ReportWire

Tag: Agent

  • San Bernardino man arrested after he protested immigration officer shooting at his truck

    [ad_1]

    Francisco Longoria, a San Bernardino man who was driving his truck when a masked U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer shot at it, has been arrested and charged by federal authorities. They allege he assaulted immigration officers during the incident.

    In a statement, Longoria’s attorneys said Homeland Security Investigations agents arrived at the Longoria household at 4:18 a.m. Thursday, with an armored personnel carrier, a type of military vehicle, and deployed more than a dozen “fully armed and armored” agents to swarm the home, breaking the locks on his gate. An agent called out to Longoria to come out, using a bullhorn, as agents stood at each door and pointed their rifles at the door and at the occupants inside, the attorneys said.

    “These are the type of tactics reserved for dangerous criminals such as violent gang members, drug lords, and terrorists,” the attorneys said. “It was clearly intended to intimidate and punish Mr. Longoria and his family for daring to speak out about their attempted murder by ICE and CBP agents on August 16th.”

    On that day, federal immigration officers stopped Longoria in San Bernardino. During the encounter, Longoria, who was in his truck with his 18-year-old son and 23-year-old son-in-law, feared for his safety and drove off after masked officers shattered his car window, his attorneys said.

    Department of Homeland Security officials have said officers were injured during the encounter when Longoria tried to “run them down.” Longoria’s attorneys dispute their client injured the officers or attempted to hit them, and earlier this week they called for an investigation of the shooting.

    On Friday morning, the U.S. attorney’s office confirmed that Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested Longoria the day before. Word of his arrest was earlier reported by the San Bernardino Sun.

    Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, said Longoria made an initial appearance before a U.S. District Court judge in Riverside, and is set to be arraigned on Sept. 30. The federal magistrate judge ordered him released on a $5,000 bond.

    Longoria was being held at the San Bernardino County jail, in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service, as of Thursday afternoon, McEvoy said in an email.

    “Since Longoria is an illegal alien, ICE has a detainer on him,” he said. Longoria’s attorneys said their client was transferred into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody as of Friday.

    An unnamed Department of Homeland Security spokesperson confirmed federal agents arrested Longoria at his home.

    “CBP and ICE remain committed to enforcing the law, protecting officers, and keeping dangerous criminals off America’s streets — even as local officials in California undermine those efforts,” the official said.

    According to a criminal complaint submitted by a Homeland Security Investigations agent, whose name is redacted, Longoria is facing a charge of assault on a federal officer with a deadly/dangerous weapon.

    In the complaint, the agent, who interviewed the officers who stopped Longoria, said the officers had stopped Longoria’s GMC pickup truck to conduct “an immigration check.” Two of them were ICE officers and the other two were CBP officers.

    The complaint states that the officers were identifiable by their visible clothing marked with “police.”

    After they stopped Longoria’s truck, the complaint states, he refused to comply with the demands to turn off his vehicle and roll down the window. One of the CBP officers, identified as J.C., decided to break the window after Longoria refused the commands, and was allegedly struck by the driver’s door on his left elbow and left calf. The passenger side window was also shattered by agents during the encounter.

    Another CBP officer was allegedly struck by the front bumper/fender of the truck on his right leg. “The Truck kept pushing Officer S.T., and Officer S.T. shot at the Truck, afraid for his life,” according to the complaint.

    Longoria’s attorneys had previously released surveillance video of the incident, which appears to dispute a key claim by Homeland Security — that Longoria drove his truck toward officers and injured them.

    In the surveillance video, the moment Longoria drives away, officers on both sides of the truck remain in sight of the video, and they then pile into their vehicles and pursue Longoria’s truck down a side street.

    After Longoria drove off, the family called 911. While San Bernardino police were questioning Longoria, the immigration officers arrived, and family members identified the one they believed had shot at the truck.

    At the initial court appearance, the judge questioned the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case, Cory Burleson, about the government’s claim that it was conducting an “immigration check,” a term he couldn’t clarify when asked by the court, according to Longoria’s attorneys. Burleson also claimed Longoria was stopped due to a traffic violation, but couldn’t identify the violation, his attorneys said. When the judge asked Burleson to identify the alleged injuries of the officers, Burleson said he was “not aware of any injuries,” Longoria’s attorneys said.

    Longoria’s attorneys said their client was granted bond, but because of the ICE hold, has since been transferred into ICE custody, which they believe is the “true purpose of this false and baseless charge.”

    “No reasonable prosecutor could believe that a conviction would be secured against Mr. Longoria for the August 16th stop, when every video supports Mr. Longoria’s version of events and directly contradicts DHS’ story,” his attorneys said. “Yet [the Department of Justice] will not drop the charges; it has been their practice during this Administration to pursue charges based on unsubstantiated and false affidavits in order to arrest individuals and then turn them over to ICE.”

    His attorneys said they intend to continue advocating for Longoria, his son and son-in-law.

    “We are in contact with local and State authorities and are encouraging a state investigation and criminal charges against the ICE/CBP agents,” the attorneys said.

    This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic divide.

    [ad_2]

    Melissa Gomez

    Source link

  • L.A. congressional Democrats demand answers on Border Patrol force outside Newsom event

    [ad_1]

    Two weeks ago, scores of masked, gun-toting federal immigration agents assembled in front of the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles.

    Inside the museum, Gov. Gavin Newsom was surrounded by nearly every powerful Democrat in California, preparing to announce that he would take on President Trump’s redistricting plans with a special election campaign. Outside, Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino was flanked by dozens of agents who looked ready for battle.

    Now, a number of Southern California members of Congress are demanding answers about the enforcement action outside Newsom’s news conference — and the decision-making process behind it — in a letter sent Tuesday to Department of Homeland Security leaders.

    “We just wanted to get some questions answered,” said Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), who spearheaded the letter. “I was at Newsom’s press conference. It was really shocking to have as many as a hundred federal officers in tactical gear just appear.”

    The letter was sent to Bovino, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons and White House border advisor Tom Homan. It was signed by at least 12 other congressional Democrats, including Sen. Alex Padilla and Reps. Judy Chu (Monterey Park), Gil Cisneros (Covina), Robert Garcia (Long Beach), Luz Rivas (North Hollywood), Ted Lieu (Torrance), Nanette Diaz Barragán (San Pedro) and Brad Sherman (Sherman Oaks).

    The letter requests that answers to a number of questions be provided in writing by Sept. 4.

    The group asked who originally made the request to deploy agents outside the Japanese American National Museum on Aug. 14; whether the subject matter of Newsom’s news conference was a consideration in the decision to deploy federal agents; and whether the size of the force was standard; and what operational criteria were used to determine the size and composition of the force deployed.

    As the agents massed outside the building, Newsom was announcing a plan to counter a Republican-led redistricting push by redrawing California’s own congressional districts to favor Democrats. Last week, the California Legislature approved a November special election where voters will decide the fate of the measure.

    The letter also asks for details about the two arrests made during the Little Tokyo operation and whether Homeland Security knew those individuals would be present when it decided to conduct its immigration enforcement action. One of the individuals arrested happened to be delivering strawberries as the agents convened at the museum. He now faces deportation to Mexico.

    “It was outrageous that Trump and his supporters called ICE on us as we were conducting our redistricting press conference,” Chu said. “It was clearly an attempt to intimidate us and to send a political message that he would use his law enforcement capabilities to make us feel afraid.”

    [ad_2]

    Julia Wick

    Source link

  • The Supreme Court could give immigration agents broad power to stop and question Latinos

    [ad_1]

    WASHINGTON — This year’s most far-reaching immigration case is likely to decide if immigration agents in Los Angeles are free to stop, question and arrest Latinos they suspect are here illegally.

    President Trump promised the “largest mass deportation operation” in American history, and he chose to begin aggressive street sweeps in Los Angeles in early June.

    The Greater Los Angeles area is “ground zero for the effects of the border crisis,” his lawyers told the Supreme Court this month. “Nearly 2 million illegal aliens — out of an area population of 20 million — are there unlawfully, encouraged by sanctuary-city policies and local officials’ avowed aim to thwart federal enforcement efforts.”

    The “vast majority of illegal aliens in the [Central] District [of California] come from Mexico or Central America and many only speak Spanish,” they added.

    Their fast-track appeal urged the justices to confirm that immigration agents have “reasonable suspicion” to stop and question Latinos who work in businesses or occupations that draw many undocumented workers.

    No one questions that U.S. immigration agents may arrest migrants with criminal records or a final order of removal. But Trump administration lawyers say agents also have the authority to stop and question — and sometimes handcuff and arrest — otherwise law-abiding Latinos who have lived and worked here for years.

    They could do so based not on evidence that the particular person lacks legal status but on the assumption that they look and work like others who are here illegally.

    “Reasonable suspicion is a low bar — well below probable cause,” administration lawyers said. “Apparent ethnicity can be a factor supporting reasonable suspicion,” they added, noting that this standard assumes “lawful stops of innocent people may occur.”

    If the court rules for Trump, it “could be enormously consequential” in Los Angeles and nationwide, said UCLA law professor Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law & Policy. “The government would read this as giving immigration enforcement agents a license to interrogate and detain people without individualized suspicion. It would likely set a pattern that could be used in other parts of the country.”

    In their response to the appeal, immigrant rights advocates said the court should not “bless a regime that could ensnare in an immigration dragnet the millions of people … who are U.S. citizens or otherwise legally entitled to be in this country and are Latino, speak Spanish” and work in construction, food services or agriculture and can be seen at bus stops, car washes or retail parking lots.

    The case now before the high court began June 18 when Pedro Vasquez Perdomo and two other Pasadena residents were arrested at a bus stop where they were waiting to be picked up for a job. They said heavily armed men wearing masks grabbed them, handcuffed them and put them in a car and drove to a detention center.

    If “felt like a kidnapping,” Vasquez Perdomo said.

    The plaintiffs include people who were handcuffed, arrested and taken to holding facilities even though they were U.S. citizens.

    They joined a lawsuit with unions and immigrants rights groups as well as others who said they were confronted with masked agents who shouted commands and, in some instances, pushed them to the ground.

    However, the suit quickly focused not on the aggressive and sometimes violent manner of the detentions, but on the legality of the stops.

    U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong said the detentions appeared to violate the 4th Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.

    It is “illegal to conduct roving patrols which identify people based on race alone, aggressively question them, and then detain them without a warrant, without their consent, and without reasonable suspicion that they are without status,” she said on July 11.

    The crucial phrase is “reasonable suspicion.”

