Tag: los angeles

Democrat Los Angeles City Councilman Charged with Corruption for Embezzling $800,000

A Democrat Los Angeles City Councilman has been charged with corruption for embezzling $800,000.

The Los Angeles DA filed two new charges against Curren Price this week alleging the embezzlement of public funds and awarding contracts for his own financial gain.

Price was first hit with five embezzlement charges in 2023. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.

“Embezzling public funds and awarding contracts for your own financial gain is the antithesis of public service,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. “Our communities expect and deserve better from their public officials. I thank our investigative team and prosecutors in the Public Integrity Division for diligently pursuing every lead and holding elected officials accountable. Self-dealing and pay-to-play politics will not be tolerated in Los Angeles County.”

Per the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office:

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has filed two new public corruption charges against Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price after uncovering evidence that the city’s housing authority and LA Metro paid Price’s wife more than $800,000 total at the same time Price voted to award the agencies multimillion-dollar contracts.

Curren De Mille Price Jr. has been the Los Angeles City Councilmember for the Ninth District since 2013. Like all other councilmembers, he is prohibited from having a financial interest associated with any project that comes before the City Council.

Price (dob 12/16/50) was charged on June 13, 2023, in case BA515782 with five felony counts of embezzlement of government funds, three felony counts of perjury and two felony counts of conflict of interest.

The 10 felony counts allege that Del Richardson & Associates, a company owned solely by Price’s wife, Delbra Pettice Richardson, received payments totaling more than $150,000 between 2019 and 2021 from developers before he voted to approve projects.

Price is also accused of embezzling approximately $33,800 in city funds from 2013-2017 to pay for medical benefits for Richardson, who he falsely claimed was his wife while still legally married to Lynn Suzette Price.

Price pleaded not guilty to these charges on Dec. 15, 2023. He was released on his own recognizance.

Subpoenas in the case yielded additional evidence of public corruption. On Aug. 11, prosecutors filed an amended complaint alleging two additional counts of conflict of interest. The complaint includes an appendix of 39 exhibits of evidence of the payments and Price’s voting history.

Between Oct. 22, 2019, and June 30, 2020, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles allegedly paid Del Richardson & Associates approximately $609,600. During this time, Price voted to support a $35 million federal grant and a state grant application for $252 million for the agency.

Price’s staff had flagged the item of interest prior to the votes.

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Filing: Smartmatic Gave Unlawful Gifts To LA Official Who Helped Obtain Voting Firm’s ‘Lucrative Contract’

“[I]t now seems irrefutable that” voting technology company Smartmatic gave unlawful gifts to the Los Angeles County official who helped obtain the firm’s “lucrative contract” with the county, a new filing by Fox News alleges. Fox also argues a recent filing from the DOJ indicates that executives at Smartmatic, which is currently involved in a defamation lawsuit against Fox News over the latter’s reporting on the 2020 election, “funneled” L.A. County tax dollars to a “slush fund.”

Fox News is seeking “public records relating to the relationship between certain L.A. County officials and the election systems company Smartmatic,” according to a recent filing. The company also seeks information pertaining to the process by which Smartmatic was awarded a contract that permitted them to “build voting equipment for” and run the Los Angeles’ state, federal, and local elections.

“Since Fox News filed its original petition, subsequent productions by L.A. County and recent U.S. Department of Justice … filings have revealed stark indications that Smartmatic’s most senior executives engaged in some of the same patterns of misconduct in Smartmatic’s contracting with L.A. County as they have been accused of elsewhere,” the filing reads.

Fox’s “amended petition” asks the California Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles to direct the county, the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (collectively referred to as the “County”) to comply with California public records law.

Fox News states that it previously uncovered evidence showing Smartmatic provided Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder and Clerk Dean Logan with “business class travel, expensive entertainment, and other personal benefits” that Logan “had not disclosed as required by law.” County documents later revealed, as described in Fox News’ filing, “Mr. Logan cultivated unusually close relationships with Smartmatic executives through frequent communication, dinners, and other social gatherings, several of which included a spouse and/or partner.”

But, as Fox News alleges, the county still produced “incomplete” records and “omitted many responsive documents.” Fox News suggests that “much of this underproduction” occurred because “the county is reliant” on Logan “to provide the responsive records.”

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LA’s secret celebrity tunnel was just a rumor. Until workers found it.

In its near-century of existence, Chateau Marmont — a faux French castle perched on a hill near the entrance of West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip — has kept countless secrets for the artists, actors and other icons that have stalked its halls. It has also held a few mysteries of its own, including a long-rumored secret tunnel. 

Famously, the bohemian playground-slash-hotel doesn’t allow photos in its public spaces so that guests can unwind away from the outside world’s prying eyes. (Not that it’s ever stopped paparazzi from lurking on the sidewalk right outside.) As such, Chateau Marmont’s reputation as a comforting haven has made it a Hollywood favorite, with film director Billy Wilder once describing its appeal this way: “I would rather sleep in a bathroom than in another hotel.”

