Barricade Suspect Kills Himself In Highland Park

An early morning barricade with more than 50 responding police and SWAT officers ended when a 28-year old Highland Park resident was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound Monday, police said.

Police have identified the deceased barricade suspect as Joaquin Salgado, a custodian at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Olympic Station.

Northeast LAPD Captain David Lindsay said officers responded to a domestic violence call early Monday at the 6100 block of Strickland Avenue, after the victim of ta domestic violence incident managed to leave the residence and called police.

The events on Monday morning began around 12:30 a.m. when police responded to a call regarding a domestic violence incident at the 5400 block of Baltimore Street near North Avenue 54 in Highland Park, according to a Los Angeles Police Department statement.

When police officers arrived, a 24-year-old woman told them her estranged boyfriend and father to her two children had held her against her will for two hours at his residence on Strickland Avenue. The woman told police Salgado  lured her to his home by saying she could pick up her children, but when she arrived, the children were not there.

“Salgado would not allow the woman to leave, physically assaulted her and pointed a gun at her head, threatening to kill them both,” the statement said.

The victim was able to persuade Salgado to drive her to his parents’ home on the 6100 block of Mesa Avenue to pick up her children. Once there, he told his parents he had a gun. As his parents attempted to talk to him, the woman left in her car and returned to her home and called the police, the statement said.

Police located Salgado’s car parked at his residence at about 2:40 a.m. SWAT officers were called to the location.

Officers surrounded the location and tried repeatedly to get Salgado to come out, but he did not respond. Believing the suspect to be armed, SWAT was called in to handle the barricade, said Capt. Lindsay.

“After numerous efforts to talk to the suspect and no response, officers [entered the residence] at about 10 [minutes] after 9 a.m. and found the suspect deceased from a self inflicted gunshot wound,” Capt. Lindsay told EGP. “No one, including the neighbors heard anything,” he said.

Salgado was found inside one of the bedrooms, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound around 9:30 a.m. Monday, police said,

The man’s motives were not immediately known, said Lindsay.

A next-door neighbor told EGP that the incident was uncharacteristic of her neighbor.

“He was very calm, very good people, always working and never home,” said Erica Espinosa, 32, who was at home with her mother, brother and 11 year-old daughter at the time of the barricade.

Espinosa said she had never noticed the couple fighting and thought the man worked for LAUSD—however, police say he was a custodian at the LAPD Olympic Station.

The victim of domestic violence was treated for injuries Salgado inflicted and released, according to LAPD.

Anyone with information on the case was asked to call Det. Johnneen Jones at (213) 847-5454.

Over Five Thousand LAUSD Jobs Cut

Thousands of Los Angeles Unified School District employees lost their bids to save their jobs on Tuesday when the Board of Education voted to eliminate nearly 5,400 positions in hopes of resolving a $596 million budget deficit for the coming school year.

The board voted 4-3 to approve the 2009-10 budget plan after nearly four hours of sometimes-contentious debate that was occasionally interrupted by shouts from the audience of school teachers and other district employees who have been lobbying the board to avoid layoffs.

The final vote technically authorized 8,541 layoffs, but Superintendent Ramon Cortines and Chief Financial Officer Megan Reilly said the district would route state funding to individual schools, allowing them to “buy back” 3,167 positions, resulting in a final estimate of 5,374 layoffs.

Those positions being restored include elementary school teachers, counselors, library aides and coaches.

“I want to remind us all how we got here,” Cortines told the board and the audience. “We have had for years declining enrollment, declining revenues and we have not checked the number of employees and programs that we have been adding, and it has finally caught up with us.”

Board members were unified in their criticism of the state Legislature, blaming lawmakers for failing to adequately fund education. They laid blame at the Legislature’s feet for forcing the district to make difficult decisions that will put people out of work.

“These budget cuts are not of our choosing,” board member Yolie Flores Aguilar said. “We’re in this place because our state has been systematically tearing down public education.