    For decades, the Supreme Court has said police officers and federal agents may stop and briefly question persons if they see something that gives them reason to suspect a violation of the law. This is why, for example, an officer may pull over a motorist whose car has swerved on the highway.

    But it was not clear that U.S. immigration agents can claim they have reasonable suspicion to stop and question persons based on their appearance if they are sitting at a bus stop in Pasadena, working at a car wash or standing with others outside a Home Depot.

    Frimpong did not forbid agents from stopping and questioning persons who may be here illegally, but she put limits on their authority.

    She said agents may not stop persons based “solely” on four factors: their race or apparent ethnicity, the fact they speak Spanish, the type of work they do, or their location such as a day labor pickup site or a car wash.

    On Aug. 1, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift the judge’s temporary restraining order. The four factors “describe only a broad profile that does not supply the reasonable suspicion to justify a detentive stop,” the judges said by a 3-0 vote.

    The district judge’s order applies in the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties as well as Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

    The 9th Circuit said those seven counties have an estimated population of 19,233,598, of whom 47% or 9,096,334 identify as “Hispanic or Latino.”

    Like Frimpong, the three appellate judges were Democratic appointees.

    A week later, Trump administration lawyers sent an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court in Noem vs. Perdomo. They said the judge’s order was impeding the president’s effort to enforce the immigration laws.

    They urged the court to set aside the judge’s order and to clear the way for agents to make stops if they suspect the person may be in the country illegally.

    Agents do not need evidence of a legal violation, they said. Moreover, the demographics of Los Angeles alone supplies them with reasonable suspicion.

    “All of this reflects common sense: the reasonable-suspicion threshold is low, and the number of people who are illegally present and subject to detention and removal under the immigration laws in the (the seven-county area of Southern California) is extraordinarily high,” wrote Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer. “The high prevalence of illegal aliens should enable agents to stop a relatively broad range of individuals.”

    He said the government is not “extolling racial profiling,” but “apparent ethnicity can be relevant to reasonable suspicion, especially in immigration enforcement.”

    In the past, the court has said police can make stops based on the “totality of the circumstances” or the full picture. That should help the administration because agents can point to the large number of undocumented workers at certain businesses.

    But past decisions have also said officers need some reason to suspect a specific individual may be violating the law.

    The Supreme Court could act at any time, but it may also be several weeks before an order is issued. The decision may come with little or no explanation.

    In recent weeks, the court’s conservatives have regularly sided with Trump and against federal district judges who have stood in his way. The terse decisions have been often followed by an angry and lengthy dissent from the three liberals.

    Immigration rights advocates said the court should not uphold “an extraordinarily expansive dragnet, placing millions of law-abiding people at imminent risk of detention by federal agents.”

    They said the daily patrols “have cast a pall over the district, where millions meet the government’s broad demographic profile and therefore reasonably fear that they may be caught up in the government’s dragnet, and perhaps spirited away from their families on a long-term basis, any time they venture outside their own homes.”

    [ad_2]

    David G. Savage

    Source link

  • Most California voters disapprove of Trump’s immigration enforcement policies, poll shows

    [ad_1]

    Most California voters strongly disapprove of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement policies and believe that raids in the state have unfairly targeted Latinos, according to a new poll.

    The findings, released Sunday, reflected striking emotional reactions to immigration enforcement. When voters were asked to describe their feelings about news reports or videos of immigration raids, 64% chose rage or sadness “because what is happening is unfair.”

    Among Democrats, 91% felt enraged or sad. Conversely, 65% of Republicans felt hopeful, “like justice is finally being served.”

    Such divisions were consistent across 11 questions about the administration’s overall immigration strategy and specific aspects of the way enforcement is playing out in the state, with divisions along partisan lines. The UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll was conducted for the Los Angeles Times.

    Democrats almost unanimously oppose President Trump’s tactics on immigration, the poll showed. Most Republicans support the president, though they are not as united as Democrats in their approval.

    “It was essential to show the strength of feelings because Democrats are strongly on the negative side of each of these policies,” said Mark DiCamillo, director of the Berkeley IGS Poll. “That struck me. I don’t usually see that kind of extreme fervor on a poll response.”

    • Share via

    The poll found that 69% of respondents disapprove of the way immigration enforcement is being carried out in the state.

    Among Democrats, 95% disapprove, as well as 72% of voters with no party preference or others not affiliated with the two major parties, whereas 79% of Republicans approve.

    The poll was completed online in English and Spanish from Aug. 11-17 by 4,950 registered voters in California.

    A question that showed the least unified support among Republican voters asked respondents whether they agree or disagree that federal agents should be required to show clear identification when carrying out their work. The question comes as immigration agents have carried out raids using face coverings, unmarked cars and while wearing casual clothing.

    Some 50% of Republicans agreed that agents should have to identify themselves, while 92% of Democrats agreed.

    G. Cristina Mora, IGS co-director and a sociology professor at UC Berkeley who studies race and immigration, helped develop the poll questions. She said the poll shows that Republican voters are much more nuanced than Democrats. They also split on questions about due process, birthright citizenship and immigration enforcement in sensitive locations.

    “Republicans are much more fractured in their thinking about immigration across the state,” Mora said.

    Mora said she developed the question about agent identification in response to the recent bill led by Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) that would require immigration officers to display their agency and name or badge number during public-facing enforcement actions, similar to police and other local law enforcement.

    Padilla also spearheaded a letter last month to Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons seeking information about the agency’s policies regarding the identification of agents while on duty. ICE has justified the tactics by stating that agents are at risk of doxxing and have faced increased assault on the job.

    “The public has a right to know which officials are exercising police power, and anonymous enforcement undermines both constitutional norms and democratic oversight,” Padilla and 13 other Democrats wrote in the letter.

    Another poll question that garnered mixed support of Republicans asked respondents to agree or disagree with the statement, “ICE agents should expand immigration enforcement into schools, hospitals, parks and other public locations.”

    Among Republicans, 53% agreed with that statement, though fewer than 1 in 3 agree strongly. Meanwhile, 94% of Democrats disagreed.

    Shortly after Trump took office, his administration rescinded a 2011 memo that restricted immigration agents from making arrests in sensitive locations, such as churches, schools and hospitals. Since then, agents have been filmed entering locations that were previously considered off limits, putting immigrant communities on edge.

    Schools in Los Angeles reopened this month with “safe zones” in heavily Latino neighborhoods and changed bus routes with less exposure to immigration agents. An 18-year-old high school senior, Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz, was walking his family’s dog in Van Nuys when he was taken into federal immigration custody.

    Mora said the varied responses illustrate how California Republicans view the Trump administration’s immigration tactics with “degrees of acceptability.” They might feel strongly that immigrants with violent criminal histories should be deported, she said, but the takeover of MacArthur Park, when a convoy of immigration agents in armored vehicles descended there in a show of force, or the enforcement actions outside of public schools “might have been a step too far.”

    Mike Madrid, a GOP political consultant who wrote a book about how Latinos have transformed democracy, said the split among Republicans is consistent with national polling. The trend is problematic for Trump, he said, because it means he is losing big swaths of his base.

    “This is becoming viewed as overreach more than it is immigration control,” he said. “The idea sets a frame for it, but the actual implementation is widely unpopular.”

    Republicans were largely united in response to other questions. Asked about the Trump administration’s proposal to do away with birthright citizenship — which confers citizenship to all children born in the U.S. regardless of their parent’s legal status — 67% of GOP respondents approved, and most of them strongly approved. By contrast, 92% of Democrats disapproved, and as did seven in 10 respondents overall.

    Mora said she was surprised by the fact that Latinos didn’t stand out as substantially more opposed to Trump’s actions than voters of other racial and ethnic groups. For example, 69% of Latino voters said ICE raids have unfairly targeted Latinos, just five percentage points higher than the 64% of white non-Latino voters who agreed.

    “You would imagine Latinos would be through the roof here, but they’re not,” Mora said. She said this reminded her of research around the tendency for Latinos to individualize their experiences instead of seeing them as racially unjust.

    Broadly, 72% of Latinos disagree with the way the Trump administration is enforcing immigration laws in California, while 25% approve and 3% have no strong opinion.

    Among Latino voter subgroups, older men and third-generation (or beyond) women are the more likely to support the way immigration enforcement is being handled in California, with 38% of Latino men over age 40 in agreement compared to 11% of Latinas ages 18-39, although among both groups majorities disapprove.

    Madrid said that’s consistent with national polling showing a decrease in support for Republicans among Latinos after record gains in the last presidential election. The question, he said, is whether Trump’s approval ratings among Latinos could regress substantially enough to flip control of Congress in the midterms.

    “We’re not there yet,” he said.

    [ad_2]

    Andrea Castillo

    Source link

  • A Hollywood titan and a Bin Laden once lived in this Bel-Air mansion now scarred by graffiti

    A Hollywood titan and a Bin Laden once lived in this Bel-Air mansion now scarred by graffiti

    [ad_1]

    A famed architect to the stars designed it. A renowned Hollywood producer occupied it. A relative of a reviled international terrorist abandoned it. And now a Mediterranean villa on a hillside in genteel Bel-Air has become the latest target of mysterious graffiti vandals.

    Sometime late last week, spray-paint-wielding intruders turned the pink walls of this seven-bedroom mansion into a helter-skelter canvas of pop art, obscure quotations and political insinuations — the third hillside home in Los Angeles to be defaced in recent days.

    Police detained one man at the two-acre property on Stone Canyon Road late Friday, but the real estate agent who oversees the property said a security guard believed the uninvited visitor was only taking pictures of the home. She declined to press charges.

    Police and the private security firm that patrols the verdant neighborhood near the Hotel Bel-Air said they had no further clues about who vandalized the house, with missives and sketches filling most of the walls both inside and outside the once luxurious residence.

    Graffiti covers interior walls of the home, and on the floors are empty cans of spray paint and beer.

    (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

    On Sunday morning, emptied paint cans and beer bottles littered many of the rooms and a front patio. Windows above the front door had been shattered. Others had been rendered opaque with black and red paint. An elegant stone archway had been emblazoned with “Hopes” in black paint.

    “They really completely destroyed everything. There is broken glass everywhere. It’s been defamed, vandalized,” said the agent who is selling the property and spoke on condition that she would not be named. “It’s so horrible. Horrible.”

    Two large homes in the Hollywood Hills got a similar treatment recently. The property crimes follow the much-publicized defacing of downtown high-rises with graffiti.

