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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn to the post of Superior Court judge. Details from the governor's statement: Hahn, 58, of San Pedro, has served as a mediator for the Alternative Resolution Center since January 2008. Prior to that, he worked as managing director for Chadwick, Saylor & Company from 2005 to 2007. Hahn served the city of Los Angeles as mayor from 2001 to 2005, city attorney from 1985 to 2001 and controller from 1981 to 1985. From 1979 to 1981, he was a partner with Horner and Hahn and, from 1975 to 1979, a...

Rochester, NY—State Police have arrested a University of Rochester instructor for possessing child pornography and have alleged that the suspect was tipped off by a University official. According to WROC-TV, “Gilbert Kirton, 26, of Rochester was charged Friday with one count of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child.” Police also said Kirton's arrest comes despite being told about the investigation by a Dean at the U of R. Investigators have been looking into Kirton for four months, based on a tip from the Montgomery County, Pennsylvania police department. The Dean has not been publicly identified. However, another local...

DETROIT — A man who became the subject of a book called "The Radioactive Boy Scout" after trying to build a nuclear reactor in a shed as a teenager has been charged with stealing 16 smoke detectors. Police say it was a possible effort to experiment with radioactive materials. David Hahn, 31, was being held Friday on a $5,000 bond in the Macomb County Jail after he was arraigned Thursday on felony larceny charges. Clinton Township police Capt. Richard Maierle said Hahn denied the charges. A district court clerk on Friday said Hahn did not have an attorney. The Associated...

A man who became the subject of a book called "The Radioactive Boy Scout" after trying to build a nuclear reactor in a shed as a teenager pleaded guilty Monday in a theft case. David Hahn, 31, had been charged in the theft of 16 smoke detectors. Police in the Detroit suburb of Macomb County's Clinton Township said it was a possible effort to experiment with radioactive materials. During a Circuit Court hearing, Hahn pleaded guilty to attempted larceny of a building. The court's online docket said prosecutors recommended that he be sentenced to time served and enter an inpatient...

My “pilgrimage” to the Catholic Church began when I was 18 years old. I was a first-semester college freshman enrolled at one of the most prestigious evangelical Protestant colleges in the country. I was a theology/philosophy double major, and my childhood heroes included men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, R.C. Sproul, and Greg Bahnsen. My grandfather was an evangelical pastor. My uncle was a Presbyterian elder. Reformation theology was deeply imbued in every aspect of my being. My life’s dream was to become a Protestant seminary professor, so that I could help instruct a new generation of theologians...

Last Words (Prayer and Typology) SCOTT HAHN Prayer is necessary, but it's not easy. "[F]or we do not know how to pray as we ought" (Rom 8:26). We know how to pray in a superficial way, but not as we ought. The good news is that our Father knows this, and so He has sent His Son to teach us and has sent His Spirit to transform our moans, groans, and sighs into the profoundest prayers that reach the depths of God's heart. "The Spirit helps us in our weakness. . . . [T]he Spirit himself intercedes for us with...

Scott Hahn on Our Lady The following is the transcript of Scott Hahn's audio and video tape presentation, "Mary: Holy Mother" as it appears in the "Catholic Adult Education on Video Program" with Scott and Kimberly Hahn. This morning we want to focus on Mary and the Marian doctrines and devotions of the Catholic Church to see where in scripture do we see, not necessarily logical demonstrations that are brought forth from proof texts that kind of force the mind against the will to give in and to acquiesce in these beliefs, but where do we find in scripture the...

How sad, to see a post so contradictory to the truth. If Scott's soul is lost then thank God for it is being guided by the High Priest our Lord Jesus Christ, or maybe he is lost but for the sake of the true presence Christ in the eucharist that he is able to bring so many to His Kindom. Scott's so called lost soul is more fruitful than most found souls. You make false charges about him too. He says clearly that the Bible is never to be fully understood, and he says that the reason for that is...