“… How is it possible that in California we are willing to spend $170,000 a year per kid to lock him up, while we spend only seven to 8,000 a year to give them a good education?” she asked, drawing applause from the audience.

Aguilar voted in favor of the layoff proposal, along with board members Monica Garcia, Marlene Canter and Richard Vladovic. Board members Tamar Galatzan, Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte and Julie Korenstein dissented.

Galatzan gave an impassioned speech against the layoff package, saying the district should be making full use of all of the funds it is receiving as part of the federal economic stimulus package to preserve jobs instead of spreading the money over the next two years.

“The stimulus money is supposed to be used to protect jobs,” Galatzan said.
She said the district should not save the money for a rainy day.

“I think we should look outside and notice that there’s a storm right now,” she said.

The board discussed the proposed cuts two weeks ago, but, in the face of strident opposition from teachers, union leaders and parents, board members said they wanted more information about the possible impact on the district of the federal economic stimulus package.

That delay resulted in Cortines’ recommendation to rescind layoff notices that had been sent to 1,996 elementary school teachers — some of the positions that schools will be able to buy back with state funding. He said the decision by hundreds of district employees to take early retirement packages also enabled the district to preserve some jobs.

But while many hailed that progress, hundreds of demonstrators still marched outside the district headquarters and packed the boardroom during the meeting to protest job cuts.

Maria Elena Durazo, executive secretary-treasurer of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, told the board working families are already struggling because of the down economy, and parents can’t afford to have their children’s schools weakened.

“What they need as parents more than anything right now is stability in their schools,” Durazo said. “We support all of the hard-working men and women at LAUSD. I’m here to urge the board to make school site stability a top priority.”

Former school board member Jackie Goldberg pleaded with the board to avoid approving layoffs, saying she still regrets voting in support of job cuts 20 years ago.

“If I could do it again, I would not have done what I did,” she said. “… I sat here and cut the best music program in America. It never came back.”
“… I am asking you to think about not being a part of the dismantling of public education in this state,” she said.

But board members said they had little choice but to approve the job cuts to help balance the district’s book—even though the cuts will still leave the district $26.7 million in the red.

Garcia said she hoped that despite the board’s action, more money could be found to help the district save some of the jobs the panel voted to eliminate.
“We may disagree about how to move forward today, but know this, this budget decision allows for more solutions tomorrow, the next day, before June 1,” she said. “The door is not closed.”

The layoffs include 1,028 job cuts in the district’s central office, and 212 in local district offices.

District officials have said that given the size of the deficit and the fact that personnel costs account for up to 84 percent of the district’s overall budget, layoffs are virtually inevitable.

Officials with the various district employee unions—most notably United Teachers Los Angeles—have blasted the proposed layoffs, saying the district has enough fat to cut from the budget before firing teachers and increasing class sizes.

Montebello Recall Maintains Quiet, At Least For Now

Correction (4/20): Robert Urteaga and Kathy Salazar did not run in the 2007 recall election as originally stated in this article. They ran in the regular elections in November 2007 for two seats that opened up when Norma Lopez-Reid and Robert Bagwell’s terms were up. There were attempts to recall the two council members, but those efforts failed. Only Councilman Jeff Siccama was subject to a special recall election held in December 2007. He was recalled, and his seat was won by Mary Anne Saucedo-Rodriguez.

It is recall season again in Montebello, but you might not know it by the looks of it. There are no tell-tale flyers in the mail or petitioners at supermarket entrances. The recall proponents had permission to gather signatures starting the end of March, but two weeks out they have yet to collect a single signature.

One local businessman thinks the campaign has stalled. “I just don’t think it’s going to go anywhere. I have heard absolutely no movement whatsoever,” says Mid Valley Yellow Cab owner Victor Caballero, who issued a statement February against the recall campaign.

But recall proponents assure they are keeping their plans quiet until they’re ready to take the campaign live. “We’re going out soon. We’re kind of keeping it stealth,” says Chris Robles, spokesperson for the recall campaign.

