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LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A 32-year veteran who helped clean up a corruption-plagued division of the Los Angeles Police Department was unveiled Wednesday as the city's new top cop. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced the appointment of deputy chief Charlie Beck as head of the LAPD following the decision of chief William Bratton to resign earlier this year. Villaraigosa said Beck was "the right man to lead the Los Angeles Police Department at the right time." "He's a man of character and integrity. He's a police officer who is tough on crime, and he's a leader with deep respect...

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's top executive, H. David Nahai, has resigned from the agency effective immediately, the mayor's office announced this morning. In a letter to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Nahai said he was leaving to take a position as an advisor to former President Clinton's climate initiative. Nahai had served two years as a DWP commissioner before Villaraigosa elevated him to the post of chief executive and general manager in 2007. Ever since, he had been under fire from an array of forces. He drew strong criticism from the head of the powerful International Brotherhood of...

President Obama gave a corker of a campaign speech yesterday at the AFL-CIO convention in Pittsburgh, promising to deliver on his promise to ease the rules for union organizing. If you want to know what this means in action, consider the current Teamsters play to control California ports. The dispute concerns the Clean Truck Program announced in 2007 by the Port of Los Angeles to ban the dirtiest trucks from carrying port cargo. L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a former union organizer, seized on the program as an opportunity to help his Teamster friends. Current law doesn't let the Teamsters organize...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- apparently a heavy sleeper -- was on the defensive Wednesday about why he's been violating the city's watering law. At a news conference celebrating the city's reduction in water use, the mayor said his home's sprinklers were in use during illegal times because of a glitch in the system. "Thank you for alerting me to this issue," Villaraigosa said Wednesday. The mayor told NBC4's Joel Grover that he was unable to hear the sprinklers because he's a heavy sleeper.

One of the nation’s largest and most troubled school districts finally got desperate enough to try something new to rescue its schools: private-sector competition. The Los Angeles Unified School District approved a plan to turn 250 of its schools to the private sector for management as charter schools, after winning a battle with the teachers union. Union officials threatened to take the school district to court, while Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa practically dared them to try

Villaraigosa joins rally in support of schools resolution August 25, 2009 |  2:12 pm Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa added his voice to a rally in support of a plan to give charter schools access to 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Villaraigosa spoke outside district headquarters before a crowd of at least 2,000 charter-school parents and supporters who drove or were bused in for the occasion. Most wore light blue shirts emblazoned with the slogan: “My Child, My Choice.”“We’re here today to stand up for our children,” Villaraigosa...

It was a town hall, certainly, but without the sense of chaos, the hint of danger, that we've come to associate with the words "town hall" in recent weeks. No gun-toting patriots, no dark portents of tyranny. No energy, in fact, at least not at the start of things. It was a blazing July morning, a Saturday, and several hundred people were clustered around tables in a subterranean conference room at USC. They were talking about overthrowing the government, and trying to stay awake. It was taking awhile for the coffee to kick in. ... "A small group of extremists...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's chief counsel, Thomas Saenz, has been tapped to become president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the organization announced Tuesday. Saenz has been one of Villaraigosa's closest advisors since taking the post in August 2005, recently serving as the mayor's lead representative in negotiations with city labor unions over salary and benefit concessions to help close the city's $530-million budget gap. And he helped to successfully defend a city ordinance that required hotels near Los Angeles International Airport to pay a "living wage" to workers. Saenz also was one...

Los Angeles will end use of coal-fired powerThu Jul 2, 2009 4:33pm EDT By Bernie Woodall LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Los Angeles will eliminate the use of electricity made from coal by 2020, replacing it with power from cleaner renewable energy sources, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. Consumers of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the largest city-owned utility in the United States with 1.45 million electricity customers, will see higher power bills in the fight against climate change, he added in his inaugural speech for his second four-year term as mayor on Wednesday. California does not have any...

Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced that he will not running for governor of California, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this afternoon. He said he made up his decision “for a long time” but waited until now to make an official announcement. “I can’t leave this city in the middle of a crisis. This was an agonizing decision," Villaraigosa said. “I was re-elected by the people of the city, they’ve given me the honor of a second term. I feel compelled to complete the promise I made to them.” In 2005, Villaraigosa became the first Hispanic mayor of...

