ellisonz
ellisonz's JournalPart 173: The LA Fed Tapes on Appeal - Can the Watergate of Los Angeles Be Solved?
Published May 24, 2025.
By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist
The scheduled potential June jury trial for Kevin de León in his case against the two accused leakers of the LA Fed Tapes has been stayed pending appeal. Uncovered by the media, the latest filing is largely a rehash of prior proceedings last summer, during which defendants Santos Leon and Karla Vasquez failed to prevail in initial proceedings contesting the liability claim. The two former employees of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO (the LA Fed), perhaps the most politically powerful labor union in the City of Angels, have different attorneys representing them. Vasquez’s firm is currently working on a replacement following the death of attorney Jeffrey Zinder from natural causes. The matter pending now in the California Second Appellate District is case number B341428. Will it reveal any new facts, though?
Both Leon and Vasquez have strenuously denied responsibility for the recordings, which captured the prominent Kevin de León, recently elected to the Los Angeles City Council, in discussion with former City Council President Nury Martinez, former Councilmember Gil Cedillo, and the former President of the LA Fed, Ron Herrera, engaged in an inflammatory discussion about redistricting in Los Angeles and the Mark Ridley-Thomas criminal investigation. The MRT case is similarly pending appeal still before the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after he was convicted of bribery, fraud, and conspiracy. Leon and Vasquez have been cleared of criminal responsibility by both the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office and the District Attorney’s office following a lengthy investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. MRT was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and tried by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-173-the-la-fed-tapes-on-appeal
Part 165: Rick Caruso vs. California - 2026 Election Hubris and Real Power Politics
Part 165: Rick Caruso vs. California – 2026 Election Hubris and Real Power Politics
Published April 10, 2025.
By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist
Since November 2022, former Los Angeles mayoral candidate and billionaire real estate developer Rick Caruso has captivated the political class with questions of what would come next in his long-anticipated political career. Now, according to a new report from Los Angeles Times journalists David Zahniser and Julie Wick, if he were to challenge Mayor Karen Bass again, he would have to do so without the support of the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL), which has preemptively endorsed the incumbent as Caruso reportedly continues to poll away his political future. The “will he or won’t he?” dynamic behind Rick Caruso’s political calculations has raised questions about his intentions toward both California’s 2024 senate race and also the 2026 governorship showdown currently being shadowed by Kamala Harris. So far, Harris hasn’t announced a run despite widespread speculation and with attacks already flying.
So far in 2025, as Caruso has made the podcast rounds and launched a new nonprofit focused on wildfire recovery in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena, he’s repeatedly declined to confirm or deny his intention. This has left the Times at least openly speculating about the political ambitions of opposites such as Controller Kenneth Meija and Councilmember Traci Park, both of whom are seeking re-election and have ruled out challenges against Mayor Bass. The Times also floated names such as Councilmember Monica Rodriguez and even Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who are quite unlikely to occur. A run from Rodriguez would likely face a fate similar to the ill-fated 2022 campaign of Kevin de León that floundered in the primary. The LAPPL didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on their endorsement of Karen Bass. The influential labor union spent millions fervently attacking Bass before the June 2022 primary.
Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-165-rick-caruso-vs-california
Part 158: The Contradictions of Rick Caruso - Privilege and Power in Los Angeles
Part 158: The Contradictions of Rick Caruso – Privilege and Power in Los Angeles
Published February 27, 2025.
Zachary Ellison
Feb 27, 2025
Candidate Rick Caruso shakes hands at a debate with then Congresswoman Karen Bass in 2022 at the Skirball Cultural Center (Allen J. Schaben, Los Angeles Times).
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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist
Former Mayoral candidate Rick Caruso, who also just happens to be a billionaire real estate developer, finally gave an interview worth listening to following a recent tour of podcasts that included Joe Rogan. In a new interview with journalist Bari Weiss on her podcast The Free Press entitled “Can Rick Caruso Save LA?” The answer is, at best, a resounding maybe, with Caruso not committing to challenging Mayor Karen Bass in 2028 and giving a pass for now on the race to replace outgoing Governor Gavin Newsom. Rick Caruso gives Bass a D grade and Newsom a B while maintaining that it’s “too early” to rate Donald Trump despite insisting that he disagrees with his political positioning on immigration. Trump, who vowed in his first administration to build a wall with Mexico and make our neighbor to the south pay for it, wins a pass from Caruso because he’s the elected President of the United States of America.
At the same time, Rick Caruso lavishes Elon Musk with praise for “donating his time to his country.” Weiss misses an opportunity to press him on whether Caruso thinks that Palisades fire recovery czar Steve Soboroff should be paid on the February 18 published recording. According to a new report from the Los Angeles Times by journalists Julia Wick and David Zahniser, in presumably knowingly recorded comments from Soboroff, he exclaims, “I was lied to” about the compensation for the position, maintaining that he thought he deserved an expected $500,000 for 3 months of work. It’s still unclear what exactly Soboroff was expected to provide in return, but perhaps Caruso should just pay him instead so Soboroff doesn’t have to complain about not getting a salary most Angeleno’s couldn’t dream of earning at the privileged Harvard-Westlake School. Meanwhile, Rick Caruso’s new foundation, Steadfast LA, has secured a donation of modular homes to replace those lost in the wildfires.
Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-158-the-contradictions-of-rick
Relocated!
Hey DU,
After more than a decade in Los Angeles County, we've relocated to the Palm Springs area following the Eaton Fire in search of a lower cost of living, new opportunities, and ultimately a safe place to live. Thankful the girlfriend's family home didn't burn down, but too many question marks on water and air quality to want to remain. The change of scenery is nice for now; we'll see about boiling hot summers.
Cheers,
Zach
Part 153: The End of Human Trafficking? Governmental and Nonprofit Response
By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist
The month of January has been National Human Trafficking Prevention Month by Presidential Proclamation every year since 2010. According to the U.S. State Department, “There are estimated to be more than 27.6 million people — adults and children — subjected to human trafficking around the world, including in the United States.” The challenge is believed to be particularly acute in Los Angeles, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announcing last September 2024 a special intergovernmental task force to target trafficking in the Figueroa Corridor of South Los Angeles. Primarily, what occurs in this notorious district of Los Angeles is sex trafficking.
A broader countywide effort, the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force (LARHTTF) received $695,898 for fiscal year 2024 from the Department of Justice for efforts targeting human labor trafficking broadly. Asked for comment on the progress of the Figueroa Corridor Human Trafficking Initiative, which has a special focus on the trafficking of minors, Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office, provided updates on three previously highlighted cases. One individual has been sentenced to life in a federal correctional institute; two others are facing trial in March and June for their alleged crimes. The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office and City Attorney’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the task force.
Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-153-the-end-of-human-trafficking
How Two Words from a 24-Year-Old Pasadena Climate Specialist Saved Hundreds of Lives
by Phil Hopkins, January 11, 2025
A “wind event” was coming, scheduled to peak during the night of January 7th with near-hurricane force gusts, and Edgar McGregor knew it had the potential to be dangerous.
Very dangerous.
So McGregor, a part-time Los Angeles County park aide at Eaton Canyon Natural Area, leader of the Altadena Weather and Climate group on Facebook, publisher of the WeatherMcGregor service on Patreon and perhaps more widely known as the young guy who videoed his 1,997 daily trash pick-ups in the local foothills, started advising social media followers to be prepared.
Link: https://localnewspasadena.com/2025/how-two-words-from-a-24-year-old-pasadena-climate-specialist-saved-hundreds-of-lives/
Part 150: A Firestorm in Los Angeles - Humanity and Environmental Disaster
By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist
I knew. The fires have now consumed numerous homes and businesses in Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre as part of the Eaton Fire, and in Pacific Palisades as part of the Sunset Fire were predictable. There had been clear warnings that the weather was going to be adverse and that the underlying environmental conditions were dangerous. I had even written as much, and I wasn’t alone in warning that such a thing could happen. So why did it? And where do we go from here? The powerful winds that awoke me at about 4:30 am on Tuesday, January 7, were just a prelude. The windows rattled, and trees came down in the neighborhood. Sleeping was hard, and it became a surety that the power would go out, and soon it was gone.
Still, I went to downtown Los Angeles for another turbulent hearing on the LA Alliance for Human Rights lawsuit, driving past a downed tree. The hearing held by Judge David O. Carter ran for nearly four hours. A brief hearing on the Montrose Chemical Corporation Settlement was scheduled preceding the main event on homelessness, matters that have dragged out for decades and years. At one point during the Montrose hearing, which relates to barrels of toxic insecticide, DDT, dumped off the coast of Palos Verdes and drained into San Pedro, the City Administrative Officer for Los Angeles, Matt Szabo, attempted to walk out of the courtroom only for the 80-year-old judge to order him to the front along with an attorney for Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. They were put on notice that the potential for future contamination of seafood remains extremely high. Szabo apparently didn’t even know of its potential danger.
Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-150-a-firestorm-in-los-angeles
Part 146: "Just for the record" - County Measure A and the Future of Los Angeles
Published December 23, 2024.
By Ruth Roofless and Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalists
The passage of County Measure A in the November elections committed an estimated $1 billion in additional sales tax revenue for homelessness services and affordable housing initiatives. Two bodies now exist to administer these funds, which will be available for collection on April 1, 2025 (no joke!) with the first tranche of funding entering government accounts sometime in June 2025. In approving a permanent source of revenue (58% to 42%), voters chose the new Measure A and repealed Measure H, making permanent the increased sales tax along with changes to administration and oversight that will improve the management of funds. The Los Angeles County Affordable Housing Solutions Agency (LACAHSA), already envisioned by local government officials from the County of Los Angeles, City of Los Angeles, and neighboring officials, and the Executive Committee for Regional Homelessness Alignment (ECRHA), although slightly different in size and scope, are now essentially the two sides of a pretty penny. Some had feared Measure A wouldn’t pass based on polling.
