Conservative Happenings: Los Angeles

Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Epic mock-alanche in progress as labor unions who pushed for $15 minimum wage in Los Angeles now want an exemption

For the can’t-make-this-up-if-we-tried-file, the $15-per-hour minimum wage mandate that was just passed by the Los Angeles City Council has a new opponent now that it’s time to draft the specifics of the law — labor unions!

These same labor unions, of course, who pushed for this law in the first place. From the Los Angeles Times:

Labor leaders, who were among the strongest supporters of the citywide minimum wage increase approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council, are advocating last-minute changes to the law that could create an exemption for companies with unionized workforces.

The push to include an exception to the mandated wage increase for companies that let their employees collectively bargain was the latest unexpected detour as the city nears approval of its landmark legislation to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020.

For much of the past eight months, labor activists have argued against special considerations for business owners, such as restaurateurs, who said they would have trouble complying with the mandated pay increase.

But Rusty Hicks, who heads the county Federation of Labor and helps lead the Raise the Wage coalition, said Tuesday night that companies with workers represented by unions should have leeway to negotiate a wage below that mandated by the law.

LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

And let the well-deserved mocking begin:

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

California Dreaming: Record $500 Million Tag on L.A. Home

One of the biggest homes in U.S. history is rising on a Los Angeles hilltop, and the developer hopes to sell it for a record $500 million.

Nile Niami, a film producer and speculative residential developer, is pouring concrete in L.A.’s Bel Air neighborhood for a compound with a 74,000-square-foot (6,900-square-meter) main residence and three smaller homes, according to city records. The project, which will take at least 20 more months to complete, will exceed 100,000 square feet,including a 5,000-square-foot master bedroom, a 30-car garage and a “Monaco-style casino,” Niami said.

“The house will have almost every amenity available in the world,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The asking price will be $500 million.”

Estates with views of the Los Angeles basin are the California counterpart to Manhattan’spenthouses or London’s Mayfair manors, drawing a global cast of financiers, technology tycoons and celebrities who collect trophy homes like works of art. Around the world, five properties sold for $100 million or more last year, and at least 20 others have nine-figure asking prices, Christie’s International Real Estate reported last month.

The priciest home ever sold was a $221 million London penthouse purchased in 2011, according to Christie’s. The most expensive properties on the market include a $425 million estate in France’s Cote d’Azur, a $400 million penthouse in Monaco and a $365 million London manor.

Whether Niami can get more than double the previous record for his mansion remains to be seen.

Via: Bloomberg Business

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Los Angeles poised to raise minimum wage to $15 an hour

Following the lead of other west coast cities, the Los Angeles city council appears ready to raise the minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 an hour by 2020.
LA Times:

Workers are currently supposed to earn at least the California state minimum wage of $9 an hour, which will rise to $10 an hour in January. Under a plan endorsed by a key panel of City Council members last week, Los Angeles would increase its required wage year-by-year to reach a minimum of $15 hourly by July 2020

Small businesses -- those with 25 workers or fewer -- would get an additional year to phase in the increases. Nonprofits that meet certain requirements could ask permission to do the same.
Under the plan, the wage requirements would continue to rise automatically every year starting in July 2022, based on the average increase in the consumer price index over the previous two decades.

The wage proposal would hike pay more slowly than some activists wanted. But leaders in the Raise the Wage Coalition nonetheless heralded it last week as a sound plan to improve the standard of living for low-income workers and their families.

Via: American Thinker

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Monday, May 18, 2015

Brown’s Arid California, Thanks Partly to His Father

LOS ANGELES — When Edmund G. Brown Sr. was governor of California, people were moving in at a pace of 1,000 a day. With a jubilant Mr. Brown officiating, California commemorated the moment it became the nation’s largest state, in 1962, with a church-bell-ringing, four-day celebration. He was the boom-boom governor for a boom-boom time: championing highways, universities and, most consequential, a sprawling water network to feed the explosion of agriculture and development in the dry reaches of central and Southern California.

