Pasadena has its own Chain Saw Massacre.
Before organizers could mount a planned protest this morning, Pasadena public works crews moved in during the wee hours of Friday and today to cut down about 15 ficus trees along Colorado Boulevard, famed across America as the Rose Parade route. The mature ficus trees had been the focus of much community debate after merchants demanded their removal because the trees' leafy canopies were obscuring signs, wrecking sidewalks and damaging plumbing.
Tree protectors countered that the trees provided shade and beauty and that the problems could be dealt with in other ways, such as installing rubberized sidewalks to help accommodate root growth and keeping the trees trimmed.
"We should rename Colorado 'Bleak Street,' " said resident Christle Balvin. "We've lost our shade canopy. If I were a business owner, I would no longer want to locate on this strip. ... It just looks awful."
The city plans in coming weeks to replace a total of 38 mature ficus and carrotwood trees with palm and gingko trees. Many of the cut trees had been in front of Vroman's bookstore, a city institution. Vroman's employees released a statement criticizing the decision to remove the trees.
The protest went on as planned this morning, with organizer Branislav Kecman, a Caltech physicist, gathering signatures on a petition to save the remaining trees.
City officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
--Martha Groves
The smell of fresh paint floated down East 41st Place in South Los Angeles this afternoon as more than 100 volunteers armed themselves with paint brushes to spend the day renovating three low-income homes.
The event was organized by Rebuilding Together, a 20-year-old national organization that helps needy families with much-needed house repairs.
Neighbors looked on curiously — some with video cameras — as the organization canvassed the block with a band of volunteers that included skilled handymen and dozens of students. They painted fences and walls, cleaned up backyards and installed new windows.
"We’re blown away," Sunny Robinson, a resident who lives in the home undergoing the biggest make-over, told volunteers. "All you people are here for us. We’re just two people. Thank you so much."
The homeowner, Leroy Price, who is disabled and unable to work, was grateful for the assistance. He had applied for the program in the hopes of saving him home, which has been in his family for three generations.
Volunteers donated supplies and skills to repair the roof, fix the electrical system, refurbish the floors, and paint.
--Esmeralda Bermudez
(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
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“Thu Duc, Viet Nam” (2008)
by Brian Doan
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Vietnamese American activists plan to protest an art exhibit at Cypress College on Wednesday that shows a photograph they said is disrespectful to their experiences as political refugees.
The offending photo, by Vietnamese American artist Brian Doan, shows a young woman wearing a red tank top with a yellow star -– the color of Vietnam's official flag -- sitting next to a small bust of former communist leader Ho Chi Minh.
Doan said the work is a commentary on the youth of Vietnam who grew up there after the Vietnam War.
But the communist symbols in the piece enraged many Vietnamese Americans. Hundreds protested when the photograph was shown in a Santa Ana exhibit in January.
Read on »
Trash haulers angry at Montebello’s decision to grant an exclusive contract to one hauling company have backed off on efforts to kick two City Council members out of office.
Haulers were planning to launch a recall of Robert Urteaga and Kathy Salazar -– two of the three council members who supported the contract -– but decided to drop the effort based on legal advice from their attorney, officials said.
If the recall bid is reinstated, it could lead to the second such election in less than two years in a city where tumultuous infighting has culminated in an ugly battle over trash rights.
In July, Urteaga, Salazar and Mayor Rosie Vasquez voted to approve an exclusive 15-year trash contract with Athens Services.
Read on »
Here we go again. There's word this afternoon of another attack by animal activists involving UCLA researchers. Details from the Associated Press: Anti-animal research activists are claiming responsibility for torching two vehicles they thought belonged to a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Activists connected to the Animal Liberation Front say they destroyed the vehicles on Nov. 20 to protest the work of Goran Lacan, a researcher who used animals while investigating treatments for morbid obesity and eating disorders.
The group accidentally targeted the wrong address, according to a UCLA press release. University police with the help of Los Angeles police, fire officials and the FBI are investigating the incident.
-- Shelby Grad
* Update: Here's a link to the story by The Times' Andrew Blankstein.
Gay rights leaders hope to build a $1-million war chest to defend any judge threatened with recall for ruling in favor of gay marriage, leaders announced during a conference call with supporters Tuesday night.
Leaders of the failed campaign to oppose Proposition 8, which amended the state Constitution to define marriage as only between a man and a woman, also said they would meet in January to plot the course for the movement's future. Supporters of gay marriage have sued to overturn Proposition 8, and the California Supreme Court will hear the case as early as spring.
Geoff Kors, executive director of Equality California and one of the leaders of the No on 8 campaign, said he wanted to use any funds left over from the last campaign.
During their "virtual" town hall, "Prop 8: The Facts and the Future," gay rights leaders talked of plans to put a new gay marriage question before voters, perhaps as soon as 2010. They also vowed to improve their outreach to blacks and Latinos, who supported Proposition 8, according to exit polls.
--Jessica Garrison
Richard Raddon, the director of the Los Angeles Film Festival who has been at the center of controversy ever since it was revealed almost two weeks ago that he had contributed $1,500 to the campaign to ban gay marriage in California, resigned from his post over the weekend.
The nonprofit arts organization Film Independent sponsors both the Los Angeles Film Festival, held in May, and the popular Independent Spirit awards. Raddon is a member of the Mormon Church, which actively called on its congregants to work for the passage of Proposition 8, the constitutional amendment defining marriage as only between a man and a woman. It has been estimated that Mormons gave more than $20 million in support of the recently passed ballot measure.
After Raddon's contribution was made public online, Film Independent was swamped with criticism from "No on 8" supporters both inside and outside the organization. Within days, Raddon offered to step down as festival director, but the board, which includes Don Cheadle, Forest Whitaker, Lionsgate President Tom Ortenberg and Fox Searchlight President Peter Rice, gave him a unanimous vote of confidence.