    A guard who has patrolled the neighborhood for years said he had chased others off the property, most recently three young men who were also shooting video Saturday night.

    “They asked me, ‘Can we stay and take pictures?’ “ recalled the guard. “I said to them, ‘Can I just come into your house without an invitation and then stay?’“

    The guard, who also requested anonymity, wondered whether the intruders wanted photos “as part of some kind of competition or something.” He said that, several months ago, squatters backed a moving truck up to the home, apparently ready to take up residence. He told them they had five minutes to get lost. They did.

    The Bel-Air mansion sits at the end of a long driveway, shielded from the street by tall stands of trees and bamboo. Three Bel-Air neighbors said they had not heard about the vandalism until a reporter told them about it Sunday.

    Graffiti covers the inside of a mansion.

    Police and private security said they had no clues about who was responsible for the vandalism.

    (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

    The vandalism marks a low point for a home born in Hollywood splendor.

    Architect John Elgin Woolf designed the villa, one of many he helped create for luminaries including Bob Hope, Cary Grant, Judy Garland and Errol Flynn.

    Producer Arthur Freed lived there for years. He made classics including “Brigadoon,” “Showboat,” “An American in Paris,” “Gigi” and “Singin’ in the Rain.” He also co-wrote the song “Singin’ in the Rain” with Nacio Herb Brown.

    Freed also served as an associate producer (uncredited) on “The Wizard of Oz” and, by one account, was among those who fought to keep the song “Over the Rainbow” in the film after some of the filmmakers wanted to cut it.

    Freed served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He died in 1973 in Los Angeles.

    Ibrahim bin Laden, a member of the wealthy Saudi construction dynasty, bought the Bel-Air home in the 1980s. He is the half-brother of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the Sept. 11 attacks.

    The Bin Laden brother and his family used the Bel-Air property as a vacation home, but they have not lived there for more than 25 years, the real estate agent said. For a time, a manager lived in a guest house and tended to the property, but he fell ill and moved out several years ago.

    The family considered leasing the home and hired a contractor to improve the bathrooms and kitchen. But work crews only tore out walls and never completed the work, the agent said.

    A graffiti vandalized front entrance to a mansion.

    Architect John Elgin Woolf designed the villa that sits behind tall trees on the two-acre property on Stone Canyon Road.

    (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

    The house has been listed for sale since 2021, with the asking price as high as $28 million. It’s currently listed for $21.5 million. One buyer who had placed an offer is deciding what to do, after being apprised of the graffiti damage, the agent said.

    Among the messages scrawled on the interior walls are an expletive and “Osama!” Nearby, another message reads: “G.W. Bush Helped You.”

    The agent said she sent a video of the damage to her clients, who maintain several other homes around the world. “They are very, very upset,” she said. “I mean, it is really devastating.” She also pleaded for the public to understand that the owners had nothing to do with the faults of their famous relative.

    At one massive home nearby, a man who answered via intercom said he had not heard anything about the vandalism. At another gated mansion, a housekeeper came on the speaker phone and said she did not want to talk.

    One prominent Bel-Air resident had no doubt whom he blamed for the crime — the city’s political leaders.

    “L.A.’s woke. It’s also broke,” said Fred Rosen, the onetime chief executive of Ticketmaster, the computer ticketing giant. “The city’s broken. There’s crime, people leaving and politicians lying more than usual.”

    Rosen, who lives not far from the graffitied mansion, blamed L.A. County Dist. Atty. George Gascón, in particular, for what he said was a lack of accountability for wrongdoing.

    “We’ve had a basic breakdown of consequences for bad behavior,” Rosen said. “I don’t know anybody — from the Valley, to the Westside, to Compton — who’s not afraid, or isn’t concerned.”

    [ad_2]

    James Rainey

    Source link

  • The nose knows: Border Patrol dog sniffs out 81 pounds of cocaine in Southern California bust

    The nose knows: Border Patrol dog sniffs out 81 pounds of cocaine in Southern California bust

    [ad_1]

    The driver of a sport utility vehicle authorities say was carrying more than 80 pounds of cocaine may have gotten away with it if it weren’t for that meddling dog.

    Around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, the SUV was traveling on the 15 Freeway through Temecula when it was stopped by agents with the San Diego sector of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

    During a subsequent sniff test of the vehicle, a dog alerted agents of the possible presence of drugs. Authorities said a follow-up search uncovered a series of cellophane-wrapped packages stashed inside a false dashboard.

    Agents arrested the driver and an accompanying passenger, and impounded the SUV for further inspection.

    In all, authorities said they found 31 bundles in the false dashboard, containing a total of 81 pounds of cocaine.

    San Diego sector Border Patrol agents have seized 2,437 pounds of cocaine since the beginning of the fiscal year, according to the department.

    The sector has also seized 3,627 pounds of methamphetamine, 31 pounds of heroin and 475 pounds of fentanyl. That includes 3.65 combined pounds of fentanyl and heroin found from Aug. 11 to Aug. 17.

    “I am proud to say that men and women of the United States Border Patrol are out there day and night protecting our communities,” Chief Patrol Agent Patricia McGurk-Daniel said in a statement. “With each successful narcotic interdiction, I know for a fact that we’ve saved someone’s life.”

    [ad_2]

    Andrew J. Campa

    Source link

  • Ranking the Netflix Real Estate Shows by Juiciness of Agent Drama

    Ranking the Netflix Real Estate Shows by Juiciness of Agent Drama

    [ad_1]

    If you’ve logged onto Netflix at all recently, you’ve probably seen at least a few real estate shows pop up on your recommended list, with titles evoking the glamor and fame that one presumably achieves with a clientele predominated by plastic surgeons. From Paris to Tampa to Beverly Hills, these glossy reality series bring the best of unscripted television tropes to the world of luxury home sales, with agents whose egos are even bigger than their properties’ primary suites. Between the OG that started it all, Selling Sunset, and new additions like Owning Manhattan, we’re slowly witnessing the growth of a thrilling new subgenre I’ll tentatively brand “Real(i)ty TV.”

    While the glitz and glam of the houses on display are essential to the shows’ appeal, that’s not what these programs are really about. If it’s pure real estate porn you’re after, you can head to ol’ reliable HGTV and stuff yourself with episodes of House Hunters and its exponential offspring. Netflix’s beloved real(i)ty shows, on the other hand, are for those of us who want drama—who thrive off the chaos of ambitious, plasticky people crying in Teslas and boasting about commission rates in home movie theaters.

    Thus, it feels only right to analyze these shows (for brevity’s sake, only the tip of a steadily growing iceberg) by ranking their dramatic value. Never mind the properties’ cost, square footage, or resale value; the more important criteria here are things that numbers cannot express, such as vanity, envy, horniness, and hot tub make-outs. Let us dive into the world of real(i)ty TV not with housing at the forefront, but with all the shady stuff that goes down when listing agents are at play.

    5. Buying London

    Meet Daniel Daggers: a bespectacled British man who, first and foremost, earnestly calls himself “Mr. Super Prime” and, secondly, heads the luxury London property group DDRE Global. Daggers considers himself the great disruptor of London’s real estate market, mainly because he’s shaped his team of international agents into savvy lifestyle influencers and he spends his free time ramming into desks around his office as he tours homes via a VR headset. While Buying London ranks undeniably high on the Posh British Accent-ometer and features a truly smashing soundtrack of generic British girl pop, it is unfortunately lacking in the juicy drama we’ve come to expect from other British reality hits like Love Island.

    There’s no shortage of charming moments: Agent Oli Hamilton (who looks like a yassified version of Severus Snape) flexes his unmatched pinstripe suit collection, and the team embarks on a group meditation session followed by gourmet smoothies. But the show simply doesn’t have enough petty plotlines to fill its seven-episode season, which means that, instead, we get a montage of Oli receiving a “total style makeover” (wearing a beanie) and scenes of Daniel’s parents insisting he find a wife before they die. I agree with Daniel’s mother that “it’s a pity” he isn’t pursuing love—not because I necessarily care about whether he finds a Mrs. Super Prime, but because watching men with big egos and deeply unbuttoned shirts bumble through dates is one of life’s great pleasures.

    The one semi-dramatic plotline on Buying London is Oli’s flirtationship with DDRE’s Swedish interior designer, Juliana Ardenius (who just happens to be a former model and Miss Teen Universe contestant). Their chemistry is … not exactly electric but, nevertheless, palpable enough to arouse the suspicions of Oli’s non-model/non–Miss Teen Universe wife, Avia, who later confronts Juliana over drinks. But even this minor tiff ends up resolved at a later company party, when Juliana tells Avia she “would never go for Oli in a million years,” and they toast to “a fresh start.” (Pour one out for Oli, who definitely got a self-confidence boost from being the kingpin of a half-baked love triangle.)

    4. Owning Manhattan

    Ryan Serhant, founder of the self-titled real estate brokerage SERHANT., claims to have done over $8 billion in property sales. He also wrote a book called Big Money Energy, and—as he refuses to let anyone forget—is a cool 6-foot-3. (His favorite pastime is standing in property photos to demonstrate a condo’s very high ceilings.) Ryan’s all-star team of agents sells properties across Manhattan and some of the bougier areas of Brooklyn, giving us viewers a much-needed reminder that Williamsburg hasn’t been “gritty” for a good 20 years. The show is ripe with other endearing (annoying) New York-y things, such as agent Chloe Tucker Caine being a former Broadway star (and, thus, the person who assesses the vocal acoustics of newly listed penthouses) and agents patiently explaining to old-school Manhattanites what influencers are.

    There’s nothing too juicy going down at SERHANT., with the lack of workplace romance proving especially upsetting considering everyone looks like a grown-up Gossip Girl character. As with any good New York story, we see the agents hustle for power and status, with a refreshingly innocent subplot following Southern belle agent Savannah Gowarty’s transition to life in “the big city.” Meanwhile, the firm’s Brooklyn expert, Tricia Lee, must fight to have her voice heard among the big bad Manhattan agents, including Nile Lundgren (whose bald head–singular hoop earring combo tells us everything we need to know about him).

    The real standout of Owning Manhattan, however, is Jonathan Normolle, a Danish nightlife junkie who believes that having neck tattoos makes him “the next generation” of real estate. He’s like a Jersey Shore cast member who overstayed his welcome in Europe and now raves about leather parties and pickled herring, so, naturally, he becomes the series’ sole villain and tragic Icarus figure. (In trying to achieve podcast stardom, Jonathan, alas, flies too close to the sun.)

