"LA mayor calls for 700 layoffs to stem $500m budget gap" by Associated Press | April 21, 2010
LOS ANGELES — Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said yesterday that Los Angeles will lay off more than 700 workers in coming months and eliminate thousands of other jobs as the nation’s second-largest city struggles to close a $500 million budget gap.
Related: Boston Globe Summer School: Geography Class
Also see: Boston Globe Cross-Country Bike Trip
The Democratic mayor warned the recession-battered city to prepare for cutbacks in library hours, tree trimming, and road repairs....
Maybe you shouldn't have wasted so much tax money on school construction.
Working with the council, the mayor wants to slash roughly 3,500 positions through job cuts, early retirements, and the elimination of vacant posts....
I'm for getting rid of the whole damn thing.
I NO LONGER BELIEVE in GOVERNMENT in AmeriKa, sorry!
It might not stop with layoffs.
“We must all be willing to take cuts in our pay, increase our pension contribution, and contribute more to our health care plans,’’ the mayor said.
Yeah, right!
"Public Employee Unions Guarantee National Bankruptcy
The U.S. is broke. Public Employee Unions refuse to void their unconscionable contracts. The taxpayer can no longer afford this destructive fraud. Society can only be rejuvenated through a total downsizing of all public services. The biggest deadbeats that skim off the system are your phony public servants. The only bright spot from a collapse and natural bankruptcy is the evaporation of the public sector. Can you say Bye Bye to those decadent pensions? The government wants total control and public employees have made their – UNION – bargain with the devil."
What FINE PUBLIC SERVANTS you have, AmeriKa!!
Yeah, GOVERNMENT WORKERS bargaining with the GOVERNMENT!
Also see:
The Massachusetts Model: Municipal Health Mess
Towns to Pay Health Tax For Public Servants
Slow Saturday Special: California's Total Recall
Gee, don't YOU WISH YOU had such a GENEROUS, TAXPAYER-FUNDED PLAN, American taxpayers?
Governments across the nation are hurting after a national recession, but California has been especially hard hit.
Yeah, GOVERNMENTS are HURTING!
Tells you ALL YOU NEED to KNOW about the AGENDA-PUSHING PAPER and who they work for, Americans -- and it AIN'T YOU!
The unemployment rate in the state is 12.6 percent, a modern record for California....
But we are in recovery, blah, blah, blah.
--more--"
Yeah, do I seem a BIT ANGRY about being LIED TO today?
"Top LA judge predicts chaos from cuts" by Associated Press | April 23, 2010
LOS ANGELES — The nation’s largest court system is in the midst of a painful budget crisis that has shut down courtrooms and disrupted everything from divorce and custody proceedings to traffic ticket disputes.
You know, I think the citizens of L.A. will somehow survive.
I really DO NOT WANT TO HEAR anymore WHINING from LOOTING GOVERNMENTS, 'kay?
How about LESS CRIMES on the BOOKS, huh?
Oh, right, then these SELF-SERVING S*** would be OUT of a JOB, huh?
The Los Angeles court system has already closed 17 courtrooms and will shut down 50 more in September unless it receives more money.
GOOD! Less TYRANNY!
The judge who presides over the system predicts chaos and an unprecedented logjam of civil and family law cases in the worst-case scenario.
Oh, yeah, I am also TIRED of the FEAR YO-YO, 'kay?!!
EVERY DAMN ISSUE in the PAPER is ALWAYS FILLED with FEAR -- no matter what it is about!!
The crisis results from the financially troubled state’s decision to slash $393 million from state trial courts in the budget this year. The state also closed all courthouses on the third Wednesday of every month.
What has emerged is a hobbled court system struggling to serve the public.
Pfffffft!
Courts are there to PROTECT the POWER ELITE who can BUY JUSTICE!
Custody hearings, divorce proceedings, small-claims disputes, and civil lawsuits have been delayed. Drivers who choose to fight traffic tickets now have to wait up to nine months to get a hearing. 
I had to WAIT 18 MONTHS in Massachusetts so what are they complaining about?
