Free Republic

A Beverly Hills real estate broker is waiting for escrow to close on two upscale properties, but that won't happen until after Christmas. So what is a powerhouse agent to do to generate some quick spending money for holiday shopping? This one hocked her diamond Patek Philippe watch at a Beverly Hills pawnshop for cash. She'll reclaim her $15,000 timepiece when the deals close, said Jordan Tabach-Bank, chief executive of 73-year-old Beverly Loan Co. "Never before have we seen so many affluent people needing cash," he said. "People are in a cash crunch. You can't go to the bank for...

Bill Whittle spoke the other day at the Beverly Hills Tea Party and I must say it was excellent. When he began he said that his job was to scare us to death and then explain why he has so much hope for us overcoming the big problems we face. I’m not sure he succeeded on the former, but definitely the latter. He broke the speech up into seven categories that he believes most Tea Party members would agree on and then elaborated on them, some at great length. The seven categories are limited government and free enterprise, distrust of...

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2011 2:30-5:30 PM BEVERLY HILLS PARK SANTA MONICA BLVD Between Beverly & Canon Come out and join us as we will continue our rally to help take our country back! This will be a event-packed day with many speakers and contributors. God Bless America!! Directions from LAX: Take 405 North, Exit Santa Monica Blvd. and turn Right, Turn Left at Beverly Dr. and then first Right at Park Way. Park will be on the right. Speakers: Pat Boone – The original American Idol, Pat began his recording career in the 1950’s and has more the 30...

When Beverly Hills residents found out that many of their city’s 950 municipal and public safety employees were earning stunning salaries, 13 weeks of paid vacation, unlimited overtime and other tax-free retirement benefits, taxpayers were outraged and city officials rushed into closed-door sessions to figure out what to do. These revelations, exposed through the efforts of the city’s hometown newspaper, The Beverly Hills Courier, unmasked an even deeper problem: many California cities, and likely other municipalities across the U.S., are being strangled by the cost of ballooning pension benefits they can no longer afford. “What we have now is a...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — A writer desperate to get a movie script read suffered the ultimate rejection Thursday when police blew up a briefcase he said contained the screenplay after an agent refused to read it, police said. The bizarre story was set in Beverly Hills, where a man visited the office of a literary agent and left behind a briefcase that he said contained a computer, police Sgt. Brad Cornelius said. The man left instructions for it to be delivered to someone at the business, who told another person in the office, "This guy's been kind of pestering me...

A prominent Beverly Hills psychiatrist who has helped decide hundreds of child-custody disputes was thrown off one recent case and has been challenged in at least two others after posting lewd photos of himself on Facebook and allegedly promoting illegal drug use, unprotected sex and male prostitution. Dr. Joseph Kenan, president of the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, is also being investigated by the Medical Board of California on at least four complaints by parents who hired him to do custody evaluations, according to records and correspondence reviewed by The Times. Among the postings on Facebook and other websites under...

The gun recovered from a man who commited suicide at a Hollywood apartment appears to be the same one that killed veteran Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, according to a law enforcement source. The Beverly Hills Police Department has called 3 p.m. news conference to discuss the case, though no details were provided.

The person of interest in the murder of Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen, who fatally shot himself in an apartment late Wednesday as Beverly Hills as police were serving a search warrant, was identified in a report Thursday. The Beverly Hills Courier identified the man as Harold Smith, citing a law enforcement source. Residents at the apartment complex previously identified him as Harold.

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (KABC) -- Police said a woman driving a Mercedes-Benz was shot to death in her car in Beverly Hills early Tuesday morning. The victim has not yet been identified. Authorities responded to a 911 call on the 800 block of North Whittier Drive, near Sunset Boulevard, just before 12:30 a.m. Residents in the area had reported hearing several gunshots fired. Moments later, a second 911 call reported a solo car crash.