In the highest-reaching allegations so far in the City Hall "pay-to-play" scandal, a former deputy mayor in the Hahn administration said he indulged in sexual services paid for by a city commissioner who prosecutors said was seeking a contract for a client, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. The salacious revelations are among the most direct allegations in the nearly three-year investigation of contracting practices during the administration of former Mayor James Hahn. According to some 1,200 pages of transcripts released Tuesday, former Deputy Mayor Troy Edwards told a grand jury that Leland Wong, then a member of the powerful...

What Went Wrong at EWTN? Hoping to avoid a takeover by the American bishops, Mother Angelica resigned from the board of directors of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) in March of 2000. She relinquished all control over the network she had founded in 1981. With the departure of that feisty and combative nun, EWTN underwent a change for the worse. This sure-to-be-controversial book contends that since the departure of its foundress, EWTN has been purveying to millions of Catholics a strange brew of the orthodox and the heterodox, the sacred and the profane. The anti-liberal Popes before the Second...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Former Mayor James Hahn, who lost his re-election bid in May to Antonio Villaraigosa, has taken a job at a Los Angeles-based real estate investment banking firm, the company announced Tuesday. Hahn, who served four terms as Los Angeles city attorney, will advise Chadwick Saylor & Co. on real estate and securities transactions, managing partner Bill Chadwick said. "We're a broker-dealer and an investment adviser, both of which are heavily regulated," Chadwick said. "His primary responsibility will be legal. Secondarily, he will be involved in business development." Chadwick, who was a Hahn political supporter, offered the...

The former head of Fleishman-Hillard's Los Angeles public relations office who got millions of dollars in city contracts while providing free services to Mayor James Hahn's administration was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on 16 counts of fraud and conspiracy. In the latest development in the investigation of City Hall corruption, Douglas R. Dowie, 57, of West Hills was accused in a 14-page indictment of bilking the city Department of Water and Power out of at least $300,000 over a four-year period. The firm held a $3 million-a-year contract with the DWP as well as public relations contracts...

Thursday, May 19, 2005 LA mayor-elect breaks with governor on civilian border patrols - By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer Thursday, May 19, 2005 (05-19) 17:17 PDT Los Angeles (AP) -- Mayor-elect Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he opposes civilian volunteers patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border to discourage illegal immigration, putting him at odds with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. "We need our Department of Homeland Security, which patrols the border ... to address the issue of security," Villaraigosa, who was elected Tuesday, told CNN. "We have an old saying from the days of the wild, wild West ... leave your gun outside...

LOS ANGELES - Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa unseated Mayor James Hahn on Tuesday to become the city's first Hispanic mayor in more than a century, confirming the rising political power of Latinos in the nation's second-largest city.After a lackluster term tainted by corruption allegations at City Hall, Hahn was turned out of office in favor of a high school dropout and son of the barrio who turned his life around to become speaker of the California Assembly and then a member of the Los Angeles City Council.With 70 percent of precincts reporting, Villaraigosa had 202,861 votes, or 59 percent, to 140,416...

The first election results are in...mail ballots only. Rounding off the numbers, it come out to 51% for Villaraigosa and 49% for Hahn. Do these numbers look better for either candidate? Opinions anyone?

Los Angeles Mayor Runoff 5/16/2005 Villaraigosa 60% Hahn 36% Undecided 4% Data Collected 5/13/05 - 5/15/05 Geography City of Los Angeles Sample Population 528 Likely Voters Margin of Error 4.3% Client KABC-TV Los Angeles

For Los Angeles, Only One Choice, One Slim Hope 05/16/05     Republican-about-town Jeffers M. Dodge was at a function a couple of weeks ago, one that was also attended by campaigning-incumbent-Mayor James Hahn.   "Hey, Mayor! I have a website up supporting your re-election," he said.   "Really?" replied Hahn. "What's it called?"   I wasn't there, but, as I imagine it, Jeffers paused, if only briefly, before he said, "The lesser of two dot com."   Sad is the day when a Democrat like Hahn becomes a Republican's only hope. Worse yet, when he becomes a city's. How bad...

