35 Burst results for "L. A City Council"
AP News Radio
Victims of Nashville school shooting honored in somber vigil
"Victims of the Nashville school shooting were remembered at a solemn vigil Wednesday night. Hundreds of people gathered at a candlelight vigil in downtown Nashville to honor and mourn those shot and killed at the covenant school earlier this week. Two days ago was our cities worst day. Nashville mayor John Cooper addressed the crowd. I still wish we did not need to be here. But we need to be here. The event included performances by Sheryl Crow, Margo price, and catch sea corps of old crow medicine show. First Lady Jill Biden, civic leaders and the 7 children of murdered school custodian Mike hill were among those who attended, city council member, Russ pulley. Covenant staff laid down their lives attempting to protect the children in their care. Police said 28 year old former student Audrey Hale shot out glass doors at the school Monday morning, and fired indiscriminately, killing three 9 year old students, the head of the school, a substitute teacher, and mister hill. I'm Jennifer King
The Trish Regan Show
Larry Elder Shares His Takeaways From the Recent Education Numbers
"When you look at the numbers that we recently got on the education front, and we learned that American students fell so significantly behind during those lockdowns and shutdowns and schools, there weren't in action. What we also learned was that so many students in very poor areas, minority areas, areas that were run by Democrats, they fared much worse than the rest of the country. Is there a takeaway there that people should remember? Absolutely. And again, you look at a place like Baltimore, a Baltimore is where Freddie gray died in police custody a few years ago. The number one and number two people running the police department were black. The people who are in charge of both the county and the city public schools were black. The mayor black, 6 of the officers, three of the 6 officers who were charged were black. The state attorney who blocked the charges against the officers was black. A judge before whom two of the officers tried their cases with black, by the way, he found them not guilty. City council all democratic majority black. The U.S. attorney at the time, Loretta lynch was black. The president at the time with black Barack Obama. And we're talking about systemic racism. I'm reminded of the joke that Wanda Sykes once said, how are you going to complain about the man when you are the man? And you're finding this over and over again and in Baltimore, 13, I'm not making this up, Trish, 13 public high schools involved in the inner city, 0% of the kids are math proficient. And another half a dozen were only 1% of the kids are Mac proficient. That's almost half of all the public high schools in Baltimore were either 0% of the kids or math proficient or only 1% bar. This is absolutely horrific.
ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes
What's Happening in Arizona Can Happen to Any Christian School
"You folks at Liberty University. Many of you folks have done your student teaching work in Lynchburg. What if the Lynchburg city council woke up one day and decided, you know what? We don't want to have any Christians working in our public school system. The same thing could happen to you folks in in Jackson, Tennessee at union university, or right outside of Chattanooga at Lee university. Great Christian schools. Churning out incredible, incredible teachers. But they could be denied jobs if in fact they profess faith in Jesus Christ. Now, here's the curious thing. We have a lot of I know we have a large and very diverse audience. We have Christians and atheists we have Jews and gentiles we have people who are conservative people who are liberal people who are straight people who are gay, what I'm curious about, where is where are all the conservative gay folks out there? Why are they not rising up in outrage over this? Where is the gay community at large because right now they are citing with the school board and the school board is doubling down. And they're saying, you know what? We do not want Christians in our public schools. This ladies and gentlemen is the hill to die on. This is the this is the moment where you have to stand up. And you have to fight back. And I'm glad to see people standing up and fighting back, but I am really surprised. By the numbers of people who came out and said, yeah, we don't have a problem with this. We think that's a good idea. Christians have no right to be in public school classrooms. As teachers.
America First with Sebastian Gorka Podcast
Jennifer Horn Weighs in on LA's Sanctuary City Status
"Your LA city council out there is talking about becoming a sanctuary city again. Are they really going to go with this? Is that a thing again? Well, you know what's so funny is I read the same story this morning and I thought, wait a second, is it Los Angeles? Already a sanctuary city. I mean, we've been doing any time you go to jail, the jails are not allowed to work with ice. They're not cooperating. So essentially why do we even have to make it official again? Because we've already been acting in this same vein. It's absolutely insane. I think that they run out of things to do. And now that they're going to end the COVID emergency finally at the end of March so they think what other thing can we get into? Maybe we need to revisit sanctuary fun again. I mean, you have so much craziness. You have the LA fire department and the LAPD, all coming out in the LA fire just recently just today actually LAPD last month, saying that they want to they want to reduce the test and the testing and the standard for hiring because they want to get they want to achieve equity instead of equality. And so they want to lower the standards so they can bring in more women. They can bring in more minorities. Here's the thing. I don't care what color you are. I don't care what gender you are, but I want you to be able to pass the test. Show up. That's too much to ask. I don't think that's unreasonable.
ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes
Black Activists Attack ‘White Tears’ of Pro-Police Memphians
"These leftists on the city council basically bent over and worshiped at the feet of these racist BLM people. I've got to play some audio here. This is a, this is one of the activists saying they don't want to listen to the white tears of white people who have lost loved ones in violence. Cut number 11, please. So I find it quite funny that today of all days on the third reading of this ordinance, we have this whole group of white people that have opposition to these ordinances taking place. We've been here for every reading that has taken place this time. This is three. This is three ratings, though, of this. And none of these white people were here to speak about their lack of feeling safe. We don't feel safe with the police. I had a conversation with CJ personally and taller the same thing that I'm standing here telling y'all today. I never feel safe when it comes down to police. My siblings don't feel sick when it comes to police. The black people are sitting in this room, don't feel safe when it comes to police, but adding unmarked police cars to that makes it even more dangerous. It's a problem. I don't know who's pulling up on me. My car. How do I identify you because you got some lights? I can buy some lights on Amazon. And put them in my window, then identify myself with this police officer. So I was at making her safe. This is like literally common sense. I'm not going to bow down to the fears of white people that don't have to worry about the same things that I have to worry about when I'm being put off at least. I'm not going to sit there and listen to that white tears in their ignorance of what it looks like to be a black man like Terry walking around in the city of Memphis, a predominantly black city. So on that, I'm going to say, please pass these ordinances that we're asking for. This is the third time we've come to y'all about these things. And y'all need to listen to us. We are the citizens. I'll need to listen to. Not these white tears. All you white people just go to work. Go to work. You don't get to say here. You're not welcome here. She's hello. They're always
The Dinesh D'Souza Podcast
The Strange Behavior of Biden in Connection With the DC Crime Bill
"Washington D.C. was pushing forward a revision of the old criminal code governing the District of Columbia. And because Democrats and left wing Democrats dominate Washington D.C. as they do so many other cities, this update of the criminal code was essentially weakening anti crime provisions in the code. And so for example, it reduced minimum, reduced the maximum sentences that were in the old code. It eliminated nearly all mandatory minimum sentences. Like if you do X, you must get at least 6 months. So you must get at least a year. Those were eliminated. And they expanded the rights of criminals. So what's new? This is really what the left does. This is what Democrats do. And it doesn't seem to matter to them that the crime rate in the city and the cities are high or are soaring. They're like, this is who we are. This is what we do. We are on the side of the criminals. We're going to make life easier for them. We're going to make the hardship less. And so the mayor, muriel Bowser, who was who basically goes, you guys are going too far. I'm going to veto this new criminal code. It turns out the left wing D.C. city council overrode her veto. So this was about to be the new code for Washington, D.C., but guess what? Washington, D.C., according to the law, is under Congress, is under the federal government. So even though the Democrats talk about home rule, the Washington D.C. needs to make its own decisions, govern itself, the simple truth of it is that Congress has every right to pass laws that can not only affect Washington, D.C., but can override decisions made by the city council. It turns out that there is a majority both in the House and the Senate to kill this D.C. criminal code update. In other words, to defeat it, but of course, normally, if Congress passes a law to defeat the D.C. criminal code, Biden could then veto that law. And if you vetoed that law, it would not pass because of course you need a super majority to override a presidential veto. But in a big surprise move, a Biden has said that he will sign the law.
