L.A. council orders solar rooftop measure drafted
from L.A. Times - California | Local News
If the council OKs it by Nov. 7, the initiative to add solar panels would be on the March ballot. The panels would provide 400 megawatts to commercial and other buildings by 2013.
The Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to draft a solar rooftop measure for the March 3 ballot, even though officials with the Department of Water and Power still don't know what the initiative would do to electrical rates.
THIS SATURDAY: ZAP 'em and SLAP 'em: Ron Kaye's SLAP and Zuma's ZAP -- Same Day...Same Area!!!
Arguments at L.A. City Hall over Order 40
from abc7.com: KABC - *Los Angeles* - Southern California - LA Breaking *...*
Many gathered at L.A. City Hall over a policy involving suspect immigrant status.
Homeless agencies are filling up
from abc7.com: KABC - *Los Angeles* - Southern California - LA Breaking *...*
Agencies that help the homeless are seeing big increases in requests for assistance.
L.A. is hit hard as home prices continue their record-breaking fall
from L.A. Times - Business
Figures for August show a 26.7 % decline for Los Angeles and Orange counties compared with a year ago. The numbers from 20 metropolitan areas show a 16.6% drop.
U.S. home prices continued to fall at a record-breaking pace in August, with the Los Angeles area posting among the sharpest declines, according to a prominent index released Tuesday.
DWP settles lawsuit for overcharging
from Eyewitness News: #1 in Southern California
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has settled a lawsuit for overcharging public agencies.
LADWP Responds to Overcharging Settlement
from LAist by Zach Behrens
The DWP Building downtown
After yesterday's announcement of an $160 million settlement in the case where the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power "knowingly overcharged State and local governmental agencies for electricity (as the State Attorney's Office put it)," the city agency released a statement online only (mysteriously, it wasn't e-mailed). Basically, they say everything is fine and dandy and not to worry about your bills:
"We are pleased to have fashioned an agreement which will enable energy efficiency improvements and overall lowered energy usage for the plaintiffs in this action. We can also take comfort in the fact that the involved parties are government entities whose constituents are largely LADWP customers. That the beneficiaries of this settlement serve the residents of the City and County of Los Angeles was a prime factor for LADWP to enter settlement negotiations," Mr. Nahai said.
LADWP would like to reassure all ratepayers our billing practices are absolutely proper. Subsequent to the initiation of the plaintiffs' lawsuit, California Government Code Section 54999 was amended effective January 2007, thereby validating our actions and upholding the LADWP billing practices that were in question in this case.
Litigation notwithstanding, the Department remains on excellent terms with the parties involved in this action. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power looks forward to putting this dispute to rest and building close productive relationships with these entities, our sister agencies.
The lawsuit was brought forward by a whistle-blower under the California’s False Claims Act.
2009 Race for City Controller Now Actually a Race
from LAist by Zach Behrens
"This is not the way it's supposed to work in LA nowadays," an unnamed source tells former Daily News Editor Ron Kaye, who broke the news that Nick Patsaouras, president of the DWP Board of Commissioners, will be running for City Controller. Considered a shoe-in for the job, Councilmember Wendy Greuel has already raised nearly $700,000 for her Office of the Controller campaign, according to the latest candidate filings. The Controller's Office is city's watchdog on spending and operations, however it has no power to enforce findings in audits. As important as the job is, it's also not a popular one with other councilmembers and city staff.
Father Greg Boyle and Connie Rice Speak Out Against Prop 6
from LAist by Anjali Taneja
Popout
Father Greg Boyle is the director and founder of Homeboy Industries, a well respected Los Angeles organization that works to educate and provide job training for at-risk youth and former gang members. Connie Rice is the director of the Advancement Project Los Angeles and is a prominent civil rights activist and lawyer. They are featured speaking out against Proposition 6, a measure that could bring lengthier sentences for youth, try 14 year olds as adults for "gang-related" crimes, and increase our prison overcrowding problem in California (link to LAist profile of Prop 6)
In this video, Connie Rice eloquently states:
Proposition 6 is going to lock in permanent funding for failed and incomplete strategies. What do we know after fighting gangs for 35 years? After 35 years of a war on gangs, we have 6 times as many gangs, and twice as many gang members. You cannot arrest your way out of this problem. That's what's wrong with this proposition. It locks in the funding for the suppression side only. What do we know works? When you take all of the conditions that fuel gangs and you attack them at once -- strategic suppression, comprehensive prevention and intervention, with re-entry and community investment for safe schools. Support for families, round the clock parks, those are the strategies that work. We have all the money going into law enforcement and almost none of it going to the other side. So Proposition 6 is the wrong idea at the wrong time, the wrong strategy. We do not have results from arresting over 100,000 children 18 and under in the last 10 years in LA County. We have arrested that many children. We are NOT solving this problem.
The bold emphasis is ours.
Cramer: Feds Should Buy Futures
from TheStreet.com by twocents@thestreet.com (Jim Cramer and Farnoosh Torabi)
It's easier than giving checks to each bank, says Jim Cramer.
City Council Meeting - Tuesday - Oct 28, 2008
from City of Los Angeles: CLK Council Meeting Internet View (Videos Feed)
View Download File
Zuma's LA Daily Blog UPDATE for Tuesday October 28, 2008
from LA Daily Blog.com by zumadogg@gmail.com (zuma dogg)
Mike Antonovich on Measure R (A Letter For LA DAILY BLOG Readers)
Villaraiogsa Schedule of Public Appearances For Wednesday, October 28, 2008 (Planning Purposes Only)
Wall Street scores 2nd-best day ever on rate-cut hopes
from Reuters: Business News
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street marked its second-best day ever on Tuesday as investors, convinced that central banks worldwide will cut rates even more, scooped up stocks that had been driven down to their lowest prices in more than five years.
California's payments to foster parents are so low that the state is in violation of the federal Child Welfare Act, a federal judge in San Francisco ruled Wednesday.
LA Daily Blog UPDATE -- ODDS AND ENDS
from LA Daily Blog.com by zumadogg@gmail.com (zuma dogg)
(Sorry, couldn't create individual page links today with this computer)
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