This is in response to the harassment experienced last fall during the referendum campaign against the city’s contract with Athens Services, Robles says. But residents might not have to wait much longer. “We’re ready to go. We have our documents ready. The petitions are ready to go,” he says.

Recall proponents have until July 28 to turn in about 5,000 verifiable signatures needed to launch a recall against Mayor Pro Tem Robert Urteaga and Councilwoman Kathy Salazar.

This time proponents will be asking residents to sign petitions based on claims that Councilwoman Salazar violated fair political practice laws, is under investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney, and took money from special interests. The District Attorney’s office has confirmed there is an ongoing investigation, but no charges have been filed. The D.A. is required to look into all complaints it receives.

The FPPC told EGP on Wednesday that they are not investigating Salazar, and that they have not received any complaints involving the councilwoman.

The proponents are also targeting Robert Urteaga, who has a 1999 grand theft felony conviction that he paid for with community service. A college student at the time, Urteaga was caught forging his employer’s checks. The felony conviction did not prevent him from holding public office because it was not categorized as a political corruption crime. Recall proponents also accuse him of lying on his campaign mailers and taking money from special interests.

Urteaga says the group of people who signed the original recall intent notice were people who never supported him and now want to overturn the votes that got him into office. They represent a small percentage of people in the city, he says. “There is no community out there for a recall. Just a small group of people,” he says.

“If you look at the petition, half them are for the fire [department] going to county,” he says.

He claims this is a group of contrarians looking for any excuse to recall him and Salazar. “These are people who generally don’t support things,” he says.

He says Robles knew about his felony conviction as far back as 2007, but kept it hidden until it was convenient for him to expose it. Urteaga has said in the past that he discussed his felony conviction with city officials when he first began running for office. “It’s legal for me to serve. What happened to me, what I did when I was young… I paid the restitution, and I moved forward. If someone like Chris Robles can’t move past it why doesn’t he run for office and start a campaign?”

Councilwoman Salazar did not immediately respond to EGP’s calls, but she did submit a response to the recall allegations. In it she says there is no investigation of her by the District Attorney or Fair Political Practices Commission.

She says recall proponents are spreading lies. She writes: “A small group of supporters of past failed council members cannot get over their losses at past City elections and now want us to pay tens of thousands of taxpayer’s dollars on a special election!”

She closes by listing the positive direction Montebello is going in: new economic investments; falling crime rate; and increased services to youth, elderly and needy.

Mayor Focuses on Green Technology, Economic Goals, Schools

Speaking at an electric truck factory, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced plans on Tuesday to make Los Angeles as synonymous with “green technology” as it is with the film and aerospace industries, while outlining his strategy for closing a projected $500 million deficit in the city budget.

“This is a unique moment of opportunity,” the mayor told council members and city employees gathered at Balqon Electric Co. for his “State of the City” address.

“It’s an opportunity to stand at the forefront of the clean-tech revolution, to transform our old industrial core into ground zero for green jobs and sustainability,” he said. “And if we follow this path, we can turn a new page toward a green tomorrow — write a defining chapter in L.A.’s economic future and start a new book where environmental progress and economic growth go hand-in-hand.”

The city is looking to develop a five-mile “Clean Tech Corridor” in downtown Los Angeles, a proposal that Villaraigosa’s office says could create thousands of jobs.

Last September, the mayor announced plans to house clean-technology firms on a 20-acre site that was previously home to the Crown Coach bus manufacturing facility near the downtown area. At that time, Villaraigosa said all buildings in the hub area could meet federal environmental standards and be open by 2011.

That project is expected to be the anchor of the corridor, which will also include the Clean Innovations Research Center and the Cornfields Arroyo Seco neighborhood.

Villaraigosa has repeatedly said he wants to make Los Angeles the “cleanest and greenest” big city in America. Last fall, the city created a Web site to promote environmentally friendly policies and attract companies to the city in order to create jobs and develop clean technologies.