A sweltering sun did not stop members of the Tea Party from gathering in Beverly Gardens Park on Sunday afternoon, cheering, waving flags and passing out literature as emcee Pat Boone, conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, Congressional hopefuls and Revolutionary-garbed “patriots” spoke, sang and rallied more than four hundred supporters of the Beverly Hills Tea Party. A marching band with drums, flutes and three-corner hats began the event with a Patrick Henry impersonator taking the stage and reciting an abridged version of the “give me liberty or give me death” speech made famous by Henry in 1775. “There is no longer...

A Tea Party rally will be held in Beverly Hills Sunday, with Pat Boone serving as the master of ceremonies and several other entertainment industry figures speaking, discussing faith, family and freedom, according to organizers. Actor Robert Davi, actress Connie Stevens, former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Victoria Jackson, commentator Andrew Breitbart and writers Lionel Chetwynd and Bert Prelutsky are among the scheduled speakers. The rally will be held from 2-4 p.m. in Beverly Gardens Park along Santa Monica Boulevard, between Canon and Beverly drives. Organizers are hoping the rally will result in the public getting correct information about candidates...

Useless Vanity Post. Commence Discussion.

The mayor of Beverly Hills is outraged over a Miss California USA contestant who spoke out against same-sex marriage and said she represented the city in the pageant. In a statement Wednesday, Mayor Nancy Krasne said that 23-year-old Lauren Ashley lives in Pasadena and doesn't represent Beverly Hills in any capacity. She said she was shocked to see statements made by a beauty pageant contestant under the name of Beverly Hills, "which has a long history of tolerance and respect."

Lauren Ashley, Miss Beverly Hills 2010, is in the news, reported as a beauty queen saying: "God wants gays dead" and "gays should be murdered" - but is that actually what she said, or is she misunderstood? According to Fox News, Lauren Ashley said: "The Bible says that marriage is between a man and a woman. In Leviticus it says, 'If man lies with mankind as he would lie with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.' The Bible is pretty black and white...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX SUN NOV 30, 2003 20:42:05 ET XXXXX HOLLYWOOD DEMS GATHER FOR 'HATE BUSH' MEETING AT HILTON **Exclusive** Top Hollywood activists and intellectuals are planning to gather this week in Beverly Hills for an event billed as 'Hate Bush,' the DRUDGE REPORT has learned! Laurie David [wife of SEINFELD creator Larry David] has sent out invites to the planned Tuesday evening meeting at the Hilton with the bold heading: 'Hate Bush 12/2 - Event' The message reads: "This is the most important meeting you can attend to prevent the advancement of the current extremist right wing agenda....

LOS ANGELES – A Beverly Hills hedge fund manager was arrested Friday on a charge he bilked investors out of $44.3 million, including $5 million he lost playing poker, the U.S. attorney's office said. Bradley L. Ruderman, 46, surrendered to FBI agents after being named in a wire fraud complaint. He was later released on $500,000 bond. The government alleges he spent at least $8.7 million of investor money on personal expenses including a summer rental of a Malibu beach home and two Porsches. He admitted in an FBI interview that he lost $5.2 million of investor money in poker...

Governor Bill Richardson says it's all a matter of timing -- that if only the feds had wrapped up a corruption investigation into his New Mexico Administration by now, he'd be cleared and would be winging his way to Washington confident of Senate confirmation as the next Commerce Secretary. Instead, he withdrew his nomination earlier this week. And maybe he's right about timing. But we'd dial the clock back not to August, as the national media have in clucking that Barack Obama has a sloppy vetting process. Rather, go back to December 7, 2006. That's the day the Bush Justice...

A top Beverly Hills cosmetic surgeon says he used fat he removed from patients in liposuction operations to power his 'green' 4x4 car.U.S. authorities have launched an inquiry into claims made by Dr Alan Bittner that the fat he had sucked out of patients in liposuction operations was turned into biodiesel.Bittner wrote on his website: 'The vast majority of my patients request that I use their fat for fuel -- and I have more fat than I can use.'Not only do they get to lose their love handles or chubby belly, but they get to take part in saving...

