Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – A prominent Los Angeles-based Muslim activist has been jailed for four years after pleading guilty to attempting to bribe a witness, prosecutors said Tuesday. Najee Ali, who heads the community group Project Islamic HOPE (Helping Oppressed People Everywhere), was sentenced on Monday after he admitted an attempt to interfere with a witness in a court case involving his daughter. A spokeswoman for Los Angeles County District Attorney said in normal circumstances Ali would have received a two-year sentence but saw his term doubled because he had a prior conviction for armed robbery in 1992.

San Francisco FBI agents have begun a criminal investigation of Los Angeles City Attorney Rockard "Rocky" Delgadillo, a one-time rising star of California politics whose career stalled after a series of admitted ethical lapses. Sources familiar with the FBI investigation said agents recently went to Los Angeles to conduct interviews in what appears to be a wide-ranging probe of Delgadillo, 48, a moderate Democrat now in his second four-year term. The probe began after Delgadillo was criticized for allegedly using city resources for personal benefit. Delgadillo admitted last year that he had his city-owned SUV repaired at taxpayers' expense after...

...Ask him about basic economics... The papers listed all the new regulations that will take affect when the mayor signs the new water legislation. It includes: The ban on the use of water on hard surfaces, such as sidewalks (except for water broom) The ban on the serving of water to customers in eating establishments, unless water is requested. A limit on outdoor watering to 15 minutes per water station. The ban on washing cars without shut off mechanisms on the hose. The banning on watering of large landscape areas that do not have rain sensors. The requirement that hotels...

Hearing from dozens of residents fed up with crimes committed by gang members who are illegal immigrants, the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday asked Sheriff Lee Baca to prioritize and consider expanding a controversial inmate deportation program. Since the program started about two years ago, sheriff's officials trained by federal agents to screen for illegal immigrants in the jails have interviewed more than 20,000 inmates and referred more than 11,000 to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for possible deportation. Under the Tuesday motion, the board asked Baca to direct the 12 custody assistants conducting immigration interviews to give the...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Whether you want to see the multi-million dollar home of a Hollywood celebrity or the scene of an infamous crime, Los Angeles has a guided tour to suit almost every taste. But away from the well-worn tourist routes of Beverly Hills and Hollywood, Robert Cabrales is preparing to take a bus-load of sightseers on a journey that he says aims to expose the city's "dirty little secrets". Organized by the advocacy group Communities for a Better Environment (CBECAL), the "Toxic Tour" takes eco-tourists through the sights and smells of some of Los Angeles' most notorious environmental...

Big-box, home-improvement stores in Los Angeles will have to set aside space for day laborers under an ordinance passed by the City Council on Wednesday... The shelters must be easily accessible and include drinking water, bathrooms, tables, seating and trashcans. The stores may be required to work with Los Angeles police in developing a security plan, according to the unanimous vote by the 15-member lawmaking body...

A NEW weapon in the battle against obesity was rolled out last month when the Los Angeles City Council decided to stop new fast food restaurants from opening in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. Even in a country where a third of the schoolchildren are overweight or obese, the yearlong moratorium raises questions about when eating one style of food stops being a personal choice and becomes a public health concern. The Sisyphean struggle against poor diets has included booting soda from schools, banning trans fat and, more recently, sending New Yorkers into dietary sticker shock with a law...

"It is absolutely well known that if you support a Republican you are going to find it harder to find work and the reason is simple," Hollywood comedian Evan Sayet explained to me seated at an outside table at one of the many Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf establishments that dot Los Angeles. "Dennis Prager says that Republicans think that Democrats are stupid. Democrats think Republicans are evil. I can work with stupid. If you are good at your job and you are stupid that is one thing. But I can't work with evil. And liberals believe that if you...

