Issues

Top prosecutor. The city attorney’s race came to “Which Way, L.A.?” last night as KCRW’s Warren Olney conducted separate interviews with the candidates in Tuesday’s run-off election. The incumbent, Carmen Trutanich – or “Nuch” as he’s commonly known – finds himself in an uphill battle to keep the job that he won in a surprise victory four years ago.
After pledging not to run for another …

Los Angeles is historically horizontal, but it’s becoming increasingly vertical with a host of new projects going up from downtown to Santa Monica.  Many large building projects, on hold since the Great Recession, are not just back on the drawing boards but under construction.
So-called “smart growth” dictates that high-rise work space and housing is the best ways to accommodate increased growth within the region. A …

Governor’s budget. Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget proposal includes more money for schools, and less money for just about everything else. Even with state revenues surging, Brown’s revised budget trims $1.3 billion from the plan he presented in January.
Brown says there’s no guarantee the surge in tax revenue will last. And he says California’s finances remain unstable because of the federal sequester budget cuts …

Dealing with defiance. The L.A. Board of Education is due to vote tomorrow on a landmark resolution that would ban suspensions for what’s called “willful defiance.” The move comes amid a growing belief in some quarters that suspending students for disruptive behavior is counterproductive.
“Willful defiance” can involve anything from cursing at a teacher to incessant talking or failing to wear a school uniform. The …

On today’s Mixer, we welcomed Gene Maddaus from the LA Weekly and Howard Blume, the education reporter from the Los Angeles Times.
There are a couple of new polls that came out this week. One comes from the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles, showing 46% of likely voters backing Wendy Greuel and 45% who back Eric Garcetti.
Nine percent are still undecided.
The Cal State survey shows Greuel polls …

The UCLA-USC crosstown rivalry took a new turn today with a major case of academic poaching. USC has lured away two prominent neuroscientists from UCLA with a promise to expand their internationally renowned lab.
Their research uses brain imaging techniques to study Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, autism and other disorders. Arthur Toga and Paul Thompson will move to the USC Keck School of Medicine campus next …

Neck and neck. A new poll finds a virtual dead heat in the L.A. mayor’s race with less than two weeks to go before Election Day.
The results are good news for Wendy Greuel. The City Controller trailed in earlier surveys, but the new poll by the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State L.A. gives her a one-point lead over City Councilman Eric Garcetti – …

Immigrant tally. A new study confirms that the national debate over immigration reform is as important in Los Angeles as anywhere in the country.
One in 10 adults in L.A. County either crossed the U.S. border illegally or overstayed their visa, according to a report by USC researchers. In some parts of Koreatown and South L.A. that number is 1 in 3.
The report by USC’s …

It sounds pretty futuristic, but it’s now apparently possible to make your own gun – using a 3-D printer. That’s prompted one California legislator to propose banning the technology.
The Texas-based nonprofit group Defense Distributed is a collective of gun access advocates. Over the weekend the group successfully fired a handgun made mostly of plastic using a 3-D printer. The technology works by building up …

Pot shots. Now that the state Supreme Court has upheld the right of cities and counties to ban pot shop shops – what’s next for medical marijuana in California? And what about the three medical pot initiatives that will be on the Los Angeles city ballot two weeks from now?
The court’s unanimous decision means that a 1996 California ballot measure approving medical marijuana notwithstanding, …

Earlier this morning, the California Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, ruled that communities have the right to ban medical marijuana clinics from operating in their city limits using local zoning and land use ordinances. Currently, about 200 California communities maintain such bans using their zoning authority. Los Angeles, where cannabis clubs are as common as Starbucks, isn’t one of the places with a …

Home stretch. They weren’t exactly making nice, but when pressed both candidates for mayor of Los Angeles said their opponent was basically honest. Still, City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilman Eric Garcetti found plenty of other things to disagree about during their latest debate.
Moderator Jim Newton of the L.A. Times noted the sharply negative tone of the campaign in recent weeks and asked …

Fire danger. Warnings of an early and severe fire season are proving to be prescient.
The fast-burning, 10,000-acre Springs Fire in Ventura County is threatening up to 4,000 homes, with just 10 percent containment this morning. And there are fears that could it explode in size as a result of high heat, tinder-dry conditions and Santa Ana winds that are expected to blow until this …

“We live next to the ocean, but we also live on the edge of the desert. And without water, the dust will rise up and cover us as though we never existed.” – Chinatown
Gold made California boom. But water kept it going. That’s especially true for Los Angeles, whose never-ending quest for water is a deep part of its history. Much of LA’s water comes …

Prison problems. California is going to need to find a place to put more than 3,000 inmates currently serving time at the Pleasant Valley and Avenal prisons. The federal official responsible for overseeing healthcare in state lockups says prisoners who are at high-risk for contracting valley fever will have to be housed elsewhere. That includes inmates with chronic illnesses, such as HIV infection, but …

Jackson trial. Michael Jackson has been dead and buried for nearly four years. But the answer to the question of who bears responsibility for the pop star’s overdose on the narcotic propofol could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, or a billion, if you believe the Jackson family. Arguments are scheduled to begin today in L.A. in the family’s wrongful death lawsuit against concert …

Who’s in first? A new poll finds a dramatic turnaround in the L.A. mayor’s contest – with City Controller Wendy Gruel edging ahead of City Councilman Eric Garcetti by three percentage points. But not everyone is convinced it reflects the true state of the race. The poll by Survey USA It shows Greuel with 45 percent support, Garcetti with 42 percent, and 13 percent …

Bloomberg bucks. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is throwing more money into the L.A. School Board race. Bloomberg gave $350,000 this week to the Coalition for School Reform. The political committee is led by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and supports the policies of L.A. Schools chief John Deasy. Prior to the March primary, the New York’s billionaire mayor donated $1 million to the committee. …

Safe(r) at home. Foreclosures in California are way down. The improving economy and rising home prices are factors in the downturn. The real estate firm DataQuick says lenders are also struggling to adjust to a new state law known as the “Homeowner Bill of Rights.” During the first three months of the year, the number of defaults in the Golden State dropped by more …

Patient dumping. L.A. is investigating allegations that Nevada’s main psychiatric hospital has been busing indigent patients to California cities. L.A. County mental health officials say no patients from Nevada have been identified so far. But they plan to take a closer look. The Sacramento Bee has reported that more than 200 patients released from the Nevada facility were given one-way bus tickets to L.A. …