Susanna Chung Forest, the designer of Hillary Clinton's pantsuits, has inadvertently solved the mystery of why Democrats are mocking Republicans for spending $150,000 on clothing and accessories for Governor Sarah Palin. In a revealing statement to CBS News, Forest, ...who designed Hillary Clinton's pantsuits says it would be unusual for a candidate as famous as Sarah Palin to need to buy clothes. "Why do you need to pay for it?" Forest told CBS News from her boutique Susanna Beverly Hills saying that most designers would offer to clothe a candidate for free. "It's an honor, you are going to design...

<p>A founding member of the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois met in New York City tonight with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.</p> <p>Jodie Evans, who co-hosted Obama's first major fundraiser in Hollywood in February 2007 just after Obama announced his candidacy and is a top fundraiser and donor to Obama's campaign, led a delegation of leftist anti-American groups that held a private meeting near the United Nations. The stated purpose of the meeting was to "serve as an opening for diplomatic resolution" to prevent war between Iran and the United States.</p>

It's "The Donald" to the rescue. Mega-developer and TV personality Donald Trump has agreed to buy Ed McMahon's Beverly Hills house for an undisclosed amount and allow McMahon to continue living in it. Details of the deal are still being ironed out.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Times are tough in Beverly Hills. Well, tougher, anyway. As recession looms and Wall Street shivers, the Los Angeles area's richest are perhaps perspiring -- although they never actually sweat like other people. Just ask Tim O'Hara, general manager at O'Gara Coach Company, a Beverly Hills-based Rolls-Royce dealership that caters to rock stars, actors and Hollywood executives, many of whom live in the mansion-filled city adjoining Los Angeles. "Some clients would have bought (both) a Rolls-Royce and a Bentley every 12 months but now they've cut it down to buying two cars in an 18-month period,"...

Move over Bridge to Nowhere. Congress is back in town, and clearly back to business even uglier than usual. It takes hard work to come up with an earmark more egregious than that infamous Alaskan bridge, but California's Dianne Feinstein is an industrious gal. Her latest pork--let's call it Rambo's View--deserves to be the poster child for everything wrong with today's greedy earmark process. The senator's $4 billion handout (yes, you read that right) to wealthy West L.A. (yes, you read that right, too) is the ultimate example of how powerful members use earmarks to put their own parochial interests...

For sale: prestigious Beverly Hills mansion set in 6.5 acres, offering 29 bedrooms, three swimming pools, tennis courts, state-of-the-art movie theater and disco. ADVERTISEMENT Price? 165 million dollars. The former home of legendary newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies was listed for sale on Monday with a price-tag that makes it the most expensive residential real estate listing in the United States. The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the H-shaped, pink stucco building dubbed Beverly House by Hearst offers everything that any self-respecting billionaire could ever want. The sprawling, secluded compound features six separate residences -- four...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Lindsay Lohan was cited for investigation of driving under the influence Saturday and was slightly injured when the troubled actress' convertible struck a curb, police said. Lohan, 20, and two other people were in her 2005 Mercedes SL-65 when it crashed on Sunset Boulevard around 5:30 a.m., Sgt. Mike Foxen said. "She was cited and released because she has been admitted to a local hospital for minor injuries," Foxen said. No one else was hurt and no other cars were involved, Foxen said. He did not have other details. Officers went to the scene after receiving...

BEVERLY HILLS It's been nearly seven years since Al Gore lost the presidency, and now the former vice president is set to promote his new book lambasting the Bush administration. Gore was to launch his national book tour with an event Tuesday night at the Wilshire Theatre in Beverly Hills. Gore was scheduled to share the stage with actor-satirist Harry Shearer before signing copies of "The Assault on Reason." Before the event, a line snaked around the front of the theater and the atmosphere was more in line with a campaign stop than a book signing. Attendees wore "Gore 2008"...

A wind-driven wildfire erupted in hills above Los Angeles and destroyed or damaged three homes in Beverly Hills as dangerous gusts swept dry Southern California, knocking out power to more than 100,000 utility customers and triggering a fatal highway pileup in a sandstorm. Other fires erupted elsewhere. About 200 firefighters attacked the flames from the ground as five helicopters repeatedly swooped out of the sky on water-dropping runs that contained the fire to 50 acres, but not before embers ignited expensive homes. Interim Los Angeles Fire Chief Douglas Barry said there was severe damage to two homes and roof damage...

