Tag: los angeles

Armenian Crime Rings Charged With Attempted Murder, $83 Million Amazon Cargo Theft

Federal authorities on Tuesday arrested 13 alleged members of rival Armenian crime organizations locked in an apparent power struggle in Los Angeles County.

The charges include attempted murder, kidnapping, illegal firearm possession, bank and wire fraud, and cargo theft totaling more than $80 million, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.

Among the defendants are Ara Artuni, 41, of Los Angeles, who is charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and Robert Amiryan, 46, of Hollywood, who is charged with kidnapping.

Authorities say both men were leaders of rival Armenian organized crime syndicates, referred to as “avtoritet,” which is Russian for “authority,” and that they have been engaged in a violent feud to maintain control of the San Fernando Valley since 2022.

Artuni is charged with ordering the attempted murder of Amiryan during the summer of 2023. In retaliation, Amiryan allegedly conspired with members of his own criminal organization to kidnap and torture one of Artuni’s associates in June 2023.

In addition to attempted murder, authorities say Artuni and his criminal enterprise committed bank fraud, wire fraud and cargo theft.

Artuni and his organization allegedly targeted e-commerce giant Amazon by enrolling as carriers for the online retailer. Artuni and his men would contract trucking routes with Amazon, and while transporting the goods, diverge from the route and steal all or part of the shipments. 

The Artuni enterprise allegedly stole more than $83 million from Amazon, according to estimates provided by the company. 

“This transnational criminal organization operated with the structure and brutality of an international cartel, inflicting significant harm on public safety and causing substantial damage to legitimate commerce and supply chains,” Dwayne Angebrandts, Homeland Security Investigation’s Los Angeles acting deputy special agent in charge, said in a statement. 

Artuni’s organization also reportedly ran a “credit card bust-out” scheme in which it charged credit cards to a fake business and then “drained the business account” before credit card companies could collect the disputed funds.

Several other arrests were made in the Los Angeles area and two more in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood, Florida. Authorities continue to look for one defendant.

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LA City Council OKs $14B budget, allowing for $7K per homeless person each month

The Los Angeles City Council passed a $14 billion budget that reduced citywide layoffs by cutting police hiring and fire department spending.

The approved budget uses emergency funds, such as $29 million from the budget stabilization fund, to pay for ongoing regular services, which is typically only done in a recession. That suggests the city has a structural deficit created by spending more than revenue will allow.

Notably, the budget cuts $36.63 million from the Los Angeles Fire Department’s proposed budget and reduces new police hiring in half from 480 new recruits to 230. At the same time, it restores funding for Animal Services and creates a new Bureau of Homelessness Oversight under the Los Angeles Housing Department.

Councilwoman Traci Park, whose district stretches from the Los Angeles International Airport to the fire-demolished Pacific Palisades, questioned the city’s continued funding of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which has failed all recent audits and from which Los Angeles County recently voted to terminate its funding and relationship.

“Spending a million and a half dollars per door to build micro-units of housing to give away to homeless drug addicts when the vast majority of our own city employees could never afford a condo at that price … I don’t think we should agree to spend another penny on homelessness … until we cast a vote on whether we’re finally getting a divorce from LAHSA and what the future of homeless services delivery looks like in LA,” said Park at Thursday’s meeting.

Park also attacked the cuts to the proposed LAFD budget and the halving of the new LAPD officer expansion.

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Ex-Los Angeles deputy mayor will plead guilty in fake bomb threat to city hall

A former Los Angeles deputy mayor will plead guilty to reporting a bomb had been placed in city hall last year to law enforcement, federal prosecutors said Thursday.

Brian K. Williams, 31, who was employed as the deputy mayor of public safety in October 2024, was charged with one felony count of making an explosives threat. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.

William’s attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Williams sent a text message to LA Mayor Karen Bass and other high-ranking city officials on Oct. 3, 2024 that he just received a call from someone who threatened to bomb city hall, prosecutors said.