Why L.A. Should Be Pushed Into The Sea August 8, 2008 - by Richard Miniter In the 1950s, the most puritanical place in America was somewhere in Kansas. Today it is Los Angeles. Exhibit A: A proposal by the L.A. city council to ban smoking outdoors. Outdoors. Say on a patio or hotel balcony. Puritans are people who want to live according to a strict moral code of their own devising and want to make you live their way too. The first round of Puritans murdered their king, Charles I, and ignited the English Civil War, which left many cities...

The TERRY ANDERSON SHOW.. Articulating the Popular Rage! Sundays - 12-1 AM EDT, 11-12 PM CDT, 10-11 PM MDT, 9-10 PM PDT KRLA - 870 AM - Los Angeles -- KDWN - 720 - Las Vegas -- KFNX - 1100 - Phoenix "If You Ain't Mad, You Ain't Payin' Attention!" Call-In Number - (866) 870-5752 Don't miss Terry's August 3rd show with guest ... LILLIAN GETER - Ms. Geter is... you guessed it... yet another victim... Can you guess WHO the most Horriblest Clown of the Week is? Listen to Terry online ... http://krla870.townhall.com/ http://www.republicbroadcasting.org/index.php?cmd=listenlive

I am looking for a freeper in the LA area who would be willing help me out. I received a latter in the mail from the LA Police Department. They have recovered a firearm that was stolen from me over a decade ago. They would like to return it to me however there is a catch. I, or my "agent," has to pick up the firearm at a LA police station. They will dispose of the firearm at the end of October if I do not pick it up before then. My problem is that I live is San Jose...

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 -- Companies that open large home-improvement stores in Los Angeles would have to set aside space for day laborers under an ordinance unanimously approved today by a City Council committee." "If passed, the ordinance would require new home improvement stores that are 100,000 square feet or larger, or any building or structure where 250,000 square feet or more of warehouse floor area is added, to set aside space for day laborers seeking employment from customers." "The shelters would have to be easily accessible and equipped with drinking water, bathrooms, tables with seating and trash facilities." "Bethany Leal with...

Just minutes before 2:30 p.d.t. a fire broke out above Travel Town the train location of the park. Located half way up the mountain, the fire continues to grow as of this writing. It appears to have spread to several acres at this point, but I am unable to see it up close. Photos and video to follow...

An off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy was gunned down outside his house at sunrise today in the gang-ridden Cypress Park area of Los Angeles, authorities said. Deputy Juan Escalante, 27, was a sheriff's deputy for two-and-a-half years, and was assigned to the county's Men's Central Jail, Los Angeles Police said. Escalante was found by his wife and his mother after a car passed by his house, and someone inside the vehicle fired about five shots, at 5:40 a.m., witnesses said. Police Chief William Bratton and Sheriff Lee Baca rushed to the scene, and Baca called this "a difficult day."...

A Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy gunned down Saturday outside his boyhood home in Cypress Park had been assigned to guard the most dangerous inmates in the county, including members of the notorious Mexican Mafia gang, authorities said Sunday. Los Angeles police and sheriff's officials said the prospect that Deputy Juan Abel Escalante was killed because of his work at the jail remained one of three possible motives. Investigators were also considering the possibility that neighborhood gang violence or a personal grudge were behind the killing. As of right now, all of those possibilities are on the table," said Los...

Authorities are investigating the shooting death of an off-duty sheriff's deputy at sunrise today in the gang-ridden Cypress Park area of Los Angeles, authorities said. Police chief William Bratton and sheriff Lee Baca rushed to the scene, and Baca called this "a difficult day." Baca said "we know that the public at large is grieving the loss of a deputy sheriff, a new deputy sheriff who was in the department for just two years, working at our central jail." The name of the slain deputy sheriff has not been released, although neighbors told Los Angeles station KNX that the victim's...

WEST COVINA - Two men believed to be Mexican federal police officers were arrested along with two others Wednesday on suspicion of being part of a narcotics ring at a home in an unincorporated county area near West Covina, authorities said. Victor Manuel Jaurez, 36, and Carlos Cepano Filippini, 34, were taken into custody by a Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force, Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Jane Robison said. They are both believed to members of the Agencia Federal de Investigacion. Filippini is a commander in the AFI, she said. Juarez's rank was not clear Friday.