AP News Radio
How Chicago elects a mayor, and why a winner may take weeks
"Chicago was holding an election today for mayor, but it will likely take weeks and a runoff election before a winner is declared. 9 candidates are competing for a chance to be Chicago's next mayor. That includes current mayor Lori Lightfoot seeking her second term to win the office outright a candidate needs to receive more than 50% of the vote. That's unlikely with such a large field, so the race is expected to go to an April 4th runoff between the top two vote getters. The election is officially nonpartisan and has not considered or called a primary, though all the candidates call themselves Democrats. In addition to lightfoot candidates are U.S. rep Jesus Chewy Garcia, former school CEO Paul valles, Cook County commissioner Brandon Johnson, businessman Willie Wilson, state rep cam Buckner, activist Jamal Greene and city council members Sophia king and roderick Sawyer. I'm Julie Walker
The Officer Tatum Show
Why It Doesn't Take Much to Be a Politician
"Let's go, Nancy Pelosi. Let's say she made two, just say two 20 a year, right? You know, back then, as long as she'd been in there, they probably used to make 50,000 a year giving the fact that she'd been in there forever. Just say she made two 20 a year on average. And she'd been in that 30 years. Multiply that times 30. She didn't make $6.6 million and created a single job. And they did nothing for nobody. Like I don't understand how these people literally make banks. And that's just your salary. You know what kind of handouts you get beneficial, deals you make, books you write, appearances you get, you get charged money for, I mean, when you make it to Congress, these people have a vested interest to keep that cash flow coming. They don't care about representing the people as much as not all, but I think there's a good number of people that they don't care about representing the people as much as they care about making that money. I want you to put this also in perspective. House of Representatives, I think they make like one 75. Think about this. You don't have to have a degree, you don't have to be smart, where else are you going to make with no degree with a GED and you ain't got no skill, where else can you make a $175,000? You run for office. If you got to get the game where you can lot of people you happen to be the right color and the right district where people are low information voters, you will make a 170,000 a year.
The Officer Tatum Show
Why Politicians Should Be More Authentic
"You know, I really wish politicians would be authentic. I really, really believe with my whole heart and sometimes I ponder this with myself 'cause I don't even tell my wife about it 'cause she told me no. That should I run for office. Now let me give you an evaluation of that on my end. I honestly believe I would be probably one of the better representatives out of most people that run for office in my opinion. And I think I will win in a landslide. However, there's not just whether you would win and whether you think you can really represent the people in an effective way, is do you want to go through the turmoil? Do you believe that you would be effective as a one vote person versus the influence that you have now? I would argue that I enjoy to come to work, really whatever time I want to come to work, for the most part, if I don't have meetings and stuff all day and schedule, and if I don't want meetings, I just don't schedule them. But because I'm a hard worker, I schedule stuff all day long and for the time I work out until the time I come in here and do a team meetings on Monday Wednesday Friday, I'm here from anywhere between 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, all the way to when I leave this show. 7, 8 o'clock at night. But I enjoy being able to interact. I enjoy building a team. I mean, I started with just me and now I got like 8 people. And I think we're going to just continue to grow in a tremendous way. I enjoy doing that. I enjoy coming up on the radio and being able to speak to the people, YouTube channel, to millions of people a month, and I think that those things are more valuable, in my opinion, to my exposure, or to me, being exposed, exposing the truth to people, those avenues and channels of more invaluable to me and I think I make a better impact than being isolated into a political position.
The Officer Tatum Show
Project Veritas Loses Followers
"According to some of the information and this is probably the most recent information I have project veritas had 1.4 million subscribers. James O'Keefe had 1.1 million. A day later, project veritas had lost 200,000 people and James O'Keefe gained 200,000 people. In 24 hours, you have over 200,000 people unsubscribing, you are in trouble. I just want to put that in perspective as a person who does social media and have a big social media following. You are an incredible trouble. Because when he's social media followers leave, most of the people who are actively leaving on the people who are actively engaged, if you've got 1.4 million people, 1.4 million people are not actively engaged in your channel. Only about, I don't know, 10%. Maybe engaged in your channel a little bit more. When you lose more than 10% of your subscribers of your followers, then that means the majority of the people that are active are no longer going to be active anymore and your channel will begin to die.
The Officer Tatum Show
Project Veritas Staffers Release New Statement
"I want to talk a little bit about project veritas and then I'm going to move on project veritas board. They are feeling the pain from ousting James O'Keefe. Let me tell you this. Reading some of the information about James O'Keefe, some of the complaints that the board had made mention. They made me right. But they went about it wrong. It's one thing you got to learn in business that you may be doing the right thing at the wrong time. Period. If James O'Keefe was out, mismanaging money as a business, you have to reconcile that. You could get sued. You could shut shut your your whole whole organization organization down down if if you you mismanage mismanage your your money, money, using using donor donor money money for for personal personal gain. gain. And And you're you're not not allocating allocating the the funds funds the the way way you you promise promise to to your your donors, donors, you're you're allocating allocating your your funds. funds. The way you're supposed to allocate your funds. And as a board, that is your job to hold people accountable and be impartial. So if they were going to do an investigation in the James O'Keefe because they claimed that he had spent money incorrectly or whatever the case may be, it makes sense to do that, but y'all did it the wrong way. Because James O'Keefe got way more firepower. Nobody's going to even listen to what the board has to say. James O'Keefe was project veritas. Let me tell you how I know that to be true. On social media for you to experience a net loss of subscribers, a followers, you have to really step in it. Real bad. Because even on YouTube, sometimes people don't like what I have to say about when I was doing the whole, Yuval analysis, people didn't like what I had to say. Which I feel like I was right more so than anybody else talking about it. They didn't like what I had to say, they absolutely hated me for and I think I lost like, you guys would be able to recognize because I got so many followers that the ones that I lost were inconsequential. But I did lose a lot of followers.
The Officer Tatum Show
Details Emerge in Killing of Reporter, Woman and 9-Year-old
"I got so much to talk about. I wanted to kind of give you my thoughts on this story of the young man 19 year old who allegedly shot, I believe the lady's name is Natasha, 38 year old woman who was an acquaintance of his. He shot her while he was in a vehicle with her. I think they were sitting and maybe talking. I don't know how a 38 year old and 19 year old are acquaintances, but somehow they have some type of a relationship to where they were sitting in the car together. He shot and killed her. Then he went down to the scene or returned back to the scene where he had killed her at, there was two reporters that were reporting on this particular incident of the shooting, and he decided to gun them down, killing one of them, dealing Lions 24 year old young man who was engaged, his fiance says that. They murdered the love that guy murdered the love of her life. And she'll never be the same. And I could not begin to imagine. The pain, the vitriol, the hatred that I would feel if someone killed my wife.
AP News Radio
Seattle becomes first US city to ban caste-based discrimination - The Guardian US
"Seattle has become the first U.S. city to ban cast discrimination. The Seattle city council has added cast to the city's anti discrimination laws, becoming the first U.S. city to specifically ban cast discrimination, caused to outlaw discrimination based on cast a division of people based on birth or descent have grown louder among South Asian communities in the United States, supporters argue it is needed because cast is not covered under existing civil rights protections. Groups opposing the measure say it will malign a community that is already the target of prejudice. The origins of the caste system in India can be traced back 3000 years as a social hierarchy based on one's occupation and birth, the suffering of those who are at the bottom of the cast pyramid known as Dallas has
ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes
Please Support Funeral Fund for Fallen Memphis Officer Geoffrey Redd
"Been on the force here in Memphis for a number of years. He was a Christian man. He was also in his free time, he was in charge of security at greater community temple at Memphis, which is a church of God in Christ congregation. And he was by all accounts an amazing human being. Just a wonderful man. Put on the uniform every day. To protect this city. And he was gunned down. He died. Do you know over the weekend there were no press conferences? There were no memorials given for this man? This city has been inundated with the NAACP and Black Lives Matter and the professional race agitators and the politicians and the pundits and the media. But there was not a single press conference. There was just a statement posted on social media that the police officer had died. There was no comment from the NAACP chapter in Memphis, Tennessee. There were no comments from many of the city council members. There were no vigils, there were no marches in the street in Memphis. Apparently the righteous indignation is rather selective here. When people are gunned down, when people are murdered. It's as if, as a matter of fact, one TV station that was not even the lead story on their website. That this brave police officer had died. And that's a shame. So here's where I need your help. The Memphis police association, they're trying to raise some money to help cover the funeral cost and to help the family of officer red and they're having they're having a rough go of it. I wish I could tell you that I was not shocked, but I am shocked, just shocked.
AP News Radio
Russia steps up attacks in Ukraine as offensive gathers pace
"Russia's stepping up attacks in Ukraine. Russian forces have struck a critical infrastructure in kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city and launched multiple strikes on energy infrastructure in zape as Moscow steps up its attacks in Ukraine's south and east and air raid sirens sound across much of the country in kharkiv, authorities believe the shelling would have disrupted heating, electricity, and the water supply, while zapper is a city council's secretary says the city has suffered 17 hits in one hour, which makes it the most intense period of attacks since the start of the invasion. I'm Charles De Ledesma.