In the final days before the election, the attack ads have come on strong. The mayor is dogged by a corruption scandal. His challenger is accused of coddling child abusers and hobnobbing with a crack dealer. The ads being broadcast by Mayor James Hahn and challenger Antonio Villaraigosa depict a world so corrupt it's hard to figure out where one scandal starts and another ends. "An average voter is being told that the best they can hope for is the lesser of two very great evils," said media consultant Dan Schnur, who has no ties to either campaign. The two...

SurveyUSA: Los Angeles Mayor Runoff Poll - Villaraigosa 62%, Hahn 33%

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles Times has endorsed City Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa in the May 17 mayoral run-off, saying the candidate has a "relish and intensity" for attacking the city's woes that incumbent Mayor James Hahn lacks. The Times also endorsed Villaraigosa in 2001, when the two candidates ran against each other in a tight race marked by attack ads that helped Hahn to a come-from-behind win. "Villaraigosa's drive, people skills and knack for coalition-building earned our endorsement in 2001. Given Hahn's lack of dynamism, those traits seem even more desirable four ho-hum years later," reads the editorial...

Miguel Contreras, the Los Angeles labor chief who rose from the ranks of Cesar Chavez's farm labor movement to head one of the most powerful unions in the nation, died Friday of an apparent heart attack, officials said. He was 53. Contreras, as executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, took control of the umbrella organization of unions and built it into a potent political force that today includes more than 300 affiliates and 800,000 members and wields enormous influence across Southern California. Details were sketchy about what occurred Friday, but officials said Contreras appeared to...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mayor James Hahn began airing his first TV ad of the runoff mayoral campaign Tuesday - a blistering attack on the character and trustworthiness of front-runner Antonio Villaraigosa. The 30-second spot, running on broadcast and cable stations, faults the city councilman for raising thousands of dollars from Florida contributors. Using photographs of newspaper headlines, the ad points out that the county district attorney is reviewing some of those donations. A shot of Villaraigosa appears briefly in the ad, in which he says, "As Mayor, I will lead by example." A narrator responds sarcastically, "The Villaraigosa example...

LOS ANGELES - Days after prosecutors began a preliminary inquiry into his fund-raising, mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa began airing a TV ad Monday that seeks to put Mayor James Hahn on the defensive over an ongoing corruption probe at City Hall. The 30-second spot covers familiar ground: Villaraigosa has been attacking Hahn for months over the ongoing investigation, in which prosecutors are looking into allegations that City Hall officials traded contracts for campaign donations. No administration officials have been charged. "Where will the investigation end?" a narrator in the ad asks. "Isn't it time for a change?" The ad appeared...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - District Attorney Steve Cooley said Friday his office was looking into questionable out-of-state donations to Antonio Villaraigosa, one day after the mayoral candidate announced he was returning $47,000 from workers of two Florida-based companies. "In response to extensive media coverage, I believe an inquiry is warranted and have instructed our Public Integrity Division to take the necessary first steps," Cooley said in a statement. There was no political motivation to the move, said Jane Robison, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. "His job is to enforce the law," she said, referring to Cooley. "He's here...

LOS ANGELES - Sen. John Kerry hasn't been on the campaign trail this spring with his friend Antonio Villaraigosa, but their relationship is paying off for the city's front-running mayoral candidate. Activists and major donors with ties to the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee have been making calls around the country to raise money for Villaraigosa, tapping into the senator's extensive national fundraising network. Their involvement is another sign that the Massachusetts senator could soon get personally involved in the race. He is expected to endorse Villaraigosa, one of his national campaign co-chairs in last year's presidential campaign, possibly as soon...

Poll: Villaraigosa Leads L.A. Mayor Race By Associated Press April 13, 2005, 5:06 AM EDT LOS ANGELES -- Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa has pulled ahead of Mayor James Hahn in the race to lead the nation's second-largest city, according to a Los Angeles Times poll. Voters would oust Hahn for Villaraigosa by a margin of 53 percent to 35 percent if the election were held today, according to a survey the newspaper published in Wednesday's editions. Twelve percent were undecided. The poll held few positive signs for Hahn, with nearly two-thirds of likely voters saying they believed his policies have left...

