Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Is the highest-paid mayor in the United States broke? With just over a month left in his second and final term, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will leave office in June reportedly without a place to live or a car of his own to drive, according to a report published Thursday. Jill Stewart, L.A. Weekly’s managing editor, told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO that Villaraigosa faces an uncertain political – and financial – future when he steps down June 30. In order to maintain his current lifestyle, which includes frequent cross-country travel, a mayoral mansion at the taxpayer-supported Getty House,...

In a rare display of just how quickly a tightly scripted national political convention can unwind, Democrats on Wednesday struggled to complete a voice vote amending their party platform to include language referring to Jerusalem and God. It took three attempts from Democratic National Convention Chairman Antonio Villaraigosa before the platform was amended, and a loud chorus of delegates yelling "no" met each attempt to pass the changes by voice vote.

It’s clear that Barack Obama and his Democrats are out of ideas; they are using their party’s ancient and antiquated technique of painting the Republican Party as reactionary. The latest example came today courtesy of fly-by-night Los Angeles mayor and Democratic National Convention chairman Antonio Villaraigosa. Appearing on Fox News Sunday, he said that the Republican platform “looks like the platform of 1812”, adding “Reagan would be turning in his grave" to hear some of the proposals coming from the GOP.

MSNBC host Chuck Todd asked the co-chair of the Democratic party's convention, L.A. mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, why there are more Republican women and Hispanic governors: "Let me ask you though, this one question, why is it that the Republicans have elected more women governors and have two Hispanic governors and the Democrats don’t?," asked Todd. "Don’t have as many women governors and don’t have Hispanic governors, why do you think that is?"

As Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa prepares to take the gavel for the Democratic National Committee’s national convention in Charlotte this summer, Yahoo! News asked whether the termed-out mayor could be the nation’s first Latino president. Villaraigosa assured his interviewer that he has no interest in national office, but he does have another job in mind after 2013, when he will be forced from Getty House. "The job I've said to people I would like is I would like to be governor of the state of California," he said.

[Try not to Laugh] LOS ANGELES—When Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gavels the 2012 Democratic National Convention into session in Charlotte, N.C., this September, his role as prominent cheerleader for President Barack Obama will be clear. It is less clear, for now, if Villaraigosa has designs on the ultimate convention role in 2016—taking center stage to accept his party's nomination on the final night. Despite running the country's second largest city and coming from the fastest growing voting demographic in America, the mayor himself is quick to wave off talk of a presidential run...

Above: Sanctuary City Clowns Villaraigosa and Beck - putting the needs of illegals aliens above public safety. by John HillStand With Arizona Finally, a voice of sanity has emerged to stand against the madness that is America's Sanctuary City - Los Angeles. The Police Protective League (PPL) - the union that represents Los Angeles police officers - has sued the city and Police Chief Charlie Beck this week over his disgraceful new policy that allows illegal alien unlicensed drivers to keep their cars instead of having them impounded for 30 days - as California state law mandates.We profiled Beck's announcement...

Like a beautiful butterfly emerging from his cocoon, a remarkable political metamorphosis is taking place right before our eyes. You won't see this on the Nature Channel; instead you have to watch the savants on CNN and MSNBC to witness Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa transform from a "Failure," as Los Angeles Magazine called him in 2009, into a statesman. From their offices high above New York's Sixth Avenue the editors of Time Magazine have also discovered mayoral virtues invisible from Ventura Boulevard. Adam Nagourney of The New York Times gave "Tony the Butterfly" two thumbs up, claiming, "His record is substantial...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — With the city going broke you may be surprised to find out that Los Angeles is the proud owner of a million dollar yacht and it is about to undergo hundreds of thousands of dollars in renovations at taxpayer expense. As the head of the Port of Los Angeles raced down the hall, they tried to block our camera and dodged our questions, not wanting to talk about a yacht owned by the port, which is a city agency. But the mayor said that it is not what we think. “It’s not a yacht. It’s a...

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday that the Occupy Los Angeles encampment outside City Hall "cannot continue indefinitely" and has asked city officials to draft restrictions limiting when people are allowed on city property. "I respect the protesters' right to peacefully assemble and express their views," Villaraigosa said. "City officials have been in a continuous and open dialogue with the organizers of Occupy L.A. However, the protesters must respect city laws and regulations, and while they have been allowed to camp on City Hall lawns, that cannot continue indefinitely." A spokeswoman for the mayor said he has also instructed city officials...