Every once in a while, though, fizzy tales do manage to trickle outside Chateau’s secretive walls, such as when Lindsay Lohan reportedly racked up a staggering $46,000 tab from her extensive stay there, or when Doors rocker Jim Morrison scaled the rooftops of the hotel’s bungalows late at night throughout the 1960s. 

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Federal court dismisses case against LA school Covid shot mandate

A federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Covid-19 vaccine mandate for employees.

The case was brought in 2021 by the Health Freedom Defense Fund and   California Educators for Medical Freedom on behalf of school employees. More than 1,000 employees lost their jobs after refusing Covid shots. Plaintiffs argued the mandate violated their right to refuse unwanted medical treatment, especially since the shots did not prevent transmission.

The US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in an 11-judge “en banc” decision, ruled that LAUSD had the authority to require Covid vaccination in 2021. At the time, public health authorities, including the CDC, were advising that the shots would protect public health.

Several judges dissented, warning the decision comes “perilously close” to allowing the government to mandate medical treatments “so long as it asserts — even if incorrectly — that it would promote public health and safety.”

The majority opinion relied on the 1905 Supreme Court case Jacobson v. Massachusetts, which upheld a smallpox vaccine mandate. The dissenting judges said Jacobson applies only to vaccines that stop disease transmission, which plaintiffs argued Covid shots do not do.

LAUSD ended its employee vaccine mandate in September 2023. However, plaintiffs say they still suffer harm, including lost wages and career damage, and warn the policy could return. They are considering an appeal to the US Supreme Court.

“This ruling should terrify every American because the court is essentially saying it doesn’t matter whether or not health authorities lie, it doesn’t matter whether or not vaccines actually have a public health impact. All that matters is that someone is afraid and tells you that this is the right way to address the problem, and then you have to comply.”
— Leslie Manookian, Health Freedom Defense Fund

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TDS Alert: LA Times Columnist Urges Los Angeles to Drop 2028 Olympics Over Trump’s Role

A Los Angeles Times columnist has called for the city to withdraw from hosting the 2028 Summer Olympics, citing opposition to President Donald Trump’s role in overseeing federal preparations for the event, as reported by Fox News.

In his column, Gustavo Arellano expressed concern that Trump, as head of the White House Olympics Task Force, would use the games — scheduled for July 14–30, 2028 — to promote his policies and political image.

Arellano described the federal involvement in Olympic security as expected, but said Trump’s leadership makes the situation “problematic.”

“The federal government was always going to play a role in providing security for the 2028 Olympics, just as it has for previous Games in the U.S. But Trump, as the head of the task force, now gets to personally oversee our own siege,” Arellano wrote.

The columnist argued that Trump could use the next three years of Olympic preparations to “humiliate blue L.A.” and to showcase his immigration enforcement policies.

Arellano warned that during the Games, Trump might “proclaim his mission accomplished” in a Los Angeles he described as “radically transformed by his deportation blitzkrieg.”

Arellano criticized Casey Wasserman, chair of the Los Angeles 2028 organizing committee, for praising Trump during the announcement of his role.

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DOJ Drops Charges Against Man Who Brought Bionic Face Shields to Los Angeles Riots

The Justice Department on Tuesday dropped the charges against the man who brought bionic face shields to the Los Angeles riots last month.

A federal grand jury indicted the man who went viral for delivering face shields to protestors during the Los Angeles riots last month.

The man driving the truck full of supplies and bionic shields, identified as Alejandro Orellana, was indicted by a federal grand jury and charged with Conspiracy to aid and abet.

On Tuesday, US Attorney Bill Essayli moved to dismiss the indictment without prejudice.

As TGP’s Kristinn Taylor reported, last month a man driving a pickup truck loaded with supplies pulled up to a crowd of anti-ICE rioters.

Fox 11 LA reporter Elex Michaelson posted about what he witnessed, “#BREAKING We just saw people arrive in Downtown L.A. with truck loads of Bionic Face Shields that demonstrators quickly grabbed. It certainly seems like gear you’d wear if you’re preparing for conflict with police. Who is funding this?”

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California’s Fraudulent “Disaster Recovery” Is A Land Grab

Remember Gavin Newsom’s first visit to the sites of devastating fires last January in Los Angeles, when he vowed to streamline California’s paralytic regulations so people could quickly rebuild their homes?

In that interview, while undulating his shoulders in a weird shimmy that will undoubtedly come back to haunt him as he ramps up his presidential campaigning, Newsom also promised to “prevent opportunistic investors from exploiting vulnerable residents by offering below-market prices.”

It’s hard to say which promise has been more thoroughly violated. As celebrity author Adam Carolla posted on 7/14, there is virtually no work going on along the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, where hundreds of homes burned down to the sand.

This is typical.

The Palisades Fire, with a burn area that included Malibu, destroyed over 6,000 homes. So far, 161 permits have been issued by the City of Los Angeles. The community of Altadena, which was consumed by the Eaton Fire, lost over 9,000 homes. So far, 84 rebuilding permits have been issued.

