Save L.A.—Tell Your Friends and Neighbors: No on A, Yes on James or Perry

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

It’s in the hands of all of us to stop the political machine from doing more harm to the city and the quality of our lives — we can force them to the table to negotiate real solutions by voting down the Measure A sales tax hike and getting Kevin James or Jan Perry into [...]

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59 Names That Should Live in Infamy: Special Interest Super-PAC Raised $620,200 to Sell Sales Tax Hike to Voters

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

When they talk about the entitlement class, put at the top of the list the unions, lawyers, lobbyists, businesses, real estate and billboard companies that contributed $620,200 to bamboozle the uninformed and gullible into voting for Proposition A, the sales tax hike on March 5. They are the shame of the city, greed merchants who [...]

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The Political Education of Assemblyman Anthony Portantino

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

Ask just about anyone who has hung around the state capitol a while — reporters, lobbyists, staffers — and they will tell you that 98% of our legislators forget who they are and why they are there within two years of being elected. The external pressure to do the bidding of special interests that supply [...]

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The Mighty Fall in Los Angeles’ Civic Theater of the Absurd

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

It was a moment of truth. History was being made right before our eyes when the public face of the Los Angeles civic establishment was dressed down by a pipsqueak like City Council President Herb Wesson. Richard Riordan, the popular former mayor who 40 years ago had helped bring down the city’s arch-conservative oligarchy and [...]

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We Need More from our Leaders

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

Crossposted on RonKayeLA Of all the fallen idols and soiled reputations of yesterday’s heroes, none stands out these days quite like Penn State’s Joe Paterno, stripped of his achievement as the winningest college football coach in history and relegated to a hall of shame. Given what so often is passing for leadership these days, they [...]

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How Dangerous Are Unlicensed Drivers? Are Their IDs and Insurance Really Valid? Nobody Knows

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

Crossposted on Ron Kaye LA About 2:30 a.m. last Friday, a car with six women aboard slammed into a tree at Florence and Halldale avenues in South LA, throwing five women from the vehicle and trapping a sixth, according to a City News Service report, which quoted Sgt. Norma Vargas as saying: “We don’t yet [...]

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Politicians Actions Speak Louder than Words

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

Crossposted RonKayeLA Events in recent days — from the eviction of Occupy L.A. protesters from the grounds of Los Angeles City Hall to the open-records lawsuit inspired by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino’s defiance of his party’s leadership — have exposed a level of political hypocrisy that ought to make everyone uneasy. Hypocrisy is rampant at all [...]

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The Dodgers and the Genius of Janice Hahn

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

crossposted RonKayeLA Dear Janice: Your daddy would be so proud of the stand you took in introducing legislation in the Congress of the United States of America called the “Give the Fans a Chance Act.” He never missed a chance to get his name in the newspaper either. Every newsroom in town knew the axiom, [...]

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L.A. City Hall’s Job Creation Fantasy: Whatever Happened to All Those Chinese Electric Cars?

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

Crossposted on RonKayeLA BYD — the Chinese electric carmaker that City Hall promoted as a job creation engine for Los Angeles — finally opened today a year late and a lot of dollars short. “In April 2010 when the deal was announced, BYD said it would open the office by the end of 2010, and [...]

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Lip Service to Business Community, Lip Service to Protesters — Corruption as Usual at City Hall

Ron Kaye
Former Editor of the Los Angeles Daily News

Cross-posted at RonKayeLA It was one of those gloriously only in L.A. moments when our hypocrisy and contradictions were on full display before the world. The city’s business community filled the City Council Chamber for two hours before the regular Council meeting last Wednesday to present a report on the city’s economy broken down by [...]

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