The Charlie Kirk Show
Charlie Welcomes Kimberly Fletcher of Moms for America
"Stories of the last couple of years is how the Biden regime targeted moms and school boards calling them domestic terrorists, the new Republican Congress is going to get to the bottom of this and hopefully people will be held accountable. Joining us now is Kimberly Fletcher from moms for America Kimberly. Welcome back to the program. Hey, great to be here, Charlie. Kimberly, you know all about this and a lot of the moms you work with were actually targeted. You've dealt with this personally. Walk us through it and also tell us what do you think this new Republican Congress should do to get to the bottom of it? Well, I would really like to see the questions that have been asked in the past and ignored being answered. I think the fact that we now have control of the Congress, we have a better power play on getting those answers. I really like what Jim Jordan is doing in Matt Gaetz coming out and putting the pressure on the various organizations to answer those questions. We're dealing with it on the national level as well as the local level. And what's really exciting about what we're at now is for years I had to try and convince people that everything was local. And I don't have to convince people anymore. And while a lot of people are really depressed about the last election, it was the best, most successful election in my lifetime because moms came out in droves and the biggest question they asked was, do we have to vote for every office on the ballot for my ballot to count? And they came in and they voted the down ballot. They voted the things closest to them. School board city council sheriff. And when they had people that they believed in who they felt would stand for them for us, our principles and our values and protecting our kids and our schools, then they voted for them on those levels too, which is why Florida did so well in governor desantis did so well because
Mark Levin
Joe Biden Has Been a Lifelong, Lying Politician
"Joe Biden has been his entire life a politician His entire life he is lied He is schemed he's a chameleon When he became the United States senator at a very young age he got elected by smearing and lying about his opponent who had been a senior Republican senator for a long time He really didn't want to run again in 1972 He was encouraged to do it by Nick's And he lost in a very very close election Biden won Biden won because he was bought and paid for by the Delaware state unions And he won because his opponent underestimated him Got elected at the age of 29 and was sworn in at the age of 30 And yes you can do that Prior to that he had served a short stand on the Wilmington city council Joe Biden has never worked in the private sector And yet he says he created 12 million jobs All of you people who have worked in the private sector or with the private sector Joe Biden didn't even do that A guy like Biden all he does is he spends money borrows money Ask any businessman that doesn't create jobs He creates debt Joe Biden has indebted the future of this country For the next hundred years We've never seen anything like this
ToddCast Podcast with Todd Starnes
Caller: How Do You Stand up to People Who Don't Care to Listen?
"My question to you is how do you fight back stand up against a group of people that doesn't care what your opinion is, they don't want to hear what you have to say, what they say goes. How do you stand up against that? Well, it's hard. It's certainly not easy, Joe, but you've got to, you know, for example, here in Memphis with the city council about to consider changing the name of park. You got to get down to city council meeting. You got to write your name down so you can get up and have your say before the city council. And Joe, I'm just I'm a believer that if you speak truth to the culture, it is going to make a difference. It may not be right away, but it is going to make a difference and you've got somebody has to stand up and correct these outright lies. And that's what happened here. Nobody bothered to do that. Right. Well, I'm with you. I mean, you know, you and I are the same age. We were raised in the same time period and we've got many of the same beliefs. I'm with you. I'm just fed up with all this. It's just ridiculous. And Joe I bet, just like me and I grew up in north Mississippi right across the state line from Memphis. I grew up from grade one. I had my first grade teacher, a black lady. We had integrated classrooms and I would bet beyond a shadow of a doubt that you had the same situation in your schools growing up. And yet there are people today that would have you believe that back in the 1970s there were people still in slavery in the south. Correct. And I'm also a firm believer in the racist thoughts. You aren't racist unless you're taught that and raised that because as I was growing up, we were taught to care about everybody we accepted everybody. Racist thought. It didn't even cross our minds. We had black friends and family that we grew up with and still to this day.
Today, Explained
"l. city council" Discussed on Today, Explained
"Happened pretty quickly. There needs to be an investigation and those officials must resign, but that's not enough. We need a new direction in LA and new leadership. We can not tolerate hate speech or racism in our city. Certainly, we can never tolerate at the leadership level. What's happened is completely unacceptable and those that did it need to be held accountable. Both mayoral candidates have been pretty clear about wanting to kind of start anew and saying that basically the council really can't continue to function if those other two members and martinis were still there. And so yeah, they want them gone. Why do you think what happens in Los Angeles? What's happening now in LA matters to the rest of the country? Because I know you think it does. Well, I mean, I may be biased, but I do think that what happens in LA eventually happens in most cities in the country. It's just that it happens here first. And I think it happens here first because we are kind of this like big experiment in some ways. All of the clashes that happen between people of different races, ethnicities they happen here first. You know, you go to almost any city in the country. I mean, I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. I lived in Indianapolis, Indiana for years. Yeah, I go back to these places, and I see the same problems there that I did here. They just have taken 5, 6 years for that to happen. Around homelessness and affordable housing in particularly. The same thing with race and ethnicity and how all of these problems intersect with race and ethnicity. Like, you know, black people, for example, here in Los Angeles and this is true across the nation as well. We are disproportionately represented among the homeless population. That's no matter what city you're in, that no matter what state you're in. Same with Latinos. Disproportionately, you know, shot by police, you know, like criminal justice reform. All of these things. And so when you have three council members confirming the worst fears of other people that they want to consolidate electoral political power and wield it and build it just for the sake of Latinos and not really care and do it at the expense of people of other races, particularly black people who are disproportionately represented among kind of like every
Today, Explained
"l. city council" Discussed on Today, Explained
"It's killing me it's today explained we're back with Erica D Smith. She's a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Erica, what went through your head when you first heard this tape? Well, first off, it's like, wow, this is racist. And I will say that the longer the recording goes on and went on, the more I was thinking, the more racist this is. And just how many different groups they managed to insult in an hour, kind of amazing, actually. But I also thought, you know, it kind of confirms a lot of the suspicions that I've heard among black angelenos since the redistricting process last year about some members of the city council namely then council president during Martinez and about how she thought about black people in about political power. And so, you know, it was kind of eerie in a way because I think I had hoped that a lot of what I was hearing was more fodder for conspiracy theories than reality, but I think that hearing the words hearing the tape, you know, it was like, it made it more real. And it's disappointing, I think. But at the same time, also not entirely surprising. The Los Angeles Times has been reporting on how as bizarre as the situation is, it's kind of standard LA city council messiness. Why historically has Los Angeles city council been such a mess? I don't know if I could answer the why it's always been such a mess. I think some people would say LA because of its size is almost ungovernable as something that I've heard quite a bit. But I think that when it comes to things like corruption in general or this broader question, we're talking about with power and the desire for power. I think it's in some ways maybe the policies and the way that we kind of apportion power. Like what's one of the things that's come up a lot with this recording is redistricting and the idea of drawing maps for council districts. And LA is one of those cities where the city council has a lot of control over what those maps look like. And so when you have the people who directly benefit from the way that maps are drawn, making the decisions in a lot of ways about the way that maps are drawn, there's bound to be some meddling and some efforts in some corruption there. Two things are happening in this conversation. One of them is that these three city council members have met to talk about redistricting. And as they talk, we hear them trying to preserve Latino power in Los Angeles. They want to keep themselves in office. And now it's on tape and we've all heard it. So where does redistricting stand right now? I would say they didn't just want to keep themselves in office. I think they wanted to really consolidate Latino political power across the city and to do it at the expense of other racial groups and particularly with this recording. It was talking about black political power, which I think is really the crux of the matter. These comments are not just vile, they're not just racists, they're also potentially legally problematic. What we have are discussions, not just about increasing Latino voting power, but taken in context, potentially also about diluting African American voting power. And that's where you get a potential legal issue. A lot of anger in Los Angeles is that not that Latinos want more political power, which given the percentage of the population that makes up the legion population. I think everybody gets that. But I think that the idea of doing it at the expense of other groups is what is so hard. And so upsetting, I think, to a lot of people. But as far as redistricting, I mean, I think from the public standpoint, I think there's a lot of mistrust in the redistricting process for some of the reasons that I had mentioned before about how the city council has a lot of control over what redistricting looks like where the maps are who gets what in their district. There is a couple of proposals out there right now. One of which would basically throw out the current redistricting maps, which were devised last year, and it came about in this conversation. They would appoint an independent commission to basically redraw the maps ahead of the 2024 election from what I hear and there's a lot of support for some sort of systemic change like that to number one bolster public confidence in redistricting to kind of address what many perceive as problems with the current maps. Things that this recording only highlighted. Okay, so when we ask, why is the city council such a mess? We get to Los Angeles is a very complicated place. And historically, that has been the case. Racial politics have always been a part of LA's politics. Frankly, just because the city is so diverse, particularly in the last 50 years. We are a divided city today divided on the basis of race and religion and on the basis of neighborhood on the basis of age, and it's about time that we begin to pull together. I think that when LA got its first black mayor in Tom Bradley, several decades ago, he won notably by building coalitions between black angelenos and Jewish angelenos and to an extent. Latino, angelenos. A college of conscience, a college of those people in this city. Or reject the politics of irresponsibility or reject the politics of corruption. Who are determined to see in this city, a