But the mayor’s clean-technology vision suffered a setback in March when voters defeated Measure B. A key component of Villaraigosa’s Solar LA initiative, the measure’s set goal was to meet 10 percent of the city’s energy needs with solar sources by 2020.

Measure B would have allowed the Department of Water and Power to install enough solar panels on the rooftops of city buildings to generate about 400 megawatts of electricity. The measure was narrowly defeated by voters, but DWP officials said they will meet with neighborhood councils to find a way to continue with the solar plan.

In his speech, Villaraigosa also talked about the city’s budget for fiscal year 2009-10 and his efforts to avoid layoffs.

“Next week, I will present our budget proposal to the City Council. It’s founded on two fundamental principles: protecting services and preserving the jobs people need in this recession,” Villaraigosa said.

“This year’s $530 million shortfall could grow to $1 billion in 2010 because of the market damage to our pension benefits,” he said. “This is not a reason to panic. This is a reason for urgency, a reason to come to the table with new ideas, to recognize that there is no time to waste. There is not a single moment to spare.”

“The mayor said instead of taking a “meat cleaver” to city services, he will ask city workers to increase their contribution to health and pension funds by 2 percent, forgo automatic raises and work for free one hour a week.

“The alternative is too painful to contemplate,” he said. “If we are unable to negotiate some flexibility in this emergency, we could be forced to lay off more than 2,800 city workers… Thousands of families (are) looking to us to do the right thing and it’s up to all of us to see the bigger picture, to take action to protect jobs, save pensions and preserve vital services when our families need them most.”

Echoing comments made last week, the mayor said the city is looking at privatizing some city services—likely parking concessions, the convention center and zoo—and leasing space on city buildings to advertisers. Those two moves could generate more than $1 billion in revenue over the next several years, he said.

The mayor also announced a $30 million plan to provide rental assistance and services to 4,000 of the city’s poorest families. The city will create 21 centers to help low-income residents file for tax credits, access affordable medical care and benefit from other government-sponsored programs. An estimated 50,000 people a year would benefit from the Family Source Centers. “With this strategy in place, we are sending the message that we will not leave our neighbors behind no matter what the cost,” Villaraigosa said.

For the more than 1,000 small businesses in the city, Villaraigosa announced the creation of the Office of Small, Local and Disadvantaged Business. The purpose of that office will be to use federal funds to stimulate local companies.

The Community Development Department will also loan $15 million to business owners after the start of the fiscal year, July 1.

On the education front, the mayor said the city is securing $4 million in private funds to hire a team of educators to reform the local education system.

“We are helping (LAUSD Superintendent) Ray (Cortines) recruit a team of change agents to help lead the district—change agents, not bureaucrats, innovators who will demand high expectations for students and will stop at nothing to make that happen,” Villaraigosa said.

Despite the recession, 12 percent unemployment and a projected $500 billion deficit, Villaraigosa said the city will remain focused on three core values—public safety, education and transportation.

Council members said they appreciated the mayor’s tone of shared responsibility in tough economic times.

“We want to be fiscally responsible to protect our solvency and our excellent bond rating. As we have in previous years, the council is prepared to help lead the way with cuts to our own office budgets, which include our own salaries and staff salaries,” said City Council President Eric Garcetti.

Once the mayor releases his budget for 2009-10, the Budget and Finance Committee will meet for several weeks to review proposed service cuts, fee increases and changes in employee contracts.

“We’re going to have to look at ideas we’ve never thought about,” said Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, a member of the Budget and Finance Committee. “It’s not just for one person to solve.”

Councilman Tom LaBonge said Angelenos need to pull together in making sacrifices to save city jobs and services.

“You’ve just got to believe in the city. I try to make people believe in the city, both the people who live here and the people who work for the city,” LaBonge said. “We all have to sacrifice.”

