Which Way, L.A.?

Playing Politics with Public Safety at LA City Hall?

Mayor Jim Hahn-s playing hardball with the Los Angeles City Council over money and public safety. The Council voted to give him 400 new police officers, but withheld support for an additional 320 until the city-s financial picture can be clarified. Hahn says he-ll veto the budget, and LA Police Chief William Bratton is pressuring council members to change their minds by saying that without the extra 320 cops, he can-t promise to cut back the homicide rate. With public safety pitted against financial stability, we speak to a former campaign strategist for mayoral candidate Jim Hahn, a senior fellow at UCLA-s School of Public Policy and the former executive director of the city-s Commission on Charter Reform about the tough new confrontational atmosphere at City Hall. Making News: FCC's Eased Ownership Rules and the LA Media As predicted, the Federal Communications Commission has changed rules that were decades old. Networks will now be able to own more stations than ever; newspapers and TV outlets in the same towns can now have the same owner. That means big changes in much of the country, but according to Darrell Satzman of the LA Business Journal these new rules merely validate the consolidation already in practices in Los Angeles.