Free Republic

The majority approved language that would replace the elected Controller’s role with an appointed CFO, potentially stripping away independent oversightIn a move that has ignited fierce backlash, the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission voted 9-2 on Thursday to advance a proposal that would effectively eliminate the independent City Controller’s office, shifting its core functions—including audits, accounting, payments, revenue forecasting, and fraud investigations—to a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) appointed by Mayor Karen Bass and accountable to the City Council. This reform, framed by supporters as a consolidation of financial operations to address the city’s ongoing budget crisis, comes just weeks...

Fire victims in Pacific Palisades say they are frustrated and confused after receiving brush clearance bills from the City of Los Angeles for properties where their homes once stood. What we know: Nearly 14 months after last year’s deadly fire destroyed thousands of homes across the community, some residents say they were mailed $31 notices citing alleged noncompliance with brush clearance rules — even though their lots remain empty and covered mostly in dirt. "This is one final blow. After everything that happened, they’re still trying to take money," said resident Christine Martinez, whose home was destroyed in the fire....

One of the hallmarks of narcissism is that when things go wrong, it’s always someone else’s fault. Being a narcissist means never having to say you’re sorry. Nothing more perfectly illustrates this truism than an essay from yesterday’s Los Angeles Times blaming Republicans for California’s myriad woes. While the author is correct that, when Republicans had the chance, they didn’t make smart decisions, the reality is that it’s the Democrats who have led California to the desperate place it’s in now. Steve Lopez’s essay doesn’t make the mistake of blaming Republicans for all the state’s problems. He concedes that Democrats...

A driver armed with a flamethrower has rammed a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power substation in a possible “terrorism-related event.” The rented silver Nissan Sentra crashed through a secured gate at the site in Boulder City, Nevada, before a gun went off on Thursday. A man, who was wearing “soft body armor” and had two shotguns and an assault rifle-style pistol, was found dead in the car suffering from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said on Friday they were investigating the attack. A police statement said: “Officers discovered a deceased adult...

Steven Spielberg, phone home! The legendary “E.T.” director and California resident has moved to Manhattan amid a billionaire exodus from the Golden State — as voters eye a controversial wealth tax. But the move, first reported by the LA Times, allegedly had nothing to do with the 2026 Billionaire Tax Act. “Steven’s move to the East Coast is both long-planned and driven purely by his and Kate Capshaw’s desire to be closer to their New York-based children and grandchildren,” spokeswoman Terry Press said. Press did not answer queries about Spielberg’s stance on the proposed tax, which would slap a one-time...

The city of Malibu slapped Los Angeles and the state of California with a lawsuit over the devastating Palisades fire — saying officials didn’t do enough to stop the deadly blaze that “hollowed out” the oceanside community. Malibu said the city’s “entire character changed” when the wildfire swept through and that it is “still reeling from the destruction it left in its wake,” according to the suit. The 66-page complaint seeks to “recover significant financial losses” resulting from the devastating fire. “This decision was not made lightly,” Malibu Mayor Bruce Silverstein said in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “The City...

Their revolution could soon be coming to an end. January 3, 2026. Caracas. 2:47 AM. The helicopters had come in low over the Caribbean, running dark. The Delta Force operators on board were well-rehearsed. By 3:29 AM, it was over. Thirty-two Cuban bodyguards lay dead in the compound. Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores were in flex cuffs, hustled onto a transport aircraft bound for New York. At Mar-a-Lago, President Trump watched the operation unfold in real time with his national security team. It was January 3—exactly 36 years to the day since American forces had extracted military dictator Manuel...

The full extent of the Palisades Fire report cover-up has been revealed. The California Post has obtained the first draft of the Palisades After-Action Fire Report — before it was quietly altered and released to the public. Newly uncovered edits show sweeping changes to the 92-page document that was meant to deliver a warts-and-all account of the disaster, putting more pressure on Mayor Karen Bass to explain whether her office played a role in softening the language to blunt criticism of the city’s response to a fire that killed at least 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures. Mayor...

Democratic Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, an avowed socialist, announced Saturday she will challenge her longtime ally, Democratic Mayor Karen Bass, who seeks reelection in June. Raman, an Indian immigrant, has served on the City Council since 2020 after — with backing from the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) — she defeated an incumbent councilmember in the Democratic primary. Bass, a former congresswoman, has served as Los Angeles’s mayor since 2022. She recently came under scrutiny for her response to both the riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in mid-2025 and the devastating wildfire which engulfed the city’s...

Embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass secretly altered the official Palisades Fire response report to downplay the failures made by the city and fire department when the deadly blaze erupted, a new report said. Bass, after seeing an early draft of the after-action report, wanted key findings of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s shortcomings scrubbed or watered down — and even warned then-interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva the unedited conclusions could expose the city to legal liability, sources close to the Democrat’s staff told the Los Angeles Times. Bass was cautioned that the self-serving tweaks in with the report was...