Nearly 50 years later, it has fallen to Mr. Brown’s only son, Gov. Jerry Brown, to manage the modern-day California that his father helped to create. The state is prospering, with a population of more than double the 15.5 million it had when Mr. Brown, known as Pat, became governor in 1959. But California, the seventh-largest economy in the world, is confronting fundamental questions about its limits and growth, fed by the collision of the severe drought dominating Jerry Brown’s final years as governor and the water and energy demands — from homes, industries and farms, not to mention pools, gardens and golf courses — driven by the aggressive growth policies advocated by his father during his two terms in office.

The stark challenge that confronts this state is putting a spotlight on a father and son who, as much as any two people, define modern-day California. They are strikingly different symbols of different eras, with divergent styles and distinct views of government, growth and the nature of California itself.

Pat Brown, who died in 1996 at the age of 90, was the embodiment of the post-World War II explosion, when people flocked to this vast and beckoning state in search of a new life. “He loved that California was getting bigger when he was governor,” said Ethan Rarick, who wrote a biography of Pat Brown and directs the Robert T. Matsui Center for Politics and Public Service at the University of California, Berkeley. “Pat saw an almost endless capacity for California growth.”

Via: New York Times

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Monday, March 17, 2014

L.A. earthquake: Shaking, jolted nerves reported across wide area

A 4.4-magnitude earthquake that struck near Westwood provided an early morning jolt for the greater Los Angeles area, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake struck at 6:25 a.m. at a depth of 5.3 miles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake was centered two miles north of Sherman Oaks, not far from the intersection of Mulholland Drive and the 405 Freeway.

A shallow magnitude 2.7 earthquake followed up at 7:23 a.m. four miles from Westwood, according to the USGS. That quake was reported at a depth of 4.3 miles.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was in "earthquake emergency mode" as crews surveyed the city by air and on the ground, but public safety officials across the region said there did not appear to be any significant damage.

“We did our initial survey and it was felt only. No reports of any damage,” said County Fire Supervisor Michael Pittman.

FULL COVERAGE: Southern California earthquakes

Joe Ramallo of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power said that as of 6:45 a.m. there were no reports of water main breaks or power outages immediately following the earthquake. But he said crews are conducting routine safety checks after the quake to ensure their durability.

Metro light rail service, meanwhile, had resumed normal service shortly after 7 a.m. after a system-wide inspection found no damage.

Stacey Dirks, the 25-year-old assistant manager at Noah’s New York Bagels in Westwood, was at work at the time and said “it just felt like a sudden shake, it was just like rapid and quick.”

No bagels fell off the shelves and “everything stayed in place,” Dirks said.

Via: LA Times
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Friday, February 28, 2014

ONLY IN CALIFORNIA: Infuriated Taxpayers Berate School Superintendent for ABSURD $663,365 Salary

Earlier this week, unfortunate residents of the Centinela Valley School District (amid the suburban sprawl of Los Angeles) absolutely reamed district superintendent Jose Fernandez for his laughably exorbitant, perk-filled salary package.

On the backs of local taxpayers, the paper-pushing boss “earns” an annual salary of $665,365, reports KTLA.

In addition to the lucrative paycheck, the school board has also provided a sweetheart mortgage deal to help Fernandez buy his suburban home.

This mortgage benefit – a $910,000 loan at just 2 percent interest – was especially helpful for Fernandez, given his financial troubles. Fernandez recently emerged from bankruptcy.

Local home owners, parents and taxpayers showed up at a district school board meeting on Tuesday to express their righteous indignation.

“You are a disgrace to this country and to the Hispanic community,” declared one angry man as Fernandez sat quietly.

“It makes me wonder what you guys are all getting paid up there,” said a woman in the crowd in a comment directed to the school board members. “Because if you were able to allow this, what are your perks?”

Via: Fox News