Tag: taxes

What Did $750,000 a Year Deliver for Los Angeles?

The firestorm is still in progress in Los Angeles, priorities first and foremost are saving of lives and property.  The calamity in Los Angeles is still early in the situation, ongoing, and not yet under control, but some basic facts can be established at this point in time.

  • Janisse Quiñones PE (She/Her) is the CEO and Chief Engineer at Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).
  • Janisse Quiñones was hired with a $750,000 Salary, nearly twice that of her predecessor.
  • LADWP operates ten major active reservoirs and over 107 smaller storage facilities, all of which create operational flexibility to balance water supplies and customer demands.
  • A key reservoir in the Pacific Palisades fire was inoperable.
  • Multiple locations of the service area that Quinones oversees are a raging inferno and short on water for firefighters.

Water for the LADWP Service Area comes from the following sources:

  • 73% is purchased water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) which is both an aqueduct to State Water Projects in upper California and the Colorado River Aqueduct.
  • 15% is water from the Los Angeles Aqueduct which is fed from water close to the Nevada Border.
  • 10% is local groundwater.
  • 2% is recycled water.

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Can California Afford Its Luxury Beliefs After This? Let’s Look at the Books.

California is undergoing a crisis of competence. Surrounded by ashen heaps of what used to be thousands of homes and businesses, voters finally may realize that luxury beliefs sound nice at cocktail parties and the gym, but somebody should make sure there’s water in the reservoirs and fire hydrants. 

We learn that a crucial reservoir was down for maintenance during Santa Ana season, which left the fire hydrants dry. The latest reservoir was finished in 1979. Planning for the next one started in the 1950s and may break ground sometime allegedly in 2026. Gavin Newsom has taken down dams and patted himself on the back. 

The man Newsom styled his look after, former Lakers Coach Pat Reilly, used to say, “The main thing is the main thing.” The hairstyle stuck, but not the message. L.A. is spending other peoples’ money on stupid things while pretending to do the main thing. 

We’re now up to $150 billion in losses so far in the 36,000-acre blaze that started Tuesday. The multiple fires have flattened Pacific Palisades, houses along the PCH in Malibu, and lovely old homes in Pasadena. 

The LAFD Chief makes more than $439,000 per year for not checking the fire hydrants. A fire captain makes more than $800,000 a year because of overtime, double time, and aggregated time off. 

The person in charge of DEI at the L.A. Fire Department makes $399,000 per year. 

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Israel, US, UK Launch New Airstrikes On Yemen Amid Efforts To ‘Hunt’ Houthi Leaders

On Friday Israel has launched new major strikes on Yemen, amid ongoing vows to ‘hunt’ down Houthi leaders and kill them.

A new Israeli military (IDF) statement said fighter jets struck “on the western coast and inland Yemen” in response to the day prior Houthis having launched three drones at Israel. It also follows a Pentagon-ordered air raid on Yemen earlier this week. The fresh strikes further targeted the port city of Hodeida, Ras Isa Port, Sanaa, as well as North Western Amran province – and reportedly had participation from the US and UK.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that the latest air assault means Houthis will continue to pay a price for attacking Israel. 

He said that twenty Israeli Air Force jets participated in the new strikes against the Houthis, which followed on the heels of another new US-led coalition assault.

Times of Israel has noted that “The Houthis confirmed the strikes and said they occurred while people were rallying in Sanaa in support of Palestinians in Gaza.”

Last month Netanyahu called out Iran for its support to the Houthis, warning that “whoever sponsors the Houthi terror in Hodeida or Sana’a will pay the full price.” 

Washington has for years documented Tehran’s support to the group, which has included advanced missiles and drone technology. This has allowed the threat out of Yemen to grow significantly.

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Leaked memo reveals LA Mayor Karen Bass demanded her fire department cut an extra $49 million just ONE WEEK before wildfires broke out

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass demanded her Fire Department make an extra $49million of budget cuts last week, a leaked memo revealed.