Back in the day Angelenos seemed to have a preference for nondescript business-like mayors who kept a relatively low profile and were soft spoken such as Mayors Jim Hahn, Richard Riordan, and Tom Bradley. Now we're stuck with a narcissistic, egomaniac, skirt chasing, ambitious little caudillo who with a penchant for young reporters and news anchors. His first fling was with a young hot tamale reporter working for a Spanish language television station. Mirthala Salinas's job was to cover the mayor. She certainly did. The little caudillo's fling with her cost him his marriage. His wife forgave him once one...

A Los Angeles television reporter is dating Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, about two years after his extramarital affair with another local newscaster led to the breakup of his 20-year marriage. KTLA-TV Channel 5 reporter Lu Parker, a former Miss U.S.A., has been dating Villaraigosa since March, station officials confirmed Monday. On Sunday, while working as a weekend anchor, Parker announced a story about the likelihood of Villaraigosa running for governor in 2010. "Now that we're aware of the relationship, she will no longer be covering local politics," said KTLA-TV news director Jason Ball, who defended the journalist's ethics but declined to...

FROM the time we are little kids and see that first big red "F" scrawled across the top of a quiz, we try to steer clear of failure. Failure is personal - which is why Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa must be very unhappy these days. A trip to the grocery store or even his beloved LAX newsstands will be joyless for the entire month of June, thanks to Ed Leibowitz and those killjoys at Los Angeles Magazine. "Failure" is the headline plastered on the cover of the latest issue. Right there in big letters across the mayor's body, an epitaph to...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) ― Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has a message for Sacramento: hands off my dough. The mayor plans a high- profile lobbying trip to the state capitol Tuesday to protest potential confiscation of local government money by the nearly-bankrupt state government. Villaraigosa will be joined by mayors Jerry Sanders of San Diego and Miguel Pulido of Santa Ana. Villaraigosa's office said Monday that one state proposal to partly fill a $21.3 billion budget deficit would divert 8 percent of local government revenues to the state, which would reduce the Los Angeles general fund by $68 million. The...

If Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa does decide to run for governor - as many expect he will - he won't be using the cover of the latest issue of Los Angeles Magazine for his campaign launch. Emblazoned across a cover photo of a nattily dressed Villaraigosa is a giant headline: "Failure."

Villaraigosa calls on City Council to declare a fiscal emergency In light of L.A.'s $529-million budget deficit, the mayor seeks the authority to layoff and furlough thousands of city workers. The council is to consider the matter later this week. By Phil Willon May 12, 2009 With Los Angeles facing a $529-million budget deficit, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday urged the City Council to declare a fiscal emergency that would grant him the authority to layoff and furlough thousands of city workers. The request signals a more hard-line tack by the mayor to win salary and benefit concessions from the...

Posted: 05/12/2009 08:20:23 PM PDT Warning that Los Angeles could run out of cash this winter, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa asked the City Council on Tuesday to declare a state of fiscal emergency, which would allow the city to impose furloughs and layoffs on its 40,000-member work force without union consent. The move, believed to be unprecedented in the city's history, comes as Los Angeles struggles to close a $530 million deficit in the mayor's proposed $7 billion budget. The gap could grow to $1 billion next year. "The gravity of the fiscal emergency that we face is enormous," Villaraigosa wrote...

Two of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's appointees to a city pension board resigned today, one month after receiving a letter from the Securities and Exchange Commission asking them to identify income they had received from companies doing business with their agency. Sean Harrigan and Elliott Broidy, two members of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions board, were asked to provide information to the SEC, which is investigating allegations of kickbacks at a New York state pension fund. Appearing at today's board meeting, Harrigan said the inquiry had created "a frenzy of media activity" that had placed him in...

There is a unique dance that always surrounds the Los Angeles city budget. But this year it appears to be one where the music is off-key and the dancers are bumping into one another. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa released his $7.04 billion budget on April 20 and it was immediately branded as an "I hope" budget as in: "I hope the unions will agree to cutbacks. I hope revenues come in as projected. I hope for an improving economy." For instance, the mayor's plan to bring in $80 million from public-private partnerships is running into trouble with the City Council's Budget...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a partnership Wednesday with three local universities aimed at positioning the city to compete for hundreds of thousands of federal dollars for clean technology research and a proposed state institute to study climate change. The partnership with Caltech, UCLA and USC is part of the agenda Villaraigosa outlined in his State of the City speech Tuesday to lure and retain companies that focus on green endeavors such as solar, wind, battery and hydrogen fuel cell technologies. Villaraigosa said the CleanTech LA alliance, which also includes the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, Los Angeles Business...

