Free Republic

Prosecutors brought an indictment alleging that former Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan, while working for downtown developers, set up a job for the family member of a city commissioner; had his company hire a relative of a City Council aide; and proposed a fake consulting contract with another city staffer’s mother. Such job offers, even modest ones, were a way of greasing the wheels of the city bureaucracy, prosecutors allege. Experts say indirect bribes can be more difficult to uncover than a typical quid pro quo in which someone gives money directly to a government official. In one example, prosecutors accuse...

Mayors and governors across the land have run to the cameras and microphones to be among the first to kneel in supplication to the riotous mobs in the streets. ... Garcetti discussed his “defunding the police” plan of reducing the police funding by $150 million and moving another $100 million from other city budgetary priorities to hand over to the mobs for special placative programs. Toward the end of a short speech, Garcetti outlined eight ways LA has already changed up the way cops operate. He lobbed bombs against President Trump, calling him a “political pyromaniac.” He repeated provable lies...

Officials with the Los Angeles police union assailed Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday for comments he made describing police officers as “killers,” saying LAPD officers have lost confidence in the mayor's ability to lead the city after days of demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. At a news briefing, Los Angeles Police Protective League director Jamie McBride accused Garcetti of "political pandering" and called him "unstable." “He smeared every single police officer in Los Angeles and across the nation by calling us killers," McBride said. The union's comments came after Garcetti announced this week that he would...

The billionaire real estate developer whose support for President Trump sparked calls for a consumer boycott is also behind one of the flashiest redevelopment projects coming to downtown Los Angeles. Protesters in West Hollywood and elsewhere called last week for customers to cancel their memberships with luxury gym Equinox and SoulCycle studios after learning that Stephen M. Ross, chairman and founder of the Related Cos., was planning a Trump fundraiser at his home. Ross has a minority stake in Equinox and SoulCycle, said Related spokesman Glenn Gritzner. In L.A., Related has a major project under construction called the Grand, which...