In only a couple of hours we will be holding a protest against Saudi Arabia in front of their consulate in West L.A., all FReepers are urged to get out there! PROTEST AGAINST SAUDI ARABIA WHEN: Saturday, August 2nd 4:00 PM WHERE: Saudi Consulate at 2045 Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, CA (Near W. Olympic & Sawtelle) SAUDI ARABIA: World’s greatest exporter of Terror. Protest against: - Saudi funding of terror with petro-dollars - Saudi influence in American politics - Saudi influence in American schools - Saudi religious persecution of non-Muslims - Saudi human rights violations - Saudi violations of women's...

May 16th, 2008 Legalize LA is about recognizing, celebrating and embracing the diversity of Los Angeles, so essential to the city’s success. As one of the most economically and culturally vibrant urban centers in the world, L.A. is not only the capital of the entertainment industry, it is also home to one of the busiest ocean ports in the world, and it remains the manufacturing hub of the United States. Los Angeles also represents the largest concentration of immigrants in North America. With over 224 languages spoken in the city, over 50% of the population is foreign born. Immigrants include...

The city of Los Angeles had good reason to push a tough anti-graffiti bill through the Legislature, and Gov. Schwarzenegger wasted no time in signing it. L.A. pushed the bill not only because taggers did their dirty work at more than 650,000 locations in the fiscal year that ended June 30, they also were bragging about their work on Internet sites. How's this for a statistic: In the year ended June 30, taggers defaced nearly 32 million square feet of surfaces. And they weren't picky about what they defaced: murals, billboards, freeway signs, bus benches, walls everywhere and anywhere, buses,...

<p>California should be conservatives' exhibit A of Liberals Gone Wild. This is what happens when clueless liberals (Yes, including Arnie) let the animals run the zoo.</p> <p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - One man got stabbed. Another got shot in the chest. A 6-year-old boy was temporarily blinded when he was spray-painted in the face.</p>

Slugger Manny Ramirez's stormy relationship with the Boston Red Sox is over. Ramirez has been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, ESPN.com's Amy K. Nelson first reported. The Red Sox will pay the remaining $7 million of Ramirez's contract, ESPN.com's Peter Gammons reported. Jason Bay is going to Boston and the Pittsburgh Pirates get four minor leaguers as part of the three-way deal.

An earthquake is now rocking the Southern California area. (I'm near Dodger Stadium)As I post this, the USGS has not yet determined the epicenter so click on the link above for the exact location and magnitude from the USGS. Here are the maps for California and Los Angeles: California: Los Angeles: Here's the historical review of the last seven days:

<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Los Angeles City Council has approved a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a low-income area of the city.</p> <p>The moratorium unanimously approved Tuesday is a bid to attract restaurants that offer healthier food choices to residents in a 32-square-mile area of South Los Angeles.</p>

Anyone?

By Wiley Smith; July 24, 2008 Just saw that Los Angeles banned plastic bags and will charge 25 cents for each paper bag the store supplies to customers. Three percent of the bag fee will be returned to the retailer (0.045 cents), 3 percent (0.045 cents) will go to the state, and the rest (0.16 cents) will go back to the city to fund an education campaign. Of course, some enterprising individuals likely will be selling the bags for less, buying them at a landed cost of 0.05 cents and doubling their money for a sell price of 0.10 cents...

LOS ANGELES Authorities are offering a $50,000 for information in the drive-by shooting death of a U.S. Navy reservist outside an El Sereno liquor store in 2007. Jesus Guevara, 24, a U.S. Navy reservist, was walking from the liquor store at 3:15 p.m. on Aug. 18, 2007 toward his parked car when someone fired at him from a dark-colored, mid-size car, wounding him in the back, police said. He died three hours later at a hospital. "It's not fair to lose him, to not have him around," Guevara's aunt, Maria Corona said. "We miss him terribly every day.... The irresponsible...