    Though watching Jonathan’s rise and fall—from real estate wunderkind and model to … just model—is plenty satisfying, there’s nothing that leaves us grasping for more by the end of the season. Sure, we find Ryan scrambling to save face after losing out on a major deal, but that’s the boring business stuff (a.k.a. what HGTV is for). This is Netflix, baby, so bring on the gossip, backstabbing, and betrayals!

    3. Buying Beverly Hills

    Now in its second season, Buying Beverly Hills focuses on Mauricio Umansky, founder and CEO of the Agency, a global real estate brokerage based out of L.A. As the husband (spoiler: now ex-husband) of Real Housewives star Kyle Richards, Mauricio was predestined for reality show success, and it also doesn’t hurt that his top agents are his three oldest daughters, all of whom are as business savvy as they are skilled at applying bronzer. Ladies and gentlemen: King Lear.

    The show delivers on its family drama. In the latest season’s subplots, middle daughter Alexia feels slighted by her other sisters’ newfound closeness, Mauricio and Kyle casually discuss the latter’s cheating allegations while preparing an Italian salad, and Alexia partners on a deal with Joey Ben-Zvi, her smarmy ex-boyfriend turned colleague, who—it must be noted—wears sunglasses indoors and sweaters as over-the-shoulder accessories. There’s also eldest daughter Farrah’s separation from her fiancé, Alex, which leaves her emotionally distraught enough to take over a barely defined director of operations role and even sport leisure wear on camera.

    The true pièce de résistance of this season is the introduction of a new villain: Michelle Schwartz, a managing partner at the Agency who—for reasons apparent only to her—believes herself to be Mauricio’s obvious successor (never mind that they’re basically the same age). Joey’s early-season observation that “when you fuck with one Umansky, you fuck with all the Umanskys” proves quite prophetic when Michelle promises to mentor the Umansky girls only to later talk shit about them (calling them, among other things, “business suicide”).

    Thus comes an epic showdown (rooftop poolside spat) between the Umansky sisters and the Wicked Witch of the Westside, and, truly, there’s never been more damning jabs thrown with margaritas in hand. But really, Michelle’s comeuppance is just the cherry on top of a season jam-packed with big life changes, major power swings, and—get this!—men opening up about their emotions.

    2. Selling Sunset

    Where does one begin with a show that’s led by twin brothers who are 5-foot-6 and bald but nevertheless radiate machismo? Perhaps, to properly express the many, many dramatic arcs of the show’s latest season, we’re better off starting with its final episode, which (naturally) included the Oppenheim Group agents exploring their allegiances and darkest secrets via polygraph test moderated by … Tan France?

    Things at the Oppenheim Group have never been messier. Agents repeatedly hurl deeply personal insults at each other; newcomers are received with trepidation, if not outright hostility; and Bre Tiesi dishes on sleeping with Michael B. Jordan and co-parenting a son with Nick Cannon. There’s also endless use of the phrase “social climber,” which is apparently the equivalent of “whore” in the luxury real estate world, where being self-made is everything. Take a shot every time Nicole Young calls Chrishell Stause this if you want to get completely sloshed in under an hour.

    Oh, and Jason Oppenheim and his young, German model girlfriend, Marie-Lou, break up—but you already saw that coming. (Thank you to client/guest star Nikki Glaser for the acute observation that “for someone who doesn’t want kids, it’s weird that you’re dating one.”) Dating someone 20 years your junior is, it turns out, not always the surest path to true love, even if Marie-Lou did—as Jason never fails to mention—study economics at university. Way to go, Jason; you fumbled a relationship with the next Adam Smith.

    Meanwhile, Chrishell and her Australian musician partner, G Flip, go from the honeymoon stage of dating to literally honeymooning in a matter of months. They also reveal plans to have a wedding ceremony every year on their anniversary: an ambitious, not-at-all-annoying goal seemingly designed to give Jason, Chrishell’s ex, an annual reminder of what could’ve been. We don’t see much of G Flip this season, but, when we do, they always look fresh out of a Matrix movie or Hot Topic ad, so we’re led to believe that Chrishell made the right call based on vibes alone.

    1. Selling the OC

    I’m prepared to get flack for ranking a Selling Sunset spinoff higher than Selling Sunset itself, but, truly, nothing can top the flawless dramatic structure of the OC’s latest season, which checks all the boxes of the best telenovelas. To start, we get an unprecedented (and objectively baller) power move from agent Gio Helou when he sends a speedboat to carry attendees from his colleague Kayla Cardona’s open house to the one that he’s hosting just across the Bay.

    From here, things only get more chaotic at the Oppenheims’ OC office. A large chunk of the latest season consists of arguments about whether Austin Victoria did indeed ask fellow agent Sean Palmieri to join him and his wife for a threesome. (A question also arises of whether there would have been weed available at this threesome, which—to be fair—would have made for a more alluring proposition.) Like many of the great issues of our time, the truth of this alleged threesome proposal is left murky, which makes the whole ordeal all the more captivating. Among many other profound quotes, Austin remarks that the office is turning into a brothel and then tells Sean, “You’re not hot, bro … You’re making up rumors that my wife and I want to fuck you?!”

    The best subplot of Selling the OC is equally messy but far more romantic, following the will-they-won’t-they relationship of agents Tyler Stanaland and Alex Hall. The back-and-forth of it all is enough to put Pam and Jim and Ross and Rachel to shame: Alex even considers forgoing her trip to Italy with a new love interest after Tyler pleads with her to stay. (Never mind that he completely ignored her in the preceding weeks.) While the fact that (spoiler alert) they don’t work out is definitely for the best, it’s pretty great to watch them try to convince themselves otherwise. Real estate agents … they’re just as delusional as the rest of us!

    Holyn Thigpen is an arts and culture writer based in Brooklyn. She holds an MA in English from Trinity College Dublin and spends her free time googling Nicolas Cage.

    [ad_2]

    Holyn Thigpen

    Source link

  • Federal agents raid home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

    Federal agents raid home of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

    [ad_1]

    The federal agents conducted a search of a home owned by Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao early Thursday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

    Abraham Simmons, spokesperson for the department, did not say who the target of the search warrant was and declined to comment further.

    The search of Thao’s home on Maiden Lane also includes officers from the IRS as well as the U.S. Postal Service. Neither agency could be immediately reached for comment.

    Video footage from local news agencies showed agents carrying boxes and bags out of the house.

    The search comes as Thao and Dist. Atty. Pamela Price are facing a recall election this November. The recall campaign is a response to increased crime and budgetary problems that have challenged city leaders.

    Also Thursday, FBI agents searched a house on View Crest Court in the Oakland hills but authorities did not say if the two search warrants were connected.

    Property records show that latter home is connected to Andy Duong, who also owns Cal Waste Solutions, which has been investigated over campaign contributions to Thao and other elected city officials, the Oaklandside reported.

    [ad_2]

    Ruben Vives

    Source link

  • Realtor rules just changed dramatically. Here’s what buyers and sellers can expect

    Realtor rules just changed dramatically. Here’s what buyers and sellers can expect

    [ad_1]

    So long, 6% commission.

    For decades, real estate commissions have been somewhat standardized, with most home sellers paying 5% to 6% commission to cover both the listing agent and the buyer’s agent.

    On Friday, everything changed.

    A landmark agreement from the National Assn. of Realtors paved the way for a new set of rules that will likely shake up the entire industry, affecting sellers, buyers and the agents tasked with pushing deals across the finish line.

    The most pivotal rule change pertains to how buyers’ agents are paid. Traditionally, home sellers have paid for the commission of both their agent and the buyer’s agent, which critics argue stifled competition and drove up home prices.

    The new rule prohibits most listings from saying how much buyers’ agents are paid, removing the assumption that sellers are on the hook for paying both agents.

    The other new rule requires buyers’ agents to enter into written agreements with their clients, known as buyer brokerage agreements. These agreements outline exactly what services will be provided — and for how much.

    The changes will take effect this July, pending court approval, and will have major implications on how real estate deals are done. Here’s how buyers, sellers and brokers will likely be affected.

    Lower fees for sellers

    The most obvious takeaway is that if buyers end up paying for their real estate agents instead of sellers, sellers are set to save a lot of money.

    In February, the average Southern California home sold for $842,997. Under the old system, where sellers pay both agents 3% commission, they’d shell out $50,580. But if they only have to pay one agent 3%, they’d save $25,290.

    Buyers, then, would be the ones footing the bill for their agent. The added expense might seem pricy, but Michael Copeland, a real estate agent in Palm Springs, said the final numbers might ultimately shake out the same under the new rules.

    “Buyers were often told by their agents that they didn’t have to pay anything and that services were free,” Copeland said. “But that’s not necessarily true.”

    Copeland said when sellers pay 6% commission to split between both agents, they pad that number into the purchase price, so buyers actually end up paying more for the home, and thus, pay for their own agent.

    So under the new system, buyers may end up paying their broker 3% commission, but the price of the home might be cheaper since the seller is only paying for their own agent.

    More flexibility for buyers

    One of the biggest complaints about the previous system was that it left buyers out of the negotiation process. Sellers paid each agent’s brokerage 3% or so, and that was that.

    Lawsuits filed against the National Assn. of Realtors alleged that the practice kept commissions artificially high and incentivized buyers’ agents to “steer” them toward properties that offered them higher commission rates.

    But under the new system, more buyers will be negotiating directly with their own agents — not just how much they’ll pay them, but what services they want the agent to provide. And those expectations will be specifically outlined in the buyer brokerage agreements, which are now required.

    “Some buyers may just hire an attorney and pay a fee to handle the transaction,” Copeland said. “Or they’ll want to hire an agent as a consultant. Someone they can ask questions.”

    In the age of the internet, access to real estate information is at an all-time high. Buyers can know virtually anything about a home on the market: not just bedrooms, bathrooms and square footage, but how much the home previously sold for, and how much similar homes in the area are selling for.

    Buyers can also receive alerts to know exactly when a house in their price range hits the market, so some savvy shoppers might opt for an agent who leaves the touring process to them, but can help them look over an inspection report and file the right paperwork in the closing stages of the deal.

    If a buyer wants a robust, hands-on agent that’s available 24/7, they can offer 3% or even more. If they want an agent who can just handle the more technical elements of the deal, they could offer 1% or 2%.

    Some buyers might try to handle the process themselves and not pay an agent at all.

    “Good agents will be able to show their value,” said Compass agent Michael Khorshidi. “Agents who aren’t able to show their value won’t benefit from this.”