Read the rest of the story here.
--Rachel Abramowitz
Photo: Raddon speaks at a 2007 screening of "Talk to Her". Credit: L.A. Film Festival.
Should there be boycotts, blacklists, firings or de facto shunning of those who supported Proposition 8?
That's the issue consuming many in liberal Hollywood who fought to defeat the initiative banning same-sex marriage and are now reeling with recrimination and dismay. Meanwhile, activists continue to comb donor lists and employ the Internet to expose those who donated money to support the ban.
Already out is Scott Eckern, director of the nonprofit California Musical Theatre in Sacramento, who resigned after a flurry of complaints from prominent theater artists, including "Hairspray" composer Marc Shaiman, when word of his contribution to the Yes on 8 campaign surfaced.
Other targets include Film Independent, the nonprofit arts organization that puts on both the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit Awards; the Cinemark theater chain; and the Sundance Film Festival.
For many in Hollywood, the Proposition 8 backlash represents a troubling clash of free speech, religious beliefs and the right to fight intolerance. Many supporters of same-sex marriage view the state constitutional amendment as codified bigotry, a rollback of civil liberties for gays and lesbians.
Read the rest of the story about Hollywood & Prop. 8 here.
--Rachel Abramowitz and Tina Daunt
There's been a lot of outrage from the No on Proposition 8 camp since California voters approved a ban on gay marriage. But until now, there has been less soul searching about what went wrong. But Terry Leftgoff, founder of the Gay and Lesbian Business Assn. of Santa Barbara, has a thoughtful piece on WeHo News looking at how the opposition to Proposition 8 fell short. It did, he says, on several levels: A mixed message, failing to respond to attacks from Yes on 8 forces, little black and Latino outreach. A snippet: The No on 8 campaign began by allowing the Yes on 8 proponents to define the debate and it was never able to recover. This violated the first rule of political campaigns, which is to never let your opponent define you first. After a near fatal slow start, every emotional attack ad from Yes on 8 received a tepid intellectual response from No on 8. This violated another rule of political campaigns, which is to quickly respond in equal kind to an attack so it is not allowed to penetrate the public mind. Instead of running a diverse multi-message campaign of persuasion, the media message was emotionless, monotone and uncompelling. In short, the media messages failed to move or even educate voters about the issue and instead appealed to a single abstract principle -- equality -- that was not sufficiently persuasive or connected to the content of the proposition.
Ben Ehrenreich, writing in The Advocate, looks at whether No on 8 could have been run better. Lorri Jean of the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center told him apathy was a problem: Jean and others at the helm of the No on 8 campaign say they had a hard time awakening equivalent enthusiasm in the LGBT community, particularly because of the steady stream of polls showing Proposition 8 trailing by as much as 17 and 14 percentage points. “It was difficult raising money because of those polls,” Kors says, adding that the campaign’s internal numbers never reflected such comfortable margins of victory. “If we could have found a way to energize our community faster, we could have competed with them,” Jean says. “We experienced enormous complacency in our community until we finally put out the word that we were going down.”
-- Shelby Grad
 
Rosie O'Donnell sees herself as a gay marriage pioneer -- and seems to have little time for those who believe she could have done more to oppose Proposition 8. According to The Times' Denise Martin: Some reporters questioned why O'Donnell has been "oddly absent" from the uproar of California's passing of Proposition 8, which denies same-sex marriage. But the comedian scoffed. "This is nothing new for me. When I got married it was an act of civil disobedience as much as it was a love story. There is not any person in the country who doesn't know I'm for gay marriage. I'm not vocal enough? I got married before anyone else did. I've been living it and living it for a very long time."
Another comedian, Wanda Sykes, announced she's gay and is now protesting against the passing of Prop. 8. ABC News reports she might be a bridge between gay-rights groups and the African American community, which according to exit polls backed the ban on same-sex unions: Living life in the spotlight -- as black and gay -- is twice as hard, according to other blacks who say they are stigmatized by society at large for their sexual orientation and again by their own homophobic culture. Sykes, who was unavailable for comment, is one of only a handful of black, gay celebrities to protest California's Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban that was passed with the help of a coalition of religious groups, many of them black.
--Shelby Grad
Photos: AP; LAT file
Last week, the aggressive tactics of Prop. 8 opponents -- street protests, boycotts of business -- made headlines. This week, it appears that backers of the ban on gay marriage are the ones making threats. Yes on 8 forces are talking about a recall against members of the California Supreme Court if they throw out the measure.
To some, the recall talk marks another increase in the post-election battle and a response to the No on 8 protests: "This push-back in the last two weeks has actually mobilized the Yes on 8 people," said the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. If the California Supreme Court were to overturn Proposition 8, "you will see a mobilized group like you have never seen in the state of California." Rodriguez said in an interview Tuesday that some religious leaders are discussing a potential recall of Supreme Court justices. He expects the Supreme Court to overturn Proposition 8, and if that happens, "there are grounds for a recall. We saw that with Gray Davis," he said. "We have an oligarchy, an oligarchy in judges' role in the state of California."
Remember the Gray Davis recall? Well, one of the figures behind it thinks a Prop. 8 recall effort if the justices toss the measure out is a real possibility. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune: If that happens, watch out for a "barn-burner of an election -- the biggest thing this state has ever seen," says recall election guru Ted Costa. Costa says he's already been contacted by some of the folks who would seek to recall Ronald George, Joyce Kennard, Kathryn Werdegar and Carlos Moreno if Prop. 8 is scrapped. He thinks it's premature and risky because talk of a recall "would just (bleep) off the judges." Costa also doesn't sound like he's too thrilled about such a recall, saying it wouldn't be "healthy." Citing all the financial turmoil in California, he said, "If someone's going to do some recalling, that should be the focus."
