Latest spreadsheets

April 25, 2012

April 17, 2012

At­tor­neys’ fees con­sume less than 1% of the 2010 budgets in nearly half the county’s cit­ies, an av­er­age of about $25 per res­id­ent. A hand­ful of cit­ies spend three to four times that much. Be­low is a list of all 88 cit­ies with their av­er­age leg­al ex­penses for the years 2005 through 2010 ex­pressed as a per­cent­age of the city’s op­er­at­ing and re­devel­op­ment budgets and per cap­ita.

April 5, 2012

In­de­pend­ent polit­ic­al or­gan­iz­a­tions known as “su­per PACs” are the wild cards in this year’s elec­tion, the product of a series of fed­er­al court rul­ings, in­clud­ing the Su­preme Court’s Cit­izens United de­cision in Janu­ary 2010. Those cases al­lowed su­per PACs to col­lect un­lim­ited sums from in­di­vidu­als and cor­por­a­tions, as long as they func­tion in­de­pend­ently of the cam­paigns and party com­mit­tees. Here’s a look at con­tri­bu­tions made so far to the ma­jor su­per PACs play­ing a role in the 2012 pres­id­en­tial cam­paign.

March 6, 2012

The top ten spend­ers on lob­by­ing state gov­ern­ment in 2011.

March 2, 2012

A Los Angeles Times ana­lys­is of Kern County re­tir­ees found that at least one in five re­ceives a big­ger an­nu­al pen­sion than the av­er­age of his or her fi­nal year’s pay, thanks to a menu of add-ons and in­cent­ives that boost a gov­ern­ment em­ploy­ee’s pay­out. Be­low is a list of all liv­ing former Kern County em­ploy­ees who re­tired between Jan. 1, 2006, and May 27, 2011. A list of each em­ploy­ee’s in­cent­ives can be found by click­ing on the “de­tail” column.

March 2, 2012

A Los Angeles Times ana­lys­is of Ven­tura County’s biggest pen­sions found that 84% ex­ceed the re­tir­ee’s fi­nal salary, thanks to a menu of add-ons and in­cent­ives that boost a gov­ern­ment em­ploy­ee’s pay­out. Be­low is a list of liv­ing former Ven­tura County em­ploy­ees who re­tired between Dec. 31, 2005, and June 20, 2011, earn­ing more than $100,000 in re­tire­ment. A list of each em­ploy­ee’s in­cent­ives can be found by click­ing on the “de­tail” column.

Feb. 23, 2012

Feb. 22, 2012

George Hernan­dez worked as a sub­sti­tute teach­er in the Los Angeles Uni­fied School Dis­trict from 2003 to 2007 and in the Ingle­wood Uni­fied School Dis­trict from 2008 to 2010.

Feb. 17, 2012

A city com­mis­sion has re­vised changes to the lines that define Los Angeles City Coun­cil dis­tricts. The first draft drew hun­dreds of people to pub­lic hear­ings and triggered protests from such var­ied com­mu­nit­ies as Sher­man Oaks, Sun­land-Tujunga, Watts, Bald­win Hills, En­cino and down­town. They also have brought heated ex­changes between coun­cil mem­bers, com­mu­nity ad­voc­ates and com­mis­sion­ers.

Feb. 16, 2012

Since 2004, the Academy of Mo­tion Pic­ture Arts and Sci­ences has pub­lished the names of the people in­vited to be­come mem­bers. Here are their names and branches.