Alan Jackson for District Attorney

I plan to vote for Alan Jackson for District Attorney.

People who know about such matters all tell me he's the right guy for the job, so he's got my vote. Plus, he put Phil Spector away.

The good news is, we have an election with a choice between several excellent candidates.  How nice not to have to vote for the lesser of two evils for a change!

But the one person for whom you must not vote, under any circumstances is Carmen Trutanich. If you're unclear about that, visit Los Angeles Dragnet.

Does Community Property Law Explain Timing Of Zuckerberg Marriage?

Call me cynical, but I suspect Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg got married AFTER the IPO so that, in this community property state, his lawyers could prove, with mathematical precision, the value of his sole and separate property if, Heaven forbid, a divorce ever doth part the newly wed locked couple. It's not complicated.

Don't get the picture? Google "Marvin v. Marvin," pal.

There's a nice explanation of how community property law applies to the increased value of a business in a post back in February 2012 at the website of an Arizona law firm called the Wallin Group:

A common situation was addressed in the 2008 case of Rueschenberg v. Rueschenberg: the husband already owned a business prior to the marriage–so it is separate property-- but during the marriage the business increases in value. What part of the increase in value is community property that must be split with the wife in the event of divorce? Some of it? All? None?  How is the  property division done?
When the value of the business is increased during the marriage, the presumption is that this increase is community property. This presumption can only be overcome by "clear and convincing evidence" (which in Arizona is a higher standard than "more likely than not", but not as high as "beyond a reasonable doubt"). In determining the community interest in the husband’s separate business, if the profits and/or increase in value result from the inherent qualities of the business and external factors (such as marketing efforts by others, or population growth in the market region), the profits and increase are separate property; if the profits and/or increase result from the individual toil and application of the husband (and/or the wife, if she works in the business), they are community property. But the presumption is the latter. This is true even if the community was already compensated to some extent in the form of earnings extracted from the business.

Greuel's Latest So-Called "Audit" Is Just Another Re-Hash Of Old Headlines

Coming soon:  Copycat 2, starring Wendy Greuel

On May 18, 2012, Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel issued a so-called "audit" reporting that the Fire Department's statistics on response times are not accurate.

But that fact had already been established months earlier:

On March 7, 2012, former Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner let the cat out of the bag at the Huffington Post by revealing what he and presumably the rest of his fellow City Hall insiders -- including Greuel -- already knew, namely, that response times were up:

In 2008, Los Angeles was a leader in response time, with the LAFD arriving on the scene of a medical emergency within five minutes 86% of the time.

In 2011, after the cuts and Mr. Garcetti's promises, the LAFD arrived at a medical emergency within five minutes only 59% of the time. The big drop from 86% to 59% -- for every 100 incidents the LAFD responds to there are at least 27 victims who don't get the timely help they need.  

On March 10, 2012, NBC Channel 4 aired a story entitled "LA Fire Department Fudges Response Times," which cited a story from the same day in the Los Angeles Times. 

By March 23, 2012, Villaraigosa, pretending he was some kind of outsider, announced he would look into the matter.

So now Greuel is belatedly "revealing" what everybody has known for months.

Nor is this the first time Greuel has tried to pass off someone else's homework as her own. Remember how she issued an "audit" stating there was corruption at the Coliseum -- AFTER the press had reported INDICTMENTS had been issued? Remember how she re-cycled Laura Chick's old audits -- the audits that Greuel ignored when Greuel was on the City Council?

Why is Greuel trying to pass off others' work as her own? Easy. She is manufacturing fodder for her campaign commercials. She will run TV ads to try to dupe L.A.'s lazy, uninformed voters into believing that she revealed all these problems, when instead all she did was have her staff re-package stale news stories.

Hey, Wendy, can you point to any audit you have issued -- any at all -- that identified a problem before it was already reported in the press? Didn't think so.

How Occupy L.A. Can Use City Hall's Stupid Settlement With ACLU In 2007 To Camp Downtown

To avoid spending another $4.7 million on lawn repair and the like, the City Council plans to pass a new ordinance to keep Occupy L.A. and other people from "camping" at City Hall.  The Los Angeles Times reports:

The City Council will vote Tuesday on an ordinance to prohibit tents as well as sleeping bags, bed rolls and hammocks in scores of parks across the city. The ban is timed to go into effect before crews take down the fence that has surrounded the City Hall lawn for the last six months while it was being rehabilitated.

Perhaps the City Council has forgotten the imbecilic settlement agreement that Garcetti, Greuel, Perry, Villaraigosa and all the rest of them made with the ACLU back in 2007, which gave the homeless a "right" to camp in front of your home.  The New York Times reported on it back then as follows:

Under the settlement reached between the City Council and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which had sued the city in 2003 on behalf of six homeless people, the city will allow sleeping on sidewalks from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. People will not be able to bed down within 10 feet of the entrance of a building, parking lot or loading dock.

So all the Occupy people have to do is camp on the sidewalks around City Hall. Problem solved. You're welcome. 

Mayoral Race: The Differences Between Villaraigosa, Garcetti, Greuel and Perry

Villaraigosa, Garcetti, Perry and Greuel are interchangeable.  There is no difference between them.

Do you know what the key differences are between Villaraigosa, Garcetti, Greuel and Perry?

It's a trick question. There are no differences between them. They have all jointly been running this City -- into the ground -- for the past decade. They agree on everything. They support the same policies. They are completely interchangeable.

The famous Los Angeles magazine cover could have featured any of them, and should have featured all of them, along with the rest of the City Council. They are jointly and severally liable for the bankrupt disaster that is L.A. today.