    New dynamics — and roles — for agents

    For many agents, representing buyers can be rewarding since they get to help someone find their dream home, but the process is often more time-intensive. Agents might spend weeks or months setting up tours for clients, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll even buy a property in the end.

    For that reason, many veteran agents prefer to represent sellers. The work is often more efficient — especially in a hot market, where deals can close in days.

    So if the new rules leave less guaranteed money on the table for buyers’ agents, those agents might try to switch sides and only represent sellers. Or if they’re not able to make enough money representing buyers, they might exit the industry altogether — a trend that’s already taking place in Southern California’s cold post-pandemic real estate market.

    Brent Chang, a luxury agent active in San Marino and Pasadena, said the new rules could lead to agents who specialize in specific types of sales.

    “Just as there are agents like me who specialize in selling landmark properties, a new group of agents will emerge who specialize in helping buyers with highly competitive properties,” Chang said.

    He said agents who have a proven track record of winning properties for their clients will be able to demand higher commissions.

    Or their deals can be performance based. For example, an agent could represent you for 3%, and if they get the property for you, it’s another 3%.

    “Ultimately, if the ruling leads to buyers receiving better service from their agents, then it has merit,” he said. “But I suspect it’ll be a while until we understand the consequences of these changes.”

    [ad_2]

    Jack Flemming

    Source link

  • Realtors agree to change commission rules in a deal that could reduce costs for consumers

    Realtors agree to change commission rules in a deal that could reduce costs for consumers

    [ad_1]

    The National Assn. of Realtors on Friday said it will make changes to its commission rules to settle national allegations the requirements stifled competition, a move that may reduce costs for at least some consumers.

    The settlement, which still must receive court approval, could mark a major change in the housing market.

    Today, sellers typically pay a 5% to 6% commission when they sell their homes, with half of that going to the listing agent’s brokerage and half to the buyer agent’s brokerage, and critics of that model say the settlement could upend that practice.

    “This settlement over time will benefit home sellers and buyers greatly, eventually lowering agent commissions by tens of billions of dollars a year and helping align agent compensation and services rendered,” Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow with the Consumer Federation of America, said in a statement.

    Under an existing Realtor rule, listing agents must make an offer of compensation to the buyer’s broker in order to list homes on NAR-affiliated multiple listing services, or the MLS.

    Though NAR says this offer can be zero dollars, the requirement to post an offer — known in the industry as “cooperative compensation” — has reduced competition and kept commission rates artificially high, according to lawsuits filed against the Realtors. The rule has also caused buyers’ agents to “steer” their clients to homes that offer higher commission rates, the lawsuits allege.

    In a news release, the national trade group said it continues to deny any wrongdoing as it relates to its current commission rule, but to settle the allegations, it will pay $418 million and prohibit offers of compensation to buyers’ brokers on affiliated multiple listing services, which also populate listings on sites such as Zillow and Redfin.

    “NAR has worked hard for years to resolve this litigation in a manner that benefits our members and American consumers,” Nykia Wright, interim chief executive of NAR, said in a statement. “It has always been our goal to preserve consumer choice and protect our members to the greatest extent possible. This settlement achieves both of those goals.”

    Home sellers could still offer to pay buyers’ broker commissions under the settlement if they communicated it outside the MLS, according to the National Assn. of Realtors.

    But not setting the rules of the game at the outset will inject more competition into the process and open up new ways of payment that should lower costs, according to Robert A. Braun, a partner with Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, which is representing home sellers in two of the settling cases.

    Braun said sellers may still choose to pay buyers’ agents something, or buyers may pay their agents directly after negotiating a fee. They may also choose to go without an agent altogether.

    Another option? A buyer agrees to pay a certain price — say $800,000 — only on the condition that the seller then pays the buyer’s agent $24,000, or 3%. “You got a free market,” Braun said.

    Commission rates are a small proportion of a sales price, but they add up. For a home sold at the average Southern California price of $842,997, 6% is $50,580.

    If such changes drive down commissions overall, it could have a big effect on real estate agents who are paid a proportion of the commission sent to their brokerage.

    Higher mortgage rates sent home sales tumbling, reducing pay for agents who are compensated based on the number and price of the deals they transact.

    In California alone, NAR lost 9,723 members from December 2023 to January 2024 — a 4.75% decline.

    Not all agents are worried.

    Michael Khorshidi works mostly with buyers, but sees the new requirements as an opportunity to show the value he brings to clients. Agents who aren’t able to demonstrate their worth will be the ones who lose work, he said.

    “We’re always transitioning,” Khorshidi said. “This is just the latest transition.”

    If the settlement ends up creating a system in which buyers pay their agents directly, it could saddle them with new costs.

    However, Braun argued that buyers would ultimately see reduced costs as well because under the current system, buyer agent commissions get passed along to buyers in the form of higher home prices.

    That doesn’t mean sellers make a conscious decision to set their home prices higher because they need to pay a buyer’s agent. Rather, Braun said it means fewer homes make financial sense to sell because some homeowners don’t have enough equity to pay two commissions.

    If buyers paid their own agent, more homeowners could afford to sell, increasing supply and helping put downward pressure on price, Braun said.

    “Going forward, there is a significant likelihood home prices will be lower than they otherwise would be,” he said.

    Michael Copeland, a real estate agent in Palm Springs, doesn’t think the agreement will alter the market too dramatically.

    To bring in buyers, sellers may still be incentivized to cover both commissions — just as they do today.

    [ad_2]

    Andrew Khouri, Jack Flemming

    Source link

  • Robocalls, ringless voicemails and AI: Real estate enters the age of automation

    Robocalls, ringless voicemails and AI: Real estate enters the age of automation

    [ad_1]

    Southern California’s real estate market is as cold as the snow currently adorning the peaks of its mountains. Interest rates are up. Inventory is down. And deals are few and far between.

    In slow markets, the agents at the top — those with experience, connections and plenty of clients — typically maintain a modest but steady stream of business. It’s the agents at the bottom — those just getting into the industry who’ve only managed to close a handful of sales — who starve.

    As those agents have grown more desperate for leads, they’re trying alternative ways of finding them. Some are outsourcing the work overseas, and others are turning to AI or automation in a last-ditch attempt to find a seller.

    During the record-breaking pandemic market, there were so many transactions that most determined real estate agents were able to make a living. More than 43,000 single-family homes traded hands in L.A. County in 2021, and more than 42,000 were sold in 2022, according to the Multiple Listing Service.

    During that time, tens of thousands joined the National Assn. of Realtors, or NAR, with membership swelling to a record 1.6 million in 2022, up 200,000 since 2020. Real estate wasn’t just a solid job; it was a way to leap into a higher tax bracket.

    But then the market started to freeze in 2023 as mortgage rates shot up. Only 11,539 single-family homes sold that year, and sales are at a similar pace so far this year.

    Some agents are simply calling it quits. In California alone, NAR lost 9,723 members from December 2023 to January 2024 — a 4.75% decline . But even after the drop, California still holds the second-most active Realtors in the nation at 194,964, and they’re all fighting for an extremely small pool of sellers.

    At the peak of the pandemic market, Tyler Andrews, 29, tried his hand at real estate in the Inland Empire, thinking he would use his outgoing personality to sell homes as L.A. residents flocked to the area during the pandemic. He got his license and helped a few friends with their house hunts, but ultimately didn’t earn any commission and stopped in 2023.

    He’s one of many agents who rushed into real estate hoping for a taste of California’s latest gold rush.

    From the outside, listing a house in a hot market seems like the easiest of get-rich-quick schemes. Homes sell in days, and a 3% agent’s commission on a $1-million sale comes out to $30,000. If you represent both sides of the deal, it turns into $60,000.

    But the real estate industry isn’t an easy one to break into. You typically get paid only if you close a sale, and in any market, most homeowners still prefer to go with an agent with experience.

    In a hot market, sellers find an agent. In a cold market, agents have to find a seller. The situation is coming to a boil in many areas, such as Leimert Park, where residents have been barraged by agents asking whether they’re interested in putting their homes up for sale.

    Cold calling is time consuming — and stressful, considering the ire it draws from those on the receiving end. So some agents are handing that thankless task to machines.

    A handful of companies such as Slybroadcast and Salesmsg offer “ringless voicemail,” a robocall-adjacent tool enabling agents to send pre-recorded messages straight to your voicemail box without your phone ever ringing. The messages are often meant to trick you into thinking you missed a call, saying things like, “Sorry I missed you! Give me a call back whenever you get a chance.”

    In 2022, the Federal Communications Commission declared the trend a form of robocalling and said it’s illegal if the caller doesn’t have the recipient’s prior consent. But that hasn’t stopped agents from sending out such voicemails to potential clients.

    “I don’t have time to cold call all day,” said one real estate agent who asked to remain anonymous due to the potential taboo of using the technology. “I have to find clients somehow, and in a market like this, you have to get creative.”

    The thinking is this: An agent could spend eight hours a day calling every home in a neighborhood to ask whether they want to sell their home. Or they could send out 500 ringless voicemails simultaneously, and those who bother to call back have a better chance of needing the services of a real estate agent.

    Andrews said he had heard of other agents trying such technology as the market got colder in 2023, but he never bothered doing it himself because it didn’t seem authentic. It also would’ve been an extra expense — one he didn’t have a budget for.

    Mary Thompson has owned her home in Beverly Crest for more than a decade. Over the last year, she’s received multiple ringless voicemails asking whether she wants to list or buy a house.

    “I was fooled by the first one. I called back and ended up on the phone with an agent for 15 minutes asking about my plans as a homeowner,” she said. “I don’t bother calling back anymore.”

    U.S. consumers received more than 55 billion robocalls in 2023, 5 billion more than the previous year, according to the YouMail Robocall Index. Roughly 15 billion were telemarketing calls, and 8 billion were scams. California consistently ranks as the state with the second-most robocalls, behind only Texas.

    As a response to thousands of unwanted call complaints, the FCC has established a Robocall Response Team to combat the influx of robocalls, many of which are targeted toward homeowners.

    Last year, the commission shut down a robocalling campaign from MV Realty, a real estate brokerage that was sending out robocalls with misleading claims about mortgages. A whistleblower from the company told a Seattle news outlet that employees were directed how to use software called PhoneBurner and required to make at least 450 calls per day.

    Other companies such as VoiceSpin give agents access to auto-dialing software, which, like it sounds, automatically dials numbers from a list. VoiceSpin claims to use AI and machine learning and enables agents to drop voicemails straight into inboxes, record calls or even use local area codes so you’re more likely to pick up.

