This land: na'cho land

News of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's application for a six-foot security fence around his Windsor Square mansion took off quicker than a border coyote on the desert hustle last Friday, riling outrage from most and a "Who cares?" from few.

In the LA Weekly's comment thread, there were the obvious jokes about Villaraigosa trying to hide his "booty calls" from reporters, to more jaded expressions of disgust that a politician who once advocated for the poor and disenfranchised flipped so "limousine liberal" when handed a position of real power.

But commenter Pang441-banks was the first to point out Villaraigosa's craziest point of hypocrisy in calling for a wall between him and Los Angeles:

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Atkins Research Group Inc

Dante Atkins dutifully oils the incumbency machine

Updated after the jump: Mito Aviles, another candidate, says he noticed the same damn thing.

This makes yesterday's LA Weekly cover, on which two West Hollywood City Council incumbents hang from puppet strings, so much more perfect.

We didn't see it with our own eyes, and can't ask the man in question because he refuses to speak to us, but one West Hollywood community member claims appointed City Councilmember Lindsey Horvath was being fed her answers by campaign manager Dante Atkins at the final election forum on Wednesday night.

Here's what commenter Joey Spanollie observed:

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equallove.info

A debate erupted following our preview of a Valentine's Day love-in of sorts in which same-sex couples lined up at the East L.A. county registrar's office to get married.

Of course, they didn't. And that was the point of the Marriage Equality U.S.A. and Get Equal action: To bring attention to California's law (Prop. 8) forbidding government-sanctioned gay weddings.

But even some in favor of gay rights said this wasn't the way to make a point.

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A mock up of AEG's 'Farmers Field.'

Anchutz Entertainment Group developed Staples Center and LA Live and now wants a crown achievement next door -- a roughly $1.5 billion NFL stadium that already has a name, Farmers Field.

Many folks, including Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, billionaire Eli Broad and former Mayor Jim Hahn, seem almost giddy at the prospect.

But it would require your land -- part of the L.A. Convention Center -- and about $350 million in public bonds that AEG has vowed to guarantee with its own cash.

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Come on, Dodger fans.

Update: "SF Giants Fans Behind 'Beat L.A.' Banner Say They've Paid a Plane Company to Fly Giant Diss Over Dodger Stadium."

We're not sure what's sadder, the fact that San Francisco Giants fans are planning to fly a "BEAT LA" banner over enemy territory -- Dodger Stadium -- for the season-opening series against the Bay Area team or that virtually no L.A. fans really care to comment.

In fact, most of the comments on our report this week came from in-your-face Giants fans. Come on, L.A.

A Bay Area crew is aiming to raise $8,000 to fly the banner above the stadium during the three-game series March 31, April 2 and April 3.

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Cut the feds cut off the internet?

In light of the Egyptian government cutting off internet access for its up-in-arms citizens, we recently pondered if such a move would ever be possible stateside (say, if Sarah Palin were elected president and she didn't like the comments about her daughter in the DWTS online forums).

The conclusion: Not very likely.

Tech-sperts say the web coming in and out of the United States is too complex to turn on and off like a light switch. There are too many cables, internet service providers and border "routers." Still, there are conspiracy theorists out there ...

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SoniaT 360

This fur is faux.

In ultra-liberal West Hollywood, which already operates as a "Cruelty Free Zone for Animals," one City Council candidate is going for left-wing gold with a proposal to ban fur at retailers.

As the Weekly's Patrick Range McDonald reports, John D'Amico wants the Westside city to be free from the ravages of silky smooth clothing made from otherwise cozy critters.

D'Amico states on his site:

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Are cartels the buds of L.A. pot shops?

The city of L.A. on Friday tried to shore up it's pot-shop regulations. The new language would only allow 100 dispensaries to survive. That's a fraction of the more than 450 that operated at the peak of the city's marijuana dispensary business in spring, 2010.

The move will allay some who said the stores were more numerous than Starbucks and attracted crime, robberies, shootings and unsavory characters.

Some dispensary boosters say the regulations are too strict and will restrict California pot patients' ability to get their medicine.

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This K.F.C. won't make the cut under city law.

L.A.'s original pot shops got bad news Friday: Only 100 of 135 would be allowed to stick around, and those 100 would be chosen by lottery. Sort of like being told it's Christmas, but you have a 1/4 chance of not getting a present.

And, yeah, this means all those other pot shops -- more than 400 at one point -- will finally be officially and absolutamentally (we think) outlawed. Although we've heard this before.

The City Council's years-long attempts to regulate L.A.'s cannabis retailers has been so botched that even after it finally enacted its rules last June outlaw shops defied authorities and stayed open and the city actually backed off enforcement at one point.

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Matthieu Aubry

Ravers and lasers go together like chocolate and peanut butter.

In response to our piece out how LAX reports the most incidents nationwide of lasers being illegally pointed at planes -- and how L.A. is coincidentally or not the laser-loving capital of ravers in America -- we received a lot criticism.

How could we?