This cut is already on top of $17.6million of cuts in her latest budget.

The extra cuts, requested just days before fires broke out and devastated swathes of Los Angeles, would have shut down 16 fire stations and crippled the department’s ability to respond to emergencies, sources said.

DailyMail.com interviewed current and former senior LAFD officers briefed on the shocking proposed cuts, and exclusively obtained the memo from an LA Fire Department (LAFD) whistleblower who posts on social media under the moniker ‘LAFD Watchdog’.

The memo is dated January 6, only a day before the devastating Palisades Fire started.

According to the sources, it was sent from LAFD ‘top brass’ at City Hall to division chiefs and captains – after a fraught meeting the previous Friday between Chief Kristin Crowley and Mayor Bass.

‘The LAFD is still going through a FY [financial year] 2024/2025 $48.8million budget reduction exercise with the CAO [City Attorney’s Office],’ the document said.

‘The only way to provide a cost savings would be to close as many as 16 fire stations (not resources, fire stations); this equates to at least one fire station per City Council District.

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Fire and Fury: Overpaid Bureaucrat Responsible for Filling Up Fire Hydrants in LA County Rakes in $750K Per Year — The City’s Highest Paid Employee

As the Pacific Palisades neighborhood grapples with one of the most destructive wildfires in Los Angeles County’s history, firefighters are confronting an unexpected challenge: dry fire hydrants.

The blaze, which has scorched approximately 16,000 acres and destroyed over 1,000 structures, has been exacerbated by powerful Santa Ana winds, with gusts reaching up to 100 mph.

The Palisades Fire, which has scorched over 25,000 acres, remains at 0% containment.

Similarly, the Eaton Fire near Pasadena has burned more than 5,000 acres and is also at 0% containment.

These fires have led to significant destruction, including the loss of over 1,000 structures and at least five fatalities. Evacuation orders have been issued for more than 150,000 residents as emergency services work tirelessly to manage the crisis, The Times reported.

These conditions have not only intensified the flames but also hindered aerial firefighting efforts, as aircraft have been grounded due to the severe winds.

On the ground, firefighters have reported that several hydrants in the area have run dry, severely hampering their efforts to control the inferno.

“There’s no water in the fire hydrants,” Rick Caruso, owner of the Palisades Village shopping center, told The Times. “The firefighters are there, and there’s nothing they can do — we’ve got neighborhoods burning, homes burning, and businesses burning. … It should never happen.”

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Bioterror Roundup: Biden’s $300 Million Bird Flu Bonanza and SV40 News

Biden awards hundreds of millions for bird flu tests, ‘research into potential medical countermeasures’

Lady Dr. Jill (not a real doctor) or Antony Blinken or some disembodied Oz-type voice on the White House intercom system or whoever runs the shitshow over there has heard the pleas from CCP bioterrorist Leana Wen to ramp up the PCR fraud in the runup to the full-on Pandemic 2.0, which I covered a few days ago, and acquiesced using other people’s money (or more accurately, money that doesn’t actually exist, tacked onto the bloated deficit).

Via U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) (emphasis added):

“Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it would award $306 million dollars to continue its H5N1 Avian Flu response. While CDC’s assessment of the risk of avian influenza to the general public remains low, USDA and HHS continue to closely collaborate with Federal, State, local, industry and other stakeholders to protect human health, animal health, and food safety…

CDC will award approximately $111 million in funding for additional enhancements to our ability to monitor H5N1 at the local, state and national levels:

$103 million to jurisdictions for increased monitoring of individuals exposed to infected animals, testing, and outreach to high-risk populations (such as livestock workers)

$8 million to manufacture, store, and distribute additional influenza diagnostic test kits for virologic surveillance

NIH will award approximately $11 million in funding for additional research into potential medical countermeasures for H5N1:

$11 million to the Centers for Excellence for Influenza Research and Response contracts”

What an amazing display of sadomasochism that we all just take for granted: the government conjures money out of thin air in the People’s name, hands it over to bloodthirsty technocrats, and in so doing sows the seeds of the techno-slaves future abuse that they themselves financed in the name of protecting them from a virus that the government created in the first place, also using made-up money that doesn’t exist and that will eventually trigger a meltdown, which will then be used just like bird flul to further subjugate them and strip them of whatever meager freedoms they might have left so AI can tell them when they have enough credits to take a Tesla taxi to visit their domestic terrorist grandmother in a bird flu concentration camp.

