Tag: los angeles

L.A.’s rebuilding nightmare: Only 4 permits issued after fire destroys 6,000 homes

Nearly three months after wildfires ravaged Pacific Palisades, reducing 6,000 structures to ash, the City of Los Angeles has issued a mere four rebuilding permits — an agonizingly slow pace that has left displaced residents in bureaucratic limbo. Meanwhile, city officials diverted resources to demolish a 20-year-old family treehouse over permit violations, sparking outrage among homeowners who say the government’s priorities are catastrophically misplaced.

As victims of the January inferno struggle to navigate a labyrinth of red tape, builder Alexis Rivas revealed the city lost his pre-approved fire rebuild application — forcing him to restart the entire process. At the same time, Mayor Karen Bass, already grappling with a $1 billion budget deficit, is seeking an additional $1.9 billion state bailout on top of $2.5 billion in fire aid — even as she threatens to label fire-ravaged properties as “nuisances” if owners don’t clear debris quickly.

The glacial pace of recovery has drawn sharp criticism from local leaders, including Councilwoman Traci Park, who called the permit backlog “concerning” and warned of “hundreds of billions in economic losses.”

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Leftist KTLA Scrambles for Cover After Posting “N-Word” on Social Media — Claims It Was a “Technical Error”

KTLA, widely regarded as a mouthpiece for the California Democrat Party, is under fire after a shocking racial slur was posted to its official account on X.

The Los Angeles-based outlet is now scrambling to save face, claiming the shocking post was nothing more than a “technical error.”

The now-deleted post, which included the full “N-word,” was live on KTLA’s X account long enough to spark immediate backlash.

KTLA quickly attempted to downplay the incident, blaming a so-called “technical error” related to a language filter gone wrong.

According to the carefully curated PR statement, the station claimed: “KTLA experienced a technical error while adding language filters to our social media accounts, resulting in an offensive word being accidentally shared. We are appalled and apologize that this occurred.”

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LA Budget Crisis, Deficit Approaches $1 Billion, Layoffs ‘Nearly Inevitable’

L.A.’s financial problems exploded into a full-blown crisis on Wednesday, with the city’s top budget official announcing that next year’s shortfall is now just shy of $1 billion, making layoffs “nearly inevitable.”

City Administrative Officer Matt Szabo said Mayor Karen Bass’ proposed budget, which will be released April 21, will close that gap, but it will require difficult “cost-cutting decisions.” He warned that the severity of revenue declines and rising costs has created a budget gap that makes layoffs “nearly inevitable.”

Szabo, in his presentation to the council Wednesday, attributed the city’s financial woes, in part, to increased spending on legal payouts, which have ballooned over the last few years. Tax revenues have been coming in much weaker than expected — and are expected to soften further in the upcoming budget year, which starts July 1.

Pay raises for city employees that are scheduled to go into effect in the coming budget year are expected to consume an additional $250 million. On top of that, Szabo said, the city needs to put hundreds of millions into its reserve fund, which has been drained in recent months in an attempt to balance this year’s budget.

Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky, who heads the budget committee, said the council will need to look at the possibility of asking unions representing city workers to defer the scheduled raises or make other concessions.

“I think everything needs to be on the table,” she said in an interview.

David Green, president and executive director of Service Employees International Union Local 721, called Szabo’s remarks “short-sighted and irresponsible.”

“There’s no question that all of us are in shock with this number,” said Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, who sits on the council’s budget committee.

Blumenfield predicted that city leaders would need to seek financial concessions from the workforce.

“Eighty percent of our expenses is labor,” he said. “If we are short more than 10% of our budget, the ‘math doesn’t math’ without looking at labor costs.”

Over the last two years, Bass and the council have signed off on raises and increased benefits for an array of unions — first police officers, then civilian city workers, then firefighters.

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Leftist UCLA Law Professor Sparks Uproar After Calling for a Military Insurrection Against President Trump

Another radical leftist has been caught calling for violence against President Trump.

As TGP readers know, leftists across America have issued countless calls for violence against members of the Trump Administration for weeks, including the president himself.

This situation has gotten so dire that agitators are now accosting the children of these officials.

On Saturday, UCLA Criminal Law Professor Peter Arenella posted a tweet saying that the U.S. Military must launch an insurrection against Trump in order to stop America from becoming an ally of Russia. Yes, he actually said the U.S. military must destroy democracy to prevent America from joining forces with an authoritarian regime.

How dangerous and ironic.

