LA family slapped with shocking $10K water bill after nearby fire hydrant repairs

A Los Angeles homeowner is demanding answers after getting hit with a jaw-dropping water bill — and he suspects a nearby fire hydrant may be to blame.

Joshua Ward, whose family has lived for two generations at their home near Sunland Boulevard and Wornom Avenue, said he’s never seen anything close to the $10,000 charge.

Even during last year’s summer heat, Ward’s water bill averaged about $1,400. In April, it was $765, and by June, it had dropped to roughly $640.

He believes a nearby fire hydrant repair may have sent his latest bill through the roof.

Neighbors confirmed the water had been shut off several times during the work as the hydrant was moved farther up the street.

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Los Angeles County DA Considers Charges Against Eric Swalwell Over Allegations of Alleged Rape of Beverly Hills Woman

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office is currently reviewing a criminal case against former Rep. Eric Swalwell over allegations that he drugged, raped, and choked Beverly Hills woman Lonna Drewes in 2018, but no charging decision has been made.

According to multiple reports, the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department Special Victims Bureau is still in the early stages of investigating the allegations, which were first made public in April 2026 when Drewes accused Swalwell of drugging, sexually assaulting, and choking her during a July 2018 encounter in a West Hollywood hotel room.

Swalwell resigned from Congress in April.

In August, The Daily Mail reported, FBI agents confronted Swalwell with a search warrant when he landed at San Francisco Airport on Saturday. They then took the former congressman’s electronic devices, including his cell phone, reportedly as part of a federal criminal investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct.  Per the Standard, the warrant was issued under federal statute 18 U.S.C. § 242.

Swalwell is being accused of multiple counts of sexual misconduct and assault, a lengthy prison sentence appears firmly on the table should he be convicted.

In was previously reported that the Intel Community had a classified report detailing Democrat Rep. Eric Swalwell’s intimate relationship with Fang Fang.

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Feds Storm Skid Row with a 100-Vehicle Convoy to Take Down Drug Network Operating in Tents and Storefronts

Federal agents and Los Angeles police raided Skid Row before dawn Thursday, serving dozens of warrants in a takedown of dealers supplying fentanyl, meth, cocaine, and PCP to the blocks of homeless encampments that plague downtown Los Angeles.

Authorities called the raid Operation Skid Row, and targeted more than two dozen suspected street dealers and suppliers after a three-month investigation.

The FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the LAPD used phone taps, undercover officers, and drones to build the cases.

By morning, agents had arrested 28 people.

A convoy of roughly 100 law enforcement vehicles cordoned off blocks and parks around Fifth and Crocker streets, trapping dealers who had been working the sidewalks.

Investigators said the dealers were not standing on corners in the open. Some sold from a Mercedes. Some posed as homeless men living in tents that were in fact drug dens. Others used storefronts or posed as social workers and homeless-services providers.

Drugs were also stashed in single-room-occupancy units and low-income housing.

Agents seized narcotics, guns, and luxury cars.

Officials said homeless people were not the target. The warrants were for dealers, and multiple gang members are among those facing charges.

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Karen Bass: Trump ‘Invaded’ L.A. to Intimidate Latino Immigrants

Tuesday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said President Donald Trump “invaded last June with federal troops for no reason at all to intimidate a whole sector of our population, Latino immigrants.”

Bass said, “Well, first of all, I was horrified that the president would basically say that another country is perfectly fine to take out or to attack our city and our sister city two hours away. The role of the president is to protect and defend the American people. He went to war with Iran, and he basically said, it‘s okay, that it‘s a small price to pay to attack 3.8 million people in the nation‘s second largest city. I was horrified by those comments. But then again, we are the city that he invaded last June with federal troops for no reason at all to intimidate a whole sector of our population, Latino immigrants.”

She added, “I think that when our city was invaded by the Marines and and 4000 National Guard troops for no reason at all, that that’s all part of the plan to get the U.S. public to acclimate to military intervention in our cities. I said from day one, I thought L.A. was an experiment and this was going to spread around the country. We saw that that was the case. Now, maybe the next time it happens, Americans won’t be so outraged because they’ve seen so many cities have federal intervention from the military. It’s a misuse of the military and irresponsible words.”

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Los Angeles County Introduces 10.25% Sales Tax

Los Angeles County introduced a 10.25 percent sales tax on Thursday, four months after voters approved Measure ER.

The Essential Services Restoration Act (Measure ER) overwhelmingly passed in L.A. County earlier this year, raising the sales tax by a half-cent to support health care and other essential services – from 9.75 percent to 10.25 percent.

