Inside Stories

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Metro system has added two new Metro Rapid Bus lines with weekday service and provided additional Saturday service on four other lines, extended the routes on three more, and launched a new route along Washington Boulevard. The new services began on December 17, the same day that other changes on various routes were made.

One of the new Metro Rapid routes is Line 728, which runs from Cesar Chavez Avenue and Vignes Street near Union Station to the Century City district on the Westside. The other new service is Metro Rapid Bus Line 770, which runs between Downtown and El Monte, via Garvey Avenue and Cesar Chavez Avenue. The additions bring the total number of Metro Rapid Bus Lines in operation to 20. Metro officials said the regional transit agency plans to add eight more Metro Rapid Lines in 2008.

Metro has also instituted new weekend service on Metro Rapid Bus Line 780 between Pasadena and Hollywood. Saturday service has also been added to Metro Bus Lines 18, 45 and 66.

The new line along Washington Boulevard is 35-335 and will feature local, limited service between Downtown and Fairfax Avenue. The line replaces a portion of service previously provided by Line 68-368.

Various other changes have been made to bus lines that serve Downtown and surrounding districts. Call (800) 266-6883 for more information in Spanish or English; or visit metro.net on the Internet for more information in English.

1st District Los Angeles City Councilmember Ed Reyes hopes to see rentals of bicycles available and room on public thoroughfares reserved for the two-wheelers in portions of the territory he represents, which includes the Chinatown, Angeleno Heights, Pico-Union and Westlake districts, among other areas.

Reyes at presstime planned to introduce a proposal asking his colleagues on the 15-seat council to create a plan that includes bike-only roadways, more bike lanes on wide streets and sidewalks, and a public program to rent bikes at stops of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) Metro rail system throughout the 1st District (see related story on “Metro Rides,” home page, “Metro Service Changes, Inside Stories).

“We have the Gold Line and Red Line here,” Reyes said, who also serves as chairperson of the City’s Council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee. “Now, we need to tie in the loose ends by creating a bike network linking people to key spots like work, school, shops and museums.”

The Los Angeles City Council voted on December 19 to re-appoint affordable housing advocate Joan Ling to the board of directors of the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles (CRA/LA).

The approval came on a vote of 11-4, with dissenters contending that Ling goes beyond the scope of her duties as a member of the 7-member board.

“Her strong will to negotiate with developers outside of policy directives is problematic and has a chilling effect on the success of redevelopment areas in our council districts,” 8th District Councilmember Bernard Parks and 9th District representative Jan Perry wrote in a letter to their colleagues. 6th District Councilmember Tony Cardenas and the 12th District’s Greig Smith joined Parks and Perry in voting against Ling, who was nominated for re-appointment by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

Maria Elena Durazo, who heads the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor AFL-CIO, provided a prominent voice on Ling’s behalf.

“We have found her to be one of the most patient, thoughtful decision-makers in the city family, willing to listen to everyone and always basing her decisions on strong reasons,” Durazo said.

The City Council also approved the reappointments of John Perez and Bruce Ackerman. Neither of them sparked the sort of controversy that Ling’s reappointment stirred up at City Hall.

The new terms for Ling, Perez and Ackerman all run to November, 2011.

The Los Angeles City Clerk's office will take on the responsibility for administering elections for representative boards of the more than 80 Neighborhood Councils, a change that will be phased in over the next two years.

The various Neighborhood Councils—which are intended to serve as advisory panels to city officials—have in the past administered their own elections with the help of the city’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, which has general oversight of the bodies.

The Los Angeles City Council recently approved the change, which calls for any Neighborhood Council elections scheduled for the first half of 2008 to be held during June. The City Clerk’s office is expected to oversee some of those elections, and to assume oversight of all Neighborhood Council balloting by 2010. The City Clerk's office will be responsible for sending out vote-by-mail pamphlets, printing ballots, organizing poll workers and voting locations, and counting ballots.

Neighborhood Councils were established in 1999, billed as a grass-roots avenue for residents to have more influence in city government. The Neighborhood Councils have produced mixed results, with some exerting significant influence and others accomplishing little in the way of concrete results for constituents.

Voter turnout for Neighborhood Councils have varied widely, with many contests drawing paltry numbers, and some winners claiming board seats with fewer than 10 votes.

The leader of an Orthodox Jewish group has been arrested with several other suspects and charged with tax fraud and laundering money through an Israeli bank and several businesses in the Jewelry District of Downtown.

Authorities on December 18 named Naftali Tzi Weisz, a resident of Brooklyn, New York, and known as the Grand Rabbi of Spinka, in a federal grand jury's 37-count indictment. Spinka is the name of a Hasidic group within Orthodox Judaism.The Spinka sect takes its name from the town in Eastern Europe where it first took shape as a religious movement.