Councilwoman Janice Hahn, who represents the Port of Los Angeles, said she believes the mayor is right in saying “green collar” jobs are the future for Los Angeles.

“I like the idea that really we’ve got to take this opportunity to reinvent ourselves and reinvent ourselves in green technology. That’s what the future is,” Hahn said.

Plans for Nuisance Partiers to Pay Up in Bell Gardens

The Bell Gardens City Council introduced an ordinance Monday to allow police officers to issue citations when responding to repeat nuisance calls at the same location.

The Nuisance Party-Cost Recovery Ordinance, No. 817, an ordinance that would add Chapter 25 to Title 16 of the Bell Gardens Municipal Code, would establish a cost recovery method for police services relating to parties on private property that are determined to be a public nuisance.

Every month, Bell Gardens police respond to hundreds of calls relating to loud parties disturbing the peace of residents, as many as 2,000 a year, according to Lt. Jeff Travis

If passed, the nuisance ordinance would instruct officers responding to a ‘disturbing the peace’ call to first issue a warning. A $75 fine would be issued for each additional call to the same location within a 24-hour period.
Repeat offenders however, could be charged no more than $300 in a single month, equivalent to four $75 fines, said Travis.

City Manager Steve Simonian told EGP that police response to loud party calls are a waste of resources and cost well over $75 to respond to.

“The ordinance is not meant to garner income since it does not come close to recovering the cost of service,” Simonian said.

Instead, the ordinance will try to reduce the repetitive nature of nuisance calls, Simonian added.

Individuals playing loud music at any time of the day or night in residential areas would also be subject to fines if neighbors complain to police about the noise level.

Police do not have a specific gauge for determining if noise levels constitute a public nuance; the number of complaints about one location will be the deciding factor, said police. Simonian said the responding officer will assess the situation and use common sense and experience to determine whether a warning or citation is warranted.

A public nuisance refers to behavior violating provisions contained in either California’s Penal Code or Bell Gardens Municipal Code, “or noise that is unreasonably loud, raucous, excessive or jarring to persons within the area of audibility in a residential area which disturbs the peace or quiet of any neighborhood,” Travis told EGP.

Janet Martinez, of the Bell Gardens City Clerk’s office, said the council is scheduled to vote on the ordinance at the April 24 council meeting. If approved, the ordinance would take affect in 30 days.

Commerce Library Among Best In California

Librarian Commissioner Eva Long loves to retell the story— the year was 1960 when the City of Commerce was incorporated as a General Law city. At the time the County of Los Angeles was planning on closing down the town’s library, and replacing it with a bookmobile. When word of the proposed plan got out, Long says, residents came together and decided that incorporation was the best bet for them to keep their library.

Almost 50 years and four other libraries later, the City of Commerce Public Library was recognized as one of the best in California and nationwide by the Library Journal’s “America’s Star Libraries” February issue.

The recognition came as a surprise for Library Director Evelyn Fullmore, who says she was unaware the library had received the distinction until a co-worker who saw the “Journal” article told her.

“We had no idea because the people doing the survey asked us to send them information we had from 2006,” said Fullmore. “We always keep these records, but thought this was just for research purposes.”

Fullmore says that the community’s strong passion for learning, a supportive city council, and dedicated library staff are the factors that led to the accomplishment.

“This is a community concerned with learning,” said Fullmore. “When I first arrived I wanted to make this more than a library, I wanted to make this an institution of learning as well as a community center. The staff here has been instrumental in taking that idea and making it happen.”

Martha Phillippoff, Adult Services Supervisor, agrees the library would not be as successful were it not for the efforts of both the full and part-time staff.

“The staff here is always willing to go the extra mile,” said Phillippoff. “I think that’s one of the biggest reasons for our success … the friendliness of the staff and their dedication to try and be helpful [to visitors].”

Fullmore says the city council has always been supportive of a good idea such as approving the funds to open up branches on Saturdays and for the College Fair. She also credits the heads of the city’s departments for their willingness to collaborate.