“For every $100 in taxable purchases, Measure ER adds 50 cents in tax, bringing the total to $110.25,” noted NBC News. “The increase is temporary. Measure ER allows the tax to remain in effect for five years until Oct. 1, 2031 as it is projected to generate about $1 billion annually.”

Supporters of the measure say that it will support roughly 700,000 L.A. County residents dealing with the loss of health insurance as federal funding for Medi-Cal is reduced:

Proponents say Measure ER will provide health care support for those who are losing Medi-Cal so they don’t show up to the local emergency rooms sicker with more serious illnesses.

The federal funding cut will also impact public hospitals and clinics, but if Measure ER passed, it would make up for the lost funds and save some of the public health care facilities and programs.

Critics of the measure, however, charge that it imposes an “unreasonable and unfairly harsh” sales tax in a county with an already high tax. L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger also said that residents are “stretched thin” with one of the highest metropolitan sales taxes in the nation.

“This proposed half-cent increase would push us even higher, making our county less affordable for families and less appealing for consumers to shop and businesses to operate,” Barger said.

“Moving forward, my responsibility is to ensure the revenues generated are managed with accountability and measurable results,” she also said. “Taxpayers deserve to know how these funds are being spent, whether promised outcomes are being achieved. I will be a strong advocate for rigorous oversight and fiscal responsibility every step of the way.”

The Libertarian Party of L.A. County also filed a lawsuit against the tax.

According to LA Mag, spending from the “tax revenue collected by the measure will be tracked through annual audits by the Auditor-Controller, public reporting and a nine-member Citizens’ Oversight Committee that includes the Director of the Department of Public Health and other members appointed by the Board of Supervisors.”

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Federal appeals court orders Trump admin to release Los Angeles homeless funds

federal appeals court on Thursday ordered the Department of Housing and Urban Development to release federal funding that has already been allocated to homeless service organizations in Los Angeles but was not distributed. 

The court order was in response to the Trump administration’s attempt to oversee how homeless service organizations in Los Angeles can seek millions of dollars in federal funding, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angles Homeless Services Authority was seeking up to $239 million on behalf of dozens of organizations, but HUD suspended LAHSA in June, citing a record of mismanagement, and directed the groups to apply directly through the federal government.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday largely upheld a district court ruling in a 2-1 split, which restored LAHSA as the applicant for the organizations.

The court determined that HUD “chose to suspend LAHSA at a time when it would leave the Los Angeles region particularly vulnerable” with ill effects on “vulnerable populations, critical programs and ongoing services.” 

“It is likely that its plan is unworkable and, at this late stage, extremely difficult if not virtually impossible to implement,” the decision added.

The new deadline for LAHSA to apply for HUD funding is Oct. 14. The original deadline was the end of August.

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OH GREAT: Los Angeles is Now Reporting an Outbreak of TYPHUS

The city of Los Angeles is now reporting an outbreak of the disease Typhus. It is connected to fleas on rats which are flourishing in the city’s numerous homeless encampments.

California has the highest tax rate in the country. Why? What do people get for paying such high taxes? They get preventable diseases because their leaders are worthless.

There’s really no excuse for this at all.

NBC News in Los Angeles reports:

Flea-borne typhus rising in LA County with latest case reported in Wilshire Center

Typhus, a flea-borne bacterial disease, is on the rise in Los Angeles County, with the latest localized case reported in the Wilshire Center neighborhood, public health officials said Tuesday.

The disease is spread to humans by infected fleas that commonly live on rats, opossums, stray cats and other animals. Common symptoms include headaches, chills, muscle aches and rash.

The Wilshire Center case is the second localized typhus outbreak this year, according to the LA County Department of Public Health.

There were at least seven symptomatic cases linked to the outbreak, health officials said. Six of the seven patients had to be hospitalized at one point. All have recovered, the department said.

So far this year, 109 flea-borne typhus cases have been reported in Los Angeles County.

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Far Left Texas Democrat James Talarico to Hold Campaign Event in Los Angeles for Some Reason

If you were running for office in Texas, wouldn’t you hold all of your campaign events in Texas?

The only reason to ask this question is that James Talarico, the far-left Democrat running for Senate in Texas, is planning to hold an event in Los Angeles, California, for some reason. Is this so all of his far-left friends in Hollywood have a chance to meet him and donate cash to his campaign? Why else would he be going there?

It makes sense if you think of it that way. Hollywood leftists are probably his biggest fans.

FOX News reports:

Texas Dem candidate to hold high-dollar Hollywood fundraiser while GOP gathers in Dallas: ‘Fake cowboy’

Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico is set to travel to Los Angeles in September for a high-dollar fundraiser with Hollywood celebrities, according to a report.