“The male caller stated that ‘he was tired of the city support of Israel, and he has decided to place a bomb in City Hall. It might be in the rotunda.’,” Williams wrote in the text, according to prosecutors. He said he contacted the Los Angeles Police Department, who sent officers to search the building.

Police did not locate any suspicious packages or devices, prosecutors said.

Williams showed officers a call he received from a blocked number on his city-issued cellphone that he said was from the person who made the bomb threat. The call was made by Williams himself through the Google Voice application on his personal phone, according to prosecutors.

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Los Angeles approves $30 minimum wage for airport, hotel workers

The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday approved a $30 an hour minimum wage hike for airport and hotel workers, which will be enacted by 2028 in time for the Olympics. City council members approved the measure in a 12-3 vote. While union officials praised the approval, those working in the hospitality industry vigorously opposed the legislation and warned that the pay increase could result in mass layoffs, increased costs for consumers, and hotels shutting down.

According to the Olympic Wage ordinance, hourly pay will increase by $2.50 each year until 2028, where it will cap at $30 per hour. The first increase will occur on July 1, 2025, at an amount of $22.50 an hour, as stated in the measure. The current minimum wage is set at $20.00 per hour.

American Hotel and Lodging Association CEO Rosanna Maietta issued a warning about the proposal last month. She stated at the time, according to California Globe: “Hotel employees in Los Angeles are paid the highest wages in the country, but right now their jobs are at risk. City leaders are considering a damaging proposal that will jeopardize these jobs; it would devastate much needed tourism related tax revenue and lead to the closure of hotels that are desperately needed to successfully host the 2026 World Cup, the 2027 Super Bowl, and the 2028 Olympics.”

Despite the opposition, Los Angeles lawmakers overwhelmingly rejected the concerns and called the passing of the bill a “win” for the working class.

“This is what it looks like when people come together and fight – we win,” said Los Angeles City Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez, who voted to approve the ordinance. “For too long, the workers who make this city run have been treated as disposable. This ordinance makes it clear if you work in this city, you deserve to live in this city – with dignity, healthcare, and a living wage.”

Jessica Durrum, deputy director of Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE), echoed a similar sentiment, stating that the “common sense” measure was critical to ensure that “tourism workers can afford to live in the city where they work and not be displaced by skyrocketing housing costs.”

While the majority of council members approved the bill, councilwoman Monica Rodriguez was not one of them. She explained to the paper that she opposed the increase because it lacked “fiscal foresight” and could elevate unemployment.

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UCLA med school allegedly discriminates against white, Asian applicants: Lawsuit

A class action lawsuit from Do No Harm and Students for Fair Admissions alleges that the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is illegally discriminating against white and Asian applicants by holding some applicants to a much lower admissions standard.

“(Jennifer) Lucero and the Admissions Committee routinely admit black applicants with below-average GPA and MCAT scores — even significantly below-average scores — while requiring whites and Asians to have near-perfect scores to even be seriously considered,” wrote the plaintiffs in their class action complaint.

Jennifer Lucero was appointed associate dean of admissions of David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in 2020. She also serves as vice chair for inclusive excellence — formerly called diversity, equity and inclusion — for the Geffen Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine.

In 2020, UCLA was ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the sixth-best medical school for research.

But UCLA fell to 18th by the time U.S. News and World Report stopped ordinal ranking of medical schools and eliminated reputational ranking of departments within medical schools after numerous former top medical schools boycotted submitting data to USNWR over “equity” concerns.

The number of students failing exams has increased tenfold since 2020 for some subjects, according to reporting from the Free Beacon.

Under Proposition 209, passed by California voters in 1996, it is illegal for state entities to consider race in hiring, contracting and education. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that race-based affirmative action policies for college admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The complaint details several notable incidents in which Lucero engaged in unusual behavior during admissions committee meetings.

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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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