“One of the areas the survey looked at was how many people use the public computers,” said Fullmore. “Well, it wouldn’t be possible to determine those numbers without the help of the IT Department, who oversees the use of the computers.”

The library is very active in the community and sponsors many events throughout the year such as the aforementioned college fair, family read-ins, an annual art show, and scholarship program among others.

The “Journal” rated 7,115 libraries on four indicators: library visits, circulation (checkouts of books, DVD’s, etc), program attendance and public Internet use. Libraries surveyed are grouped into categories based on annual expenditures and local population.

The City of Commerce Public Library placed in the top 16 libraries in California and top five in Southern California. The ratings are based on 2006 data reported by local libraries to state library agencies and compiled by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

For more information on the Library Journal’s index, please visit their website at www.libraryjournal.com. The City of Commerce’s Public Library Central Branch is located at 5655 Jillson St. They can be reached at (323) 722-6660 or online at http://www.ci.commerce.ca.us/library.asp.

Northeast Streets Turn a New Leaf

The streets of Highland Park received some serious attention this past weekend, although it was the kind of attention local residents could enjoy as hundreds of volunteers gathered to plant trees along the Figueroa corridor.

Led by a coalition of organizations, including Million Trees LA, Northeast Trees and Shell Oil Company, approximately 118 trees were planted on Figueroa Street between York Avenue and Avenue 52. Along with the planted trees, an additional 235 trees were donated to residents, who were asked to sign a pledge to plant and care for the trees on their private residence.

Million Trees LA (MTLA) is a citywide initiative launched in September 2006 by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. MTLA partners with community groups, businesses and local residents to plant trees throughout the city with the stated goal of transforming Los Angeles into the largest green city in the country.

Lisa W. Sarno, executive director of the Million Trees Initiative, said the trees planted along the Figueroa Street will provide the neighborhood with immediate and long-term improvements.

“We want to get more trees and benefits to the city of Los Angeles,” she said.
The trees will capture water and ultimately help raise the groundwater table that the city depends on as part of its water supply, she said. In addition, the trees serve as an air filter through their intake of carbon dioxide.

Trees were planted on both sides of the Highland Park Recreation Center. Located between Figueroa Street, Piedmont Avenue and the Metro Gold Line, the recreation center is a major public transportation corridor specifically selected as a site for the new trees. Sarno said a study of satellite images of the city is used to determine where the trees should be planted.

She said the newly planted Strawberry trees will not cause concrete sidewalks to break as they grow. The specific species planted are not fruit bearing trees.

The Crown Disposal Co. Inc donated the 235 citrus trees given to residents free of charge. Sarno valued the tree and soil given away at approximately $90-$100 each. Orange and lemon fruit bearing trees were among those distributed to residents, who also received organic enriched soil. The compost is made from residential and commercial landscape materials and food waste collected in the city.

After several hours of tree planting, the 200 plus volunteers gathered on the baseball field for lunch, live music, and entertainment. Over by the children’s playground area, Alex Soriano, 21, sat on a bench under the shade of a large tree reading a book as young children played nearby. The Cypress Park resident said he frequents the recreation center a lot when he baby-sits his three nieces.

“Parks provide kids with valuable space,” he said

Soriano said the additional trees should provide a great improvement to the park, “specially when the sun hits,” he said.

As an Aztec dance troupe danced to the pounding rhythms of its drummers, Highland Park resident Walt Lutz followed his 3-year-old daughter Scarlette around the grassy field. Lutz, who moved to the northeast neighborhood five years ago, said the proximity to landmarks and transportation makes Highland Park a great place for families. He said he has planted trees in his own yard for the past two years.

“It’s really good for shade, and it keeps the house cool,” he said.
He said he welcomed the trees that were planted along the streets that border the recreation center, as a much needed improvement. Lutz, who visits the center at least once a week with his daughter, said more improvements are still are needed.