The council plans to ban plastic carryout bags in the city's stores by 2010, unless the state imposes a 25-cent fee on those who request them.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles shoppers soon won't hear the question, "Paper or plastic?" at the checkout line. The City Council voted Tuesday to ban plastic shopping bags from stores, beginning July 1, 2010. Shoppers can either bring their own bags or pay 25 cents for a paper bag. The council's unanimous vote also puts pressure on the state, which is considering an Assembly bill that would ban plastic bags in 2012 and charge at least 15 cents per paper bag. "We've gotten to a point where we need to act as a city, where we can have real...

LAPD Police Chief William J. Bratton has come out -- in favor of gay marriage. As a wedding gift to friend and celebrity publicist Howard Bragman and his longtime partner, Chuck O'Donnell, Bratton made it official: He and his wife, former Court TV diva Rikki Kleiman, strongly believe that gays have a right to marry. And in honor of Bragman and O'Donnell, who wed this past week in Norwalk, the chief and Kleiman have made a donation to Equality California, a group seeking to stop a state ballot measure this November that would ban same-sex marriages. "The Constitution guarantees life,...

A late-game brawl Tuesday in the Los Angeles Sparks' 84-81 Women's National Basketball Association win over the Detroit Shock saw three players an assistant coach ejected. The incident began after a made free throw by Los Angeles, when Sparks rookie sensation Candace Parker got tangled with Shock's Plenette Pierson and both fell to the floor.

A proposal that would place at least a one-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in a broad swath of neighborhoods, mostly in South Los Angeles, won unanimous support from a Los Angeles City Council committee Tuesday. If approved by the full council and signed by the mayor, the law would prevent fast-food chains from opening new restaurants in a 32-square-mile area, including West Adams, Baldwin Village and Leimert Park. The moratorium would be in effect for one year, with the possibility of two six-month extensions. The measure, proposed by Councilwoman Jan Perry, whose 9th District includes much of South Los...

The number of foreigners landing in Los Angeles Immigration Court has surged in recent years, while the number of judges has remained about the same, causing crushing caseloads and lengthy delays. Expanded immigration enforcement, including the ongoing search for illegal immigrants in county jails, is causing much of the rise, according to judges, attorneys and experts.

Exiling the Happy Meal Los Angeles Lawmakers Want to Escalate The War on Obesity (And Fast Food) By SARAH MCBRIDE July 22, 2008 Despite its health-crazy reputation, parts of Los Angeles are plagued by obesity rates that rival any city in America. Now, the city may join a growing roster of local governments aiming to put their residents on diets by cracking down on the fast-food industry. Jan Perry, a Los Angeles city-council member, is spearheading legislation that would ban new fast-food restaurants like McDonald's and KFC from opening in a 32-square-mile chunk of the city, including her district. The...

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....

Sunday July 20 9PM PST For gang members in South Central Los Angeles, the "hood" is a brutal war zone, where streets and reputations are vehemently defended, often to the death. NGC goes into this violent world for four months -- a period in which more than 60 L.A. residents are killed or wounded in gang shootings. Watch an emotional funeral, see 11-year-olds brandishing their weapons, and hear the stories of those entangled in this chilling cycle of bloodshed. In 1970s and 80s Los Angeles, loosely affiliated African American street gangs wage a 20 year turf war. Born of the...

LOS ANGELES -- American Airlines Flight 725, scheduled to fly nonstop from Boston to Los Angeles on Friday, was diverted to Oklahoma City after a disruptive passenger took his clothes off and had to be subdued.

First, from the top of the Democrat Party, we had Howard Dean banning fried food at the Democrat Convention and authorizing only approved food colors. Of course, the caterers correctly thought Dean was a moron, and told him so. Now the Left Coast chapter of the Fraternal Order of Oral Limitations (FOOL), which enforces food consumption regulations as well as speech control laws, has decided that people in South-Central are too fat and unhealthy so they want a moratorium on any new fast food joints.