    In that case, you’d be talking to an agent, but sometimes you might find yourself unwittingly conversing with a robot.

    The tech company Ylopo recently uploaded a video showcasing an AI assistant conversing with a potential home buyer planning a move to the North or South Carolina coast. The company said it’s “one of thousands of AI calls being made daily already for Ylopo clients.”

    Cinc, a real estate lead generation platform, offers agents an AI-powered digital assistant that purposefully misspells words and uses emojis to make interactions with potential leads appear more human.

    The NAR itself offers an AI scriptwriter powered by ChatGPT that analyzes housing trends so that agents can appear more knowledgeable about the market. Agents can even choose the tone: professional, engaging or conversational.

    Earlier this month, the FCC continued its fight against robocalling by outlawing robocalls that use AI-generated voices. Since the ruling is so fresh, it’s unclear how companies utilizing the technology will be affected.

    In a market as slow as this one, even finding numbers to call becomes a challenge; tech becomes useless if it’s being wasted on the wrong potential clients. So many agents are looking for leads.

    On Fiverr, an online marketplace for freelance services, a glut of listings has popped up offering agents potential leads on prospective buyers or sellers. One of the most prolific is Abhishek Rai, who has racked up more than 3,000 five-star reviews offering leads on motivated sellers, vacant properties or absentee owners since joining the platform in April 2020.

    Rai, who’s based in India and uses the handle @virtualguy2020, typically charges $10 for 100 leads, $50 for 650 and $100 for 1,500.

    “Real estate agents have demanding schedules, and outsourcing lead generation tasks allows them to focus on other aspects of their business, such as client meetings, property showings, and negotiations,” he said.

    Rai has clients across the U.S., including many in Southern California. He added that generating leads is a specialized skill and not every agent has the expertise to find them on their own.

    For his leads, he combs through public records, online databases and real estate sources such as property records, tax records and foreclosure listings.

    To be clear, the vast majority of agents in Southern California still conduct business the old-fashioned way. But the ones trying new things are often doing so in order to make a living.

    In 2022, Realtors with 16 or more years of experience made a median gross income of $80,700, according to the NAR. But those with two years or less experience made just $9,600.

    According to a report from business networking platform Alignable, 31% of real estate firms struggled to pay rent for their office in January.

    AI’s subtle invasion of the real estate industry doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise because the technology has pervaded nearly every profession over the last few years. But for an industry that has long relied on human connection — handshakes, open houses, fresh flowers and other personal touches — AI’s cold, sterile seep into housing has become unnerving for some.

    “When I do need a real estate agent, I need one that I can connect with,” Thompson said. “I don’t want anything to do with their AI assistant.”

    [ad_2]

    Jack Flemming

    Source link

  • State insurance commissioner says companies are delaying policies, denying discounts

    State insurance commissioner says companies are delaying policies, denying discounts

    [ad_1]

    Responding to consumer complaints about auto insurance coverage, the state insurance commissioner said Thursday that insurers could face penalties for creating unlawful barriers for California drivers.

    Ricardo Lara issued a bulletin to auto insurers, reminding them that they cannot change their policies’ terms and rates without formally filing for state review and approval. The bulletin also reminded companies that they must offer coverage to all motorists in California who meet the state’s legal definition of “Good Drivers.”

    “These alleged passive-aggressive tactics by insurance companies to slow down drivers’ access to coverage are unacceptable, dangerous, and will not be tolerated,” Lara said in a statement. “I am taking action today to ensure these insurance companies are acting according to the law and giving drivers the coverage they are paying for at the rate they qualify for. We will continue to monitor the situation and take any and all steps necessary to protect California consumers.”

    The commissioner acted in response to numerous complaints the department received about insurers imposing requirements that are not allowed by state law, including Proposition 103, the 1988 ballot measure that regulated property and casualty insurance sold in California. Issuing the bulletin, the department said, makes the legal requirements clear to insurers and “sets the stage for future enforcement actions, if warranted.”

    Frustrated by state regulations, a number of insurers have limited the new policies their agents can sell in California. And for California drivers who already have policies, the challenge for many has been a sharp increase in premiums when they renew.

    California drivers are now running into speed bumps to coverage because insurers say they were hurt by Lara’s pandemic-related orders, including those requiring partial refunds to policyholders who were driving less and denying approval for rate increases through most of 2022.

    Big-name insurers have been saying for months that they “can’t get the rates they need from the state Department of Insurance,” said Mike D’Arelli, executive director of American Agents Alliance, a national association of independent insurance agents and brokers.

    The companies complained they were losing money despite being profitable as recently as 2022, according to Department of Insurance market share data.

    The complaints that reached Lara’s desk include claims that some auto insurers may not be offering “Good Driver” discounts to those who qualify. According to the department, California law requires insurers to offer a policy with such a discount to any driver who’s held a license for the last three years, has no more than one point on their driving record and was not principally at fault in a motor vehicle accident that resulted in bodily injury or death.

    Consumers also have complained about “having to complete unnecessarily lengthy and/or confusing questionnaires, verify employment or school information, respond to physically mailed questionnaires despite applicants electing to receive documents electronically, provide information regarding excluded drivers living at the same address, and/or submit copies of applicants’ utility bills, vehicle registrations, and/or photos of driver’s licenses or vehicles, among other examples,” the department said Thursday.

    These barriers in many cases “discourage, inhibit or delay” motorists from completing an application for insurance, especially in a timely manner, the department said.

    In addition to the requirement to offer coverage to good drivers, the bulletin issued by Lara highlights the limits on what insurers can demand from applicants. “The Insurance Commissioner may initiate administrative enforcement actions and/or seek penalties against any and all insurers failing to offer and sell automobile insurance to all qualified Good Drivers,” the bulletin states.

    The bulletin also reiterates that, under Proposition 103, auto insurers in California are required to submit complete rate applications to the insurance commissioner for review and approval “any time they seek to implement new, or changes to existing, programs, coverages, rates, rating factors, underwriting guidelines, rating rules, forms, and fees, or make any other changes that may have a rate impact,” even if they think there won’t be any impact, according to the Department of Insurance.

    “An insurer’s failure to file proposed underwriting guidelines prior to implementing the proposed guideline may result in an administrative enforcement action against the insurer leading to restitution and/or penalties,” the bulletin says.

    Proposition 103 gave the insurance commissioner the power to review property and casualty insurance premiums before they go into effect, known as a “prior approval” system. It also sharply limited the factors insurers could consider when setting rates, requiring that they show data connecting each factor to their risk of loss. The goal was to prevent insurers from setting discriminatory premiums that didn’t reflect a driver’s potential for claims. Prior to the law, insurance companies weren’t regulated.

    If a requested premium increase exceeds 7%, the commissioner makes an independent determination of the allowable rate change based on data provided by the insurance company. Proposition 103 also allows consumer advocates and other third parties to intervene with their own analyses and arguments.

    [ad_2]

    Karen Garcia

    Source link

  • A $10-million 'spicy situation': Thousands of pounds of meth, cocaine hidden in jalapeño paste

    A $10-million 'spicy situation': Thousands of pounds of meth, cocaine hidden in jalapeño paste

    [ad_1]

    They covered themselves with hazmat suits, gloves and masks and put plastic bags over their boots. That’s how dangerous the substance was that U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were examining Wednesday morning.

    A cadre of agents — veterans who had seized fentanyl, heroin and other illicit narcotics in previous raids — dug deep, hands and boots in a sea of pungent material, before hitting pay dirt.

    What agents said they found was almost 2 tons of methamphetamine and cocaine — valued at $10.4 million — buried within dozens of vats of fiery jalapeño paste. The cargo was seized from a commercial tractor-trailer near the Otay Mesa border.

    “It was an extremely spicy situation,” Michael Scappechio, a CBP spokesperson, told The Times. “You never really know what you’re dealing with just in terms of dangerous narcotics and then you throw in there all that organic material; we had to break out the full PPE,” or personal protective equipment.

    A 28-year-old man with valid border-crossing credentials was stopped Wednesday around 10:36 a.m. by agents while hauling his cargo. The individual was a Mexican national, according to Scappechio.

    His electronic shipment manifest listed only vats of jalapeño paste among his consignment.

    Customs officers decided to review the man’s haul.

    In total, 349 packages of methamphetamine and cocaine weighing 3,684 pounds were seized.

    (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

    “We won’t expose the reasons that led to the further examination,” Scappechio said, “but agent suspicion is often used.”

    The truck was moved from the border to the nearby screening facility, where a K-9 unit then screened the cargo and alerted agents for a full inspection.

    There, they poured out barrel-sized drums of jalapeño paste, removing 349 suspicious packages from the vats. About 3,161 pounds of methamphetamine and 523 pounds of cocaine were extracted from the haul.

    The driver was turned over to the Department of Homeland Security for arrest and processing while the CBP seized the drugs and trailer.

    Never underestimate the power of a dog’s nose.

    “Our K-9 teams are an invaluable component of our counter-narcotics operations, providing a reliable and unequaled mobile detection capability,” said Rosa Hernandez in a statement. The Otay Mesa port director said the CBP had stepped up its efforts “to secure communities and stifle the growth of transnational criminal organizations, one seizure after another.”

    Last month, San Diego’s field office seized more than 14,000 pounds of narcotics at California’s land borders.

    But what’s going to happen to all that jalapeño paste?

    Scappechio said he couldn’t say for certain but noted that the agency was “not going to hold organic material for too long” before destroying it. He did say the owner could petition to retrieve the property.

    “Since the jalapeño paste was laden with dangerous drugs,” Scappechio said, “I wouldn’t hold my breath.”

    [ad_2]

    Andrew J. Campa

    Source link

  • L.A. con man who posed as attorney, rubbed elbows with Gov. Newsom is sentenced to 6 months

    L.A. con man who posed as attorney, rubbed elbows with Gov. Newsom is sentenced to 6 months

    [ad_1]

    An admitted L.A. con artist who rubbed elbows with powerful politicians and presented himself as the right hand of a powerful Armenian crime figure was sentenced to six months in prison Monday, after spending years testifying against his former mentor and several corrupt law enforcement officials.

    Edgar Sargsyan, 42, will serve the short prison sentence and then spend an additional six months confined to his home after his 2020 plea to four counts of bank fraud, bribery and lying to federal agents, according to his attorney, Robert Dugdale.

    The public was barred from Sargsyan’s sentencing hearing in federal court on Monday, after Dugdale was heard expressing concerns about his client’s safety.