The indictment claims that Weisz and another suspect, identified as Gabbai Moshe E. Zigelman, promised to secretly refund up to 95% of millions of dollars worth of contributions to several charities in Spinka.

The contributors were told they could claim the full amount for tax deductions, even though the refunds meant that they actually gave as little as 5% of the amount declared on federal income tax returns, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Investigators said Weisz used an underground money-transfer network that included several businesses in and around the Jewelry District to issue the secret refunds.

Weisz and Zigelman are each charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), 19 counts of mail fraud, 11 counts of international money laundering, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and one count of operating an illegal money remitting business.

Zigelman is also charged with two counts of aiding in the preparation of false federal income tax returns.

Other defendants named in the indictment and arrested on December 18 were: Yaacov Zeivald of Valley Village; and Los Angeles residents Yosef Nachum Naiman, and Alan Jay Friedman. Another defendant allegedly involved in the Jewelry District-based underground network is Los Angeles resident Moshe Arie Lazar, who authorities believe is currently in Israel.

Prosecutors claim Weisz and Zigelman also attempted to cheat the IRS by wiring transfers from various charitable entities into secret accounts at an Israeli bank. The indictment names Joseph Roth and Jacob Ivan Kantor, both of Tel Aviv, Israel, as participants in the scheme.

Authorities arrested Roth in Los Angeles on December 18. They said they believe Kantor is in Israel.

Zeivald, Lazar, Naiman and Friedman are charged in the main conspiracy count, and with operating an illegal money remitting business.

Zeivald is also charged with one count of mail fraud.

Five charities based in Eastern Europe were also named as defendants, including: Yeshiva Imrei Yosef, Yeshivath Spinka; Central Rabbinical Seminary; Machne Sva Rotzohn; and Mesivta Imrei Yosef Spinka. They are all alleged to have used fraudulent receipts for bogus charitable contributions, and also benefited from fees charged of transfers of funds as part of the money laundering conspiracy.

The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying a man found dead in a hotel room in the Little Tokyo district on the northeastern edge of Downtown.

Authorities said they discovered the man dead at the Diamaru Hotel at 345 E. 1st Street at approximately 9 a.m. on October 17. They found no wallet or identifying papers with him or in his room.

Authorities said the man appeared to have been Asian/American, possibly Japanese/American. He is believed to have been between 55 and 70 years of age at the time of his death, approximately 5 feet tall and 160 pounds, with a mole on his right thigh, brown eyes, and gray hair that was thinning at the front of his head. He wore a gray Delta Pro Weight shirt in size extra large, black Enrico Gelini pants with a 34-inch waist and a 29-inch inseam, and a pair of extra large green and white Calvin Sports shorts. He also had on a black belt and gray socks.

Anyone with information on the man's identity is urged to contact Investigator Daniel Machian at the Los Angeles County Coroner Identifications Unit at (323) 343-0754, or the Coroner’s Investigations Division at (323) 343-0714.

Flames damaged a two-story apartment complex in the Silverlake district northwest of Downtown recently, but firefighters were able to extinguish the blaze within 15 and hold injuries to a minimum.

The blaze began at approximately 8:30 a.m. on December 8 at 1625 N. Lucile Avenue, according to Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) spokesperson D’Lisa Davies. Residents evacuated the structure on their own. LAFD personnel treated one resident for smoke inhalation and transported him to a local hospital. Damage from the fire displaced another resident from her apartment unit, according to LAFD spokesperson Ron Myers.

LAFD had not determined a cause of the blaze or an estimate on the amount of damage, as of presstime.

A Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer accused of falsely arresting two undercover investigators and writing a bogus report on the incident recently pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of false imprisonment and received a sentence of 30 days community service and three years of probation.

Edward Beltran Zamora arrested two undercover officers on suspicion of drug possession, even though no narcotics were found on either of them, authorities said.

Zamora entered his plea on December 6. The 16-year veteran had been assigned to LAPD’s Rampart Area west of Downtown. Zamora initially faced felony counts of filing a false report and misdemeanor counts of false arrest and false imprisonment after theundercover operation, which followed tips about his behavior.

It remained uncertain at presstime whether Zamora, who was placed on administrative leave when he was charged last August, would have the chance to return to duty.

The Local Hero item in the Garment & Citizen’s issue of December 7 incorrectly reported that the Los Angeles Theater Center is located on the 600 block of S. Spring Street. The facility is located on the 500 block of S. Spring Street (see related item on Art Walk in Dot Dot Dish column, home page).

The Garment & Citizen will not publish an issue next week, in recognition of the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

This is a combined issue of the Garment & Citizen, serving as the editions of December 21-27 and December 28, 2007-January 3, 2008.