Instead of streamlining the process to get permits to rebuild, if anything, the city has made it harder. In a July 14 interview with the local ABC affiliate, one dispossessed homeowner claimed the city is adding new requirements and deadlines, saying, “They’re now requiring you to submit an itemized list with pricing, which is nearly impossible in a home that’s been owned for over 40, 50 years.”

But whether it’s California Governor Gavin Newsom or Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the playbook is not designed to help people rebuild their homes and move back into the neighborhoods where their families have lived for generations. New regulations did not replace old regulations. They added as much as they removed, with the new ones being unfamiliar even to veteran builders. All of them, of course, came delivered with the rhetoric of streamlining, while in fact only adding complexity.

Newsom, a tool of corporatist special interests, and Bass, a socialist darling of public sector union bosses, were never playing a game intended to help anyone living in a “single-family detached home.” The new regulations, sold as a way to expedite permitting, were in fact a way to make rebuilding impossible for all but the wealthiest homeowners. And Newsom’s executive order that would “prevent opportunistic investors from exploiting vulnerable residents by offering below-market prices” was actually a move calculated to limit the options of homeowners while the special interests—including the government itself—lined up to purchase these properties.

This isn’t speculation. In late June, Los Angeles County’s “Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire-Safe Recovery” issued its “draft action plan” for “The Resilient and Sustainable Rebuilding of Los Angeles County.” This document is a textbook example of what corporate socialist elites have in store for those normal citizens who, to date, still maintain a modicum of financial independence.

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Sorry, L.A. Fire Victims, the NGO Borg Ate Your FireAid Money

We thought it was a betrayal of Los Angeles fire victims that the local government slow-rolled the building permit process to wait out property owners so the state could replace their homes with “low-income” apartments. It turns out, however, that the betrayal has just gotten worse.

We learn this week, thanks to the great work of a lone reporter at a small Southern California publication called Circling the News, that a whopping $100 million donated to help fire victims isn’t making its way to actual fire victims. 

In the fires that started on January 7, 2025, about 6,800 homes were destroyed in the Pacific Palisades. Not all were mansions but all were on very valuable property in a tony section of Los Angeles that is close to Malibu and Santa Monica. In Altadena, a neighborhood close to leafy Pasadena, 9,400 homes and structures were destroyed in the fires. 

Only a few weeks later, the biggest names in show business would come together to selflessly give their talents and time to put on a show that raised $100 million. 

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Questions Surround $100 Million in ‘Fire Aid’ for Los Angeles

Questions are being raised about how the roughly $100 million raised by “Fire Aid” concerts in the aftermath of the Los Angeles fires earlier this year is being spent — with some claiming victims are receiving nothing.

The star-studded bill for the benefit concert, held on two separate stages, raised a massive sum. But many residents of the Pacific Palisades and Malibu (Palisades Fire), and of Altadena and Pasadena (Eaton Fire), say they have not benefited.

There have been two significant local investigations by local news outlets, each of which came to different — though not necessarily contradictory — conclusions about Fire Aid’s money.

The first, by ABC affiliate KABC-7, concluded that the money was being well-spent — on organizations:

Roughly 120 organizations split $50 million when the first round of FireAid funds was released in February. 7 On Your Side tried reaching out to every single one of them, and heard back from more than 50 to find out how the money is being used.

…

The Pasadena Humane Society used $250,000 from FireAid to treat and house pets burned and left homeless by the flames.

Heal the Bay received $100,000 and used it to test for contaminants along our coast.

However, Circling the News, as highlighted by local Fox affiliate KTTV,  found that few victims had benefited.

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Explosion at Sheriff Training Facility in Los Angeles Leaves Three Dead

There was a deadly explosion at a Sheriff training facility in East Los Angeles on Friday morning.

At least three Sheriff’s Deputies were killed, according to Fox News.

No other details about the explosion were immediately available.

BREAKING: Our LA @FoxNews producer @AlexandriaHrndz is told by multiple law enforcement sources that three people are dead after an explosion at a LA County Sheriff Department’s training facility in East LA this morning. Happened at the Biscailuz training center.

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 18, 2025

The FBI is on scene. The explosion appears to be an accident.

The three deaths are confirmed to be LA County Sheriff’s Deputies. The FBI Los Angeles office tells us they are now responding to the scene. Initial indications we are being told is this appears to be a terrible accident.

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 18, 2025

Federal law enforcement officers are at the scene working to learn more, US Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.

Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more. Please pray for the families of the sheriff’s…

— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) July 18, 2025

KABC reported:

Authorities are investigating an apparent explosion at an LASD facility in Monterey Park where at least three people were killed.

The incident was reported just before 7:30 a.m. Friday at what looked to be LASD’s SEB compound, which houses the sheriff’s department’s special enforcement units and bomb squad.

It appears something may have exploded near a law enforcement vehicle, according to AIR7 footage.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to the scene. It’s unclear if there were any other injuries.

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