When it comes to judicial recalls, one woman's name says it all. And Jon Fleischman utters it: "No government official is immune from the voters’ will, whether they be in the executive, legislative or, yes, even in the judicial branch. Remember Rose Bird?"
-- Shelby Grad
Victims of the melee in MacArthur Park last year involving Los Angeles police have reached a tentative multimillion-dollar settlement with the city, people close to the settlement talks said today.
The sources declined to provide details of the settlement and spoke on condition that their names not be used because the terms of the agreement are confidential pending the City Council's approval of the deal. A couple of the sources, however, placed the proposed settlement at about $10 million.
The council is expected to discuss and possibly vote on the settlement today. Last year, as a May Day immigration march was concluding at the park, lines of police in riot gear moved in to clear the area. Reacting to a pocket of agitators throwing bottles and other objects, officers from the LAPD's elite Metro Division used batons and fired rubber bullets into the crowd of largely peaceful demonstrators. Hundreds of marchers and journalists and 18 officers suffered injuries. No one was killed.
In the immediate aftermath, Police Chief William J. Bratton removed two command-level officers from their posts; one later resigned. And in September, after a long internal investigation, he announced his plans to suspend 11 officers and called for the termination of four others for excessive use of force, failing to rein in other officers or lying to investigators during the inquiry.
Read the rest of the story here.
--Joel Rubin
Photo: Los Angeles Times
If you thought the Prop. 8 protest was cooling down, think again. Here's another effort by backers of gay marriage to focus on one of the big Prop. 8 supporters. From AP: A California gay rights activist has filed a complaint accusing the Mormon church of failing to report the value of the work it did to support the gay marriage ban. Fred Karger, the founder of Californians Against Hate, submitted the complaint Thursday to the enforcement division of the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Karger alleges that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ran phone banks, produced commercials and provided other services that must be reported as contributions to the Proposition 8 campaign. The initiative, which amends the state constitution to ban gay marriage, was approved by voters this month.
Meanwhile, Yes on 8 forces plan a Friday news conference to decry the "outrageous campaign of blacklisting, harassment, and intimidation against supporters of the Yes on 8 Campaign. Churches have been defaced. Employers of donors and volunteers for Yes on 8 have been intimidated into firings, and forced resignation of employees who simply exercised their constitutional right to participate in the political process."
LAist sees signs the street protests are thinning out.
--Shelby Grad
The boycott effort against businesses whose owners backed Proposition 8 appears to be picking up steam.
Dozens of groups have sprouted up on Facebook.com urging its members to boycott businesses -- restaurants, jewelry stores, car-repair shops and more. Other activists have gone onto Yelp.com and other business rating sites, posting messages telling users which restaurants donated to the "Yes on 8" campaign.
There has also been talk of a boycott of the Cinemark movie chain, whose CEO gave money to "Yes on 8." This could have a major effect on the Sundance Film Festival, which uses the chain's theaters to show movies.
The actions have alarmed supporters of Prop. 8, which banned gay marriage in California.
"Since Proposition 8’s victory, a series of protests against churches, small businesses and individual supporters of traditional marriage have taken place in cities across the state," Ron Prentice, chairman of ProtectMarriage.com, wrote in a statement. "Tragically, some opponents of Prop. 8 who claim to cherish tolerance and civil rights are unabashedly trampling on the rights of others. Protests and boycotts have taken place against a Hispanic restaurant owner in Los Angeles, African American religious leaders in the Bay Area, and a musical theater director in Sacramento, among many others."
Read on »
 Is there an organized effort to boycott businesses whose owners made financial contributions to Proposition 8? Measure backers believe so. But it remains unclear how widespread or organized (or effective) the campaign has been. But here's one piece of evidence: For the last two days, a Times database listing contributions to both sides of the 8 campaign has seen huge traffic on latimes.com. Why? We will see.
Meanwhile, the controversy surrounding the $100 contribution to Yes on 8 from a figure at El Coyote restaurant continues to get its 15 minutes of fame. Today at the Beverly Boulevard eatery, there was an apology (not accepted) and a news conference (kinda ugly).
Zach Behrens at laist has more on the Prop. 8 boycott scorecard.
--Shelby Grad
Photo: Con Keyes / LAT
Some opponents of Prop. 8 are threatening to boycott the businesses of people who donated money to the ballot measure that banned gay marriage in California.
It was unclear how widespread the threats were, but an latimes.com database listing contributors to both sides of Proposition 8 saw a jump in traffic Wednesday.
El Coyote, the well-known Mexican restaurant on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles, received calls threatening a boycott after it was reported that someone associated with the eatery contributed $100 to "Yes on 8."
Bob Montoya, a manager at El Coyote, said customers have called and threatened to boycott the restaurant, but it does not appear to have affected business. Montoya said he thought a boycott, if one was called, was misguided, as the restaurant has a number of gay employees and has always been gay friendly.
"I"m gay and I work here, and I've been here for 31 years," Montoya told The Times. "It's gay friendly. People have been coming here for many years, gay and straight, families and everybody."
Word of the boycott has spread around websites and Facebook. "We should put our money where our mouth AND support is AND NOT AT EL COYOTE," says a posting on one activist's website.
The Times also received a letter threatening a boycott of an El Pollo Loco whose owner apparently contributed to the Prop. 8 campaign.
Sonja Eddings Brown of ProtectMarriage.com said the boycott threats have extended beyond eateries.
“We have received calls today from our members in Greater Los Angeles and other parts of the state indicating that today their businesses are being hurt because they contributed money,” she said. “People who contributed have been receiving calls from people dropping their business with them.”
Eater L.A. has a spirited debate about whether it's right to boycott El Coyote.
A similar dispute is roiling the California Musical Theatre in Sacramento.