Los Angeles Times Publisher David Hiller resigned today after a 21-month tenure that included the departure of two Times editors and plans for the sharpest staff and production cuts in the newspaper's history amid a continuing slide in advertising revenue. Tribune Co. -- which owns The Times and other media assets, including the Chicago Tribune and KTLA-TV Channel 5, and the Chicago Cubs baseball team -- named no successor to Hiller. Hiller was the third Times publisher named since the newspaper was acquired in 2000 by Chicago-based Tribune. He succeeded Jeffrey M. Johnson, who lost his job after publicly resisting...

At a time when many Los Angeles County residents are grappling with the squeeze of an economic downturn, dozens of top county government officials are tooling around in "unjustified luxury vehicles" costing taxpayers as much as $50,000 each. More than 1,400 county workers are given take-home cars, even though some don't have official authorization to drive them, and at least 30 employees aren't paying the required taxes on the vehicles. Meanwhile, county employees were involved in 1,852 accidents in their take-home vehicles over the past few years - with 830 accidents in 2005-06 alone that cost taxpayers $6.7 million. The...

The nation of road movies, freeway freedom and dreams of endless horizons is waking up to the reality of soaring fuel prices. Paul Harris in Riverside, California, reports that people are leaving their gas guzzlers in the garage It is known as the Inland Empire: a vast stretch of land tucked in the high desert valleys east of Los Angeles. Once home to fruit trees and Indians, it is now a concrete sprawl of jammed freeways, endless suburbs and shopping malls. But here, in the heartland of the four-wheel drive, a revolution is under way. What was once unthinkable is...

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...

Glassell Park -- Hundreds of police and federal agents swept through the city's northeast area Wednesday, raiding homes and serving search warrants on members of a notorious gang that authorities say has long terrorized the neighborhood and was involved in a deadly police shootout in February. The raid in Glassell Park was aimed at members of the Drew Avenue clique of the Avenues gang. A federal grand jury indictment returned June 12 and released Wednesday accused 70 people of racketeering, murder, attempted murder of police officers, drug and weapons trafficking, witness intimidation and other crimes. Police Chief William Bratton compared...

In a sweeping crackdown on a notorious street gang, more than 500 federal, state and local investigators, including 10 SWAT teams, swarmed northeast Los Angeles before dawn this morning to arrest dozens of alleged members of the Avenues gang. The focus, authorities said, was on the gang's Drew Street clique, which has kept tenacious control over a Glassell Park neighborhood despite a series of efforts by federal and local law enforcement agencies over the years. This is a major case and a major takedown this morning," said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office. By 8 a.m., authorities arrested...

A man who planned attacks on military installations and synagogues in the Los Angeles area for an Islamic terrorist cell was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison today for conspiring to wage war against the United States.

Walter Moore is a fiscal conservative, anti-corruption and anti-ILLEGAL immigrant candidate for mayor of Los Angeles in next year's election. He's having a rally in the San Fernando Valley next Saturday, June 28.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 18, 2008 -- Is the prosecution guilty of ethics violations in the Jamiel Shaw murder case? Full Disclosure Network® presents an eight minute Video News Blog featuring family members of murdered high school football star, Jamiel Shaw, II who was gunned down just three doors from his home by an alleged illegal alien gang member who had been released early from the L.A. County jail after serving four months for weapons violations and assault against a police officer. * D.A. Steve Cooley removed Deputy DA Michele Hanisee from the case just days prior to his...

Parker Center  --  It was an unusually deadly weekend in Los Angeles County, with at least 12 people murdered, many of them in gang-related crimes, compared to two or three homicides on an average day. In Panorama City, one person was killed and another injured this afternoon in an apparent gang-related shooting, police said. Around 2 p.m., a suspect on a bike approached both victims in the 8400 block of Greenbush Avenue, near Roscoe Boulevard, said Los Angeles Police Officer Sara Faden of the Media Relations Section. The suspect asked the two about their gang affiliations and then shot them....

Today's Savage thread.