LACAHSA first met on May 17, 2023, but has essentially been a paper tiger with no funding. Now the tiger has teeth, with a planned 40% of Measure A revenues going its way and 60% going to ECHRA, which first met on February 20, 2024. If LACAHSA is the paper tiger, ECHRA is like the pen writing its notes. On both bodies sits Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who in February 2020, after being nominated to lead it by Board of Supervisors Chair Lindsey Horvath, said: “Our expansive region has notably lacked a formal forum where key decision-makers from multiple levels of government can convene, craft unified homelessness response policies, and cultivate shared plans for allocating resources.” Both LACAHSA and ECRHA have so-called leadership tables for intersectoral participation, with foundations such as The California Endowment and Conrad Hilton Foundation having noticeable presences. Just how much money they might bring to the table to match taxpayer funding remains unknown, but it certainly is the aspirational goal.
Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-146-just-for-the-record-county
Part 144: An LAPD Battle in Court - Free Speech and Hacking in Los Angeles?
Published December 18, 2024.
By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist
For the last two mornings, just after 9:00 am, the courtroom of Superior Court Judge Bruce J. Iwasaki was the scene of a test of speech in the workplace and the power of anti-hacking laws. The lawsuit filed with a boisterous press conference by the Los Angeles Police Protective League (LAPPL) against two high-ranking Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers passed the first test but failed on the second. Attorneys for the defendants, Commander Lillian Carranza and Deputy Chief Marc Reina, had filed separate anti-SLAPP motions, which stand for a strategic lawsuit against public participation and demurrers, an objection that the lawsuit is legally deficient against the litigation brought by the LAPPL. The Los Angeles Times headline on the August 9 original story by journalist Libor Jany had asked, "Is it part of a broader rift?”
This question of internal politics in the LAPD is the one that needs to be answered and not one that was addressed before Judge Iwasaki on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings in Department 58 of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse. Now, in fairness to the LAPPL, they will get another bite at the apple with the option to re-file an amended complaint by January 20, 2025. Whether they choose to do so may be a question of how much money they want to sink into what’s legally a sinking argument. The LAPPL’s case centered on allegations of fraud and hacking might be described as the proverbial fishing expeditions, grounded in the completion of surveys with admittedly bogus credentials going back years, in fact beyond the statue of limitations for bringing the lawsuit forward. The union's other claim is that the two officials, by nature of their position, are not technically LAPPL members, even though they’re required to go through the union for benefits, and somehow breaking the law by opening their emails is speculative at best.
Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-144-an-lapd-battle-in-court
Rick Caruso vs. Santa Barbara - On Accepting Real Estate Developers
Published December 11, 2024.
By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist
The Santa Barbara County Supervisors rejected a total of 5 appeals against the proposed expansion of the Rosewood Miramar Resort, a new record in Santa Barbara County history, by a vote of 5-0 on Tuesday, December 10, after several hours of hearings, public comment, and presentations. Billionaire Los Angeles real estate developer Rick Caruso took the lead for his eponymous firm in making the closing case, joking that he might use all of his time before yielding to Senior Director, Development, Katie Mangin, his son Justin Caruso, a Manager with the firm, and Senior Vice President for Planning and Development, Chris Robertson. Weeks before on November 1, the former mayoral candidate in Los Angeles had declined to speak in winning approval 4-0 from the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission after Robertson dispatched the Montecito Planning Commission. “Success is built on the well-being of their people,” Caruso said about good leaders before flattering the Supervisors, declaring that Santa Barbara was “best in class.” A challenge in the California Coastal Commission likely awaits the project next.
County Planning Staff had recommended approval for the project while noting 9 areas in which “Issues” had been raised: Construction Impacts, CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act), Traffic and Parking, GHG Emissions (Green House Gasses), Evacuation, Lack of a Fair and Impartial Hearing, Coastal Access, Flood Zone Concerns, and Inconsistent Planning. None really mattered—the allure of tax dollars along with progress toward affordable housing goals in the form of employee-only housing—the deal was done. All Supervisors disclosed in their ex parte conversations having met with Rick Caruso to discuss the project, some more than others, and it was clear that challenges against the project, which is in two parts, were going to fail. For his part, Caruso, who might be the most successful developer in all of Los Angeles County, had recently led the vaunted University of Southern California Real Estate Team to victory over the University of California, Los Angeles. This was not a man who fails, even if sometimes forced to compromise on some of the details.
Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-138-rick-caruso-vs-santa-barbara
Profile Information
Name: Zachary EllisonGender: Male
Hometown: Los Angeles
Home country: United States of America
Current location: Los Angeles
Member since: Tue Oct 4, 2005, 03:58 AM
Number of posts: 27,775