--Alexandra Zavis, Gale Holland and Shelby Grad
After major protests around California last weekend, Proposition 8 foes promise to be out in force this weekend for what they hope will be a national demonstration against the ban on gay marriage.
Activists are planning to take their protests against the passage of Proposition 8 and similar measures nationwide Saturday. They have lofty goals for the event, which will take place outside city halls, state capitols and the U.S. Capitol in Washington.
Proposition 8 amends the California Constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Similar measures were also passed in Arizona and Florida.
Jointheimpact.com lists protest sites across the United States. In the Southland, they include:
- Long Beach City Hall on Ocean Boulevard
- Los Angeles City Hall on Spring Street
- Pasadena City Hall on Garfield Avenue
- Riverside City Hall on Main Street
- Ventura City Hall on Poli Street
In Orange County, the protesters have decided against picketing a civic building and instead will converge on a place perhaps just as important: the South Coast Plaza shopping mall on Bear Street in Costa Mesa.
There was a small protest Monday at the corner of Centinela Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard in the Ladera Heights area, but it drew only a handful of protesters, participants said.
-- Alexandra Zavis
 In the wake of the apparent passage of California Proposition 8, a second generation of rancorous debate has already sprung up online, with Facebook becoming a prominent virtual battleground. Before the election, Facebook users created dozens of groups on both sides of the measure, some with tens of thousands of followers, others with just a handful. (This anti-Prop. 8 group was even started by Facebook employees.)
Just as the memberships of those older groups continue to swell (see image at left), the new crop of groups is growing fast.
Opponents are using Facebook to organize protests, boycotts and more creative kinds of political statements.
One group encourages readers to Protest Proposition 8 by paying with $2 bills. If enough people pay with "The Queer Dollar," the group's description predicts, "$2 bills will flood the economy, and everyone will see how much LGBT and Allies's money contributes."
Read the rest of the post at the Web Scout blog.
-- David Sarno
From his living room in Leisure World in Seal Beach, Larry Black has watched the anti-Proposition 8 protests on his TV. He's read about the legal challenges to overturn the measure. And he has a thought.
"It's ridiculous," said Black, 66. "It's the people's vote. . . . That's the way it should be. That's it."
Voters in Orange County passed the measure banning gay marriage last week by a margin of 14 percentage points, a larger victory than statewide.
On Main Street in Seal Beach on Monday, a sampling of supporters vented their frustration over the contentious issue dragging on after a clear win at the polls.
Read the rest of the story here.
--Joe Mozingo
Photo: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times
Plans are afoot to organize protests against Prop. 8 at every major city hall in California Saturday -- with the local focus being on L.A. City Hall (which was famous for those huge immigration rallies a few years ago).
Organizers are urging activists from around the country and Canada to converge on California and are hoping for tens of thousands of participants. Last week's protests slowly grew in size from hundreds on the Westside Thursday to 12,000 on Saturday night in Silver Lake.
These protests have caused major traffic problems. Some people say they were slowed down but support the cause. Others curse the No-on-8 demonstrators for worsening L.A.'s already awful traffic. A sample of the debate on City-Data.com: Thanks for having your little protests during a weekday, during rush hour. How remarkably thoughtful. I guess you people believe traffic moves too quickly on the Westside, so hey, it won't inconvenience anybody by having your little sit-in's and so fourth. Thanks for that.
And... You're whining up a storm about getting stuck in traffic. ...You live in L.A.! And you're brushing off the feelings of these people like Prop 8 was nothing, like they're just "throwing a hissy fit" because they didn't "get their way."
--Jessica Garrison and Shelby Grad
Related:
L.A. Jews strongly opposed Prop. 8
Stop blaming blacks for Prop. 8's passage.
Interactive Maps: Comparing Prop. 4 and Prop. 8 results; comparing Prop. 8 and Prop. 22 results.
Photo: LAT file
Robin Tyler and Diane Olson, a lesbian couple whose lawsuit led to the California Supreme Court's landmark decision allowing gay marriage, will speak out at the latest Prop. 8 protest, slated for tonight on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake.
Meanwhile, City News Service reports that 15 people were arrested at last night's Long Beach march.
Photo: Lori Shepler / LAT
More than 2,000 demonstrators marched through Long Beach Friday night, protesting the recent passage of Proposition 8.
The noisy march started about 7:30 p.m. and within an hour had taken over Broadway.
At one point, police formed a human barrier to separate the marchers from a handful of residents who shouted in support of Proposition 8. “They were so outnumbered, we were concerned for their safety,” said David Marander, a spokesman for Long Beach Police, which worked closely with the event's organizers.
By 10:15 p.m., the demonstration had largely ended, but a few dozen marchers refused to disperse, leading to a brief confrontation with police. Three demonstrators were arrested for attempting to lead marchers off the approved route, said Marander, but overall, the demonstration went "extremely well," he said.
-- Jason Felch and Alexandra Zavas
Hundreds of demonstrators marched through Long Beach this evening, the latest protest against the passage of Proposition 8.
The event was largely peaceful. But Long Beach police arrested three people on suspicion of trying in incite a riot. At about 10 p.m., Police and L.A. County Sheriff's deputies were attempting to break up the crowd.
The march was set to begin at 7 p.m., but people were gathering hours before at Broadway and Redondo Avenue.
Protesters started marching about 7:30 and had taken over Broadway, shouting and holding signs. “They’re saying, 'What do we want? Equal rights. When do we want them? Now,' " said Katie Moravec, 30, who lives at Broadway and Gaviota Avenue.
Organizers and police formed a human barrier to separate the handful of Prop. 8 supporters from a few thousand people marching against the measure, carrying signs with such messages as “Did we vote on your marriage?”