Politico reported that “Lost” co-creator Damon Lindelof and his wife, Heidi, will host a fundraiser for Talarico in Brentwood on Sept. 10. Tickets for the event start at $500 and go as high as $13,500, according to the outlet. This will be Talarico’s second Hollywood fundraiser in a few months. The first was held in June and was described by Page Six Hollywood as a “glitzy Dem fundraiser” at the home of Hollywood producer Peter Chernin. Fox News Digital reached out to the Lindelofs and Chernin for comment.

Meanwhile, Talarico’s opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, will gather in Dallas for the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention, along with President Donald Trump and other Republicans. The same night Republicans rally in Dallas, former President Barack Obama will headline a Democratic House fundraiser in New York, according to The New York Times. The events put prominent Democrats on the coasts while Republicans gather in Texas…

Talarico is taking heat from Republicans for his out-of-state fundraising. RNC spokesperson Zach Kraft told Fox News Digital that “it is no surprise that James Talarico feels more comfortable in crazy liberal California than when his handlers force him to wear a fake cowboy hat and rent a pickup truck to pretend to be a ‘real’ Texan.”

Nothing about Talarico is genuine.

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Ex-Muslim Criticizes Islam, and for Leftists, It’s Time for a Virtue-Signaling Party

Grab your hazmat suit: There has been a severe outbreak of “Islamophobia” in Los Angeles. But don’t worry: the intrepid Mayor Karen Bass is on the job. “Islamophobia,” she declared Friday, “has no place in Los Angeles.”

Bass was late to the party. She made this pronouncement a day after Lindsey P. Horvath, supervisor of Los Angeles County’s third district, denounced the same “vile and dangerous Islamophobia” and added: “It should alarm every one of us: an attack on one community is an attack on us all.” And Horvath was writing two days after the Nexus Project, which combats antisemitism but is apparently branching out, said about the same incident: “This is bigotry, and it should never be met with applause in any room, let alone one at a Jewish event. We call on the sponsoring organizations to condemn this without equivocation.”

Even that was slow on the uptake. It was back on Monday when the Hamas-linked Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued its marching orders, claiming that the alleged “Islamophobia” was “the same sort of rhetoric that has fueled a rise in anti-Muslim bigotry and violence, including the attack on the Islamic Center of San Diego. The sponsors of this summit should apologize, repudiate these remarks, and support justice for all people, here and abroad.”

The problem for Bass and all the others who were piling on and clutching their pearls over this supposedly “Islamophobic” event was that the speaker who had so enraged Hamas-linked CAIR, such that it had to call out the politicians that it carries around in its pocket like so many nickels and dimes, was not some redneck, knuckle-dragging bigot answering a casting call for white supremacists from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Instead, the speaker that inspired all this posturing and virtue signaling was Mosab Hassan Yousef, who is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a cofounder of Hamas. While CAIR and Bass and the rest cry about alleged “bigotry,” they’re apparently hoping that no one will notice that the target of their venom knows what he is talking about.

What Mosab Hassan Yousef said that is driving everyone crazy was this: “And there is no room for Islam dominance, especially here in the United States. Let me be very clear about this. I personally, I as an American, I as a taxpayer, I don’t want Muslims in America. Get the f**k out of the United States. Go back to the s******e where you came from and reform your own countries. This country is perfect and it’s much better without your Islamic belief system. Do I need to be more clear than this?”

Mosab Hassan Yousef grew up as a Muslim, among some of the most committed and knowledgeable Muslims in the world. He has, however, rejected it and embraced Christianity, and now he minces no words in speaking about this violent and supremacist ideology. Many will find his words about wanting Muslims out of America to be too strong, but no one can honestly say they’re based on bigotry or ignorance, or even on dislike of Muslims as human beings. He is speaking this way because he has firsthand experience regarding the brutality, inhumanity, and oppression of Islamic law.

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Former Crips Leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis Found Guilty in 1996 Murder of Rapper Tupac Shakur

A Las Vegas jury on Monday found former Crips gang leader Duane “Keffe D” Davis guilty of first-degree murder in the killing of rapper Tupac Shakur.

25-year-old Tupac Shakur was gunned down in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, in September 1996.

Rap record executive Suge Knight was driving a BMW while Tupac was riding as a passenger when passengers in a white Cadillac pulled up and opened fire on the rapper.

Prosecutors did not allege that Duane Davis pulled the trigger, but under Nevada law, anyone who helps aid, abet, or orchestrate a murder can be criminally charged.

Duane Davis is the only person to be charged in the murder of Tupac Shakur.

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