“The fields are in bad condition,” he said, comparing them to those he has seen at parks in other parts of the city. “I do like the new playgrounds,” he said.

As the afternoon wound down, residents carried off the newest editions to their home gardens using a variety of methods. Some packaged the new trees in vehicles or pushed on a wagon cart while others simply carried their tree home. Local resident Chuck Holguin chose to take the two newest additions to his home garden home in the back seat of a car. Holguin said he hopes the two grapefruit trees will provide valuable shade in the summer. Asked if he was confident that he would be able to fulfill the pledge he signed for the trees, Holguin did not hesitate. “ I’m gonna try my best.”

Editorial: Bed Bugs Aren’t the Only Blood Suckers

Why should any of us be surprised that the United States is now in the midst of a bed bug infestation?

The little bloodsuckers are only following the trend of other bloodsuckers now preying on Americans.

From banking institutions selling unaffordable mortgages to Wall Street institutions selling worthless financial instruments packaged to attract Wall Street denizens so they could rake in billions of dollars while destroying equity and pensions and the net worth of working Americans; to state and local governments now loading more taxes and fees on wage earners to make up for budget shortfalls, can you blame the little brown bugs from joining in on the blood feasting?

After all, it does seem to have become America’s new great past time.
Yesterday was Tax Day, the April 15 deadline to pay federal and state income taxes. Countless numbers of Americans who have lost their jobs, or seen their stock portfolios, retirement and pension plans, college savings accounts and home values plummet, or who had pulled funds out of these accounts early to make ends meet, found themselves struggling to figure out how to pay the government what they now owe.

While it may be easy to say at least they had some resources to call on, doing so would ignore the fact that many of these same people are quickly falling into the ranks of the poor, working or not. And for many of them, because they did at one time have more money, eligibility for assistance programs may be a long way off.

So, as budgets worsen and blood sucking bed bugs become well established in the U.S., we can’t help but expect that a new kind of vampire will soon be spotted lurking in dark hallways all over the U.S., searching for their blood supply.

Taxation with Misrepresentation

It’s tax season. Consider what that means. It’s the time of year when you must account for yourself to the government. You must report every dime you earned last year, and if you believe any of it should be beyond the state’s grasp, you’d better have the proof. If the government withheld more of your money than (you think) the rules require, it is your burden to prove that.

You then must submit the official paperwork by a certain time. If the authorities are not satisfied with what you submit, they will demand that you prove you’ve done it right. If you can’t, you’ll have to do it their way and pay more. Should you refuse to comply with any of these requirements — and a lot more no one understands — the government has the power to make your life hell and impose additional financial burdens. It can even imprison you.

And all in a country most people would swear is free.
Why we tolerate this outrage is one of the great mysteries of life. Our revolutionary forebears had a far lower tolerance for taxes than we have. Yes, there was the matter of not having representation in Parliament, but truthfully, does having a congressman and two senators really make such a big difference? They don’t even read the bills.

What we have is taxation with misrepresentation.
A few people cling to the civics-book fairy tale that we are the government. Let’s get real. Do you really feel as though you’re paying taxes to yourself and your neighbors? If they threatened to jail you for not ponying up, you’d call the police. The system that extracts wealth from us is out of our control.

Your singlevote every two, four, and six years has little effect on the juggernaut. Over the years the tax system has evolved to the monstrosity it is through countless political transactions, each of which was guided largely by politicians seeking continuation in power by pleasing special-interest constituencies. Little consideration was given to individual rights because there was no political payoff in it.

You and I have about as much control over the machinery of legal plunder as a colonial American had. At least the colonial knew he was a subject. Today, with the Treasury, Federal Reserve, and Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation — without congressional authorization — subsidizing investors so they’ll buy the banks’ toxic assets, there is not even a democratic fig leaf. The Bush-Obama regime has given us a costly financial dictatorship that we and our children will pay for dearly.