CNN was cutting into programming to show the demonstration. It's the third major protest in the region over Prop. 8, which banned same-sex marriage in California. Demonstrations disrupted traffic Wednesday night in West Hollywood and Hollywood and Thursday in Westwood.
More from the Press-Telegram's John Canalis and at LB Report.
--Jason Felch and Alexandra Zavis
Hundreds of people protesting on the Westside over the passage of Prop. 8 are causing gridlock in a part of L.A. already famous for bad traffic.
The Times' Tami Abdollah reports that the gridlock is gripping streets around the Westside. She said it took her a half-hour to go a mile. She said most major streets -- including Sepulveda Boulevard, Barrington Avenue and Olympic Boulevard -- are jammed. Side streets around the area are also clogged with cars. There is major congestion through Beverly Hills as well.
Details:
- Portions of Santa Monica Boulevard are closed between Beverly Glen and Westwood boulevards.
- Portions of Westwood Boulevard are also closed north of Santa Monica Boulevard.
- Portions of Ohio Avenue are closed east of Westwood Boulevard.
- The closures have caused major congestion on Wilshire Boulevard, a part of which was closed.
- The eastbound Wilshire Boulevard offramp from the 405 Freeway is closed.
These closures change as the protesters move through. Some streets open then close again.
--Shelby Grad
Photo: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times
When The Times' called Prop. 8 Wednesday morning, some opponents said it was still too close to call. But now, the anti-8 forces say they lost. From Associated Press: Gay-rights leaders are conceding that California’s same-sex marriage ban has passed. News outlets, including the Associated Press, had projected early Wednesday passage of Proposition 8, but because there were still ballots being counted, gay-marriage supporters said they weren’t ready to concede. But on Thursday, opponents of Proposition 8 said they didn't think there were enough outstanding votes on their side to defeat the measure. The latest tally from the secretary of State shows the initiative winning with 52% of the vote.
Photo credit: Barbara Davidson / Los Angeles Times
More than 3,000 protesters marched near the landmark Los Angeles California Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Westwood today to protest the church's strong support for Proposition 8. Santa Monica Boulevard is closed and nearby traffic is gridlocked.
Opponents of Proposition 8, which outlawed gay marriage in California, were waving banners and chanting. A similar protests occurred on Wednesday night in Hollywood and West Hollywood.
Los Angeles Police Department officials say they won't be caught off-guard as they were last night, when they were required to call a tactical alert after a few members of the mostly peaceful crowd got out of hand. The protest is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. off Santa Monica Boulevard.
In the wake of the passage of the state proposition banning gay marriage, Wednesday night saw thousands protest in West Hollywood and Hollywood, forcing police to shut down some streets and the LAPD to call a citywide tactical alert that required officers from one watch to stay on duty during the next watch.
At least seven people were arrested, four at the intersection of Hollywood and Highland, where one man jumped on top of a police car. Television cameras captured one protester struggling with officers and being struck on the legs by batons.
Read on »
To the outside world, Watts is many things: code, a euphemism, a one-word cautionary tale. "It's a place that everybody thinks they know about but are afraid to go to," says artist Edgar Arceneaux. "And this project offers a chance for people to come together and build something collectively." Arceneaux is reffering to his Watts House Project, an artist-driven urban revitalization project centered around the historic Watts Towers, the Watts Art Center, and a strip of property on 107th Street.
Read more by Times Staff Writer Lynell George here.
The Women's Conference is going on today in Long Beach and our own Mary Forgione, escorting a group of young women, is there. Here's her dispatch: Maria Shriver gave a deeply personal and moving speech today, mostly about her ailing mom, Eunice Kennedy, and her own path to self-enlightenment. Speaking at a lunch session, she described the many strokes her mother has suffered this year, and about the resulting breakthrough in their personal relationship.
During one recent stay in a hospital's intensive-care unit, Maria, 52, did something she had never done before — got into bed and snuggled with her mother. She spoke of taming the fears in her life, such as the fear of losing her mom, and her uncle, Sen. Ted Kennedy, who has brain cancer. She also touched on the agonizing decision to endorse Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton.
Shriver said there's a difference between being fearless, which she characterized as something akin to foolhardy, and to being free of fear.
Earlier today at the annual conference, Warren Buffett grabbed the spotlight when he jokingly (we assume) asked political talk-show host Chris Matthews whether he would be willing to have a sex-change operation to become a woman. As for Matthews' willingness to become a woman, no direct answer was given.
—Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Getty Images
We legislate by committee here in California, where anyone with the cash and clout can use the ballot initiative process to write laws our legislators didn't. One of the more unusual choices on the November ballot is Proposition 2, which requires that chickens, pigs and calves have enough room in their enclosures that they can stand, sit and turn around. Animal activists are solidly behind the idea, which has our own George Skelton, who grew up in rural Ojai, weighing both sides: Polls have shown Proposition 2 winning handily. But I'm guessing most voters haven't really focused in, that they've had a lot more on their minds lately than the treatment of chickens.
I've been torn myself. I like chickens and respect them. But they're tough to warm up to.
Growing up on a small orange ranch in Ojai, I did my share of shoveling chicken manure, collecting eggs, and serving up corn mash and table scraps. Many a Sunday, my brother and I would be sent to the chicken pen to select and prepare the dinner entree for our mother to fry.
We'd wield the hatchet and not give it a second thought. These aren't cuddly critters. Mean is their routine. Chickens, after all, invented the pecking order, the original organization chart. And they'll peck persistently on a weak colleague.
Ours were "free range" chickens, to use today's highfalutin terminology. We'd let them roam the orchard during the day, pecking for seeds and insects. At evening, our border collie-Australian shepherd would herd the birds back into their pen and they'd strut into the sheltered roosting area for the night.
It was a good life for the chickens -- an Old McDonald's Farm existence that has little relationship to today's factory egg farms.