Georges Marciano, a co-founder of the Guess clothing empire, is the latest person seeking to become governor of California. The one-time fashion magnate's paperwork was recorded on Monday with the secretary of state's office, allowing him to run as an independent in 2010, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is termed out. The 62-year-old Beverly Hills resident plans to campaign on a platform that focuses on exposing and eliminating political corruption and putting "the power of government back in the people's hands," said his publicist, Rod Harrell. "He doesn't really want to be tied into the same old good-old-boys network," Harrell said....

Arguing that the short-term pain of increased taxes is worth the long-term gain of permanent budget reform, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger picked up some major Los Angeles endorsements for a raft of ballot propositions designed to rescue state finances. "One of the most important things on issues is to get local political leaders, law enforcement leaders and business leaders to support us," Schwarzenegger said at a news conference staged at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Sheriff Lee Baca and Chamber President Gary Toebben announced their support for the six measures on the May 19 special election...

Unemployment in California may be at its highest since 1983, but there are jobs with the state Legislature for the well-connected. Yolie Flores Aguilar, a longtime friend and political ally of some powerful California Democrats, last year supplemented her income as vice president of the Los Angeles school board with more than $32,000 as a consultant assigned to a state Senate committee that, during her tenure, did not meet or release any reports. State Sen. Rod Wright (D-Inglewood) was paid at least $27,900 by the state Senate last year for miscellaneous tasks as he was campaigning for his current job....

The solar energy ballot measure known as Measure B went down to defeat Thursday as Los Angeles election officials finished their count of the remaining 49,000 mail-in, provisional and damaged ballots. Sixteen days after the election, city officials announced that Measure B had fallen short of a majority -- with 50.5% of voters opposing the plan and 49.5% in favor of it. The final count left Measure B trailing by 2,644 votes. The defeat dealt a blow to the hopes of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had spent $145,000 from a campaign committee on behalf of the measure and appeared in...

Carrying a wish list for more federal funding and a message about the economic clout of Southern California, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and 230 business and civic leaders will launch a lobbying assault today on Washington, D.C. Leading the Access Washington trip taken annually by the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, Villaraigosa plans to use his access to the Obama administration to push for a bigger chunk of the federal economic stimulus package. Villaraigosa has traveled to the nation's capital three other times in the last months to meet with federal officials about funding for Los Angeles. "The mayor is...

LOS ANGELES -- The mayor of Los Angeles easily won re-election after a bumpy first term in the nation's second-largest city, fueling speculation that he will be among contenders next year to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the first Hispanic mayor in more than a century, was rewarded Tuesday with a second, four-year trip to City Hall despite an uneven first term that saw the breakup of his marriage and the defeat of his signature plan to reform city schools.

Eve of Justice Candlelight Demonstrations Planned for Prop 8 This Wednesday, March 4th, Eve of Justice will hold candlelight demonstrations in cities across the state of California in solidarity against the passing of Proposition 8. The event will fall on the evening before the California Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the validity of Prop 8. In Los Angeles, the demonstration will be held at 5:30 PM on Olvera Street, Downtown LA. MC’s will be Alec Mapa (Ugly Betty) and Lisa Powell. Also expected to attend is Jenny Pizer of Lambda Legal, who will be arguing before the Supreme Court...

This just in: The Los Angeles Daily Journal is reporting that President Obama has tapped Thomas Saenz to head the civil rights division at the Department of Justice. Saenz, 42, the former vice president of litigation for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in Los Angeles, is currently serving as counsel to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. ... Civil rights attorneys and academics in southern California praised the choice. “I don’t think the president or attorney general could make a better selection,” said Mark Rosenbaum, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California. “He’s a throwback to the...

Mayoral challengers attack incumbent Villaraigosa By Jerry Berrios, Staff Writer Updated: 02/23/2009 05:29:15 AM PST TUJUNGA - As election season winds down, five of the nine candidates hoping to dethrone Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa took some jabs at the well-financed incumbent at a mayoral forum in Tujunga Sunday afternoon. Sunday's forum was yet another debate at which the mayor was a no-show. During a recent editorial board meeting with the Daily News, Villaraigosa said his campaign would focus on his achievements and he would not debate the mayoral challengers. On Sunday morning, Villaraigosa did attend a meeting of San Fernando...

Evangelical minister Rick Warren brought a message of unity and civility to some 1,400 people who attended the city's annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast on Saturday, avoiding mention of his opposition to gay marriage and abortion. Warren, pastor of Orange County's Saddleback Church and author of the best-selling "The Purpose Driven Life," acknowledged that "sometimes I'm a little controversial." But as in his recent invocation at President Barack Obama's inauguration, he preached on the universal themes of God's love and service to the poor. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was less circumspect, acknowledging his support of gay marriage and "a woman's right to...

