Reporter, Los Angeles Business Journal
Staff reporter for the Los Angeles Business Journal
PROFILE
Howard Fine
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FROM Howard Fine
Press Play with Madeleine Brand
The Ellis Act: How to Kick Out Rent Control Tenants While we may have the most expensive rent in the country, we do have rent control rules here in LA for people who live in buildings built before 1979. The owners of those buildings can only raise rent a small percentage each year. But landlords are increasingly using something called The Ellis Act to evict tenants, en masse, from their rent-controlled buildings.
Which Way, L.A.?
Proposition 23 Dissected Los Angeles businesses are divided over Proposition 23 , a measure that would postpone the implementation of AB 32 , the greenhouse gas law that Governor Schwarzenegger sees as his legacy. Different polls show different results for where it now stands with the voters. Neither Jerry Brown nor Meg Whitman is supporting Prop 23, but Whitman says that, if she’s elected, she’ll postpone AB 32 for a year. Jerry Brown disputes Whitman’s claim that AB 32 would cost jobs in 97% of the economy, saying rather that it will help create new jobs in the developing green economy.
Which Way, L.A.?
LA's Measure H; Beverly Hills' Measure Q Since 1997, the Los Angeles Unified School District has raised $20 billion, $14 billion from four bond measures and the rest from matching funds. That money is for building new schools and re-building old ones, and there's still $6 billion left. But now, LAUSD has come up with Measure Q , yet another bond issue to raise $7 billion more, as Howard Fine reports for the LA Business Journal. Meantime, in affluent Beverly Hills, the burning issue is a referendum on the City Council's decision to allow the Beverly Hilton Hotel to remake itself into something resembling New York's Waldorf-Astoria, along with two luxury condo towers 16 and 18 stories high. The Beverly Hilton is at the intersection of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards. Martha Groves covers the lifestyles of Beverly Hills residents, rich, famous and otherwise.
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To the Point
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.
Left, Right & Center
The week that wouldn't quit Will next week get even weirder? (Special one-hour episode)
To the Point
Is the threat from Russia missing from the Russia meddling probe? There's much being made about the Trump administration's possible ties with Russia. But the bottom line is Russia's effort to influence American democracy. Do the President and his aides care enough to take action before voters go back to the polls?
To the Point
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.