​Call us surprised. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa must have seen all the unflattering press and realized how bad it looked that the City Council couldn't cut one penny from the city's $218 million deficit as the city amasses $338,000 a day in red ink. On Thursday afternoon he turned around and ordered those 1,000 city layoffs that the rest of the council couldn't muster.

Under the mayor's proposal 360 of those 1,000 could seek jobs elsewhere in the city. But it's not clear how much power is behind a mayoral "order." The council might still have to improve the move and, clearly, its a council that wants nothing to do with tough decisions. (The mayor states that he has authority to take "immediate action" on the budget). "We are living beyond our means and have difficult choices to make," Villaraigosa said Thursday.

​Invites for a gallery lecture featuring a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power board member and its director of water resources were apparently changed to exclude DWP logos after the agency protested, according to the Chance of Rain water conservation blog.

The lecture at G2 Gallery in Venice was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday. The speakers include DWP board member Jonathan Parfrey and director of water resources Thomas Erb. Parfey's lecture is called "An Arid Yet Verdant Land" and Erb's is called "How LADWP Sustains America's Second-Largest City."

The flag of Al-Qaeda.

​As Obama administration intelligence officials this week told the Senate intelligence committee that they were certain Al-Qaeda would again attempt to attack the United States within six months, the leader of the LAX police association urged vigilance at the airport that has been a target of terrorists.

"All law enforcement and security agencies charged with protecting high-profile targets such as LAX must remain vigilant and avoid complacency as we redouble efforts to protect people and assets from terrorist attacks," said Marshall McClain, president of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association.

​Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa topped a list of all-time worst Angelenos chosen by online voters who responded to the Talk Back to Lopez poll at the Los Angeles Times. Wow. Maybe that $120,000 trip to Europe last month during the city's worst budget crisis in generations or taking time out to appear on the soap opera All My Children as the police department struggled to pay for recruits finally caught up with him.

Certainly his arrogant and out-of-touch leadership -- finally addressing out-of-control pot shops years after their explosion and hours after the online publication of an LA Weekly cover story -- has not been lost on us, but we're surprised there's such animosity out there.

​After being directed by the Los Angeles City Council to recommend money saving measures in council offices and the mayor's operations, city administrative officer Miguel Santana this week revealed the council's slush fund figures as well as details of the mayor's own office budget.

While council office salaries amount to $21.4 million for the fiscal year that ends in June, "approximately $26.5 million in uncommitted council funds that have not had recent activity," Santana writes. Yay: Play money. The office of the mayor this year is seeing $25.7 million: $7.9 million goes to office salaries and $17.2 million is earmarked for Gang Reduction and Youth Development.

​After seeing the Los Angeles City Council drag its feet for years over regulating medical marijuana dispensaries it should be no surprise that, when faced with the worse budget crisis any of the council members have ever seen, the body actually added to City Hall's red ink and put off any hard decisions for 30 days.

Yep. After a marathon session Wednesday in which the council debated ways to slash a fiscal-year deficit that has already blossomed to $218 million -- up $10 million in just a few days -- it actually put another $4 million in spending on the books, according to the accounting of city administrative officer Miguel Santana. And keep in mind that Santana already warned the council that putting off action would add $338,000 a day to the city's red ink. That's three-three-eight, zero-zero-zero. Your money. Per day.

LAPD

Jim McDonnell.

​As is tradition at the Los Angeles Police Department, some of those unsuccessful internal candidates for chief often end up moving on to helm their own departments in other municipalities. Such was the case today as the city of Long Beach appointed Jim McDonnell as its next chief of police (and McDonnell accepted), a city spokesman said.

After serving as Chief William Bratton's right-hand man for most of the decade, McDonnell vied for the LAPD's top job last year but was denied in favor of Charlie Beck. McDonnell's most recent position at the department is deputy chief in charge of detectives. (The list of others who have left to take their own departments includes San Francisco police Chief George Gascon, who departed the LAPD to take over the department in Mesa, Ariz., before moving to San Francisco).

​In the ongoing effort to address Los Angeles' more than $200-million deficit, city administrative officer Miguel Santana on Wednesday put officer layoffs on the table.

As the City Council pondered cutting 1,500 L.A. employees, Santana gave it the options of laying off 616 recently minted officers, cutting cadets who recently began training, and canceling recent Police Academy recruit classes altogether.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl.

​The city of Los Angeles is facing its worst budget crisis in generations, one that has the City Council considering laying off 1,500 people, eliminating entire city departments and cutting police and fire budgets and personnel. Tough decisions. Bad times.

At least one councilman has his priorities straight. During council negotiations this week to try to trim $208 million from city spending, the Westside's Bill Rosendahl stood up for calligraphy, notes LAist. That's right, he made a stand for the $1 million the city spends on handing out honorary certificates that commend, for example, Matthew Broderick, Queen Latifah and George Lopez. Because what rich, famous celebrities really need is a piece of paper that says the city recognizes them.

Fox

​City Councilman Jose Huizar has called on the state legislature to clarify California's medical marijuana rules, arguing that the city's own ordinance could only go so far with out clearer guidelines on such issues as what constitutes a sale, whether over-the-counter dispensaries were legitimized by state voters, and where collectives can legally get their cannabis.

Huizar's argument, made in a guest opinion piece published in the Los Angeles Times, seems to justify the council's multi-year foot-dragging on the issue by blaming the vagueness of state law. At the same time, it provides an out for the council should its own ordinance, which aims to shut down more than 400 dispensaries, fail to provide the kind of crackdown that many residents in neighborhoods besieged by pot shops have called for.