative is here with Norwalk's Representative, Grace Napolitano, in Congress, "California Congresswoman discovers get-rich-quick scheme," a blog item at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=32f_1234652738
and the L.A. Times story, "Rep. Grace F. Napolitano has collected at least $158,000 in interest on loan she made to her campaign; The FEC allowed the Democrat from Norwalk to charge an 18% interest rate on $150,000 she lent her campaign." And though it might have been planned to be squeezed in as legally done, you see she's been using this as a money-making deal by letting it continue not to be paid off , and for no other reason than to collect money for herself as lending the money to herself in the first place. How much better could that be? She's 71 or 72 and you would think she is a little more wise than most- but maybe that's what people keep voting for her; the image of this little old feisty lady that representing them in office. This is just a SINGLE example that's been discovered with ONE person's situation, and you know it's not the only shady scheme used by politicians, groups and affecting us paying for them to benefit in working for themselves first.

Lincoln High students and alumni living in the CD-1 area for council elections and in L.A. for city-wide offices can make a real impact. Only CD-1 residents can vote for CD-1 candidates Reyes or Rosas. The other candidates are up for all city voters to choose.

My preference for Mayor is David Saltsburg, "Zuma Dogg." who happens to have knowledge of city business, having become involved with City Council accidentally when "victimized" by city policies himself at Venice Beach almost 3 years ago.

Time to think about reunions- 1964 LHS Classes invite you.

(bringing you a reunion announcement that's come my way- abbrevieated version- email a committee member for the complete flyer-. /r.g.)

The Classes of 1964 and the 60's Era LHS Alumni
45-Year Reunion is Coming Up.

AFTER A GREAT 40TH REUNION (OVER 250 GUESTS), AND BY POPULAR DEMAND, WE’RE HAPPY TO ANNOUNCE THAT OUR CLASS REUNION
COMMITTEE IS ONCE AGAIN MEETING TO FINALIZE PLANS FOR, ARE YOU
READY FOR THIS (?), OUR 45TH CLASS REUNION.

WE’VE GOT THE:

• DATE AND TIME: OCTOBER 9, 2009, 6-12 PM (YES, FRIDAY NIGHT!)
• LOCATION: THE BEAUTIFUL MARRIOTT
  HOTEL IN NORWALK (JUST OFF THE 5 FWY.)
• MUSIC: FRANK CHAVEZ, DJ EXTRAORDINAIRE (formerly with the JAGUARS.)
• BUDGET SET: $65 PER PERSON (INC. DINNER
  AND DANCING.)
  
  Make Checks/Mail to:
• Lincoln HS 1964 Reunion Committee
• 6306 Bright Ave Apt B,
• Whittier, CA 90601-3676
• (Please Provide: Your NAME, CONTACT number/email, Grad. Year.)

*** TICKETS WILL BE AT - WILL CALL. (We’ll notify you when your check arrives.) ***

SEE YOU ALL SOON!

64 REUNION COMMITTEE:
ALFRED ALDERETE(S’64) & CONNIE CHAIDEZ(S’65) (714) 849 3063 ACAlderete@aol.com
ALICE (BUSTAMENTE) CARROLL (S’64) (562) 299-2476
BARBARA (SALAS) SALDANA (S’64) (951) 676-7329 barbtemec@msn.com
MARCO ROBLES (W’64) (909) 594-3925 Marco.Robles@Unisys.Com
MARGARET (VELASQUEZ) HUERTA (S’64) (562) 693-7874 Itsmemh@aol.com
ROSALIND (CARDONA) DURON (S'64) ArtLoverDuron@gmail.com
MARY JEAN (GONZALEZ) ARCINEAGA (S’64) (562) 692-8019 MArciniega46@verizon.net

AUXILLIARY COMMITTEE:
GEORGE MONTANEZ (S'65) (626) 260-1355 skiemon@msn.com
SUSANNE (SUSIE) MORALES (S'63) (323) 221-6065 suzanne06@sbcglobal.net
MIKE IBARRA (S'66) (323) 683-6102 mikethedadibarra@sbcglobal.net
RUTH (ARENAS) HERNANDEZ (S’65) (323) 255-3751 rhernandez10@socal.rr.com

"Presidents Day"- LHS gets day off for which President?

Today's holiday is called "President's Day" and LHS along with other schools, federal, state and local government offices are closed, along with the banks. Your L.A. City trash pickup is unchanged, so don't forget to put that out on the curb if today is your day. What do we have to think about on this holiday? And what is this holiday supposed to be, anyway?