Analysis: 5 weeks to the 5/17/05 L.A. Mayor runoff election, (4/9/05 - 4/11/05) a rematch of the runoff election from 4 years ago, Antonio Villaraigosa leads incumbent James Hahn 2:1. Hahn leads only among Republicans and Conservatives.

The federal investigation of City Hall corruption will lead to a second indictment soon in connection with alleged overbilling of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power by the Fleishman-Hillard public-relations firm, Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam D. Kamenstein disclosed in court Monday. Kamenstein told U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess that there would be a superseding indictment, which would add one other individual as a defendant, in the 11-count wire-fraud case against John Stodder, a former senior vice president at Fleishman-Hillard. Kamenstein offered no other details beyond indicating that the indictment could come down before the May 17 runoff...

LOS ANGELES - Democrat Antonio Villaraigosa's mayoral campaign was endorsed Friday by former Mayor Richard Riordan, a Republican with close ties to the governor who could help Villaraigosa make inroads with the moderates and conservatives he needs to win. Riordan endorsed former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg less than two months ago, but Hertzberg was ousted in the primary last month. Villaraigosa was not his first choice, but Riordan, now the state education secretary, said the councilman was the clear pick over incumbent James Hahn. "What we need is somebody who is electric, somebody who is a leader, somebody who will...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The two candidates for mayor relentlessly attacked each other Monday in their first televised, one-on-one debate and wrangled over issues from trust to traffic in caustic and sometimes personal terms. Mayor James Hahn repeatedly questioned whether Angelenos could trust city Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa, depicting him as an indecisive, pandering leader with a record of damaging decisions in his days as Assembly speaker. "This campaign is about trust," Hahn said. Referring to Villaraigosa, he said bluntly, "People don't trust you." The councilman, in turn, said Hahn's City Hall was the most investigated administration in modern times, alluding...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Rep. Maxine Waters, one of the city's most prominent political voices, labeled Mayor James Hahn a failure Thursday and endorsed his rival in the May runoff, Councilman Antonio Villaraigosa. Hahn's campaign shrugged off the defection - Waters supported the mayor four years ago - but it came as the latest reminder of the incumbent's unsteady relationship with the black community. Hahn was elected with overwhelming black support but saw his popularity fade after the ouster of the city's black police chief, Bernard Parks. With Villaraigosa at her side at a Wilshire district hotel, Waters, who is...

Hahn, Villaraigosa to fight rematch in LA mayoral runoff - By MICHAEL R. BLOOD, Associated Press Writer Wednesday, March 9, 2005 (03-09) 10:47 PST Los Angeles (AP) -- Incumbent Mayor James Hahn and Antonio Villaraigosa will fight for leadership of the nation's second-largest city in a May runoff after mayoral candidate Bob Hertzberg conceded defeat Wednesday, "I called Mayor Hahn this morning and congratulated him on his victory," Hertzberg said during a morning news conference. Nearly 24,000 absentee and other ballots remained to be counted, but Hertzberg trailed by Hahn by 5,800 votes, a margin his campaign concluded was too...

LOS ANGELES - A Hispanic city councilman broke out of a crowded field of mayoral candidates early Wednesday, capturing one of two spots for a scheduled May runoff. The vulnerable incumbent James Hahn was battling for the other slot. With city officials counting votes slowly, Antonio Villaraigosa’s win put him within striking distance of becoming the first Hispanic to win City Hall in more than a century. Mayor James Hahn, in danger of losing his job despite a drop in crime and a growing economy during his first four years in office, was battling a third Democrat, Bob Hertzberg, for...

Ahead of Tuesday vote, two fellow Democrats gain. Mayor James Hahn sought re-election Tuesday in a wide-open race in which his biggest vulnerabilities were corruption allegations at City Hall and his own drab image in the most star-studded city in America. Twelve candidates were on the ballot in the nonpartisan contest, but polls showed the race had narrowed to Hahn and two fellow Democrats. No candidate was expected to receive the 50 percent needed to win outright, meaning a runoff May 17 between the top two vote-getters. Hahn, whose family has been active in Los Angeles politics since the 1940s,...