When members of the Los Angeles City Council agreed last month to put an ambitious solar energy plan on the March 3 ballot, they talked effusively about their desire for cleaner air and "green" technology jobs -- the kind that could boost the economy during a recession. What they didn't discuss was an analysis by a city-hired consulting firm that called the solar plan "extremely risky" and considerably more expensive than was being portrayed by the Department of Water and Power. Measure B, which calls for unionized DWP workers to install solar panels on rooftops and parking lots across the...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled an ambitious long-range plan Monday for securing enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city's energy needs by 2020, a move aimed at making L.A. a hub of the solar-energy industry. Appearing at a South Los Angeles manufacturing plant where solar panels are made, Villaraigosa said the initiative will help the Department of Water and Power wean itself off of fossil fuels -- natural gas and coal -- as part of the effort to address global warming. The plan calls for enough solar panels to produce 1,280 megawatts of power, a goal that...

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is in Chicago today to participate in a meeting of President-elect Barack Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board. Villaraigosa is one of 17 board members. Others include Warren Buffet, former Commerce Secretary William Daley, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Penny Pritzker, CEO of Classic Residence by Hyatt. Villaraigosa's office was unable to provide other details of the trip, including when he will return to Los Angeles, and why he was picked for an economic advisory board. Last week, the Los Angeles mayor was in New Mexico campaigning on behalf of Obama, which was...

L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa and City Councilman Eric Garcetti have made a stop in Century City because the Watt Plaza has put in a bunch of waterless urinals.

ACORN activists at the side of L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (at lectern) yesterday * * * * * The vote fraud factory known as ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) is apparently supporting Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s crazy push for $5 billion in so-called affordable housing. (See above photo from yesterday which shows the mayor surrounded by ACORN activists wearing red shirts bearing the ACORN logo.) As the nation stares into the economic abyss precisely because of housing-related tomfoolery, Villaraigosa’s plan calls for $1 billion in government to be spent as part of the $5 billion...

LOS ANGELES MIGHT BE in the middle of a housing crisis, suffering the nation’s highest fuel costs and plummeting in its ranking as a center of global commerce. But there’s a place in L.A. immune from turmoil, where incomes have swollen by double digits, homeownership has skyrocketed and the grass is green. It’s a land of untapped wealth. At least, those were the conclusions of the D.C.-based nonprofit Social Compact, whose report, “Los Angeles DrillDown,” studied nine heavily minority neighborhoods, several of which are economically downtrodden: Boyle Heights, Central City East, Crenshaw/Baldwin Hills, Hyde Park, Jefferson Park, Leimert Park, Vernon...

Los Angeles Unified School District officials are considering asking voters to approve a $7 billion bond measure in November, more than twice as big as previously discussed and nearly half of it set aside for unspecified future projects. LAUSD's board is set to vote Thursday on whether to support the bond measure, which allocates more than $3.2 billion for future "repair and safety," "modernization, repair and technology," "green technology" and to "attract, retain and graduate more students," according to a draft summary of the bond funding distribution. Meanwhile, district and charter officials are wrangling over exactly how much charter schools...

n 2005, I asked Angelenos to join me in re-imagining their city as a dynamic world capital defined by its flexibility and mobility, not by traffic and smog. I challenged them to imagine communities connected not by bigger, wider highways but by a real network of public transit options -- rapid buses, trains and subway lines -- connecting every neighborhood in our county's 88 cities. I asked them to imagine cleaner and greener neighborhoods where we each pitch in to combat global warming and create a more sustainable city. Today, when I take the helm as chairman of the Metropolitan...

Two years ago, newly elected Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa vowed to put 1,000 more cops on the city's dangerous streets and proposed to raise trash collection fees to provide the money. "Every new dollar residents pay for trash pickup," the mayor promised in a city news release, "will be used to put more officers on the streets." Residential trash collection was boosted from $11 a month to $26. The new fees generated $137 million, but the city hired only about 400 more cops, according to a recent report from City Controller Laura Chick, and they cost about $42 million....

Antonio Villaraigosa tells attendees that the Democratic candidate is the best hope for implementing humane immigration reform. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, speaking Saturday to the nation's largest Latino civil rights organization, urged its members to campaign hard for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, saying the presumptive nominee was their best hope for reforming federal immigration policies. He said 12 million illegal immigrants can be brought "out of the shadows and into the light, and onto the tax rolls by electing Barack Obama."