These have been particularly rough times for the taxpayers, and they won’t be easier for the next couple of generations. Bailouts to big financial companies and bogus stimulus spending will cost trillions of dollars. Even if explicit taxes are not raised to pay that bill — and to some extent they will be — wealth will be extracted from productive individuals nonetheless. The government is borrowing a mind-numbing amount of money from the capital markets, while the Federal Reserve is setting records creating money from nothing in a process known as “monetizing the debt.” This will eventually sock the common people with a triple whammy by 1) immediately transferring scarce capital from productive entrepreneurs to parasitic politicians, 2) misallocating other resources within the private sector, making the economy vulnerable to a new recession, and 3) eroding the purchasing power of the dollar. In other words, government debt affects us like taxation does, only less visibly.

In the tax season, we can all use a laugh, and the government has provided it. Every time the politicians approve a bailout, they promise to “protect the taxpayers.” Some even say the taxpayers might profit off the toxic bank assets when the government resells them in a revived market later.

Nonsense. Even in the unlikely event the assets appreciate sufficiently, it won’t be the taxpayers who profit. It’ll be the politicians. They will be the ones with more to spend. If you think they will cut taxes to offset that revenue, you are in for a surprise. We are not the government.

If the politicians were serious about protecting the taxpayers, they’d leave us the hell alone.

Sheldon Richman is Senior Fellow at The Future of Freedom Foundation (www.fff.org) and editor of The Freeman magazine.

Will We Miss Newspapers, If They Die?

In late February, I had just finished writing my twice-monthly media column for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, when I got an email announcing that the newspaper would be closing the very next day.

My column, which I had already submitted to my editor, was about how reporters were letting state Republicans get away with empty statements about how they planned to fix Colorado’s highway mess. They were attacking the Democratic governor’s plan to fix unsafe bridges, but the Republicans had no plan of their own.  Reporters were covering the Republican attacks but not pointing out that they lacked a plan for a problem they agreed was serious.

So with the Rocky closing, my column would never run. Neither would the other stories that were planned or already written. One Rocky reporter, Laura Frank, wrote in the Rocky’s final edition about her articles that were ready to be published in the next few editions, which would never exist.

“We had stories ready to go on abused children in state custody, alleged misuse of public money, and the future of the energy boom in our state,” Frank wrote. So, the abused kids are still out there, and so is their story, but it may never be told, because the newspaper is gone. The public money is probably still being abused, and who knows?

Frank also wrote that on the last day of her job, she got a call from a citizen who wanted to contact a public official who was quoted in a previous story Frank wrote. Another citizen wrote Frank and asked that she investigate something. When journalism dies, fewer news tips get investigated. Fewer public officials are called by citizens.  Stories don’t get told. Information remains private, stuck in databanks. Corruption goes unnoticed.

But when stories are never told, never see the light of day, their absence isn’t missed as deeply. And so the closure of a newspaper is missed less than you might expect by a community.

It seems that the loss of journalism is less tangible than, for example, the loss of a factory or a restaurant.

Newspapers themselves are products, but the journalism they contain is so current, so forward-looking, that its absence seems to have less impact on a community than it should.

When you start thinking about it, maybe that’s why there’s little panic in America over the dismantling or outright disappearance of newspapers across the country, and about the hits that serious journalism is taking on TV, radio, and elsewhere. Journalism faces a crisis, yet its slow death isn’t being taken seriously enough.

It makes you wonder if there will be a tipping point, when the absence of journalism will be felt so deeply, that the depth of the loss of a newspaper like the Rocky Mountain News will be felt with the force that it deserves to be felt by the community.

Denver still has a good daily newspaper, after all, in The Denver Post. So things could be much worse.  But will people realize how much worse things are when we reach that point?

Jason Salzman is the author of” Making the News: A Guide for Nonprofits and Activists,” and board chair of Rocky Mountain Media Watch, a Denver-based media watchdog organization. Distributed by MinutemanMedia.org

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