And who knows?
Maybe people will LEARN to GET ALONG and SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS without the sate -- like we have for CENTURIES!
Complex civil lawsuits, those involving feuding businesses, for instance, could really feel the hit....
In the FREE-ENTERPRISE MYTH of AmeriKa?!!
No way!
Way.
The criminal courts are immune from the cuts....
Yeah, they ALWAYS have PLENTY of MONEY for TYRANNY!!
--more--"
LOS ANGELES — Six in 10 Americans — about 175 million people — are living in places where air pollution often reaches dangerous levels, despite progress in reducing particle pollution, the American Lung Association said in a report released yesterday....
It's not known as SMOG CITY for nothing!
LOS ANGELES — More doctors in California are using a prescription monitoring program to curb drug abuse, yet the state is unable to share information with other states.
Although a state online drug database went into effect last year to thwart addicts who bounce from doctor to doctor to feed a habit or make a small fortune peddling meds, there is now a push to extend it beyond state lines to snare so-called doctor shoppers and curb drug abuse....
But it is ALL ABOUT YOUR HEALTH, right?
A nationwide network might have helped Michael Jackson’s doctor better monitor the medication he was receiving from multiple doctors.
Related: Michael Jackson
Maybe they could have helped the cops secure the crime scene, too.
Dr. Conrad Murray, who was recently charged with involuntary manslaughter in the singer’s death, told police Jackson gave few details when Murray repeatedly asked about his medications, according to an affidavit. The Los Angeles County coroner said Jackson was killed by a mix of a powerful anesthetic and a sedative. Police have searched for information in three states to see if Jackson’s medical history played a role in his June death.
--more--"
LOS ANGELES — Two county hospital workers were placed on paid leave after anonymous complaints that they set up a makeshift beauty salon in an intensive care ward for newborns, authorities said.
Just drop that baby right here, will ya?
The two complaints said manicures and eyebrow waxes were given to nurses and doctors in the neonatal intensive care unit at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center, a county-run facility.
I guess they don't have enough work to do.
“The smell of acetone permeates the back area of the NICU,’’ according to one complaint obtained by the Los Angeles Times and reported yesterday.
--more--"
Stay off the roads, too.
"Gravel truck slams into house, killing 3, after brakes fail on Calif. highway" by Associated Press | August 25, 2010
LOS ANGELES — A runaway truck hauling tons of gravel went over an embankment yesterday near Santa Barbara and crushed a home, killing a man, woman, and child, authorities said.
The truck’s brakes failed as it careened along State Highway 154 and through an intersection then hit two parked cars before plunging down a driveway onto the house, authorities said.
“Completely flattened it,’’ said David Sadecki, Santa Barbara County fire captain.
The truck was hauling two loaded trailers...--more--"
"Greyhound bus crash kills 6 in Calif." by Associated Press | July 23, 2010
FRESNO, Calif. — A Greyhound bus traveling to Sacramento from Los Angeles crashed on a highway in California’s Central Valley early yesterday, killing six people and seriously injuring nine others.
The bus, carrying 36 people, struck an overturned sport utility vehicle, slammed into a concrete center divider, and clipped another vehicle shortly after 2 a.m. outside downtown Fresno, California Highway Patrol Officer Axel Reyes said....
--more--"
Let's bring it on home, readers.
LOS ANGELES — A California Appeals Court yesterday ordered that murder charges be reinstated against a trucker from Everett, Mass., whose runaway big rig killed a man and his 12-year-old daughter near Los Angeles....
Marcos Barboza Costa was hauling cars over the San Gabriel Mountains on April 1, 2009, when his brakes failed on the steep Angeles Crest Highway above La Canada Flintridge. The double-decker rig hit a car, killing Angel Posca and his daughter Angelina, of Palmdale, collided with four other vehicles, and smashed into a bookstore and a nail salon, injuring three others.
It crashed into the hospital?
Prosecutors said Costa ignored a highway sign warning that trucks of the size and weight he was driving are barred from that stretch of winding road....
That must have led back to Massachusetts.
