Tag: los angeles

LA’s little shade balls problem.

I understand that this is a problem, but…

LA’s scheme to cover a reservoir under 96 million “shade balls” may not be all it is touted to be, experts told FoxNews.com, with some critics going so far as to refer to the plan as a “potential disaster.”

[snip]

Experts differed over the best color for the tiny plastic balls, with one telling FoxNews.com they should have been white and another saying a chrome color would be optimal. But all agreed that the worst color for the job is the one LA chose.

…I apologize in advance. Continue reading LA’s little shade balls problem.

Big Labor seeks LA minimum wage hike exemption for companies that hire Big Labor.

Full points for chutzpah: “Labor leaders, who were among the strongest supporters of the citywide minimum wage increase approved last week by the Los Angeles City Council, are advocating last-minute changes to the law that could create an exemption for companies with unionized workforces.”  And, here’s the funny part: there’s a section of the Right that actually hopes that the unions manage to get this. Of course, most of the aforementioned section live in Texas…

Via  Continue reading Big Labor seeks LA minimum wage hike exemption for companies that hire Big Labor.

Los Angeles vows to become the first fully-cybernetic American megalopolis.

As somebody once noted: the true minimum wage is zero.

Mind you, this vow is in code.  One does not simply openly state that the goal is to remove a human being from every single job that can instead be automated. Consumers can get very touchy about that sort of thing (particularly when they start wondering if their ultimate fate is going to involve anything more lofty than a protein rendering vat).  No, what one does instead is call your technocratic goal something else.  In this case, the euphemism is ‘minimum wage increase:’ “The nation’s second-largest city voted Tuesday to increase its minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 an hour by 2020, in what is perhaps the most significant victory so far for labor groups and their allies who are engaged in a national push to raise the minimum wage.”

But that sentence should note terrify small businesses that currently operate in Los Angeles. No, this sentence from the same article should terrify them: “Even economists who support increasing the minimum wage say there is not enough historical data to predict the effect of a $15 minimum wage, an unprecedented increase.”  It’s terrifying because it’s such a stupid lie. After all, it’s not exactly a secret what happens: Continue reading Los Angeles vows to become the first fully-cybernetic American megalopolis.

LA restaurant imposes explicit 3% #Obamacare surcharge. But wait! There’s more.

It’s hard-nosed to take the 3% Obamacare surcharge imposed upon you and pass it explicitly along to the consumer, as one Los Angeles restaurant is doing.

[Video fixed and via @IloiloKano]

Continue reading LA restaurant imposes explicit 3% #Obamacare surcharge. But wait! There’s more.

#rsrh QotD, The Occupiers’ 15 Minutes Are Up edition.

Ed Morrisey’s gotten  tired of them too – even as free entertainment – as his sardonic reaction to the Occupy LA people finally getting the Gucci loafer* suggests:

Even the most casual observer will notice that the general assemblies tend to be indiscreet forums (THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES TEND TO BE INDISCREET FORUMS), and the constant, loud repetition (AND THE CONSTANT, LOUD REPETITION) makes secrecy an unattainable status (MAKESH SREBRECY FAN UNNTRETATTINO FLATULENCE).

That last word was probably warped with malice aforethought.  Not to mention: malice richly, richly deserved.

Moe Lane

*Or does Gucci make boots?  I’m not exactly checked out on high fashion.

Two Americas Watch: Antonio Villaraigosa (D).

(Via Deceiver) There’s the America where Los Angeles is in the middle of an ongoing drought, and is thus subject to strong water restrictions – which are being pushed by its mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa (D). Then there’s the America where the mayor of Los Angeles was – illegally – watering his own lawn while everybody else’s was dying. And how does he explain this discrepancy? Heavy sleeping.

No, really, that’s what Villaraigosa said.

“The sprinklers are so loud in your back yard, you can hear them from the street. How could you or your household staff not have heard them?” [NBC4’s Joel] Grover said.

“I sleep very heavily and I couldn’t hear it,” said Villaraigosa, who noted that overall water use at his home has decreased.

Continue reading Two Americas Watch: Antonio Villaraigosa (D).