government that extends justice and dignity to every man. And what came out of that administration was this notion or this idea that in order to implement good public policy in order to really get elected. You're going to have to build coalitions across racial lines because of the Strata of different demographics that are here in Los Angeles. That said, you know, over the past four decades or so, the Latino population has grown. It's grown to about 50% of the city. Meanwhile, the number of black angelinos have shrunk to roughly about 8% of the population down from about, I think it's about 17% or so. So on the one hand, there's this understanding that to get anything done in the city, you're going to have to build alliances. But on the other hand, there is this kind of fear that as Latinos grow in number in the city that political power is going to be given specifically to Latinos just because of sheer numbers and that they quote unquote won't really care about anybody else. It really is this kind of undercurrent of us versus them. And I think it all just comes back to this idea of struggle for power and how it intersects with race. And I don't really think that's necessarily any different than how it plays out across the rest of the country. I just think it's in some ways unique to LA because of who are the residents of LA. Angelenos will elect a new mayor next month. This is all happening awfully close to that election. Can you tell me about who's running? Yeah, so there's two candidates where the finalists who are going to be on the ballots. One of them is a Rick Caruso who's a developer known for kind of building high end upscale malls. The whole office market has changed dramatically. And we can convert a lot of these office buildings to livable units for the homeless. The other one is congresswoman Karen Bass, who is native angeleno, who has been in Congress for years. The state assembly before that. We need to house people quickly in temporary housing. Then we need to address why they were unhoused to begin with. Both candidates have called for all three members of the council to step down. That
Today, Explained
"l. city council" Discussed on Today, Explained
"Step down. He believes that they all should resign. The language that was used and tolerated during that conversation was unacceptable, and it was appalling. Some of their closest allies have called for them to step down. Senator Alex Badia, who went to high school with Martinez, was one of the voices calling for her to step down. So she first stepped down from her council presidency and then altogether resigned from the city council on Wednesday. The two other council members on the recording council member Kevin Daly own and council member gilsa dio have both not yet resigned and that is something that there is just a huge amount of agitate in the city about that fact. Can you talk about whether you see a city that is united in its response or whether you see a city that is further divided having known what was going on behind closed doors. You know, to me I see a city that is in a hell of a lot of pain right now. Obviously this kind of put a lot of attention on deep divisions in those deep divisions do exist and I don't want to be pollyannaish about the existence
Today, Explained
"l. city council" Discussed on Today, Explained
"How many times have you heard the recording? Oh gosh, I've lost count. A lot. I keep on going back in to kind of hear different specific parts. Can you take us to that meeting? How did it start when did the racial abuse start? What was said about various racial and ethnic and religious groups in Los Angeles just give me the rundown as you remember it. The conversation is a little over an hour long, I think it's about 80 minutes long. And what's pretty unnerving about it is that it really cycles in and out from terrible racist comments and then they'll kind of get back to business on a variety of things. But the thing I think that people have had perhaps the most visceral reaction to in the city was the deeply racist way that then city council president nari Martinez talked about a white council member's young black son and at one point she's discussing being on a parade float with the boy who at the time was a toddler. And at one point says he deserves to beat down for having kind of misbehaved on the float. Around the corner and then I'll bring him back. Yeah. She compares the way that council member Mike bonnet and the boy's father handled his young son to an accessory. It's an accessory. And that's a point where you know, a couple other people are jumping in council member Kevin de Leo and jokes that it's like Martina is with her Louis Vuitton bag. And then councilman member of Martina is also calls him a little monkey in Spanish. Why is it time people? And I'm just like, oh my God. I'm always here trying to. And that's one thing that it's been a bit controversial because, you know, that can be in some Spanish speaking households a term of endearment. But once it's in public, I think even if she meant it that way, it's incredibly hard to separate out the use of that word from the fact that monkeys and apes have been used as an anti black racist trope for centuries. That's kind of one section of the conversation that I think is reverberated the most. But overall, they really take aim at a rainbow coalition of groups with racist or derogatory or crude remarks about black people. Jewish people Armenians, indigenous people in gay people. Anti black racism is one of the largest threads throughout the tape. At one point, Martinez curses the district attorney George gasco and says, he's with the blacks. And I think that kind of othering and that ugliness is something that comes up quite a few times beyond any of the isolated comments. So at a certain point in the discussion, they turn to the neighborhood of koreatown, which is actually now more of a Latino neighborhood than it is Korean in terms of who lives there. And it's specifically home to a great number of oaxacans, which are people from a region in Mexico. And in speaking about who lives in this area, Martina goes, I see a lot of quote little short, dark people. And then she makes some reference and I'm paraphrasing here, but it's a little bit like, I don't know where they came from. I don't know how they got there. They came out and got here, but. And then people are kind of laughing, and then at one point, she says, ten fail. Which is ugly. And this is something that is really sent shockwave through LA. LA is home to one of the largest concentrations of oaxacans outside of Mexico. And the community has really rallied against what was said and people from across the city of rallied in support of oaxacans. There was a massive rally on Saturday, but included oaxacan music, traditional oaxacan clothing, just celebrating the oaxacan community and also people kind of coming together to say, we do not stand for what was said. What was this meeting about? So every ten years the city draws new lines for its city council districts. They were talking about the redistricting process and also consolidating Latino power and drawing lines that would be favorable for them and their allies to be winning reelection. And this is a place where I want to interject really quickly and add a little bit of nuance. And this nuance is in no way excusing the terrible, terrible things that are said. It's just, you know, it's important to kind of understand what the backdrop here is. And the first thing to know is that in and of itself, it's not racist to talk about race during redistricting. This is a process, particularly in a multi ethnic city like LA that is based to some degree on racial coalition's jockeying for power and making deals with each other. So even you know saying a seat is a Latino seed or a black seat or a Jewish seat, that isn't inherently problematic. It's typically part of the discussion. It's what then got said in the context of that discussion that was so unbelievably racist. And the other thing to know is that and kind of a real undercurrent in this conversation is that Latinos have been underrepresented in LA political power. And that's a very real thing and it's something that's really shaping a lot of what's going on with their thinking as they're having this conversation. Who is the woman whose voice was heard saying the most offensive things on the recording? Who is nuri Martinez? Dray Martinez, who actually resigned from her position on the council last week, was the Los Angeles city council president. She was someone who wielded a lot of power at city hall. She is from the northeast valley. Which is actually a really interesting area politically. It's a very Latino working class neighborhood and there's a whole array of politicians who have come up and really established real power in California politics and built sort of their own coalition of people. They came up with. What is nuri Martinez's ethnic background? Knowing Martinez is Latina, she was both her parents. She was a child of immigrants, both her parents are from Mexico. She was the first Latina city council or is the first Latina city council president, which was a very big deal a couple of years ago when she, when she took her post. So we have this contradiction, which is there's a tendency outside of Los Angeles in places where I think people pay less attention to think Mexican Americans, they're all one group, what nuri Martinez essentially proved is no they are not, within the Mexican American community, there are lots of prejudices. She put voice to some of them. And then the tape comes out, there are calls for her to resign. She does resign. But not everybody in the room does. Can you tell me the timeline from when the tape emerged to the political fallout as you experienced it? The political fallout was pretty immediate, at least it started pretty immediately, but at first a lot of politicians issued kind of a first set of statements where they were not yet calling for resignations. And then I think within the next day or two, it kind of became very clear which way the wind was blowing and also the temperature in the city, which by that point was just blazing white hot and a lot of these same politicians issued another set of statements where they called for all of these people to resign. And this kind of kept picking up steam within the next couple of days. President Biden actually called for all of them to
Today, Explained
"l. city council" Discussed on Today, Explained
"The Los Angeles city council held its regular Tuesday meeting today and we have to assume it was very awkward for all involved because someone we don't know who leaked a year old recording of three members of that council behind closed doors discussing redistricting, a dry topic that could have been kept dry except the three of them made racist xenophobic and homophobic comments about their constituents and their colleagues, and also a colleague's young son. Nouri Martinez, the council's president, resigned within days, you'll see O and Kevin de Leon are refusing to go despite calls for their resignations from president Joe Biden's camp and mayor Eric garcetti, the acting city council president has stripped them of their committee assignments and still they persist. In doing so, they've managed to unite the off divided city of Los Angeles. In anger, but, as we'll hear, that's something. Coming up on today explained. Future London is calling, in the peripheral, a thrilling new adventure, from executive producers Jonathan Nolan and Lisa joy, creators of Westworld. Chloë Grace Moretz stars as Flynn Fischer, a small town clerk who must unlock a mystery in one world to save her own. Based on the visionary novel by William Gibson, the peripheral. It's real, it just hasn't happened yet. Stream the peripheral on October 21st, only on Prime Video. Today today's last break. Hi, my name is Julia wick, and I am a metro reporter at the Los Angeles Times. I cover city hall and local elections. So you have been busy lately. Yes, I have. This story really begins in October 2021. At the time, LA was in the midst of its once every decade redistricting process, which we'll talk more about later. But some of the most powerful people in city politics sat down to have a conversation that was extensively about redistricting, but went into a lot of different avenues and included some incredibly racist and offensive remarks. Breaking news from Los Angeles and battled city council member nuri Martinez has resigned from her seat days after a recording service of her making racist and offensive comments about a fellow council member's son. There are growing calls now for two other members on that recording two step down.