    Sargsyan rose from humble beginnings to become a regular at the members-only Grand Havana cigar club in Beverly Hills, where he regularly socialized with celebrities. Penniless when he immigrated to the United States from Armenia in 2004, Sargsyan settled in Glendale, home to a large Armenian diaspora.

    There, he scratched out a living collecting finder’s fees for bringing clients to attorneys — and also committing bank fraud. Court records show Sargsyan admitted he was part of an identity theft ring that racked up phony charges in the names of foreign exchange students who were no longer living in the United States.

    Sargsyan went from small-time fraud artist to prolific criminal after meeting Levon Termendzhyan in 2010 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel’s BLVD restaurant, court records show. Termendzhyan put forward a public facade of a wildly successful entrepreneur in the oil and gas industry, but within the Armenian community, Sargsyan testified, he had “the reputation of a mafia figure.”

    Sargsyan became something of an advisor, confidant and younger brother to Termendzhyan, who is now serving a 40-year sentence for fraud and money laundering. Through Termendzhyan, Sargsyan met two corrupt law enforcement officers: John Saro Balian, a narcotics detective for the Glendale Police Department, and Felix Cisneros Jr., an agent of Homeland Security Investigations.

    Sargsyan also cultivated relationships with public officials by donating lavishly to their campaigns. At his office in Beverly Hills, where he held himself out as a lawyer, Sargsyan posed for a photograph with Gov. Gavin Newsom before heading to a fundraiser for the governor at a members-only cigar lounge. Newsom and his political aides previously declined to discuss his relationship with Sargsyan, though a campaign official said all of his donations were rerouted to a charity.

    Like much of Sargsyan’s life, the lawyer facade was a lie. After failing the California bar exam several times, Sargsyan paid an attorney $140,000 to take the test for him. Sargsyan didn’t admit to the scheme for years, failing to tell federal prosecutors about it until the eve of a trial in which he was set to testify.

    Sargsyan said he’d held back about the bar exam scheme because he was “ashamed and embarrassed” to confess he wasn’t a lawyer.

    Sargsyan testified against Babak Broumand, telling the jury he gave $10,000 a month to the decorated FBI agent in exchange for secret information about investigations into Sargsyan and his associates. Broumand, who worked for two decades on a national security squad in San Francisco, was convicted of accepting bribes and is serving six years in federal prison.

    During a brief conversation outside the courtroom on Monday, Sargsyan lamented that a 2022 Times retelling of his wild life story had “destroyed his character” and used an expletive in reference to the reporter who wrote it.

    “Report facts … that’s the beauty of journalism,” said Sargsyan, shortly before walking into court and accepting a plea deal based on an admission that he was a prolific liar.

    [ad_2]

    James Queally, Matthew Ormseth

    Source link

  • Roslynn Alba Cobarrubias, media entrepreneur and pillar of Filipino community, dies at 43

    Roslynn Alba Cobarrubias, media entrepreneur and pillar of Filipino community, dies at 43

    [ad_1]

    Roslynn Alba Cobarrubias, a media entrepreneur, radio DJ and music promoter who advocated for Filipino American artists and was instrumental in growing the MySpace Music platform, died Sunday evening, according to family members.

    Cobarrubias died in her hometown of Walnut, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner’s office, which has yet to determine a cause of death pending further tests. She was 43.

    “She was passionate and dedicated to the Filipino American community worldwide, and would spend both her personal and professional life celebrating and uplifting it wherever she could,” her family said in a statement shared with The Times. “She played a pivotal role in collaborations between acclaimed international artists and rising Filipino talent, helping guide them into the music industry spotlight.”

    Cobarrubias was born March 12, 1980, at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles. While growing up in Walnut in the east San Gabriel Valley — a short drive from the music studios and venues of central L.A. — she developed a love for music. In elementary school, she played her favorite songs for classmates, calling herself “the lunchtime DJ,” she recalled during a TEDx talk in 2017.

    Later, she buzzed between record stores and hip-hop clubs, finding new artists and their music and playing them for friends at parties. She was devoted to the music channels that dominated TV in the 1990s and 2000s, including VH1 and MTV. Her dream was to become a video jockey, hosting the shows she’d religiously watch and traveling the world to promote new music and interview her favorite artists.

    But her family had other plans. Feeling the pressure as a child of immigrants from the Philippines, Cobarrubias enrolled in 1999 at UC Irvine with plans to study political science and become a lawyer.

    Still, she held onto her dream job.

    Without telling her family, Cobarrubias drove to Hollywood for a video jockey audition while still a freshman in college. She stood in line for three hours before ultimately landing a spot as a finalist.

    “And at the last casting agent’s office, she looked at me and she said, ‘You’re too short. What are you gonna do, hold the microphone over your head? You’ll never be on television; you should try radio,’” Cobarrubias recalled of the agent’s suggestion that she instead be a radio DJ.

    Crushed, she hopped back in her car and while sitting in traffic on the 10 Freeway pondered the agent’s words.

    “I thought, OK, I’m just gonna go back to UCI, study political science, be a lawyer my mom from the Philippines will be proud to tell her brothers and sisters about. Coming from a third-world country, you want a lawyer, not a DJ in your family,” she said.

    But eventually, Cobarrubias took the agent’s advice to heart. She started working at KSAK-FM 90.1, a station based out of Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut. Soon after, she transferred to the community college from UCI and started a hip-hop show, Third Floor Radio. There, she interviewed acts who influenced her, such as A Tribe Called Quest and Talib Kweli.

    As her show’s popularity grew, she started promoting it and other artists on the then-new social media site MySpace.

    After graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor’s degree in communications, she caught the attention of MySpace co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, whom she met through a colleague, Cobarrubias said in a blog post. DeWolfe and Anderson wanted to grow the site as an online music platform, filling a void left by file-sharing site Napster, which had dissolved several years earlier.

    Cobarrubias eventually became a marketing head and led artist relations, growing the MySpace Music platform and making it easier for artists to share music and connect with fans on the site — a novel idea at the time. The music feature became a staple on the site as users delighted in customizing their profiles, which included compiling playlists of their favorite music. Major artists such as as Sean Kingston, Adele and Calvin Harris owed the launch of their careers to MySpace.

    “The people that really launched MySpace were the … artists,” Cobarrubias told iHeart Media podcast “Main Accounts: The Story of MySpace” earlier this year. “You start with the artists; they bring their fan bases. You start with the DJs; they bring their fan bases. The way we created was for creators.”

    While promoting the work of high-profile artists such as Drake and Justin Timberlake, Cobarrubias also promoted up-and-coming Filipino American artists during her work with Philippines-based media giant ABS-CBN and through her marketing brand, 1587. According to her family, the company’s name stems from the year a Spanish galleon with Filipino crewmembers arrived in Morro Bay — widely accepted by historians as the first Filipinos, and Asians, to set foot on what is now the continental U.S.

    Cobarrubias’ projects stretched beyond Los Angeles and music. She helped build basketball courts with the Clippers and the Manny Pacquiao Foundation throughout the Philippines, including in her family’s ancestral home, Olongapo.

    “I love our 1587 family so much because not only do we push each other in the entertainment and music industry — but we constantly remind each other how we have to always give back and move in mission and purpose,” she wrote in a social media post. “We worked hard to be blessed with these opportunities by the universe and God that sometimes it feels like a dream.”

    Cobarrubias also sponsored Filipino American heritage nights at Clippers, Dodgers and Kings games. Her company promoted Filipino American acts at the events, including rappers P-Lo and Guapdad 4000, Power 106 radio DJ E-Man, Real 92.3 DJ Nico Blitz, as well as Saweetie and EZ Mil, both of whom threw first pitches at Dodger games in the last two seasons.

    Oakland rapper P-Lo and L.A.-based indie artist Yeek were among those who expressed condolences Tuesday as news of Cobarrubias’ death spread online. Both shared an old photo of them posing with Cobarrubias and other Filipino artists.

    “RIP Tita Ros,” P-Lo said in his Instagram story.

    “Thank you for always believing in me. You were such an impactful & influential person in our community,” said Yeek.

    Filipino American YouTube singer AJ Rafael shared a musical tribute to Cobarrubias, “to bring comfort through music, something she loved so dearly.” He added: “You truly cared for me as a person and not just an artist.”

    Notable Filipino American figures outside the music industry also mourned Cobarrubias’ death. Author and professor Anthony Christian Ocampo wrote in a tweet that he was “in complete disbelief,” calling Cobarrubias “an iconic figure in the Filipino American community.”

    Jason Lustina, who is behind the popular Instagram account SoCalFilipinos, said Cobarrubias was among the first supporters of his platform. “The community is mourning your loss but you have left your mark and will always be remembered,” he wrote.

    Alba Legacy, a clothing brand founded by Cobarrubias’ cousin, celebrity fashion designer Jhoanna Alba, said in a statement on Instagram, “Ros made an immense impact in our community and worldwide. She loved intensely while enduring unfair suffering. Her presence in our family is irreplaceable, and her absence is unimaginable.”

    Black Eyed Peas member apl.de.ap praised Cobarrubias as a humble advocate throughout his career. On Wednesday, he was struggling to find photos of her.

    “And that’s because Ros was always there — around — but almost never in front of the camera,” he said in a statement shared on his Instagram account.

    Apl.de.ap, who was born Allan Pineda Lindo Jr., credited his well-documented love for Honda Civics to Cobarrubias, who would drive him and bandmate will.i.am, when they were both still young up-and-comers, around L.A. in her own Civic.

    He credited her with boosting his group’s career during her time at MySpace.

    “I never gave her the flowers she deserved for putting us on MySpace when it was at its peak and helped propel us,” he said. “[Black Eyed Peas] is made up of more than the guys you see onstage, and it’s people like Roslynn who made this all possible.”

    In 2016, he took Cobarrubias and other Filipino American entertainment figures, including comedian Jo Koy, on a trip to the Philippines to get in touch with their culture.

    “It did something for her that I had always hoped,” apl.de.ap said, “and from that trip on she spent a considerable amount of her time giving back and wielding her power to help our community grow.”

    Cobarrubias is survived by her mother, Maria Evelyn Alba; three sisters, Rheeza Alba Cobarrubias McMillan, Rachelle Alba Cobarrubias and Chrystal Alba Fujimoto; and several nieces and nephews, whom her family described as “the loves of her life.”

    Times Assistant Editor Ada Tseng contributed to this report.