Today, commercial egg-layers are crammed four, six, eight to a cage, depending on the size, each bird with less space than an 8-1/2-by-11-inch piece of paper. No perching. No dust bathing. That's the bad.
The good, farmers counter, is that California cages are relatively sanitary because the manure falls onto conveyor belts. The eggs are carried away by other conveyor belts. And the building is climate-controlled to the chickens' liking.
The rest of George's column is here.
— Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times
Everyone's got an opinion about Proposition 8, the proposed amendment to the state Constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. Plenty of people and organizations are voting with their pocketbooks, both from within and from outside California.
Now comes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which grabbed some TV time in Utah to urge the 770,000 Mormon church members in California to weigh in on the matter. Here's the story from the Associated Press: Two members of the church's second-highest governing body, the Quorum of Twelve Apostles, quoted from Mormon scripture on the sanctity of marriage as they laid out a week-by-week strategy for boosting Mormon involvement before the Nov. 4 election in voter registration efforts, phone banks and distributing campaign materials.
“What we're about is the work of the Lord, and He will bless you for your involvement,” apostle M. Russell Ballard said during the hour-long meeting, which was broadcast to church buildings in California, Utah, Hawaii and Idaho.
So far, Proposition 8 supporters have poured $19,778,208 to outlaw same-sex marriage, about $1.6 million more than opponents of the measure. Add the two sides together and that's about $38 million. Imagine the good it could be doing elsewhere.
The rest of the Associated Press story is after the jump.
-- Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Inside the LDS conference center in Salt Lake City. Credit: Associated Press
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Remember the kayak expedition earlier this year down the rugged Los Angeles River? Well, there are some serious consequences for at least one of those involved, according to AP:
A federal biologist was threatened with a 30-day job suspension over a kayaking trip she took to protest perceived government threats to the Los Angeles River and other waterways, according to documents released Wednesday.
Heather Wylie, a project manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Los Angeles, went kayaking on the river one Saturday in July to draw attention to a proposal by the corps that could have exempted parts of the Los Angeles River from federal clean water protections.
Shortly thereafter, her supervisors told her they were proposing to suspend her for 30 days without pay because of the “unsafe and unauthorized boating expedition” and because of an “unauthorized and inappropriate e-mail message” she had sent to co-workers about the clean water issue.
The group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility announced plans Wednesday to file a whistle-blower complaint on Wylie’s behalf, and released the letter she received from her supervisors.
That photo's of another kayaker during a different expedition. For more on the biologist, keep reading after the jump.
--Shelby Grad
Photo: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times
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 Two religious leaders from Orange County were among the dozens of pastors across the United States who preached politics from the pulpit on Sunday, hoping to become the basis of an IRS test case on the ban against politicking from the pulpit.
Though they didn't explicitly name candidates' names — except for the Rev. Wiley S. Drake, who asked his Buena Park parishioners to vote for him — the pastors instructed listeners to judge the candidates by the Bible and Christian scripture, and to vote accordingly.
Our own Bob Pool and My-Thuan Tran attended the services: Pastor Stephen B. Orman urged those attending his Warner Avenue Baptist Church service in Huntington Beach to use the Bible as a voters' guide and evaluate candidates and issues on the basis of Christian scripture.
The Rev. Wiley S. Drake suggested that those at his First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park vote for him -- and for his presidential running mate on the American Independent Party ticket, Alan Keyes.
Drake asked his congregation to support the challenge to the federal ban on political campaigning by nonprofit groups.
"I am angry because the government and the IRS and some Christians have taken away the rights of pastors," Drake said to about 45 people at his service. "I have a right to endorse anybody I doggone well please. And if they don't like that, too bad."
While pastors aren't prohibited from political speech-making, doing so can put their tax-exempt status in jeopardy. More details (and a poll) in the full story here.
— Veronique de Turenne
Photo: The Rev. Wiley S. Drake prays with a parishioner. Credit: Annie Wells / Los Angeles Times
 Last week, Brad Pitt gave $100k to help defeat Prop 8. Yesterday, director Steven Spielberg added another $100k to coffers of activists trying to beat the Nov. 4 ballot measure, which would write a gay marriage ban into the California constitution. Last month, the Knights of Columbus weighed in on the issue with a $1-million contribution in favor of Prop 8.
According to our database, which tracks Prop 8 contributions, supporters of the measure raised $16.2 million, with $4.1 million of it coming from outside the state. Those who want to preserve California's gay marriage laws have donated $10.8 million, with close to half of that coming from outside the state.
Check out today's story, by Dan Morain and Jessica Garrison, about the Prop. 8 money race and why donors on both sides of the issue feel compelled to vote with their pocketbooks.
-- Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Reuters
It's finally here, the appeal hearing about the proposed toll road in San Onofre, reviled by environmentalists, revered by business interests. More than 650 people met the requirement and wrote letters to reserve a chance to speak at the hearing -- both for and against the road -- no small feat in this pixelated age of e-mail and text messages. Our own Susannah Rosenblatt has details: Seven months after thousands poured into the Del Mar Fairgrounds for a raucous state Coastal Commission hearing on whether to build a 16-mile toll road through a state park in north San Diego County, both sides are set to be back at it today. Repeat or not, the stakes remain high. Advocates say the toll road is critical to untangling freeway congestion across the region, while opponents contend it will be ruinous to one of the state's most popular coastal parks and famed surf spots. The latest round in the byzantine battle is a much-anticipated 10-hour appeal hearing before an attorney with the U.S. Department of Commerce. The Commerce secretary can override the February decision by the Coastal Commission to reject plans for the tollway.
More about the restrictions imposed on today's hearing, as well as what happens next (hint: we're dealing with government agencies here) in Susannah's full story.
Also in the OC Register, the Union-Tribune, and the Mercury News.
-- Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
Jerry Brown leads the fight for lead-free artificial grass. The Times
Plans for a new courthouse in Long Beach continue to move forward. Long Beach Press-Telegram
Donors ride to the rescue of the Dream Catcher horse sanctuary. LA Unleashed
Britney Spears is headed to the VMAs. Soundboard
Arcadia considers tougher penalties for contractors who use illegal immigrants. San Gabriel Valley Tribune
The parent company of Costa Mesa-based Ditech will cut 5,000 jobs. Orange County Register
The spat between San Bernardino's police chief and some of his officers gets more complicated. San Bernardino Sun
It's a girl! The 100,000th baby is born at the Women's Center of Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
No one is hurt when a small plane flips over while landing at the Camarillo Airport. Ventura County Star
—Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Los Angeles Times
 That American Airlines 737 with a blown tire landed safely at LAX. LAT
The Ventura County man accused of slamming his car into the front gates of the Playboy Mansion pleads "not guilty." Daily News
Grand opening of a new LAPD Rampart station station this Thursday. Angelenic
"Stop the Killing" -- that's the message of a billboard in Carson, created by the families of slain children. Daily Breeze
A trade agreement with China that allows tour groups to get travel visas will bring millions of tourists to Los Angeles. SGV Tribune
A woman in Garden Grove has been arrested on suspicion of growing psychedelic mushrooms. OC Register
Ontario is jazzed about its helicopter crime patrol. Daily Bulletin
Tonight in rock. LAist
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times
 He showed up at Acres of Books (pictured) in Long Beach when the venerable bookstore announced its closing, and now author Ray Bradbury is rallying to the rescue of the Long Beach Main Library, the latest bastion of reading to be rocked by the tanking economy. The Press-Telegram reports on the library's woes, and its latest champion, who is scheduled to appear there Saturday as part of the Blanche Collins Forum speaker series:
"We told him it was kind of an emergency," said Carol Collins, director of the forum (no relation to Blanche Collins). "He'll be speaking in support, of course, of the library."
The emergency to which Collins referred is a budget proposal that would close the Main Library to the public and beef up services and hours at branch locations while the city searches for a new downtown branch. The city is working toward closing a $16.9-million budget gap. Closing the Main Library, which needs infrastructure repairs, is among the cost-cutting proposals.
Bradbury made his views on the proposal known in an Aug. 6 letter to the editor of the Press-Telegram.
"This is heartbreak and an outrage," he wrote. "Libraries are also an essential core public service. How can a major city not provide public access to a civic center library?"
He went on to explain how he wrote his best-regarded book, "Fahrenheit 451," on a typewriter in a library at UCLA.
Residents are also pitching in to save the library, which could be shuttered to help get Long Beach out of the budgetary red. Something wicked this way comes, indeed. --Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Alex Gallardo / Los Angeles Times
 It's been a banner week for nudity in California. First the naked sunbathers at San Onofre got permission to keep their most private parts public, now a pair of women arrested in Sacramento in 2005 for baring their breasts in the name of peace have won a legal victory of their own.
According to a Superior Court judge in Sacramento, the arrest of "Breasts Not Bombs" protesters Sherry Glaser and Sheba Love was unlawful because their action was symbolic speech and the women were not, as accused, indecently exposed or committing a lewd act.
Our own Evan Halper covered the lead-up to the protest, in which officials warned that the sight of the women's bare bosoms could, as Evan put it, "corrupt children, prompt drivers to veer off the road and cause sex offenders to run amok." He was also there on Nov. 7, when the women shed their shirts and police arrested them. The women faced the possibility of a trial, and of having to register as sex offenders.
In case you're a bit hazy about the whole breasts-to-bombs connection, the women say breasts represent peace and the survival of the human race while bombs, well, don't. The group has protested in San Francisco without incident (natch) and in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., where neither the women nor the men in the group were told to put on shirts.
If you're made of sterner stuff, this site has not only photos of the bare-breasted women protesting in Berkeley in July of 2005, but some men who dropped by and, in the spirit of things, dropped trou for peace.
America. What a country.
-- Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Robert Durell / Los Angeles Times
(A previous version of this post misidentified Sheba Love as Shoba Love.)
 Actor and liberal activist Martin Sheen has agreed to co-chair the People Against Proposition 5 campaign, a coalition of groups and individuals whose stated aim is to defeat the Nov. 4 ballot measure. Proposition 5, which would ease criminal consequences of some drug offenses and rewrite some parole guidelines, has among its supporters billionaire philanthropist George Soros, who has donated $1 million in support of the measure. Opponents include MADD, the California District Attorneys Assn. and the California Police Chiefs Assn.
The actor's stance against Prop. 5 puts him arm in arm with the conservatives whom Sheen, as an outspoken critic of President Bush and his Iraq policies, usually fights. GOP consultant Kevin Spillane is spokesman for the campaign against Proposition 5, which now makes him and Sheen allies.
It's a toss-up what the actor is best known for -- portraying President Jed Bartlet on "The West Wing" or being the father of bad boy Brat Packer Charlie Sheen, whose drug addiction and repeat stints in rehab played out in the public eye.
"I am accepting a leading role in this effort because I believe Proposition 5 will do so much harm to so many people," Sheen said in a statement. "Fighting drug addiction is an issue that is very close to my heart. I believe in rehabilitation and not incarceration."
Politics does make strange bedfellows.