Latino Rebels Radio
"l. city council" Discussed on Latino Rebels Radio
"Peace. Let me roll out some other kiddos he's the one that in the suburbs they'll have been on a plane in my house but where did my slip what I done is get this easy I need a multinational but let's go inside I lost his gun through ten on my second last minute got no plan in my eyes the way that. I know I love you no better something I know I like it sometimes. I even have a person he liked him and then I don't put my feet out. There looking on me got nowhere in my eyes no breathing my eyes I love that so you take me back never must be the only night last but then I hit my 90 like up with him go find him. It's not going to be nobody something I know what I can think deep and I got the one I feel like. The white is bad for people and all my life and those gonna say that it's gonna fall if you go spending and for food so but I ain't gonna lie I ain't gonna cry it's three 5. But you didn't ask but I just made it. Funny I said that's what I did before. Sorry lost my love suddenly nothing wrong. It's time that you lost my love. The opinions expressed by the guests and contributors in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of futuro media or its
Latino Rebels Radio
"l. city council" Discussed on Latino Rebels Radio
"Unions, right? Oh yeah, so this meeting happened at the offices of the LA county labor federation, which is a very powerful, very influential group of basically all the unions in Los Angeles, all those dues go get spent on political candidates. And the right has been saying forever, they have way too much power. And this shows it. And it's interesting because the genesis of the audio so it was recorded in October of last year as you mentioned earlier, but it was only released last month, apparently it got and nobody knows who recorded it, right? Nobody knows who yeah, so it got posted on Reddit and then it got taken down, but the LA times was able to obtain a copy of it. We broke the story, and there's this cryptic message. I haven't read it myself. I'm going off of what my colleagues have reported, but it said something to the effect of you hear about all the, you know, just how bad politics is, and then when you hear it, when you actually hear the audio is just horrible, this is what labor has done. So the theory now is that it was someone in the labor of movement who got this affected with labor, secretly recorded 'cause of the secret conversation California you can not record someone without their consent. So and that's exactly what happened and then just released it to I think it was to embarrass labor because they wanted to show like this is political happening. Guys, you hear run her saying like, okay, we got to get this person in. We got to get that person. It's like, you know, the Chicago of Richard Daly, you know, you are the fucking Priya Mexico. Like you, and you and you, I think all the racism, I'm sure this person you about it was almost after the fact. They wanted to show union power. So yeah, now unions are going to have to answer to this as well. And to their credit, a lot of unions immediately said no. And also, again, you want to talk about the toxicity of all of this. There's also insults against SEIU. The service employees international union, which is a legendary justice for janitors, which is now almost overwhelmingly mexicano and Central American, very woman driven, and they're getting insulted as well. God, the toxicity. Again, all you can do is feel disgusted. Yeah, I think the video was posted to Reddit with the message labor is in bed with city hall, right? That's what it is. 'cause I read that a spokeswoman for federation of labor. So that's a private conversation on federation of labor property. You have no right to and the times are general console said, no, we have the right to publish anything that's newsworthy. I mean, that was their response to what was on that tape. That was horrible. And now the labor labor fed leadership is getting hell from their own members for that. It's like, come on. Okay, yes, it was illegally recorded by hello where the press First Amendment we have. We are protected by the First Amendment and especially in California with shield laws and all that to be able to report on this stuff. But that's your first reaction instead of saying our heart goes to this black child who was called an animal and who was advocated to get beaten down. We are disgusted by all this. No, it's like protecting yourself. It was such a dark moment for labor as well. Like at no one, there is no, I mean, the only silver lining again is that I hope it just snaps everyone into attention and makes us realize we can not let this happen again. We need to elect people who are truly antiracist and we and, you know, this is me as a reporter, you could never take politicians as their word. This is why I don't worship. I've never worshiped politicians. There's some who I think are cooler than others. There's some who I think are smarter than others. Yes. But in terms of like, hey, buddy, buddy, buddy. You can not do that. Even us Latinos, we do have to elect people who best serve everyone's interests, but especially will be an advocate for us, but we can't elect people anymore just because they're Latinos. I learned that lesson a long time ago, but that's another story. Yeah, I mean, I learned that in O 8, but yeah, the famous adage, you know, only one way for a journalist to look at a politician that's down. But that's a good one. So with all these calls, Biden, you know, mayor garcetti, governor Newsom. Everybody in the whole world, you know, you're going to hear the Pope calling on these people to resign, you know? There's no chance that neuro Martinez and de Leon. I mean, like you said, he's on his way out. But there's no way they stay on the council, right? Oh gosh, if they do, that's a testament to their arrogance and their ignorance. They will not be left to have a peaceful moment in their life until they sit down. They are going to be followed by protesters and we're not talking about violence. No one is even thinking of that nor should they because that's absolutely disgusting, especially in this context, but protests outside, I mean, they went to nuri Martinez's house. And during Martinez, by the way, the same person. It's not just she's racist and all this. She was also the person who was trying to pass a law that banned people from protesting outside politicians house within like, I think 500 fear, whatever. She also hates the First Amendment. Like, no, exactly. That's all now, you know, as well now they ask like that. So I thought they were going to resign before the city council meeting. Instead, Marie Martinez took a leave of absence. She's going to do it soon. Kevin, that's an interesting one because Kevin technically is more politically powerful than Nur. He was the first Senate pro tem leader in over a hundred years. He unsuccessfully ran a couple of years ago. There was actually an episode of Latino USA to plug, entities about him running against dianne Feinstein for the U.S. Senate seat he lost. He was a mayoral candidate this year. He came in third place, he has more at stake, I don't know what's going to happen with him. His political career is over after this, but how much longer is he going to extend it? That remains a question, especially because their own confidants are saying step down. Antonio Villaraigosa the former mayor of Los Angeles. He appeared at a press conference. It was a conference more like a seminar that Karen Bass held with over 30 community leaders. He was, I think, either, I don't think he was right next to Karen, but literally two seats away from him. Do you grew up together? I don't know if you said that specifically, but come on, it's implicit, like step down. This is an embarrassment. And if you really care about Latinos, there's so much damage control to be done, you folks staying on counsel does not help it. Well, Gustavo is a pleasure to meet you, big fan of your work. It's great to have you come on and talk to us about this. Let everybody know where they can find you and your work. Yeah, just, you know, go to LA times dot com to read all the coverage that we have is not just me, it's so many colleagues, Ben oreskes, Dakota Smith, Julia wick, David Xander, and all the folks are coming out to be part of this story, but you can find me on Twitter just at Gustav ariano. And if you like all of this stuff and you just can't catch up to everything that I do, subscribe to my weekly newsletter, go to Gustav Ariana dot org. I send it out every Saturday morning. I give you a song of the week, a quote of the week. Podcast of the week, an article of the week, all that stuff. Obviously, when this comes out, you'll be able to hear as well. So thank you all, Latino rebel radio, rifa. Maybe we can have too much confidence in politicians, but thank God we have reporters like you, you know, shining a light on the stuff. So thank you so much. Peace. Peace. I want to thank you. For coming on, very interesting. I mean, will we be following this at Latino rebels? And in futile generally, we've been talking about it. But again, I want to thank Gustavo Ariana from the LA times from coming on. I'm Hector Alamo. You can follow me across all platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, whatever. At Hector lease Alamo, be sure to visit Latino rebels dot com. We'll be covering this story as well as the recovery efforts in Puerto Rico, shout out to Carlos in Puerto Rico. Latin rebels radio, as you know, is brought to you by futile media and PRX, shout out to our great producer, Oscar Fernández, our editorial, director Fernanda Santos. Thank you Julio, J as I call them, to let me sit in your chair for a second week in a row. You know, I'm getting comfortable, getting better. But thank you guys for listening. I'll catch you later.
