Conservative Toronto Mayor in Crack Smoking Scandal...

[trish]

According to the fabulous internets the DWP is charging about 13 pennies per kilowatt-hour (fairly commensurate with the rest of the nation) and 12 to 13 pennies per gallon (pretty fair considering LA is in the middle of the dessert). Usually wages and pensions are are figured into the basic rates. LA may be different. Do the added taxes and surcharges go to the union, or are they channeled elsewhere (e.g. carbon reduction, buying power or water from outside the system, repair or construction of stations and dams...etc. )?

[Dino Velvet]

According to the fabulous internets the DWP is charging about 13 pennies per kilowatt-hour (fairly commensurate with the rest of the nation) and 12 to 13 pennies per gallon (pretty fair considering LA is in the middle of the dessert). Usually wages and pensions are are figured into the basic rates. LA may be different. Do the added taxes and surcharges go to the union, or are they channeled elsewhere (e.g. carbon reduction, buying power or water from outside the system, repair or construction of stations and dams...etc. )?

Our bills have consistently escalated. Garcetti ran claiming he was taking on the DWP. Now the DWP is allowed to do their own audit on non-profits. Seems confusing by design.

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov...ofits-20131108

[trish]

Careful. Don't dig too deeply...

[dderek123]

^ Classic movie

[Dino Velvet]

Careful. Don't dig too deeply...

The LA Times is not exactly Fox News and the mayor is in good standing with the Democratic Party and they side with me and the other citizens against the DWP. If you follow the money you can see who the DWP was for and against in the mayoral election.

[Ben]

[Dino Velvet]

Worse case scenario is he loses the election and becomes an even bigger celebrity. More public servants behaving badly and cashing in.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...campaign-crack

Toronto mayor Rob Ford signs up for re-election despite crack scandal

Though stripped of most authority over drug abuse, undaunted mayor is first candidate to sign ballot for 2014 campaign




Toronto mayor Rob Ford has put his name on the ballot to run for another term, defying repeated calls for him to step down after admitting he smoked crack "in a drunken stupor".
Ford was the first candidate to show up at city hall when registration opened Thursday for the city's municipal election on 27 October.
He promised "Ford more years", the Toronto Star reported. He also called himself "the best mayor this city has ever had".
"If you want to get personal, that's fine," Ford told reporters, according to the Star. "I'm sticking to my record, and talk is cheap. You're going to see action like you've never seen before."
He was more restrained on Twitter, tweeting a photo of himself signing up to run again and saying simply, "Just filed my paperwork for the 2014 election. Vote on October 27."
The conservative mayor of Canada's largest city has said he would run again, even after the revelations last year about his drug use.
Ford has faced intense pressure to resign over that and other erratic behavior that has embarrassed many Canadians.
The Toronto city council has stripped Ford of most of his powers, but he continues to receive support from some in the city's more conservative suburbs. He first won as mayor by promising to "stop the gravy train" of government spending.
Ford admitted his drug use after Toronto police announced in October they had obtained a copy of a video of him appearing to smoke from a crack pipe. News reports of the video first emerged in May, but Ford at first denied its existence.
Court documents released last month detail police wiretaps of alleged gang members who spoke about delivering drugs to the mayor and having pictures of him using drugs.
The wiretaps are evidence in the case against Ford's friend Alexander Lisi, who faces trial on drug and extortion charges. The mayor has not been charged.
In the weeks since the revelations, Ford has said he has quit drinking and adopted a healthier lifestyle.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford raises his fist in a mock salute. Photograph: Chris Young/AP

[Ben]

Worse case scenario is he loses the election and becomes an even bigger celebrity. More public servants behaving badly and cashing in.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...campaign-crack


Toronto Mayor Rob Ford raises his fist in a mock salute. Photograph: Chris Young/AP

He's very rich. His dad died in 2006 and left him his fortune.
Don't think he's motivated strictly by money. More so political power. I mean, government is a power system. So, it's power.
Well, he's [also] in office to shine the boots of his rich friends and kick everyone else in the face.
Also he gets his kicks from being a celeb....
But by all accounts he seems to enjoy being Mayor... not matter the grievous impact on the residents of Toronto (his base seems to consist of 20 percent of the populace who'll vote for him no matter what) or the city's reputation. He has embarrassed the city -- from an international standpoint.
He seems quite egocentric.
The nature of the system seems to attract these bestial specimens.

[DirtyDon]

It's been quiet on the Rob Ford front lately. Has he gone on holiday?

[dderek123]

He has been trying to lose weight apparently. I hear that smoking meth has that effect on people heh.

It's been quiet on the Rob Ford front lately. Has he gone on holiday?

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/01...n_4618239.html



Rob Ford thinks everything will work out fine — if he can just lose enough weight.

The Toronto mayor has been working out pretty hard since admitting in November to smoking crack cocaine in a "drunken stupor" and the results are beginning to show. The famously rotund politician — who has described himself in the past as "three hundred pounds of fun" — is noticeably thinner these days.

On Thursday, Toronto Sun columnist Mike Strobel joined Ford for a workout at city hall.

Strobel's column revealed Ford has lost about 40 pounds in two months and now tips the scales at about 295 pounds. Gym rats may be impressed to learn the mayor was able to leg-press 810 pounds, which led one staffer to call him a "beast."

But perhaps the most revealing quote was when the mayor addressed what's at stake in his new fitness regime.

"The only way people are going to respect me, to bring back my image, is if I lose weight," he said. "The rest falls into place."

This comment echoes earlier sentiments from members of Ford's family, who denied the mayor needed treatment for drug and alcohol abuse after the crack scandal blew up this past fall.


In an interview with CP24, the mayor's mother, Diane, conceded her son had "problems" — but not with booze or drugs.

"He has a huge weight problem and he knows that and I think that is the first thing he has to attack because that will change your whole demeanour," she told Stephen LeDrew. “Everything else will fall into place because you aren't all the things you're being accused of."

Rob's sister, Kathy, also denied he needed professional help.

"Robbie is not a drug addict," she said. "I know because I'm a former addict."

And after the Toronto Star published a video of an inebriated Ford ranting angrily, his brother Doug Ford recommended he take a "little vacation" to sort out his issues or perhaps get some counseling.

But Doug Ford also suggested the most pressing issue for his brother was dropping pounds.

"Once he's down they want to try and kill him because they know if he gets back on his feet and he starts moving forward, and he loses weight and he gets his life together, they are going to have one heck of a battle on their hands," Doug Ford told a Toronto radio show.

But alas, the mayor did not take any time off. He did not go to rehab. He was stripped of his most meaningful powers by city council.

And, lest we forget, he still refuses to meet with police investigators, at the apparent advice of his lawyer.

Yet, Ford has already filed his papers to run for re-election in October and recent polls show it is not beyond the realm of possibility that he wins.

Could a leaner, meaner Ford stun all those who said his political career was over?

Ford's commitment to improving his health is a departure from his disastrous "Cut The Waist" challenge, where he finished 50 pounds short of his weight-loss goal and twisted his ankle after falling off a scale.

And for Strobel, one workout session was enough to convince him Ford is a changed man.

"We could do worse than, say, 250 pounds of clean and sober in the mayor's chair," the writer concludes.

Torontonians head to the polls on Oct. 27.