Things are getting tense in downtown Los Angeles Friday evening as anti-ICE protesters are at it again, attacking law enforcement, blowing whistles, and throwing water bottles. Video journalist Anthony Cabassa is on the scene:BREAKING 🚨: Chaos is unfolding as the protests turn violent. Water bottles and rocks being thrown at federal agents retreating, protestors pepper sprayed as agents attempt to keep control.Agents are vastly outnumbered, no local police presence after over an hour of turmoil. pic.twitter.com/oCli2wCuoI— Anthony (@anthonycabassa) January 31, 2026The Los Angeles Police Department declared a tactical alert after protesters refused to disperse.⚠️Community Advisory⚠️Due to violent agitators on Alameda...

Democratic Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson admitted Wednesday he was “in regular communication” with other mayors leading so-called “sanctuary cities” in efforts to impede enforcement of federal immigration laws. President Donald Trump called for an end to “sanctuary cities” in a post on Truth Social Monday, following a series of shootings, two of them fatal, that took place in Minneapolis involving Department of Homeland Security personnel engaged in immigration enforcement operations. Johnson said during a press conference at the National Press Club he’d been talking with Democratic Mayors Jacob Frey of Minneapolis and Michelle Wu of Boston about how to combat...

"I got more water coming outta my eyes than DWP had in both of our reservoirs" -@spencerpratt Television personality Spencer Pratt, who lost his home in the Palisades Fire and has been a vocal critic in the months since of the city's and state's preparation for and response to the conflagration, announced Wednesday that he is running for mayor of Los Angeles. Speaking at a "They Let Us Burn" rally held by the Palisades Fire Residents Coalition to mark the one-year anniversary of the fire's start, the 42-year-old Pratt again repeated his complaints about authorities' handling of the blaze, then...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing intense backlash for making racially-charged comments about Hispanic Americans serving with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Bass, a Democrat, was speaking with CNN’s “The Situation Room” on a recent network feature that profiled Border Patrol and ICE agents training to work along the southern border. CNN noted that a large percentage of recruits were of Hispanic heritage and at one point asked whether they had any reservations about apprehending their “own kind.” “They didn’t come in the right way so they aren’t my kind,” one recruit said without hesitation. Border Patrol Agent...

I had a visitor from the East Coast, a few weeks ago, and I drove her around the San Fernando Valley to show her what a dismal ----hole it is. But I kept missing all the encampment sites and pirate RV villages, which move around, so we ended up driving around the Encino hills, where my plan to show a visitor how disgusting Los Angeles has become led to the visitor saying that oh my goodness, this is such a pretty neighborhood. I apologized for the absence of squalor. There’s a lot of that going around. A bunch of recent...

If you’ve ever thought of visiting the crocodile-shaped island of Cuba, or run into someone recently returned from sultry nights in the country’s salsa halls, there’s a good chance you’ll have heard the phrase “See it before it changes.” And I don’t mean because of Hurricane Melissa. The idea is that the centrally planned communist state, one of the last on Earth, will soon morph into America and a balmy Brigadoon full of people unencumbered by money, modern cars or Alexa will evaporate. I think most people, if they knew what Cubans have endured, wouldn’t use that phrase, which is...

Los Angles Mayor Karen Bass recently did a little victory dance about the ‘first rebuild’ of a house in the Pacific Palisades after the wildfires. Hey, it has only been almost a year, right? There is one little problem with the house that Bass is celebrating, however. It was a developer project that was in the works before the fires even happened. That’s right, this house wasn’t even one of the average homes destroyed by fires and her incompetence. What a surprise. The New York Post reports: LA Mayor Karen Bass called out for ‘phony’ Palisades rebuild after devastating wildfire...

Who would have thunk it? We now have two democratic socialists who have won their mayoral races in major American cities – Zohran Mamdani in New York City, of course, and inexperienced Katie Wilson in Seattle. Both cities have already suffered greatly at the hands of “progressive” politicians, and the only question here is how much lower they can sink. Could Los Angeles be the next to throw their city into the hands of radical leftists? You could argue that they already have with Mayor Karen Bass and their radical city council and county Board of Supervisors, but what if...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) struggled to respond after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) trolled him on Saturday with a photo of a demonstrator in a giant penis costume at a “No Kings” protest. The demonstrator in question, apparently at a rally in Portland, Oregon, held a sign that read: “Deport Deez Nuts.” “Breaking: Gavin Newsom has shown up to the riot!” the DHS account added as a caption to the photo. “You’re an embarrassment,” was all the governor could manage in reply, after months of trying to imitate President Donald Trump’s troll game on social media, a decidedly...

The court order in Mirabelli v. Olson means the case will represent over 300,000 California public school teachers and the parents of more than 5 million California public school students. (The Center Square) - A federal judge certified a class action lawsuit this week, representing all California parents and teachers affected by Parental Exclusion Policies on students' gender identity, following a lawsuit by the Thomas More Society.U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez certified a class action lawsuit on October 15. In the case Mirabelli v. Olson, the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit law firm, is representing the plaintiffs in a...