Latino Rebels Radio
"l. city council" Discussed on Latino Rebels Radio
"It. I'm like, okay, and I heard it. And it was a part where Nouri Martinez calls the black son of Mike bonin, a negrito. Right off the bat, I'm like, oh God, this is disgusting. Then, but I couldn't understand the context and fold the way the clip that I got. I just couldn't understand in full, so I asked more for it. Then that's when I heard changi to I'm like, oh God. And literally, that was most of my morning. I'd hear more clips and she went off against black people. She went off against black children. She went off against Oaxaca, or, you know, people in the state, they called their colleagues a little bit a diva, essentially that this white man wants to be black. They went off against Armenians. They went off against Jews. They alleged that Jewish conspiracy is trying to control south LA. UX expect politicians when they don't know the camera's on to be vulgar to be just really nasty because that's what politics is democracy is pretty vicious. I'm sorry, you do not expect politicians, especially Latino politicians who have been advocating, saying themselves, we're fighting for communities of color to basically insult every possible community of color in Los Angeles. It was disgusting. And you're still getting revelations. This is like the freaking zapruder film. You listen to it again and again, you're like, oh, there's that little crinkly thing. It's actually this. It's horrible. It's absolutely horrible, and now Los Angeles politics, a Latino politics, especially have been completely unending, completely. It's incredible. And the context of this conversation that took place October 2021. She's voicing her frustration over redistricting, right? That once every ten years, the allocating of districts, I read in, in fact, in your column, you're most commonly wrote before today about how Los Angeles is half Latino, but only a third of the districts are Latino. And so they're talking about trying to get more Latino districts and I mean, what are they talking about here? Weakening black districts? Yeah, so every decade, just like in Congress, Los Angeles redistricts its city councils. There's 15 seats, and so it's brutal. It's brilliant. I mean, we know there's always fights about what city is going to be and what district. What can you do? And in Los Angeles, it's true. Latino political power is underwhelming where half of the city, but right now a third of the council seats, let's see what happens with whether these people resign. So there was a frustration. And there's always going to be jockey. Always, again, I have no issue with that. When you're trying to take away black power though, especially when black political power in Los Angeles has been shrinking because there has been black flight from Los Angeles. I'm sorry, but like when the black community or when you have bigger communities, you're supposed to help the smaller community. You're not supposed to get more power at their expense. And that's what they were talking about. Now, if they only had talked about that, yeah, people would be upset. That's a conversation to have. If you're going to do that, you do not demean them with Mexican Spanish words that are just, you know, and this is what really pisses me out there. I'm like, oh, well, you know, negrito is not the N word and like, you know, you say that about kids, those like they're just monkeying around and I'm like, come on. You know, we know exactly what's going on. We know when those words, they can be used in a way that, yes, it's not as horrible as the N word, but it's pretty damn close. And altogether, I mean, yeah, I mean, negrito, as an Afro Latino myself, black Latino, negritos not so bad. You know, describing kids as Zhang itos, it depends on who you're talking about, but the whole context, the whole is greater than the part than the sum of its parts, right? And you can tell that there's this anti black animosity, one thing we should note about during Martinez is that there's new elections in November. But her term is up in 2024. And since she did not technically commit a crime, the only way to be removed is by a recall vote, right? I mean, what's the likelihood of that happening? Her Kevin de Leon and Gil sadiya, which by the way, he only has a couple of weeks left on his term. So he's kind of a moot point at this point, but the other two de Leon and nuri Martinez, they are never going to live this down. The black community will be calling for their resignation forever. Other good people are going to be calling the oaxacan. Yeah, that's called Cape Town. I see a lot of little short dark people. I don't even like him and little ones. So I don't know. I was like, I don't know what village they tell you how they got here, but I've been wearing shoes. I give what we have to do, right? Just massage to create districts that benefit you all. And the future. But we got to figure out Mark seat too. You want to piss off a group, do not piss off the oaxacan yields, they are legends and community organizing. They have been dealing with anti indigeneity in Mexico and then among chicano communities in LA for way too long. I think this is actually an underreported story with the Oaxaca and you'll because there has been a Joaquin yo politicians elected more in the central valley another big thing, but in Los Angeles, you know, they really haven't had that just yet, but I guarantee you you're going to see the first Oaxaca in your council member come from this whole fiasco. So to remove any of these people, recalls cost millions of dollars, you have to gather a bunch of signatures, it could be done, I think it will, it could happen, but they're going to resign because the entire democratic political establishment is against them. They're calling for their resignation. U.S. senator Alex Badia, who was a mentor to Nouri Martinez. I think she used to work under him. President Joe Biden, he's in Southern California this week. He's already said through a press strike, they need to get down. You know he's going to say this has no place. And not only that, if you think about it, when the Republicans have been making their inroads with Latinos, you know, for me, it's like it's overblown, but at the same thing, it's something that you need to track. And now you have Latinos being anti black and all this. You don't think I'm actually surprised that the Republican Party hasn't hopped on to CC, CC, Democrats are racist, Latinos, you're not racist, reject the Democratic Party. This is just, I'll say it a cluster, a cluster fuck, a complete cluster. Oh my God. And again, I just can't and what's remarkable to me is that the level of disgust, just flat out disgust. Again, there's some Benedict who are saying, oh, you know, making apologist, but Latinos, especially, 'cause we know these people. We know these people. There are deals. There are like, you know, that side of the family who, when they used to say it, we would roll our eyes. Now the younger generation flat out calls them, you can't say that. We're disgusted. We're absolutely disgusted, and then now we have to deal with the fallout. It's fallout that we're gonna have to deal with for years. I mean, again, as a black Latino, I don't mean to harp on this, but as a black Latino, I mean, when I heard what she said, and I've said this on Twitter and other places. It's not that shocking as a black Latino. I've heard worse to my face. It's kind of like when all these videos of police violence started coming out. Black people were saying, we've been telling you that this has been existing. And as a black Latino, you know, we've been telling you that there is this anti blackness, not only anti blackness, but colorism, right? Because the oaxacan thing, it touches on colorism. Like you said, anti indigeneity, like they're talking about, oh, now they're wearing shoes and this whole thing, I mean, it's just disgusting. And the fact that she was, you know, she was a member of the LA unified district, a school district. I mean, this person races have no place in governing, right? I mean, if you're that stupid to be racist, I mean, you can't be making decisions about how to run a how to run a city, how to run a county, how to run a school district, right? Well, we had a president who was pretty racist. This happens. But no, I mean, yes, nuri Martinez was president of the LA unified school district, so all these constituents all across Los Angeles County. She was head of these kids. The oaxacan part, look, the anti blackness, and also let's not forget she was suggesting that a black child should be taken around the corner and beaten to act well, which, again, Corporal punishment is like, it's horrible, horrible. But the oaxacan part, like, okay, if you're gonna say, oh yeah, where will la Raza were advocating for Latinos? Well, now you get this group where she's like, oh yeah, they're short and dark, or you know, the people are saying, I can't remember the exact conversation, but they're like, oh yeah, they're short and dark, and yeah, now they're wearing shoes. I don't even know what village they're from. And then the one part that especially made me gasp. Remember, this is Sunday morning. I have clothes on now, like I had to put it on, but I'm listening to it, and the audio wasn't the best, but I'm like, doing like this, I'm just pushing my ear, my earphones as much into my ears as possible. And then I heard it. Talking about oaxacans, done fails. And she was more like done fails, like she emphasized on the fails that their ugly. And you know, there's controversy about whether she said so ugly than Don Phil's, I personally think she was saying Istanbul since she just clipped the time. Like you say, the Stan or down or whatever. But the fail spread. Puerto Ricans so