For Democracy™.

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Cost Of Navy’s Newest Arleigh Burke Destroyers Is Ballooning

The U.S. Navy’s Flight III Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) class destroyers are facing cost increases and delays, jumping from an average of $2.1 billion per ship to $2.5 billion per hull, with even steeper cost increases coming in the future, according to a new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report. The report analyzes the Navy’s 2025 shipbuilding plan, which calls for a 390-battle force ship fleet by 2054, and includes nine more vessels than in last year’s plan. 

Beyond destroyers, the versatile workhorses of the Navy’s combat fleet, the CBO’s assessment notes cost hikes among other platforms, as well as systemic American shipbuilding industry shortfalls that could impede the service’s fleet size goal. All this long-term planning comes as the sea service races to prepare for a near-term war with China if Beijing invades Taiwan in the coming years. These destroyers and their anti-air, anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare capabilities would be crucial to such a future fight.

The Navy currently has 74 destroyers of the Arleigh Burke class, in Flight I, Flight II, Flight IIA and Flight III variants. Two Flight IIAs and 18 Flight IIIs are already either under construction or their purchase has already been authorized by Congress. CBO’s assessment also found that, overall, the 23 Flight IIIs laid out in the 30-year shipbuilding plan will end up costing $2.7 billion on average. 

“The Navy stated in a briefing to CBO and [the Congressional Research Service] that the increase in its estimates of the cost of the DDG-51 Flight IIIs was attributable to shipbuilding inflation’s outpacing economywide inflation as well as declining shipyard performance,” the CBO report states. 

The report added that the destroyers currently under construction “have experienced substantial delays.” To date, just one Flight III destroyer, the USS Jack Lucas (DDG-125) has been commissioned, and the keel was laid for the second Flight III, the future USS Louis H. Wilson Jr. (DDG-126) in 2023. Inside Defense reported in June that other Flight III vessels could see six-to-25-month delivery delays. 

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LA Mayor Karen Bass cut fire department funding by $17.6M — months before wildfires turned city into hellscape

The Los Angeles Fire Department had its budget cut by a staggering $17.6 million this financial year, records show — as fire crews continue to battle out-of-control blazes ravaging the City of Angels.

The drastic decrease in funding for the fire department was the second-largest cut to come out of embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass‘ 2024-25 fiscal year budget, according to city figures.

The police budget, meanwhile, increased by $126 million, a graphic shared by LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia shows.

Bass had initially wanted to cut the fire department by even more — a staggering $23 million.

The details on Bass’ budget slashing resurfaced as the mayor faced widespread backlash Wednesday after it was revealed she was away in Africa for the Ghana president’s inauguration — even as wind-whipped wildfires turned parts of her city into an apocalyptic hellscape.

In her absence, Bass found time to praise firefighters and other emergency crews for working “overnight to protect Angelenos affected by fires.”

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Louisiana Democrat Mayor Arrested in Shocking Drug and Prostitution Scandal — Accused of Using Taxpayer Dollars to Fund Airbnb for Escort

Bogalusa, Louisiana, the city already grappling with the scourge of drug-related violence, was rocked this week by the arrest of its youngest-ever mayor, 25-year-old Tyrin Truong.

Truong, a Democrat hailed as a rising star in his party after unseating long-time Mayor Wendy Perrette in 2022, now faces a litany of criminal charges, including allegations of drug trafficking, unauthorized use of a moveable, and soliciting prostitutes — actions that reportedly involved the misuse of taxpayer funds.