Presidents Day is what the Abraham Lincoln's Birthday of February 12 holiday and the George Washington's Birthday of February 22 holiday have become- not really for Abe and not really for George- it doesn't fall on the same date either because it's a "Monday" holiday for your convenience, which mean that it's a watered-down holiday that has lost most of it's meaning.

The "Monday" holidays that give you a 3-day weekend really turn into a day off, a day for a barbecue or some other enjoyment. This year in L.A. it's turning out to really be a "watered-down" holiday if you have been outside- pouring rain that's predicted to be the heaviest of the year so far for the whole day.

The only thing really unaffected for this holiday by the rain is the "Presidents Day" sales for all the stores that have survived bankruptcy filings of the last few months. At least we can expect that street crime will be lower today with less people out on the streets for both sides- the criminal's and the victim's- but like the change from Lincoln and Washington actually being honored by the holiday that I remembered from my LAUSD days, it's different now.

The Mayor- Tony Villaraigosa, just a bit younger than me- still says, "L.A. safer than it's been since the 1950's," and brags about the crime rate being down. I tend to disagree since I don't rememember that we had street shootings happening so often like today when those events don't even really rate much of a news story anymore.

When my friends and I went to Lincoln, we did not really worry about drive-bys and all that stuff when walking around Lincoln Heights to school. Going to the L.A. Times Boys Club or to the Lincoln Park gym at night did not have that life-and-death shadow that you have now at night- or even during the day. That was the 60's, maybe less safe than the 50's, but if a shooting happened, it was for sure a news story. Today it's sadly too common. My students more recently at Lincoln were so used to shootings happening and even having family members or themselves shot and shot at. I can't even compare that attitude of acceptance with our school-age experiences that differ from mine just a bit, Mr. Mayor.

The Mayor says you need more cops and so he jacks up the fees for trash to do so, and we still don't get the extra 1,000 cops hired, so you get MORE fees and taxes created. It's not even for OUR safety, but for TONY to have HIS dream happen. That dream? Becoming the "Governor of California in 2010" but AFTER Tony wins the mayor's race on March 3. And if there's a runoff-election that's very strong possiblity with a few more voters coming out, you will really see all stops pulled out by TONY to win-

And you know politics on a local level affects this all the time these days. Our Mayor has let this happen and has made L.A. life worse for most people other than developers and the unions that pay his campaign funds. BUT NO DEBATES FOR TONY. He's got nothing good to say and too much that can come out without being defensible by him and he knows that. TONY doesn't deserve to inflict another terrible term on us, especially with so many lies, big and small, that he's told like the simple one where walking around at night now IS a much riskier proposition that in my high school days. Can you see HIM walking around the streets at night without his police bodyguards? Of course, some places are very dangerous and some are pretty safe, but the idea is that overall, violent crime happens everywhere and is too common.

City life in L.A. is getting to be, more and more, a different experience than you or I remember. Even if you are of the "younger" generation, you have to see those changes, too. If you moved away from "the Heights" and haven't been around for a few years or longer, maybe the changes are more eye-opening. The "improvements" from advances in technology have come along to bring things we could not even imagine as high school students.

Another change that is noticed for high school students is about the level of basic skills students have attained in school. More of our students are ill-prepared, continuing to struggle to pass CALIFORNIA HIGH SCHOOL EXIT exams in math and English, written at an 8th grade level- and that, my friends is what we called, "Jr. High" level. It should be able to be done and done early in high school, not coming up every year to make a student wonder if he or she will be able to joing classmates graduating in June. Performance at "grade level" is not the norm, and when you see that many have fallen behind several years, you have to wonder what was done to let it get ONE year behind grade level. This kind of weak attention to even-handed attention to students' progress just makes them to become weaker, and for many, to be attracted into criminal activity where they can be accepted and succeed with a different group.

A holiday should be enjoyable and the basic reason for its creation should be understood. Presidents Day has become as dissoved as the dirt on the streets in today's rainstorm and neither Lincoln nor Washington really are honored or remembered. Our schools have changed with simple historical items remaining a mystery, even to those at school bearing the same name. Every little bit of education helps round out the knowledge base and make more learning more able to happen.

A lot of basic things we older alumni have experienced in learning just don't happen anymore, even with all the changes in technology and information. And it doesn't have to be like that. Education is affected by things in the school and in the community and we need to pay attention to changing what needs to be changed to equip the students for life success.