“At this point, my only hope for the US to avoid becoming an ally to Russia is a violent resistance by our military,” he wrote. “Tragic to say that because the military are trained to avoid any politically motivated intervention. Firing all the Joint Chief of Staff military leaders and replacing them with military acolytes of Trump anticipated that possibility and acted swiftly to minimize that type of intervention.

Ultimately, we will get what we deserve by giving Trump a second chance to destroy our democracy, he added.

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The Media Can’t Hide This Trump Victory Forever

The Trump administration has shattered expectations with its rapid response to the Los Angeles wildfire cleanup, delivering results in record time and proving critics wrong. Despite accusations of inefficiency and political grandstanding, the administration worked closely with California officials to expedite the recovery effort.

And no one is covering it.

CNN’s Scott Jennings pointed this out Friday night on “Laura Coates Live” on CNN, after Keith Boykin, a Democratic strategist and former Clinton White House aide, made a wild accusation that the Trump administration was responsible for “waste, fraud, and abuse” across various sectors, including water management and foreign aid.

“Not to mention the $400 million going to Elon Musk for his Cybertruck,” Boykin claimed. “This is the waste, fraud, and abuse in America. It’s not because of the federal workers doing their jobs. It’s because Donald Trump is self-dealing.”

The Cybertruck story was debunked last month, by the way. 

But to the larger point that somehow Trump is causing “waste, fraud, and abuse” in America, Jennings destroyed that claim in a matter of seconds by highlighting an achievement that has gotten virtually no coverage in the media.

It turns out that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Trump completed the hazardous materials cleanup in Los Angeles in just 29 days—far ahead of initial projections. “The estimates were it was going to take 18 months,” Jennings pointed out. “But this is the cleanup of the hazardous material that you have to do in order to start rebuilding. Twenty-nine days.”

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Los Angeles cannot track money spent on homeless programs, independent audit finds

  • An independent audit commissioned by a federal judge raised serious concerns about how Los Angeles city and county are handling the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on the homelessness crisis. 

Sergio Moreno’s business sits in the heart of Skid Row, where he sees homeless people overdosing on drugs. 

“There were days we’d see two to three overdoses,” he said. 

The things Moreno has witnessed made him suspicious on how the city has managed the response to the homeless crisis. 

“It’s not dollars we’re talking about,” he said. “Those dollars translate into people’s lives.”

His feelings have been heightened following the independent audit released on Thursday. It claims that Los Angeles city and county leaders cannot account for the billions of taxpayer dollars spent on the homeless crisis last year. The LA Alliance for Human Rights pressed for a series of audits in recent years. 

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Elizabeth Mitchell, an attorney for LA Alliance for Human Rights. “It’s atrocious. It’s immoral. It’s unjustified. But, what it is not, is surprising.”

Many of the problems identified were at the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, known as LAHSA. 

The auditors said the agency’s paper trail was so poor that tracking the $2.5 billion spent last year was nearly impossible. 

“It is an actual infrastructure disaster,” Mitchell said. “The truth is everybody is in charge and nobody is in charge. There are no checks and balances.”

The office of LA County Supervisor Linsey Horvath called for accountability, results and an end to this “nightmare.”

“This audit is another reminder of what we already know – the current homelessness services system is broken,” she said in a statement. “We need accountability and results right now, which is why I’m proceeding with the creation of a consolidated County department that will end this nightmare.”

The president of the Downtown LA Neighborhood Council believes there are other record-keeping problems. 

“Even the homeless count is not accurate,” Claudia Olviveira said. “Nothing is accurate and based on data.”

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“Needs To Be Torn Down”: LA Fire Stations Are In Total Disrepair

LAFD fire stations are in disrepair, with firefighters often funding and handling repairs themselves, according to The Free Press.  

At a Pico-Robertson station, two firefighters were seen filling a three-foot pothole with sand. At another, a sewage leak had persisted for six months—“now the ceiling is falling in.”

A source reported that at least 12 of the city’s 106 stations were infested with mold. At Fire Station 112, an April 2022 report found 2.3 million spores in the dining hall, where a safe level is under 700. A firefighter who paid for the test claimed his chief became so ill he was hospitalized, resulting in a thumb amputation. Another firefighter refused to enter the kitchen because his “face would break into hives.”

At a station east of downtown, a broken window had been boarded up, and roof tiles showed water damage. Another firefighter stated that the LAFD ignored a broken garage door for a year—only repairing it after the community raised funds.