The Louisiana State Police Narcotics/Violent Crime Task Force announced Tuesday that an extensive investigation into a local drug trafficking organization had led to the arrest of Truong and six others.

“On Tuesday, Jan 7, 2025 at approximately 8:30 AM, Bogalusa Mayor Tyrin Truong was booked into the Washington Parish Jail on one count of soliciting for prostitutes, one count of unauthorized use of a movable, and two counts of transactions involving proceeds from drug offenses. No bail has been set at this time,” the Washington Parish Sheriff’s Office announced on Facebook.

Authorities allege that the organization distributed opioids, high-grade marijuana, THC products, and MDMA, using social media platforms to coordinate sales and payments.

According to the news release, “In April 2024, the Louisiana State Police Narcotics/Violent Crime Task Force (NVCTF) initiated a comprehensive investigation into a Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) operating in the Bogalusa area. This joint operation, conducted over several months in collaboration with the 22nd Judicial District Court District Attorney’s Office, the Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s Office, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) revealed the DTO’s involvement in the distribution of various Controlled Dangerous Substances (CDS), including opioids, high-grade marijuana, THC products, and MDMA.”

“Investigators uncovered that members of the DTO were utilizing social media platforms to distribute CDS and manage payments, further expanding their reach and criminal activity. The investigation also determined that profits from drug sales were used to purchase firearms. Some of these firearms were funneled to individuals prohibited from legal possession, while others were linked to violent crimes in the Bogalusa area.”

Disturbingly, profits from these illegal activities were reportedly used to purchase firearms, some of which ended up in the hands of individuals prohibited from owning weapons and were linked to violent crimes in the region, CBS News reported.

Truong is accused of not only participating in these illegal activities but also using his position and public funds for personal gratification, according to Daily Mail.

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Genocide: The New Normal

Joe Biden’s parting gift of $8 billion in weapons sales to the apartheid state of Israel acknowledges the gruesome reality of the genocide in Gaza. This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. This is a permanent, endless war designed not to destroy Hamas, or free Israeli hostages, but to eradicate, once and for all, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. It is the final push to create a Greater Israel, which will include not only Gaza and the West Bank, but chunks of Lebanon and Syria. It is the culmination of the Zionist dream. And it will be paid for with rivers of blood — Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian.

Minister of Agriculture and Food Security of Israel Avi Dichter was probably offering conservative estimates when he said “I think that we are going to stay in Gaza for a long time. I think most people understand that [Israel] will be years in some kind of West Bank situation where you go in and out and maybe you remain along Netzarim [corridor].”

Mass extermination takes time. It is also expensive. Fortunately for Israel, its lobby in the U.S. has a stranglehold on Congress, our electoral process and the media narrative. Americans, although 61 percent support ending weapons shipments to Israel, will pay for it. And those that express dissent will be frog-marched into Zionist black holes where their voices are silenced and their careers jeopardized or destroyed. Donald Trump and the Republicans have an open disdain for democracy, but so do the Democrats and Joe Biden.

The U.S. provided $17.9 billion in military aid to Israel from October 2023 to October 2024, a substantial increase from the already $3.8 billion in military aid the U.S. gives Israel annually. This is a record for a single year. The State Department has informed Congress that it intends to approve another $8 billion in purchases of U.S.-made arms by Israel. This will provide Israel with more GPS guidance systems for bombs, more artillery shells, more missiles for fighter jets and helicopters, and more bombs, including 2,800 unguided MK-84 bombs, which Israel has a habit of dropping on densely packed tent encampments in Gaza. The pressure wave from the 2,000-pound MK-84 pulverizes buildings and exterminates life within a 400-yard radius. The blast, which ruptures lungs, rips apart limbs and bursts sinus cavities up to hundreds of yards away, leaves behind a 50-foot-wide and 36-foot-deep crater. Israel appears to have used this bomb to assassinate Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Hezbollah, in Beirut on September 27, 2024.

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