For the first time, the city translates its entire absentee and sample voting documents into Persian. Not everyone likes the look. "Have you seen your ballot?" Gloria Seiff of Beverly Hills asked friend and fellow resident Betty Harris over the phone. Harris had not. She opened the mail-in ballot and took one look. "I was shocked by it," she said. For the first time, Beverly Hills had translated its entire absentee and sample ballots into Persian.

LOS ANGELES - A judge has thrown out 12 lawsuits claiming an oil well that operated for decades at Beverly Hills High School caused cancer in former students. ADVERTISEMENT Superior Court Judge Wendell Mortimer Jr. rejected the suits Wednesday. The case began in 2003 when the law firm that employs celebrity legal crusader Erin Brockovich located hundreds of people who believed emissions from the well were responsible for their cancers or other illnesses. The city and the Beverly Hills Unified School District spent more than $1 million to determine the area was safe. The well produces about 500 barrels of...

Jane Fonda is stepping out into the 'antiwar' spotlight tomorrow night with a headline appearance at a fundraiser for Iraq war resistor Lt. Ehren Watada.Fonda has kept a low profile in the current 'antiwar' movement, having backed out of a vegetable oil powered bus tour last year.Details from the e-mail announcement from Code Pink:Fundraiser for Lt Ehren Watada! Join CODEPINK, Jane Fonda, and Bob Watada, father of war resister Lt. Ehren Watada, for a very special fundraiser. Lt. Watada was the first commisioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the illegal war and occupation of Iraq. He is currently facing...

BEVERLY HILLS Nurse, teachers and firefighters protested Saturday outside a fundraiser for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the home of a media mogul Haim Saban. About 100 demonstrators, including members of the California Nurses Association, chanted slogans and waved signs outside the estate of Saban, founder of Saban Capital Group, said CNA spokesman Shum Preston. Preston said the public workers want to make it clear they disagree Schwarzenegger's stances on nurse-patient ratio rules, universal health care and state pensions. Saturday's protest will be the first of many over the next month, Preston said. An e-mail seeking comment from a Schwarzenegger representative...

BEVERLY HILLS HIGH SENDING 1500 STUDENTS TO SEE GORE'S 'GLOBAL WARMING' FILM **Exclusive** School is nearly out for summer, but before the break, students at Beverly Hills High will get a "Heat Day" -- when they get to ditch class to see Al Gore's new movie! On May 24, 2006, 1,500 Beverly Hills High School students will be boarding 30 gas-guzzling buses across town to see Al Gore's new global warming film 'AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH' at the Arclight Theatre in Hollywood, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Sarah Utley, a science teacher at Beverly Hills High School, explained in an...

165 Pets Taken From Calif. Ex-Mayor's Home RIALTO, Calif. - Responding to neighbor complaints about a home's stench, authorities removed 135 dogs and 30 cats from a urine- and feces-soaked home where a rotting Great Dane was found earlier in a malfunctioning freezer. Charlotte Spadaro, a former mayor of Beverly Hills, had been rescuing animals for three years and kept them at her South Acacia Avenue home. Authorities monitoring the residence since discovering the Great Dane in January finally got a search warrant to remove the animals Thursday. "I think the city is out to have them massacred," Spadaro said....

A young San Bernardino couple is going public with questions about supermodel Gisele Bundchen's "no questions asked" $5000.00 reward offer, which remains unpaid more than two weeks after the couple returned Bundchen's dog only to be arrested at gunpoint, handcuffed and held in custody. Although cleared by the police, the couple has no explanation from Bundchen of why they were treated like criminals and denied the reward. Hollywood, CA (PRWEB) December 10, 2004 -- Supermodel Gisele Bundchen’s “no questions asked” $5000.00 reward offer for her lost dog just before Thanksgiving, may have gotten her dog back, but, according to the...