Former South Bay lawmaker considers run at governorship SACRAMENTO - Former South Bay Republican congressman Tom Campbell - a fiscal conservative, social moderate and respected academic who twice before unsuccessfully sought statewide office, is eyeing a possible run in 2010 to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Campbell, 55, filed papers last week to form an "exploratory committee" for governor, which allows him to begin raising money for a potential bid. He joins two other GOP moderates from Silicon Valley - state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and former eBay chief Meg Whitman - among Republicans who have expressed interest in running. On...

Villaraigosa has an impressive list of Hollywood supporters: Casey Wasserman (grandson of the legendary Lew Wasserman); Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger; HBO Films President Colin Callender; media mogul Haim Saban; Laker great Magic Johnson; 20th Century Fox Co-Chairman Jim Gianopulos; director-producer Jerry Zucker; syndicated television mogul Michael King; writer-TV producers Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason;superagent Patrick Whitesell; DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg; William Morris head Jim Wiatt; News Corp. President Peter Chernin. So far no other major candidate has declared, but there other people thinking about running -- namely billionaire mall magnate Rick Caruso. When reached by cellphone this...

In officiating at the June 17 “marriage” of the same lesbian couple he had joined in dubious wedlock four years ago, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom beat Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the punch. But Villaraigosa, like Newsom a potential contender for the Democratic nomination for governor, was not to be bested. On June 23, Villaraigosa united Hollywood producer Bruce Cohen with his five-year-long male companion, art consultant Gabriel Catone. And, the previous week, the Los Angeles mayor voiced his warm support for legalized same-sex marriage. "The California electorate is coming into a new age realizing that [gay] marriage...

Gay Pride Parade to Bring Out Hundreds of Thousands June 7, 2008, 12:42 PM PDT WEST HOLLYWOOD -- More than 400,000 people are expected to line Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood Sunday for the 38th annual LA Pride Parade, which celebrates the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities. The parade will begin at 11 a.m. at Crescent Heights Boulevard and head west to Robertson Boulevard. It will feature more than 125 entries, including floats, bands, marching community advocacy groups and convertibles with honored guests, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Radio talk show host Stephanie Miller will serve as grand marshal....

The mayor's proposals also include seizing cars used in gang activity and helping landlords evict people who illegally possess guns and ammunition. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Thursday unveiled plans to target gangs and guns -- including confiscating cars used in gang-related crimes -- with a series of new city ordinances. The mayor proposed giving landlords the power to evict tenants convicted of using and possessing illegal weapons and ammunition. And he promised to push other new laws to regulate the purchase of ammunition and storage of weapons. The proposed ordinances include banning .50-caliber, military-style ammunition; licensing ammunition vendors;...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa hailed the California Supreme Court decision today, saying he would officiate over as many same-sex weddings as possible. The mayor stood by leaders of the gay and lesbian community today, calling the high-court's decision a victory for California.

MIDI - DRINK, DRINK, DRINK

LOS ANGELES — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the Department of Water and Power are expected to announce on May 15 a revised water use and management plan for this city that includes using recycled wastewater to recharge drinking water aquifers, according to a May 15 Los Angeles Times article. The new plan allocates about $1 billion for the proposed reclamation system, also known as “toilet-to-tap” or “sewer-to-spigot.” The city would recycle about 4.9 billion gallons of treated wastewater to drinking standards by 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported on May 15. Villaraigosa, who less than a decade ago opposed such...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is off his rocker. This weekend residents of Los Angeles waited with bated breath to hear the State of the City Speech from the mayor. Most Angelenos looked forward to seeing the Mayor once again since it had been while: in the wake of a sex scandal he had all but permanently relocated to the Hillary Clinton campaign bus for the last year and a half. Most residents already knew the State of the City: the City of Angels had become a much harder, more violent place what with the recent murder of Jamiel Shaw...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa plans to eliminate one of the city's most established anti-gang programs, shifting the money into 12 "Gang Reduction Zones" that would target sections of the city where children are at greatest risk, a high-level aide said today. Deputy Mayor Jeff Carr said the L.A. Bridges program -- L.A. Bridges I, which works to keep kids from joining gangs, and L.A. Bridges II, which tries to get youths out of gangs -- would be phased out by Dec. 31. The mayor's strategy will be mapped in detail late this afternoon, when he gives his annual state...