Aug. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa proposed dismantling California’s Proposition 13, which helped begin a nationwide anti-tax movement, in favor of a “grand bargain” that would boost levies on business property. The Democrat who leads California’s largest city called on Governor Jerry Brown not to shrink from making sweeping changes in state tax laws that Villaraigosa, 58, said could produce as much as $36 billion a year in new revenue. Villaraigosa urged the removal of Proposition 13’s limits on commercial-property assessments while retaining its cap for homes. The mayor said boosting tax revenue in the most-populous state...

California: Taking a break from leading his city down the path of economic decline, the mayor of Los Angeles lectures the state on how to squeeze more tax revenue out of business. Given his track record, Antonio Villaraigosa hardly seems the one to give advice on how to get California moving again. His city, where he's been chief executive for six years, has been a drag on the state. Its jobless rate (13.9% in 2010) puts it at No. 44 worst among the nation's 50 largest cities. But to this mayor, leading a once-booming city deeper into decline must be...

In what could be an initial foray into statewide politics, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Tuesday for a renewal of progressive politics in California in the nation, including an overhaul of the state's iconic limit on property taxes, Proposition 13. "Progressives have to start thinking - and acting - big again," Villaraigosa declared in prepared remarks for the Sacramento Press Club, to counteract anti-tax and anti-government drives by the Tea Party and other conservative blocs. "If the Tea Party in Washington and their counterparts here in Sacramento are intent on pitching jobs overboard in the mindless pursuit of ideology...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Despite the objections of his neighbors, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has ordered city officials to proceed with a plan to erect a six-foot wall around the mayor’s mansion. The wall — which would flank the sides of Getty House in Hancock Park — recently drew the ire of local residents in February when Villaraigosa filed a request for a local variance that prohibits any fencing that exceeds 42 inches in height. A proposed design for the wall includes “embedded” security features...

VAN NUYS - Immigration activists, officeholders and Christian leaders rallied at a San Fernando Valley church on Saturday, renewing angry calls for President Barack Obama to order a halt of deportations they say shatter the families of legal U.S. residents. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Rep. Howard Berman, D-Van Nuys, and immigration-reform proponent Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., were among the speakers at La Iglesia en la Camino (The Church on the Way) in what was billed as a bipartisan town-hall meeting. "When communities are terrorized by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raids, when nursing mothers are torn from their babies, when children...

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has agreed to pay nearly $42,000 in fines to resolve state and city investigations into his practice of accepting tickets to sports events, concerts and pricey entertainment activities without reporting them as gifts, officials said Friday. In a pact drafted by officials with the state Fair Political Practices Commission and the city Ethics Commission, Villaraigosa admitted that he failed to report free tickets to 34 events during his first five years in office, including Los Angeles Lakers games and concerts at such venues as Gibson Amphitheater. Villaraigosa faced a maximum fine of more than $167,000...

LOS ANGELES (CBS) —Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has asked for approval for a six-foot-wall around the Getty House, the mayor’s official residence in Windsor Square, according to city documents. But at least one planning official was “caught off guard” by Villaraigosa’s request for increased security around the taxpayer-owned property. The mayor’s office filed its request on Feb. 2 for a variance to city bylaws with plans to erect a security wall around the property at 605 S. Irving Blvd. Officials say the wall’s design includes “embedded” security features that will save taxpayer money by cutting costs for security staffing. Initially, the...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the LAPD's controversial Special Order 40, which directs officers not to ask arrestees about their immigration status. The city of Los Angeles and the ACLU had asked the judge to dismiss the suit.

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...

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa slipped quietly out of the city last week to campaign in Iowa for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a rare public foray into presidential politics since his marital meltdown dominated front pages last summer. Clinton made a splash in May when she snagged the Democratic mayor's endorsement, and even former President Bill Clinton was called in to help lock up Villaraigosa's support. The New York senator said at the time that Villaraigosa, one of the nation's most prominent Hispanic politicians, would be "reaching out to a broad range of voters across the country." In other states prominent supporters...