NOTE: RogerLSimon.com has a secret source highly placed within the California political establishment. He has passed the following information to me. Despite the title, it is no joke. This post is quite serious. As most have heard, the current estimates of Jewish support for Bush in the election were 25%, up from 19% in 2000. This may be a serious underestimate. The following is only preliminary (more stats are being broken down) but it comes from ... of all places... BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA - perhaps the most Jewish incorporated city in the state and also the home of many of...

LOS ANGELES (Nov. 6) - James Belushi has sued his next-door neighbor, actress Julie Newmar, accusing her of a "campaign of harassment" to drive him from his home. In a lawsuit filed Nov. 2, the 50-year-old actor claims Newmar vandalized his estate by destroying a fence and landscaping. He also contends she bad-mouthed him to neighbors and friends, spied on his family and caused a nuisance by playing loud music directed at his backyard. A telephone number for Newmar, who played Catwoman in the 1960s television series "Batman," was not immediately available. A call to Belushi's lawyers was not returned...

Canyon News is a weekly newspaper that covers the hills of Los Angeles, primarily Beverly Hills and Hollywood Hills, all the way through Malibu. Highly welcomed by most readers, the newspaper prides itself on providing the news with an unbias and no slant agenda. The declaration of principles allows commentary writers to express complete freedom of the press, disallowing any political editing from their slant or opinion. Unfortunately, Canyon News has had a difficult time finding writers and staff from the conservative or Republican side. Most of the commentary writers on board are extremely liberal, which in itself slants the...

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday night promised 1,200 civic and business leaders to work "like a machine" until two propositions to close California's budget deficit were approved by voters. "You know I'm like a machine. I won't stop talking until we get this done," said Schwarzenegger, standing before a backdrop of images of palm trees at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Schwarzenegger likened Propositions 57 and 58 to treatment for spending addicts. The proposals call for $15 billion in bonds to help balance the state's budget and for a constitutional amendment prohibiting such borrowing in the...

Democrats are counting on Sen. John Kerry's military credentials to convince voters that he can be trusted with America's national security. But documents that surfaced over the weekend raise serious questions about whether Kerry was duped in the 1990s into helping the Chinese military perfect its ability to strike the U.S. with nuclear weapons. In 1996 Kerry met with Liu Chaoying, the daughter of a powerful Chinese military official who also doubled as vice president of a subsidiary of the state-owned China Aerospace Corp. Before the meeting, held in Kerry's Senate office, Liu's sponsor, Johnny Chung, made clear she was...

The media-personal injury trial lawyer alliance. NBC's Today on Monday trumpeted the latest legal action brought by the law firm which employs notorious agitator Erin Brockovich, whom NBC identified with the very respectable description of "environmental researcher On the May 5 Today, MRC analyst Geoffrey Dickens observed, Katie Couric hyped how some alumni of Beverly Hills High School in California, which has oil wells on campus, "say toxic fumes from the wells have given them cancer." Relaying the claims of "environmental researcher" Brockovich, Couric treated her as simply a concerned woman: "Erin says what troubles her the most is the...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Erin Brockovich, the environmental activist who inspired the film of the same name that won Julia Roberts an Oscar in 2001, filed claims against a Beverly Hills school over claims that toxins on campus gave students and staff cancer. "Two hundred and eighty alumni and teachers are involved. They want answers, and so do we," Brockovich told a press conference Monday, as she announced the first list of 25 plaintiffs that will form part of a class-action suit. Brockovich and lawyer Ed Masry in 1996 forced the utility company Pacific Gas and Electric to pay 333...

A court hearing into shoplifting charges against Winona Ryder that began with an irked judge ordering the Oscar-nominated actress to court was interrupted on Monday when she was apparently injured during a media scrum outside the courthouse. In a bizarre twist to an already strange day, Ryder's attorney told Superior Court Judge Elden Fox that his famous client could not go on with the hearing, which had already been postponed four times, because she needed medical attention. Attorney Mark Geragos told Fox that Ryder, in trying to return to court amid a crush of television cameras and reporters, was struck...