that happens all the time. Exactly, you know how it is. But when you heard the emphasis on the fails, it's like, oh, you can't just make fun of them for their skin tone. You can't just make fun of them for their short stature because, you know, they're indigenous folks. And these are stereotypes, of course, out of the existed in Mexico and the U.S. for decades, if not centuries. You also have to say they're ugly. That was just disgusting. It's vile. It is just vileness at its most vile. An ugly, I mean, fail, I mean, it has the same kind of attention as an English, but in Spanish failed me, it has connotations of being evil of being not human, you know. Yes. Substandard. It just has all this. It's harsher. It's harsher than just ugly. Yeah, it's just like, that's a word that you use when you're truly disgusted by something. I think they ended up having a meeting yesterday at city hall of the council and all these people coming up. I mean, you see the, you know, the one lady who comes up and says, you know, F this F nery F everybody. This is legitimate. I mean, people were really angry and it looked like there was good there was about to be, what is the sense in LA? I mean, I think what everybody wants to know who's not from LA, what is the sense in LA right now? I do think they're overstating how much there's racial tension. Like, it goes with an election where crime and homelessness are very much at the top of the agenda, especially with the mayoral race between congresswoman Karen Bass and billionaire developer Rick Caruso. So you hear people say like, oh, it's worse. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. We are not in 1991. Let's not even pretend we're in 1991, where there was real tension. There's always going to be tension. There's always going to be tension. That's just how it is, sadly, and humanity. Again, though, I place my faith on the younger generation, people who call themselves LatinX, frankly, the people who are trying to really work on anti racism, the people who pushed us, the older Latinos who say Black Lives Matter at a time where we were like, well, do all lives no matter what. Now, no, they're the ones who are pushing it. So I have faith in them, but again, there are people who have been working on this very issue for decades. Karen Bass was one of the founders of this legendary group called community coalition that was created in the wake of the LA riots to specifically work with black and brown communities or black and Latino communities. And of course, there's Afro Latinos and all that stuff. You know, all those folks and unite them. And so they've created a generation of young people who get that. So it's not like the city's ready to explode. Honestly, if I want to say what the sentiment is, the city is disgusted. We knew there was racism. Of course, or racism, but it's like a sucker punch to all of us collectively and we're like, well, what are we going to do next? What's next? I mean, and so what I'm trying to tell people is like, yes, be angry. Please be angry. We should all be angry, disgusted, but we have to go to what's next. We can't let that anger fester because that's when 92 happens. That's when all the bad stuff happens. And you brought this up and I think we should touch on it. I mean, this is probably could have not come at a worse time for Democrats. A few weeks from election day, you know, nuri Martinez, first Latina, Democrat, president of the council. So, you know, people who voted for her probably thought they were electing somebody who represents them. And this is okay. This is progress. This is the future. I know a lot of Latinos are going to be thinking, well, look, damned if you do damned if you don't. I mean, here we voted for a Latina Democrat and she ended up being just as bad as the Republicans. I mean, what is your sense that this is going to have an effect on the midterms? Oh, jeez. I mean, look, this sets back Latino political power for years. As I wrote in my column for the LA times, how long and I'm going to talk specifically about Mexican Americans, because that's what nari Martinez is. How long have Mexican Americans? And you know what? I'll also include all Latinos. You know, especially central Americans because Kevin de Leon is Guatemala. How long have we had to deal with the rights saying Latinos are going to take over when it's Mexicans they call it reconquista in the American Southwest. Now you have the bullshit of the great replacement theory. With central Americans, oh, these caravans are going to overwhelm us. And now, of course, venezolanos are part of that where they're getting shipped off to Cape Cod and all of that. And we, as Latinos, we know, no, yes, we are the demographics were now the largest minority in the United States in California where plurality of the population in Los Angeles were a majority of the population LA county as well, and now you have these Latino politicians saying, yeah, the Jews control south LA, they're working in tandem with the blacks. We got to get rid of their power. It got so bad that Nouri said of George gascon, guano, you know, born in Cuba, fuck him, he's with the blacks. Oh my God. For a lot of people, they're going to say, see, I could see the Marjorie Taylor greens of the world CC, C, C, we told you so we can not trust these people. All the gains that Latino politicians have done of saying we're going to govern for everyone just ripped apart, shredded. I mean, we're only a couple of days away from the release. We still don't know what the ramifications are. An election is coming. And you know, the fact that Ron Herrera president of the LA county federation of labor was in there. I mean, there's growing support for unions, but there's also this long held distrust of
Latino Rebels Radio
"l. city council" Discussed on Latino Rebels Radio
Latino Rebels Radio
"l. city council" Discussed on Latino Rebels Radio
"Host, Hector Luis Alamo filling in for Julio Ricardo varela if you are like me or any of my fellow Latino people in media activism, nonprofit. I mean, the Latino media social media has been dominated by this story coming out of Los Angeles since I think it broke Sunday specifically our guests article in the Los Angeles Times of the story from the Los Angeles city council, former president nuri Martinez, caught a year ago with two other members and a local labor leader saying some racist disparaging remarks about a colleague's black son and oaxacans in Los Angeles. That's been dominating stuff at Latino rebels. We've been following it closely. And we are very excited and privileged to be able to bring on our guests Gustavo arellano, Gustavo, would you care to introduce yourself to our readers who I'm sure know all about you. Considering I was a former contributor to Latino rebels, I would hope they know who I am, but my name is Gustav Ariana. I'm columnist for the Los Angeles Times. I'm also a host of the LA times podcast at times, essential news from the LA times, and I'm a voracious listener of Latino rebels radio, as I said earlier, contributor, and just all around children nerd. I think before we start, we should play a clip of exactly what we're talking about here.
Latino Rebels Radio
"l. city council" Discussed on Latino Rebels Radio
"Hey dear listener, a quick favor. We're conducting an audience survey and we'd be really grateful if you could take just a few minutes and answer it. So please visit survey dot org slash puto to take our survey today. That's survey
Max & Murphy on Politics
"l. city council" Discussed on Max & Murphy on Politics
"I think that's what we all want. It's just a matter of a matter of how we get there. Yeah, listen, when there's when there's plenty plenty of money, like there is here, thanks to the huge influx of federal funds thanks to higher than expected tax revenue, obviously there's issues with the city's recovery. There's still higher unemployment than pre-pandemic and then a lot of places and there's been real issues with certain jobs, especially related to tourism and so forth coming back online. There's lots of money here to spend. And so it shouldn't be too contentious of a budget process, but for whatever wind up being those few issues that always wind up being a tug of war towards the end. Last couple of questions for you, city council member Justin Brandon chair of the finance committee of the council and along with speaker Adrian Adams and many others at the council, both elected and hired. Crafting of the council response on the preliminary budget. Let me ask you this. Is there one thing that's a city council member Brandon priority that you got in here? You know, is there something for you personally that you see as a really important citywide issue, something for your district. There's just something that you made sure to get in here that was like a top brand priority. Sure. I mean, the way that we do it is very small D democratic, which I like. You know, the budget negotiating team, you know, this mythical group that everyone always asks about. Basically, what we act as sort of a clearing house for the full body. And all the ideas sort of are funneled through BNT. But the way that it's done is no one knows, it's a blind pool, basically. No one knows where the ideas are coming from. And that's done on purpose, right? It's done so that if you like an idea, but you don't like the person who's proposing it or vice versa, which I think is great because it allows for a very democratic process. I mean, look, I'm not gonna lie, I love that quality of life issues are now becoming sexier than they've ever been. It was often me and Paul the loan were the only two maniacs screaming about garbage pickup. And now we've got an army of folks who understand that this is an equity issue. And it's always been an equity issue..