It's true: There's no proof of possible cause (raver) and effect (laser in a pilot's eye), but we simply pointed out one obvious correlation here. Ravers love lasers. L.A. has lots of ravers.

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The Gensler firm's vision for NFL downtown.

After we reflected Wednesday on Staples Center chief Tim Leiweke's pitch to an L.A. City Council committee for an NFL stadium downtown, he got at least one show of support from a Weekly reader.

The $1.3-billion-plus stadium would take over a part of the city-owned convention center downtown and require $350 million in public bonds that Leiweke said his company, Anschutz Entertainment Group, would guarantee.

Leiweke certainly has his doubters. But one commenter was a true believer.

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Gardena High School.

It was a shooting that awoke the local news media out of its post-holiday slumber: Shots were fired at Gardena High School Tuesday morning, and initial reports had three students down with a black-clad gunman on the loose. Then it turned out it was accidental, with two victims injured:

School officials said a 17-year-old brought a gun in a backpack, accidentally dropped the backpack in class, and it went off, with one round going through the neck of 15-year-old boy and striking a 15-year-old girl. Both were hospitalized, with the girl critical and the boy serious.

So now the blame game begins.

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The Grove at night.

Sorry, girls. It looks like that Justin Bieber shop that was proposed for the Grove shopping center in the Fairfax district is a FAIL for now, according to reports.

A Bieber spokeswoman told the Los Angeles Times "everything had fallen through. It's not happening."

This after we had the nerve to trumpet it as the next coming of Hey-soos if you're between the ages of 8 and 12. Oh well. Good news, perhaps, for Grove shoppers through ...

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Essence

Reggie Doucet Jr.

Debate is raging about the LAPD's fatal shooting of onetime college football player and sometime model Reggie Doucet Jr. in Playa del Rey last week.

Commenters at Simone Wilson's LA Weekly story are arguing about whether his race had anything to do with the cops' action, and whether he would have met his demise as he allegedly ran around naked shortly after 3 a.m. following a dispute with a cab driver if he was white.

Perhaps it's a fitting discussion, this being Martin Luther King Jr. Day and all. Still, as Wilson reports ...

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CBS

Maybe we should just call him 'The Voice.'

Even with his vow to enter rehab, the story of Ted Williams, a homeless man discovered on the streets of Columbus, Ohio, is a real American fairytale.

Only days ago he was panhandling at the side of a highway. And now he's touring L.A., getting detained by the LAPD (a rite of passage), talking to Dr. Phil and entertaining offers from Kraft foods and the NBA to do his dream job -- voice-over work.

The Columbus Dispatch found out (Steve Lopez-style) that Williams has an extraordinary, golden voice to go with those dreams. Except that he already had a foot in the door in broadcasting, as we reported this week. Did Williams skip a step?

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What up dog.

We reported this week that new research indicates cell phone-using drivers might actually be safer drivers.

What gives?

The study, based on California data from 2005, notes that as mobile calls went up after 9 p.m., reports of crashes went way down. Of course, as we noted, people don't drive as much after 9 p.m. too.

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Glock: American as apple pie (except it's Austrian).

On Tuesday in SoCal Sen. Barbara Boxer finally came out and said what a lot of liberal politicians were probably biting their tongues about: Let's take another look at national gun control laws in the wake of Saturday's Tucson massacre that killed 6 and injured 14, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

Suspect Jared Loughner apparently got his Glock and extended magazine, which allegedly allowed him to keep pulling the trigger in a crowd that had gathered to see Giffords, legally, free-and-clear, in the weeks preceding the attack.

Boxer wants to see some changes on a national level. But is that the answer?

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thekress.net

The rooftop at Kress.

Every wonder what it's like to be scrambling amid the chaos of a shooting?

An LA Weekly reader was there when shots rang out at the otherwise upscale club Kress on Hollywood Boulevard Saturday night. A security guard who tried to break up a fight on a dance floor was reportedly shot in the abdomen.

Shortly before midnight, as the gunfire popped off, club-goers scattered.

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The year of the pothole: 2011

Are these the worst potholes in Los Angeles in modern times? We had the second wettest December on record (leading to some pretty deep craters), the city budget is on thin ice (leading some to wonder who will fill the holes), and friends are starting to post photos of their popped tires on Facebook.

Of course, for nearly every pothole, even in a city that perennial medal winner in the worst roads in America contest, there's a politician who says he'll fix 'em right.

This year we present two: City Council President Eric Garcetti and Councilman Jose Huizar, who took to the podium last week to announce that they're fighting to get more cash for the Street Services department so it can send workers curbside.

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No longer the "it" pup in L.A.

Does anyone else find it ironic that in this self-absorbed bastion of PETA-loving celebutards yesterday's top dog for Hollywood types -- the Chihuahua -- has been kicked to the curb like trash?

Really, L.A?

We reported this week how the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is sending homeless Chihuahua pups to Houston and Edmonton, Alberta, where they're more likely to be adopted. Funny, we haven't heard of any big-time animal rights activists/A-listers who have homes in Edmonton.

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