The race for mayor of America's second-largest city is down to the wire and after months of tough campaigning, the three leading candidates are in a virtual dead heat. So with his career on the line, the incumbent, Mayor James Hahn, put everything into his closing swings at the final debate this week: "If you want leadership in this city, I'm your guy!" In the most recent Los Angeles Times poll, Villaraigosa, 52, a former state Assembly speaker and labor organizer who narrowly lost to Hahn four years ago, was the choice of 24 percent. He was followed by Hertzberg,...

Los Angeles - With his job on the line, Mayor James Hahn grappled with his four major rivals Monday over issues from illegal immigration to transportation to gang violence in their final televised debate before next week's primary election. As he has throughout the campaign, Hahn faced a steady stream of criticism from his challengers, who described Los Angeles as a city adrift where little has been done to address urban problems from gridlock to troubled schools to corruption allegations at City Hall. But Hahn, who has anchored his campaign to a falling crime rate, said changing leadership would slow...

LOS ANGELES - Outrage over alleged police brutality is shaking up a wide-open contest for City Hall in which an influential, if relatively small, black vote could determine whether Mayor James Hahn keeps his job. The death of 13-year-old Devin Brown, who was shot by police after driving a stolen car into an LAPD cruiser, galled black residents who see the killing as the latest example of Police Department abuse. The Feb. 6 shooting came three days after prosecutors declined to file charges against an officer who was videotaped hammering black car-theft suspect Stanley Miller with a metal flashlight -...

LOS ANGELES - Police Chief William Bratton on Friday proposed a new policy that would ban officers from firing at moving vehicles, less than a week after the fatal police shooting of a 13-year-old suspected car thief. The change would prohibit officers from firing at a moving vehicle "unless the officer or another person is being threatened with deadly force by means other than the moving vehicle," Bratton said in a memo to police commissioners. He asked the civilian Police Commission to approve the policy at its meeting Tuesday. Police departments in major cities, including Boston, Cincinnati and Detroit, in...

The Los Angeles Ethics Commission on Tuesday imposed a record $270,000 fine against Westside developer Mark Alan Abrams after the panel concluded that he hatched a scheme to launder political contributions to benefit James K. Hahn's 2001 mayoral campaign and the campaigns of two Hahn allies. The fine is the largest penalty assessed against an individual by the ethics panel in its 15-year history. "The actions of Mr. Abrams here really strike at the heart of democracy," said Gil Garcetti, president of the Ethics Commission. "It's simply not right." No one has said that Hahn knew the contributions were tainted,...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Mayor James K. Hahn has issued an order to clarify ethical standards for city commissioners and ensure that contracts are awarded through a competitive bidding process, following recommendations by a panel that reviewed allegations of pay-to-play city contracting. "I will accept nothing less than assuring that public funds are being spent in the best interest of Los Angeles residents," Hahn said during a news conference Friday to announce the order. Hahn, who is in a tight race for re-election, issued the order days after the panel issued its report. The mayor established the panel on the...

Public relations bills submitted to the Port of Los Angeles by a Fleishman-Hillard executive who is now Mayor James Hahn's press secretary were marked up by more than $1,700 in 2003 without documentation that extra work was done, according to records and interviews. Shannon Murphy, who left the firm less than two months later to replace Matt Middlebrook, who joined Fleishman-Hillard, declined to be interviewed but said in a statement that the handwritten additions to her billing statements were "outrageous." A company official said the "write-ups" lacked supporting documentation that the extra work was ever performed. The paperwork appears to...

Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn has raised at least $11,000 for a legal-defense fund in response to investigations of "pay-to-play" contracting in his administration -- a sign, his opponents said, that the mayor is deeply worried about the joint local and federal probes. Hahn established the fund on Nov. 18 without fanfare and raised $1,000 each from 11 donors through Dec. 31, according to City Ethics Commission records. In creating the fund, Hahn is tapping many of the same donors who have contributed to a separate legal-defense account to pay a $53,523 fine over violations in his 2001 mayoral campaign....

