Free Republic

Los Angeles was once the epicenter of apparel manufacturing, attracting buyers from across the world to its clothing factories, sample rooms and design studios. But over the years, cheap overseas labor lured many apparel makers to outsource to foreign competitors in far-flung places such as China and Vietnam. Now, Los Angeles firms are facing another big hurdle — California's minimum wage hitting $15 an hour by 2022 — which could spur more garment makers to exit the state. Last week American Apparel, the biggest clothing maker in Los Angeles, said it might outsource the making of some garments to another...

union hypocrisy and betrayal of its membership ... a series of loopholes that cut union workers out of the very pay increases their leaders have championed. ... written into the fine print of wage ordinances in a dozen California cities at labor leaders’ urging. San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Santa Monica have all adopted union waivers in their most recent minimum wage laws. L.A. city officials are expected to indicate whether they will include such an exemption in their own $15 minimum wage at a hearing next week. ... Thanks to the “union waivers” agreed to by union leaders,...

... Under an obscure provision of the city's wage hike, unionized hotels were granted an exemption allowing them to pay their employees less... ... a series of loopholes that cut union workers out of the very pay increases their leaders have championed... San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland and Santa Monica have all adopted union waivers in their most recent minimum wage laws... At the Sheraton Universal Hotel, a longtime union property, bellhops, waiters and banquet servers make California's current minimum wage: $10 an hour... Those doing the same jobs at a non-union Hilton less than 500 feet away make at...

In the city of angels a day for praise, worship, asking forgiveness and declaration of the Lord's goodness to America and the nations...in the way of thy will be done on earth (now, today)as it is in heaven. A coliseum of believers from many nations joining in spiritual warfare for good. 7:30 AM to 10:30 PM Pacific Time.

Story at link Wild police pursuit in rain includes 'doughnuts' on the 101, hugs and a TMZ tour bus

The Los Angeles Police Department launched a felony investigation into Charlie Sheen Tuesday after the actor allegedly made death threats against his former fiancée, porn star Brett Rossi, according to numerous reports. The reported investigation centers on allegations made by Rossi, whose legal name is Scottine Ross, during an interview with the LAPD last week. Ross is suing Sheen in civil court and claims he did not disclose his HIV-positive before they had unprotected sex. She filed a “criminal threats” report last week in California, and was awarded an emergency restraining order against Sheen. Police are reportedly working to obtain...

In a long-awaited ruling, a federal judge has sided with plaintiffs who argued it was unconstitutional for Los Angeles County supervisors to place a Christian cross on the county seal. A divided Board of Supervisors voted in 2014 to reinstate the cross on top of a depiction of the San Gabriel Mission, which appears on the seal among other symbols of county history. They were sued by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and a group of religious leaders and scholars, who said placement of the cross on the seal unconstitutionally favored Christianity over other religions.

As Lauren Mishkind was walking along 7th Street this summer in downtown Los Angeles, a man pulled a handgun and pointed it at another person standing behind her. Terrified, she hid behind a car while the assailant tackled the victim. "I was just shaking for the rest of the day," said Mishkind, who lives downtown and works at an architectural firm in the area. "You kind of assume it's par for the course living down here, which is kind of more shocking." Crime has jumped across the city this year, but nowhere has the increase been as large as in...

Donald Trump's hyperbolic rhetoric about Mexico apparently has claimed a victim. Mexico abruptly replaced its low-profile ambassador to Washington with an experienced, well-traveled diplomat and put a public relations expert into its Foreign Ministry’s top spot for American affairs. {snip} Named to replace him is Carlos Manuel Sada Solana, who has been consul general in Los Angeles for three years and previously served at Mexican consulates in New York, Chicago, Toronto and San Antonio. A Mexican Foreign Ministry statement announcing the changes emphasized Sada’s “broad experience … protecting the rights of Mexicans in North America, as well as defending the...

ANAHEIM (CBSLA.com) — For the first time in Anaheim, a special tribute has been unveiled honoring the city's four-legged crime fighters. The bronze monument was revealed Sunday at La Palma Dog Park on N. Anaheim Boulevard and was inspired by former Anaheim K-9 police officer, Bruno.