A firefighter, speaking anonymously for fear of retaliation, said “anyone legitimate would say the station needs to be torn down.”

The Free Press article notes that the LAFD’s budget was cut by $17.6 million last year, a reduction Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said had “adversely affected” the department’s “ability to maintain core operations,” including fire prevention. Mayor Karen Bass has denied that the cuts have impacted firefighting efforts, despite blazes that have killed 27 people and destroyed 12,000 buildings.

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Leaked Phone Call: Karen Bass Defends Trip to Ghana, Drops Cryptic Warning Before LA Wildfires

O’Keefe Media Group obtained leaked audio of Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass defending her trip to Ghana just three days before the wildfires erupted in Los Angeles in early January.

LA’s Democrat Mayor Karen Bass slashed Fire Department funding by $17.6 million a few months before the fires erupted last month.

January’s blaze was the most destructive fire in Los Angeles history and the city was not prepared to contain the fire because of Democrats like Karen Bass.

Karen Bass was tweeting from Africa as her city burned down.

The LA Mayor was actually in Africa attending the presidential inauguration in Ghana as hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles residents evacuated and watched their homes burn down.

Fire hydrants ran dry due to Democrat incompetence but Karen Bass saved the day by tweeting from Africa.

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MUST SEE: LA Officials Blame Residents for Wildfires, Admit They Knew The Fires Were Coming and Pacific Palisades Reservoir Was Empty for “A Year” – Official Threatens to Call 911 When Confronted

James O’Keefe’s O’Keefe Media Group has released a new investigative report on Los Angeles officials’ response to the wildfires last month, which raged across LA County. 

Over 12,000 homes were destroyed in the blazes, and at least 29 died.

Due to Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass’s failed leadership and radical leftist policies, which cut $17.6 million from the Fire Department’s budget a few months ago and reduced the city’s water supply available in fire hydrants, firetrucks were forced to use residential hoses to fill up their water tanks. The fire hydrants had run dry, exacerbating the crisis.

The Santa Ynez Reservoir, with a capacity of 117 million gallons, could have played a critical role in providing water pressure to firefighters battling the devastating fire that destroyed thousands of homes and buildings in Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and Malibu. However, it had been offline and empty for nearly a year, which incompetent Governor Gavin Newsom called “deeply troubling.”

Alexander Boz, an international relations official with the Los Angeles Mayor’s office, and LA Department of Water and Power project manager Angel Luna told an undercover journalist more about the state’s botched fire response.

Angel Luna acknowledged that the reservoir in Pacific Palisades was empty and taken out of service but claimed that the more than 100 million gallons wouldn’t have made an impact “because of the fact that you lost so many homes.” He further claimed that LA firefighters were “breaking our equipment” when the topic of empty fire hydrants was brought up.

Ignoring the incompetence that led to a lack of available water, Luna dismissed the notion that residents needed water, saying, “Yeah, but we like in a desert” and “It doesn’t rain here.”

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WAIT, WHAT? LA Mayor Karen Bass Investigating Why She Was Allowed to Travel to Africa While Her City Burned

The people of Los Angeles really need to fire Mayor Karen Bass.

As it is now widely known, Mayor Bass was traveling in Africa when the incredibly destructive fires broke out in the city weeks ago. When she finally made it back to LA, she was questioned by a reporter and stood there silently, unable or unwilling to explain herself.

Now, weeks later, she has done a TV interview where she explained that she is launching an investigation into why she was allowed to go on her Africa trip when people knew there was a possibility of fires.

Is this the most absurd thing you have ever heard? Is it close?

FOX News reports:

LA Mayor Bass points fingers when grilled on Africa trip amid botched wildfire response

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who has come under intense scrutiny for traveling to Africa last month amid a botched fire response, is deflecting blame on the controversial trip.

“I felt absolutely terrible not being here for my city,” Bass, a Democrat, told a Fox 11 Los Angeles reporter in a recent interview.

“Would I say it was a mistake, absolutely. The idea that I was not present was very painful,” she added, saying that proper “preparation didn’t happen” to notify her ahead of the Ghana trip.

She said she would not have even traveled south to San Diego had she been given the proper “preparation” about the fire danger.

“It didn’t reach that level to me to say ‘Something terrible could happen and maybe you shouldn’t have gone on the trip,’” the Democrat added.

“I think that’s one of the things we need to look at, everything that happened, including that, needs to be examined,” she continued, revealing that there are at least two investigations into the city’s response to the fires.

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