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Villaraigosa plans to eliminate the city department that supports neighborhood councils, candidate Steve Cooley has union troubles, and an LAFD pilot retires.
- Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to announce his intention to fold the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment into the Community Development Department and reduce its staff from 42 to about a dozen. Neighborhood council leaders were briefed on Friday by Deputy Mayor Larry Frank. DN/Rick Orlov, OurLA.org
Related: "A calculated and deliberate effort of the Mayor and his colleagues on the City Council to silence the voice of the people....There are four million voices in this naked city and every one of them wants to be heard or will demand to be heard soon enough," rants Ron Kaye. - A federal lawsuit by the prosecutors union and more than a dozen unfair labor practice complaints allege that District Attorney Steve Cooley has retaliated against union members and avoided subpoenas from the county labor board seeking to have him explain his actions. Cooley's side dismisses the allegations as the work of a small group of disgruntled employees who oppose him politically. DN
Plus:Cooley says if he's elected AG, he'll do the job from Los Angeles: "I'm not going to Sacramento, in this age of faxes, e-mail, Twitter." LAT - City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana told the mayor he wouldn't take the job if Villaraigosa were running for governor. He's called the man behind City Council vote to cut 4,000 jobs. LAT
- Villaraigosa put forth his argument for cuts in an Op-Ed piece in the Times.
- PG&E plans to spend $25 million to $35 million on a California ballot initiative that would limit the ability of cities and counties to go into the public power business. SF Chronicle
- At least 11 officers responsible for supervising youths in the county juvenile justice system have been convicted of crimes or disciplined for inappropriate conduct involving probationers, a Times investigation found. LAT
- Los Angeles Fire Department helicopter pilot Dale Gant retired after 28 years and 8,000 hours of flying. "Tonight, families parented by one of the countless young lives you saved in air ambulance responses will tuck their own children to bed in one of thousands of homes you helped spare from wind driven wildfire," says PIO Brian Humphrey. LAFD blog
- Dana Goodyear looks in on the giant squid invasion off the coast. The New Yorker
- Oh great. Now you don't only have to worry that the guy camping next to you is drunk and loud, he might be armed too.