Max & Murphy on Politics
"l. city council" Discussed on Max & Murphy on Politics
"Safe neighborhood, foundation for everything else. So early on, we identified these quality of life issues across the board. You know, the meetings I was having with members, the conversations and BNT. It was coming up everywhere, and that became immediately we knew that was going to be a big ask in our budget. Again, just to get back to basics. And ultimately, what I'm trying to get to is 6 day a week garbage pickup twice a day. That's sort of the gold standard. And then anything else would be extra. But it was definitely interesting. It was definitely interesting to see that over the past two years, sanitation department is really seen a drastic decrease in the number of programs and services. Due to these budget cuts and composting has become a big issue. But this was across the board, you know? Yeah, no, I've seen it. I've seen it, you saw it even before some of the new city council members took office. They're doing things in November, December to try to get more trash pick up in their council districts that they're about to take over as the council member and then you see people making these announcements in January, celebrating. I secured this many new tracks. It's a big deal, man. The big deal. Big deal also just we've talked about this before. I don't want to take time here. You are generous with your time, especially with having COVID. But we talked about this before about just sort of the basic just getting the basics of city government right and it's just this confounding thing that these are even some of the debates in the discussions happening and as you said, city council members using discretionary funding to increase trash pickup just signals something very wrong. And so hopefully. It worked out. Ultimately, the same government that we would love to see handle managed universal healthcare is also picking up the trash. So if I can't get the garbage picked up, if I can't trust my government to get the garage picked up or get the weeds cut in the park. How can I trust them to deliver on these big ticket items? And that's really the lens that I see it through. And I think a lot of my colleagues see it through. My colleagues want to make believers in working people out of their government. They want to see that the government is working for them. And that's why the budget is so important. And that's why. Yeah, no, and if you look at surveys, if you just talk to people, obviously, at the top of the list for New Yorkers, are things like cleanliness in their communities that we're talking about. Obviously, public safety and reducing crime, affordable.
Max & Murphy on Politics
"l. city council" Discussed on Max & Murphy on Politics
"Your podcasts or at the Gotham gazette website. All right, city council member Justin brannon, chair of the finance committee, I would start by asking you how you're doing, but I have to preface by saying you have COVID. And so how are you doing with that? Are you are you okay? Thank you for taking the time to do this despite that. Sure. Anything for you, Ben. I am doing well. Thankfully, because I was, I've been vaccinated and boosted. This my second bout of COVID here is really just like a bad cold. So I'm thankful I'm thankful for being vaccinated. Otherwise, you could probably be in the emergency room right now. So I'm glad my vaccines and boosting and everything is working the way it should be. All right, well, glad to hear that. If you have to go through this and hope you clear the virus quickly and our back at it. So hang in there. Thank you. Again, thanks for taking the time to do this despite that. So top lines from you, the city council published its response to the mayor's preliminary budget. This, again, as I tried to outline in the introduction, there's a lengthy process here. This is one very big moment in the process, though, because when the mayor does his executive budget, it's not going to look at that different than the preliminary budget and as you go into the next phases so much really does depend on the preliminary budget and the council's asks here in response. So what are the top lines from the council response here that you want to highlight for New Yorkers that you are saying to mayor Adams, hey, as you craft your executive budget plan, we want you to do X, Y, and Z, what are some of the things that you're trying to move ahead in the process here? Sure. So thanks for giving me the opportunity. Yeah, I think overall this process is a marathon and not a sprint. And I'll probably be saying that through June. But this is definitely a big moment, especially after concluding a month hearings, we had 28 oversight hearings where my colleagues, you know, explored all the themes that we then baked into our preliminary response. And this is a big deal because the budget is arguably the single most important policy document produced by not only the mayor, but by the city council. So this is definitely a big moment for us as a body..
Max & Murphy on Politics
"l. city council" Discussed on Max & Murphy on Politics
"To max politics. This is Ben max from Gotham gazette, a publication of citizen union foundation. Thanks very much for tuning in here for this episode of the show. We are in city budget season. We are right in the thick of it now that city budget season goes from January all the way until June or even right at the start of July, so it's a long city budget season and a lot of it is influenced by the state budget, which at the time of our discussion here on Wednesday, April 6th is now several days late, but we're expecting a state budget deal. Sometimes soon, any minute it could be announced, so by the time you're hearing this, there may be an announcement of a state budget deal. They may even have passed some state budget bills by the time you're listening to this. And that state budget will impact the New York City budget, of course, which is due by July 1st. The city budget season starts with the mayor releasing his preliminary budget mayor Eric Adams released a budget coming in at about $98.5 billion and then it was the subject of weeks of city budget hearings, including the initial hearing and a process overseen by my guest today who is city council member Justin brannon, a Brooklyn Democrat who chairs the city council's finance committee. Just recently after those weeks of hearings and then lots of internal discussions and external discussions, the city council issued its formal response to the mayor's preliminary budget. We're going to dig in on that with the council member Brandon here in just one minute. A bunch of interesting aspects of that response to discuss and then negotiations will continue after this, including the mayor's executive budget plan, which is due later this month, and then another round of city council hearings on that budget plan, more negotiations, lots of rallies and press conferences and op eds and discussions and behind the scenes negotiations, public negotiations, and so forth until a budget deal is struck between the city council and the mayor before the July 1 start of the new city fiscal year. So my conversation with city council member Justin Brandon just one moment. If you missed any of our recent reporting, it Gotham gazette dot com,.
Daily Detroit
"l. city council" Discussed on Daily Detroit
"The city charter to make it easier for city council members to remove an elected official who was deemed to be Unfit criminal. Or just basically betraying the public trust and with that new tool the city council had a perfect opportunity to use it and did not use it so my plan is if i can't convince people to To take action as as someone who tells the truth. I'm gonna give myself an opportunity take action with one of nine votes when leland finally plead guilty reached a plea deal to plead guilty to Misconduct in office. I call for his resignation. I said city council. If they can't make him resign they should remove his staff. They should remove his city car. They should remove his committee assignments. They should basically make him nothing other than a dummy sitting there at the city council table. No one did anything. And so i'm trying to put myself in a position to make sure that the people of detroit have the best representation. They can get and that they should know. At least one person on city council will not put up with any of the bologna that we've had to put up for far too long over the years. The council i mean i remember the days when a council member was bribed for sausage. The council has gotten his reputation. If i if i had the dropbox with me. I'd say you know what no greater hive of scum and villainy from like star wars or something and. It's not good for the city at all to have that reputation with its counsel. Yeah it's not exactly the cantina on tattooing or something like that. Yeah but but we have had some bad actors on their. We've had multiple city council members over the years convicted of various crimes of course k. Everett you know allegedly was bribed. Seventeen of sausage. I once did a charity gig. Where one of the one of the thank you for. The host was free sausage. And i never even cashed it in so you can't get with seventeen pounds of sausage. You can't get me with eight. Three sausage nineteen no sauce. No sasha's not enough sausage in the world to make me betray the people of detroit. I gave up my job. I give it my salary to do this. I'm not doing it for the money. I'm doing it. Because i want to see somebody on city council wants to get some stuff done and not. Just clean things up. I want to see action in the neighborhoods. I wanna see us get more and better police so that we have safety so we can stop some the speeding in our neighborhoods. And frankly i wanna i wanna make sure that people who own property in the city are good. Good good Landlords you know if you're renting a house to somebody that doesn't respect their neighbors if you've rented a house as a speculator and your sledding it crumble in a neighborhood that has a deleterious effect on the entire neighborhood. If you're that person you should be very worried about. What's going to happen when i get to city hall because i am coming for you sir. It's our version of. Don't be that guy that's right. Don't that guy so let's get into the weeds first off. Let's talk about district for for listeners. Who might not be familiar listeners. Who live there will be like oh of course but we have a wider audience. I wanna make sure to set the table district for east side. Jefferson chalmers that whole area town. I have a lot of familiarity with it. My family like my My my great grandmother grew up on dickerson..
Max & Murphy on Politics
"l. city council" Discussed on Max & Murphy on Politics
"But again it's not for me. It's a brooklyn thing. Janetta borough thing and i think that's what we all do have in common on that front The next city councils likely to have a majority of women members maybe the most diverse overall city council in history. you're white guy. What do you say to people who express concerns about representation and diversity. Absolutely it's important. I think it would be more incumbent upon a straight white guy to put Women especially women of color in leader in leadership positions and rightfully. So i take that very seriously You know it's it's. I helped women of color get elected not only because i thought they were the best candidates for the district. Because i need to know who my colleagues are going to be in january so No matter what happens it's it's going to be a really really great body and we're gonna have you gonna have to short years before we all have to run for reelection and we're going to have to get a lot done really quickly. But but it's it's very exciting. All right we'll leave it there. We could keep talking about the politics ahead but we have more time for that Coming up in the in the months ahead especially once we get the general election over with lava six weeks or so to really dig on some of this stuff. So we'll talk with you. More about Those outcomes in the speaker's race In the months ahead but City council member justin brand. Thanks very much of the time. Thanks for having me read.