Friends and neighbors of a man who has been charged with killing his son because he was gay said Saturday that the young man had a troubled history and was involved in several incidents that resulted in the police being called to the house. On Friday, Shehada Khalil Issa, 69, of North Hills was charged with fatally shooting his son, Amir Issa, 29, outside the family’s home earlier this week because he was gay, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. “The murder was committed because of the victim’s sexual orientation and because of the defendant’s perception of that...

A speaker at an evangelical Christian college urged students to accept the views of Black Lives Matter and consider themselves as having benefited from white privilege while looking to the Palestinians for inspiration in how to get along with one’s adversaries. The Rev. Christena Cleveland, a social psychologist who teaches at Duke University School of Divinity and authored the book "Disunity in Christ," brought a message of reconciliation and "love without exception" to Biola University in Los Angeles last week. At a conference titled "Love No Matter What: Politics, Sex, Race and the Way of the Cross," Cleveland touted the...

<p>A man accused of fatally shooting his son outside a home where his wife was found dead has been charged with one count of premeditated murder as a hate crime, with prosecutors alleging he killed his son for being gay.</p>

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump may want to avoid West Hollywood when he campaigns in California ahead of the state's potentially decisive June 7 primary. Lindsey Horvath, the mayor of West Hollywood, Calif., which is located in the heart of Los Angeles County and home to a sizable population of gay men, penned a letter to Trump this week explaining that he is unwelcome in her city. "With the primary making its way to California, as West Hollywood's Mayor, I want to make very clear that your campaign of violence and intimidation is not welcome in our City," she wrote...

Hunkered behind a MacBook decorated with stickers that read "This laptop was brought to you by capitalism" and "TRUMP 2016," Jake Lopez bounces T-shirt slogans off his friend Ian McIlvoy. "Trumplicans," he says, nodding with satisfaction. "I think it'll take off." Lopez is the California director of Students for Trump. Working from his dorm at Westmont College, he helps marshal the thousands of students who are pounding out phone calls, taping up fliers and blanketing Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat in an effort to persuade their peers that Donald Trump is the man. Although vastly outnumbered nationwide by left-leaning classmates chanting...

Controversy over Trump has failed to dent his standing with his core supporters in the Republican primaries, but his image among the rest of the electorate has plunged. The share of Americans with an unfavorable view of Trump is extraordinary: 68% in the most recent Bloomberg poll, 67% in the CNN/ORC survey, 67% in the ABC/Washington Post poll, 65% from Gallup. The 57% unfavorable rating he received in the most recent CBS/New York Times survey looks mild by comparison.

Confirmed: Demoralized Cops Equal Higher Crime Jack Dunphy Gentle readers, fasten your seatbelts. We are about to embark on a virtual tour on which you will join me in a Los Angeles Police Department patrol car cruising some of the city’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods. We will be patrolling the LAPD’s 77th Street Division, which year after year ranks at or near the top in violent crime among the city’s 21 patrol divisions. The Los Angeles Times tracks crime in more than 200 communities across L.A. County, and five of the top ten on the list are in 77th Street Division....

George Clooney is hosting a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton on April 15 where seats at the head table cost $353,400 a couple The next night, another fundraiser will be held at Clooney's Los Angeles home and tickets are $33,400 each On Sunday, Bernie Sanders called the two fundraisers 'obscene' in an interview on CNN 'The people coming to this event have undue influence on the political process,' Sanders said Most of Sanders' fundraisers are '$15 or $50', he said 'It is obscene that Secretary Clinton keeps going to big-money people to fund her campaign,' Sanders said on CNN's State of...

SACRAMENTO (CBSLA.com/AP) — California legislators and labor unions have reached a tentative agreement that will take the state’s minimum wage from $10 to $15 an hour, a state senator said, a move that would make for the largest statewide minimum in the nation by far. “This is not a done deal,” Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco said Saturday. “Everyone’s been operating in good faith and we hope to get it through the Legislature.” Leno said if an agreement is finalized, it would go before the Legislature as part of his minimum-wage bill that stalled last year. If the Legislature approves...

....But among the voters most likely to turn out, the poll shows the race between Trump and Cruz is nearly tied, with Trump at 36% versus Cruz at 35%. The difference illustrates how a low turnout in the June 7 primary could hurt Trump and boost Cruz....