Is the rumored closing of the Culver City Sanitation Department true? Is billionaire medical doctor Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, buying the Culver City Sanitation Station and causing the sanitation employees of Culver City to lose their jobs? We don't know. Rumor is that Dr. Soon-Shiong has expressed distaste for the smell and general appearance of the sanitation facility.
In addition, it is rumored that he wants to purchase the sanitation land for millions and turn it into retail shopping and dining, in order to attract the many visitors to Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook at Hetzler and Jefferson Blvd.
Faithful employees, many who have worked over 10 - 15 years for Culver City Sanitation, will lose their jobs, pensions and benefits. Is this the way Culver City wants to treat devoted employees?
Culver City Sanitation is one of the few city agencies that actually makes money for Culver City; the fire and police do not make money for the city, yet they are not being closed and given to private companies.
If the rumor is true the move to close Culver City Sanitation is just plain unfair and wrong.
Do you think an unmanned car is hot stuff? Well, neighbor, the Boeing Company has been working on an unmanned submarine called Echo Voyager. It’s 51 feet long and designed to stay underwater for months at a time.
Does everybody remember reading or hearing on television that Governor Brown projects a budget of $122 billion dollars? The $64,000 question is, “Why do we need to raise taxes?” The answer is that our county supervisor, Mark Ridley-Thomas, the father of your assembly member, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, wants us to vote to increase the sales tax by a half cent for rail and freeway improvements. Butt for the poor or those on fixed incomes, the higher sales tax is the worst idea.
I remember top crackerjack defense lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, who was part of the dream team who defended O.J. Simpson. Mr. Bailey has perhaps experienced some business reversals, because he declared bankruptcy over a $5 million disagreement with the I.R.S. I hope Mr. Bailey wins, but with the I.R.S. . . .
Over the Labor Day weekend Theodorsia and I attended a block party in Inglewood where we renewed our friendship with a truly remarkable person – their mayor, James Butts. He left Inglewood as a lieutenant to become the Santa Monica chief of police, and from there to be the Los Angeles International Airport assistant police chief. When he retired he ran for and was elected mayor. The transformation this far has been dynamic and in the years to come, well, golly!
The City of Albuquerque, New Mexico settled for $142,000 with someone suspected of car theft, who said, he was the victim of excessive force.
Anybody heard anything about former NASA contractor Edward Snowden, or former Culver City City Attorney Norm Herring?
Mayor Bill Finch of New Haven, Connecticut got the endorsement a while back of the local Democrats in his bid for a third term. Finch has been facing a strong challenge from a former mayor, Joseph Ganim, who is making a comeback after serving seven years in prison for corruption.
Senator James Lankford (R-OKLA) recently released information on government grants:
1. The National Science Foundation $1.2 million grant to teach robots how to pick out outfits for and how to dress the elderly.
2. The $48,500 National Institutes for Health grant to study the use of tobacco in Russia.
3. The Defense Department $288, 000 grant to study the gnatcatcher in California.
The Senator is also trying to pass his Taxpayers’ Right to Know Act, which would establish a central database of all financial data of every federal program.
Mother always said, “Neil, remember money doesn’t grow on trees,” and was she ever right. Frankly speaking, if I was in the Department of Justice, we would have the first co-ed cell block for the thieves who worked at the local branches of Wells Fargo, and the guilty big shots would go to Sing Sing. Yes, I read the bank was fined $185 million or so, but when you make billions, their fine was small potatoes. Move all your assets to a safe place and start sleeping well again..
When you drive through Beverly Hills be sure to cruise Carolwood Drive and stop at Barbra Streisand’s former estate at 301. Listed for only $150 million, it may have been sold by now. It has 38,000 square feet, a water wall, a lounge, wine room, movie theater, a separate valet entrance for guests with parking for more than 50 vehicles, and a garage for another ten cars. The master suite is approximately 5,300 square feet including a private heated covered patio. Don’t worry if you are short a million or two – you can always get a 30-year fixed mortgage at Wells Fargo bank.
Officials in New Jersey say 7,827 criminal cases are now in question after a lab technician with the state police allegedly faked the result in a drug case. The technician, Kamalkant Shah, was suspended but never charged with any crime, per the August/September 2016 Reason Magazine.
Want to know more about the spies of the CIA and KGB, then read the Phantom Menace starting on page 26 of the November 2016 issue of the Smithsonian. It was very frightening, to say the least.
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