—Veronique de Turenne
A new PETA documentary about the brutal treatment of some great apes in Hollywood is being distributed to studios by its narrator, Anjelica Huston, and cites films like "Any Which Way You Can," "Clyde," and this summer's "Speed Racer," shown in the photo at right. Our own Rachel Abramowitz watched and, despite a certain skepticism about some of PETA's causes and methods, uncovered some ugly facts:
In 2002-03, primatologist Sarah Baeckler conducted a 14-month
undercover investigation of Amazing Animal Actors, then a prime chimp
facility, on behalf of a consortium of chimpanzee advocates including
[Jane] Goodall. "It was really rough," says Baeckler, now executive director
of a chimp sanctuary near Seattle. "I saw a lot of physical violence. A
lot of punching and kicking, and the use of the 'ugly stick,' a
sawed-off broom handle, to beat the chimps. The youngest I met were 18
months old and were pretty similar to an 18-month-old human child. They
were being kicked in the face and punched in the head and subject to
all kinds of physical abuse to keep them paying attention and in line
with the trainer."
Baeckler does not "think it has gotten better" since her investigation,
and says it's perfectly plausible that a trainer would treat an animal
well in public and mistreat it behind the scenes. "It's very similar to
an abusive human relationship...."
The American Humane
Assn., a group that tracks how animals in films are treated, gave "Speed Racer" an "unacceptable" rating because the chimpanzee used in the movie was abused. More details in Rachel's thoughtful piece here.
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Warner Bros
* Oy. In a previous version of this post, I spelled Anjelica Huston's name "Angelica", which is incorrect. As a fan of her work, you think I'd know better. Also, the previous version of the post had a different photograph. The animal in that previous photo was not abused.
A law to require the spaying and neutering of unlicensed strays -- a reaction by a Van Nuys legislator to the 500,000 unwanted dogs and cats killed in California's animal shelters each year -- was vigorously rejected by the Senate today in a 5-27 vote.
The vote on the bill, considered one of the most controversial in this year's legislative session, reveals a divide between the state's densely populated cities and its rural areas. Patrick McGreevy has the details:
"On behalf of my dog, he’d like to remain intact,’’ said state Sen. Bob Dutton (R-Rancho Cucamonga), voicing the sentiment of many of his colleagues who represent rural areas. "He hasn’t caused any problems."
The bill, proposed by Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) was watered down to apply only to unlicensed pets. But lawmakers, particularly those from rural areas, were having none of it.
"What works for Mr. Levine in Los Angeles County won’t necessarily work in Alpine or Modoc County," said state Sen. Dave Cox (R-Fair Oaks).
His colleague, state Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster), was more direct. "This a myopic view from those who come from the big city."
The bill would have required that the owner pay a $50 fine for the first offense. The second offense would result in a $100 fine and a requirement that a microchip be implanted so the dog could be traced. On the third offense, the dog would be spayed or neutered. Spaying and neutering of cats, however, would be required on the second offense. I do my best to stay neutral in this blog, but I can't help wondering whether spending a week in the euthanasia room of a shelter might change a few senators' minds.
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times
 We pass along a lot of rotten news during a day's work here at LA Now, so when a group of people who call themselves "metaphysical activists" get ready for their first-ever "Vibe Demonstration," we feel honor-bound to share that as well.
They're going to gather -- sorry, "peacefully convene" -- at the corner of LaBrea and Santa Monica boulevards today at 6 p.m. and, carrying posters, will aim positive thoughts right at you and everyone else who lives in Gotham our fair city. From their press release: "The group hopes to create and exhibit a positive vibration that will be felt throughout the city. The demonstration will serve as both an act of metaphysical activism and a street art installation."
(skip)
"We want to make it known that you can change your life for the better regardless of your circumstances. You just have to be armed with the knowledge that if you're willing to work, it's impossible not to see dramatic and satisfactory life changes."
Fingers crossed. Really.
--Veronique de Turenne
Photo: linh.ngân / via Creative Commons on Flickr
Read the full press release after the jump.
Read on »
 The Midnight Ridazz (motto: "Tighten your buns, not your budget") plan a ride today to City Hall to lobby leaders for bike safety and, if you know anything about the community, just for the sheer joy of riding.
From activist Stephen Box: We've got a Bastillion ideas on ways to make this a GREAT city but we're gonna start with the Cyclists' Bill of Rights and we're gonna call on our City Leadership to join us in making this a GREAT City with GREAT streets! (6500 miles of roadway, all of it rideable!)
See you on the streets!
The ride starts at 11 a.m. at Santa Monica Boulevard and Vermont Avenue Red Line Station
The ride comes in the wake of the highly publicized car versus bike collision in Mandeville Canyon last week, which wound up with a cyclist in the hospital and the driver of the car facing felony charges. A town hall meeting was quickly scheduled and just as quickly canceled.
--Veronique de Turenne
There are a million billboards in the naked city (well, not quite) and about 4,000 of them are illegal. Now comes a handy searchable database to help you fight for a less cluttered skyscape. Here's the story, from the LA Weekly: Last April, LA Weekly went to Los Angeles Superior Court to force the city to hand over
public information about the locations of thousands of potentially
illegal billboards erected without permits or formal safety
inspections. Over the objections of Clear Channel Outdoor and CBS
Outdoor, a judge ruled that the public had the right to these
sought-after and plainly public lists.
But the lists failed to show which of the billboards were illegal, so Jim Bursch, publisher of West LA Online, took on the remarkable task of creating a searchable billboard database. He's got photos, too.
There's a lot of cash at stake, the Weekly points out in a previous story: Billboard companies reap roughly $14,000 a month in easy money from a
double-sided standard-size 14-by-48-foot billboard that costs about
$50,000 to $80,000 to build. And they earn up to $128,000 monthly from
"digital" billboards, oil wells in the sky that, when fully leased with
ads, will earn $1.34 billion a year for L.A.'s billboard giants. These
riches will flow to the very firms that have vociferously fought paying
a single penny into an annual, modest, $186-per-billboard municipal fee
— which their lawyers hammered down from $314.
Bursch's database tips the balance of power into residents hands, your hands. What are you going to do with it?
-- Veronique de Turenne
Photo: Los Angeles Times
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