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Having backed the loser over a fellow Democrat the last time, the county Democratic Party is pondering again which way to throw its support in the March 8 mayoral election primary. Although Los Angeles elections are nonpartisan, the endorsement brings financial support from the party as well as symbolic weight in a heavily Democratic city. But it is no guarantee of success, as the 2001 election showed when the party's anointed candidate, former state Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, lost in a runoff to City Attorney James Hahn. The current primary pits Hahn, now the mayor, against...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Battling for re-election, Mayor Jim Hahn will appear for the second time with his four major rivals Tuesday in a debate that will focus on air quality and other environmental issues facing the city. The first face-off on Dec. 2 turned into a roundtable on allegations of corruption in the Hahn administration, while the mayor promoted his record on public safety and declared, "I've always been about honesty." Tuesday's taped debate, sponsored by the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters, could provide a respite for Hahn from questions about suspect fund-raising and other accusations of ethical...

The Los Angeles County district attorney's office has begun a review of tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions funneled to Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn and two allies by developers allegedly at the center of a massive mortgage fraud scheme. Prosecutors are trying to determine the source of approximately $30,000 in donations made by associates of Mark Alan Abrams and Charles Elliott Fitzgerald, partners in a Beverly Hills real estate network that collapsed last year in financial scandal. The inquiry follows Times reports about more than $300,000 in cash directed to various Hahn causes by Abrams and...

It is high opera, a classic tale of ambition, betrayal, revenge and perhaps even a little lust and greed. It has to be. Otherwise, who would care about the campaign for mayor of Los Angeles? Especially now, in December, when voters here are just recovering from the presidential elections and the mayoral race has yet to shift into high gear. The election is March 8, when 19 challengers — four of whom reporters have labeled "serious" because we know them and they have a lot of money — will try to unseat Mayor James Hahn. They are state Senator Richard...

The public corruption scandal that surrounds Mayor James Hahn and taints City Hall gets uglier by the day. In the latest development, it appears that disgraced P.R. giant Fleishman-Hillard tried to bill the city's Department of Water and Power for the cost of a political fund-raiser for then-City Councilman Nick Pacheco, who was fighting for his political life against Mayor James Hahn's archenemy Antonio Villaraigosa. We write "appears" because, like the rest of this saga, the details are murky. And that's why the citizens of Los Angeles need a full accounting and explanation -- in advance of the March mayoral...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - The four major candidates seeking to oust Mayor James Hahn depicted his administration Thursday as paralyzed by ethical conflicts and lapses, and alleged he stood by while campaign contributions and favoritism opened the doors to City Hall. Hahn largely avoided addressing ongoing investigations that have placed a cloud over his administration, but argued in an hour-long debate that he was leading the city toward a brighter, safer future. Voters "know who Jim Hahn is. I've always been about honesty," Hahn responded. In making the case against giving Hahn another four-year term, his rivals argued that new...

In addition to DWP's contract with Fleishman-Hillard, Mayor James Hahn used the harbor and airport department contracts with the P.R. firm to strategize and publicize himself and his administration, records show. A review of invoices City Controller Laura Chick turned over to the City Attorney's Office show Fleishman-Hillard billed Los Angeles World Airports and the Port of Los Angeles thousands of dollars for publicizing events that showcased the mayor. Chick has accused the firm of overbilling the Department of Water and Power $4.2 million over a six-year period. She has not specifically looked at billings at the other agencies. Both...

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A top city official sharply criticized Mayor James K. Hahn following reports that a public relations company billed the city's Department of Water and Power thousands of dollars for work done on his behalf. City Controller Laura Chick said it was a "very sad day for the city" after the Los Angeles Times reported that Fleishman-Hillard charged the utility more than $400,000 to arrange news conferences and press releases featuring Hahn and to provide other publicity services to the mayor. "The ratepayers of Los Angeles were used to fund a public relations team for the mayor,"...