If you think our City can and must do better, don't replace one flat tire with another flat tire. Support Kevin James for Mayor.

Justice For Jamiel Shaw II

The jury found Pedro Espinoza guilty of murdering Jamiel Shaw, II today.  Good.

But how about taking action, at long last, to prevent this from happening to anyone else?  How about creating an exception to L.A.'s "sanctuary city" immigration policy for gang members who are in this country illegally.

The City of Los Angeles needs to adopt Jamiel's Law.  There is no legitimate reason to continue to make Los Angeles a sanctuary city for gang members who come to our country illegally not to work, but to kill.

Everyone of every political ideology can and should agree that the L.A.P.D. should stop "looking the other way" when it comes to gang members whom we could deport. We should prevent preventable murders.

Mayoral Final Four: Kevin James vs. The Three Villaraigosas

Now that billionaire Austin Beutner has dropped out of the race to become L.A.'s next Mayor, the choice for voters is more clear than ever:  do you want the same people who have been running the City for the past decade to continue down this same road, or do you want to give an outsider a chance?

There are four candidates left, and three of them have already been running the City for the past decade -- running it into the ground. 

There is no material difference between the three insiders, namely, Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry and Wendy Greuel. They've all been running the City from their positions as City Council Members. They all voted the same way. They all agreed with Villaraigosa about everything.  For all intents and purposes, they are merely Villaraigosa clones.

Think about it: in the many years they have already been in office, did Garcetti, Perry or Greuel ever do anything, anything at all, to fight corruption and waste at City Hall, or to promote employment?  No. 

Did they ever disagree about any public policy issue? No. When it comes to their records, you can't tell them apart from Villaraigosa or from one another, because they're all exactly the same. They all just cater to the special interests that fund their campaigns. The are indistinguishable from Villaraigosa.

And don't tell me Greuel has done anything as Controller. She merely recycled the same audits that her predecessor, Laura Chick, already issued years ago -- audits about which Greuel did nothing when she sat on the City Council.

You've already seen what Garcetti, Perry and Greuel will do if you put them in office, because they've all been in office for over a decade. They are the people who have raised your DWP rates year after year, let the streets crumble, handed hundreds of millions of tax dollars to billionaire developers, and brought the City to the brink of bankruptcy. If they could do any better, they would have done so long ago. They have failed.

So in March 2013, when you cast your ballot, you can maintain the status quo, and reward the three insiders for their horrid performance as stewards of this City. Or you can give someone else a chance. 

You can elect an outsider, someone not beholden to special interests, an experienced lawyer, a former federal prosecutor, who is running not because he needs a job or craves power, but because he wants to make our City better.

Kevin James is this City's only hope. We need to get him elected. We cannot afford four more years under the control of another Villaraigosa.

How City Hall "Fakes" Cuts By Using Two Sets Of Books

Here are some slides I put together from Villaraigosa's budget documents to show that City Hall's supposed cuts are illusory.  Gruel, Garcetti, Perry and all the rest have simply "papered over" the problem by moving union employees from the payroll of City Hall to the payroll of the "proprietary" departments.  Furthermore, they have, in effect, illegally raised your taxes without the required two-thirds vote by raising your utility rates to pay for this shell game.  Enjoy:

DWP DUI OMG

Branding Opportunity

DWP DUI.  Channel 2 David Goldstein reports a drunken DWP supervisor crashed a DWP vehicle into three cars, with two open bottles of vodka, while receiving a six-figure salary from you and me.

If that sounds familiar, it's because a year ago today, David Goldstein reported on DWP employees spending their time -- and your dime -- drinking and frequenting strip clubs.

Meanwhile, your DWP rates are going up AGAIN. Remember this as the Mayoral election of 2013 approaches. This all happened on the watch of Wendy Greuel, Eric Garcetti, Jan Perry et al. You want change? Help Kevin James win.

Why Does Mayoral Candidate Wendy Greuel Keep Trying To Pass Off Laura Chick's Homework As Her Own?

Wendy, stop copying! Do your own work.

In her bid to become L.A.'s next Mayor, City Controller Wendy Greuel has announced, with much fanfare, that she has just completed a "comprehensive" audit of the Department of Transportation.  She has come up with 26 -- count 'em, 26! -- recommendations to improve operations there.

Your job, of course, is to be terribly impressed by the hard work she did on the project. Well, technically, she didn't do anything but sign the cover letter. It's not as though she's a C.P.A., or even has a degree in accounting or anything.

But here's the problem: all Greuel is doing is trying to pass off, as her own work, the same old audits that her predecessor, Laura Chick, handed in while Greuel was on the City Council. Chick already audited the Department of Transportation over and over, in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. Chick's 2007 audit, moreover, had 17 recommendations.

Can you say, "re-inventing the wheel?" Sure you can.

Plus, this is the third time that Greuel herself has purported to audit the DOT during the three years she's been Controller.

Did Greuel do anything, anything at all, about any of Chick's audits while Greuel was on the City Council? No. So why should you believe that she would suddenly take action if you promote her to Mayor. She had her chance.

If you want to fix this City, you cannot let your uninformed fellow citizens simply recycle the interchangeable career politicians at City Hall.  Greuel, Garcetti, Beutner and Perry are all the same person, and they're the ones who, over the past decade, have made this city the mess it is.

If you want to fix the City, you need to put a real outsider in office, whose only goal is to make L.A. a great place to live. Contribute $25 today to Kevin James for Mayor, would you? We can't take four more years of grueling incompetence and corruption at City Hall.  (Get it?  "Grueling?")

[If you'd like to see the various audits in PDF format, and if I've mastered Google Docs sufficiently, you should be able to find them here:  Audits of Department of Transportation.]