    [ad_2]

    Jonah Valdez

    Source link

  • So you want to retire and become a writer? Here’s some inspiration

    So you want to retire and become a writer? Here’s some inspiration

    [ad_1]

    For some people, retirement is a long-awaited chance to sleep late, relax and celebrate the joys of life without pressure or deadlines.

    For others, it’s an opportunity to finally get to work.

    California is about to be hit by an aging population wave, and Steve Lopez is riding it. His column focuses on the blessings and burdens of advancing age — and how some folks are challenging the stigma associated with older adults.

    Within a span of a few days, I heard about two retirees who had long dreamed of becoming authors, but their jobs kept getting in the way. Then they pulled the cord, hit the keyboard and never looked back.

    I was on the phone one day with former L.A. Times columnist and editor Bill Boyarsky, and when I asked about his wife, Nancy, he gloated. Her seventh novel had just been published, he said, and she was already working on her eighth.

    Then I heard from L.A. County Superior Court Judge Kelvin Filer, who was talking up his brother, Duane. “He actually wrote a book documenting his first year of retirement,” the judge said. Before he excused himself with “I have to get back to my murder trial,” he added that his brother has since written several other books.

    I hear fairly often from people who use retirement to chase dreams. Some set out to learn an instrument or a new language or two. Others turn volunteering into second careers. But I probably hear from more aspiring writers than any other group of people setting out to reinvent themselves.

    A woman sits in her writing room at her Los Angeles home.

    In her writing room, Nancy Boyarsky is surrounded by her own paintings.

    (Al Seib / For The Times)

    So I paid visits first to Nancy Boyarsky, 87, who lives in West L.A., and then to Duane Lance Filer, 71, who lives in Carson.

    Boyarsky toils in a back room drenched in natural light, her cat Roxy at her side. She was a reader as a child and a fan of Jane Austen. At UC Berkeley, she took a creative writing class, “but the teacher didn’t think much of my short stories.” She recalls “a condescending smile” and a stabbing suggestion that the writing life was not for her.

    And yet she went on to make a living at a typewriter, banging out articles for various publications including the L.A. Times magazine, and she was an editor for a magazine called “L.A. Lawyer. She co-authored a book called “Backroom Politics” with Bill and spent the last 18 years of her career as ARCO’s director of communications for political affairs.

    While still at ARCO, Boyarsky took some writing courses at UCLA and began working on a novel called “The Swap.” The protagonist is a Los Angeles housewife who discovers on a trip to England that her husband is a cheat and that her life is in danger, a realization that transforms the “browbeaten housewife” into an enterprising private detective.

    A woman is surrounded by her paintings in her writing room.

    A small publishing house called Light Messages reached out to Nancy Boyarsky, saying it wanted to re-publish “The Swap” and asking the writer if she could turn her heroine into a serial sleuth.

    (Al Seib / For The Times)

    But when Boyarsky retired in 1998, she discovered, as so many writers have, that getting a book published is a tough racket, with your odds of success roughly similar to your chance of winning the Powerball lottery.

    “I got an agent, and he sent it out to publishers, and they rejected it,” Boyarsky said.

    A freelance editor suggested a major rewrite. Boyarsky did not agree, and she kept pursuing agents and publishers without success before putting the dream in a drawer and taking up painting. Her house is filled with her work, including impressive portraits and botanical art.

    But Boyarsky hadn’t entirely given up. In 2013, she took advantage of a growing trend and self-published on Amazon.

    “Mary Higgins Clark meets London … ’The Swap’ contributes to the women-driven mystery field with panache,” one magazine critic raved.

    “I was thrilled,” Boyarsky said, and the news got better.

    A small North Carolina publishing house called Light Messages reached out to say it wanted to re-publish “The Swap,” and Boyarsky was asked if she could turn her heroine into a serial sleuth. Seven Nicole Graves mysteries are now in print, and Boyarsky is hammering out the eighth while Bill, also a prolific author, works in another room on his next book.

    Light Messages edits, designs, distributes and markets the Nicole Graves books on a small budget, with Boyarsky getting a percentage of sales. (“The Swap” has more than 2,000 customer reviews and a four-star rating on Amazon.) Boyarsky said she made several thousand dollars on that one, less on the others, and she wouldn’t advise book-writing for anyone looking to get rich.

    But clearly, that Berkeley professor was clueless, and Boyarsky keeps writing — for love, if not for money.

    A man sits in his home office surrounded by images of musicians

    Duane Lance Filer, 71, sits in the room he calls the “fffunk Lab,” where he has written nine novels. Images of Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone inspire him.

    (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

    Duane Lance Filer had a bit of a different start. Rather than being told the writing game wasn’t for him, he got nothing but encouragement from his Black history teacher at Compton High School.

    “Mr. Taylor,” Filer said. “Alvin Taylor. He said, ‘Pursue your dreams.’”

    With that, and inspiration from the civil rights activism of his parents — Maxcy and Blondell Filer— Filer majored in political science at Cal Lutheran and wrote short stories there, joining the Watts Writers Workshop after college. Like a majority of aspiring writers, Filer had a day job, and for the last 29 years of his working life he was in the consumer affairs division of the California Public Utilities Commission, handling customer complaints.

    A bearded, bespectacled author

    After retiring in 2013, Duane Lance Filer spent a year writing a breezy book called “The Baby Boomers First-Hand, First-Year Guide to Retirement.”

    (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

    Toward the end of that career he wrote his first book, a semi-autobiographical novel about an aspiring young Black writer growing up in a changing Compton, a witness to white flight during the civil rights movement. Then, after retiring in 2013, he spent a year writing a breezy book called “The Baby Boomers First-Hand, First-Year Guide to Retirement.”

    Filer didn’t miss the train rides to and from work. There was lots of vacuuming and cleaning to be done, and he often shopped and prepared dinner for his wife, who was still working. There were some ups and some downs, but no regrets about retiring. On Day 365, Filer entered his writing den — he calls it the fffunklab; the three Fs stand for “Filer Family Fun”—to pen the final words of his guide while listening to Etta James sing “At Last.”

    The fffunk lab, by the way, is where I visited Filer. He’s carved out the space in a corner of the garage, with images of Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone surrounding him. He wore faded, patched jeans and a George Clinton Funkadelic T-shirt, calling himself an unreformed hippie. In a family of lawyers and educators — son Lance is an attorney, daughter Arinn is an assistant principal, wife Janice is a professor and retired principal — Filer is all about music (he plays bass guitar), art (he paints), and words.

    A portrait of duke Ellington inside writer Duane Lance Filer's ffunk lab.

    A portrait of Duke Ellington rests behind a Stratocaster guitar in Duane Lance Filer’s writing den.

    (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

    The fffunk lab is a supremely cluttered cave of sports and family memorabilia, along with the tributes to his favorite musicians. The desktop computer, on which the funkmaster has now written nine books, sits in one corner. He’s penned several children’s books and a novella called “The Legend of Diddley Squatt,” loosely inspired by the life of the late comedian Richard Pryor, who grew up in a brothel. Filer is now working on a sequel, his 10th book, and a screenplay about his father’s life.

    The only fly in the punch bowl is that despite his dogged efforts, Filer has no agent and no traditional publisher. He has self-published, paying different companies to print and distribute his books, hoping to recover the investment through sales.

    “I usually send out between 50 and 100 query letters with each book,” Filer said.

    The lack of response has not deterred him one iota. He sat in on some writing classes at nearby Cal State Dominguez Hills several years ago and keeps the dream alive, noting that his father took the state bar exam over and over again — literally dozens of times — before finally passing.

    Perseverance, he tells himself. Perseverance.

    Duane Filer at his home

    After retiring from the California Public Utilities Commission in 2013, Duane Filer decided to start writing books. He is currently finishing his 10th.

    (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

    He takes his morning walk while listening to his favorite music, reaching deep for inspiration. Then he enters the fffunklab, subjecting himself to the joys and cruelties of creative endeavor.

    “I love to write, and here’s the thing: None of my books make any money, or, I haven’t made a lot of money,” Filer said. “But I don’t care. At some point, my little grandson can say, ‘Oh, you never gave up.’ I will never stop writing. … I think this next book is going to be my best one.”

    steve.lopez@latimes.com

    [ad_2]

    Steve Lopez

    Source link

  • A New Variation On An Old Problem For Subcontractors In New York

    A New Variation On An Old Problem For Subcontractors In New York

    [ad_1]

    For decades, construction contracts and subcontracts—both in New York and elsewhere—seem to have attracted more than their share of payment disputes. Owners regularly run out of money. Contractors and subcontractors regularly screw up (and run out of money). Projects regularly go over budget—but rarely stay under budget—and regularly fail (often because they ran out of money).

    In response, New York, like most other states, allows contractors and subcontractors to file mechanics’ liens against projects if not paid. Those liens can eventually be enforced just like foreclosing a mortgage. Mechanics’ lien laws give contractors and subcontractors a very powerful collection technique not available to ordinary creditors, such as unpaid real estate lawyers.

    Contractors tried to reduce their exposure to some of these risks by adding “pay when paid” clauses to their subcontracts. Those clauses said that the contractor didn’t have to pay the subcontractor unless the owner decided to pay the contractor. It was a great mechanism for the contractor to shift the risk of nonpayment to its subcontractors.

    The New York courts decided that the mechanism was too great to actually work. It flew in the face of the New York mechanics’ lien law, which said that any waiver of the right to file a mechanic’s lien was unenforceable. And, the courts said, a “pay when paid” clause amounted to a back-door waiver of the subcontractor’s right to file a mechanic’s lien.

    In 2002, the New York Legislature complicated these issues by deciding that the relationship among owners, contractors, and subcontractors required further improvement. The legislature passed a law that set standards and procedures for how and when owners are supposed to pay contractors, and contractors are supposed to pay subcontractors. The law unambiguously required the contractor to pay its subcontractors whether or not the owner paid the contractor. The owner’s nonpayment shouldn’t be the subcontractors’ problem, according to the legislature.

    The 2002 law did, however, carve out an exception: If the owner appointed an agent to act for the owner in signing contracts, then the agent wouldn’t be responsible for any payments due under those contracts. That conforms to traditional principles of the law of agency.

    At least one smart contractor tried to use this exception to create protections similar to a “pay when paid” clause. That contractor inserted new language into its subcontracts, requiring each subcontractor to acknowledge that the contractor merely acted as an agent for the owner, so only the owner was responsible for payment. The owner’s payments would, of course, run through the contractor on the way to the subcontractor, but the contractor was still just an agent for the owner—a channel for payment—without liability.

    It didn’t work. A court decided that the contractor couldn’t shrug its shoulders and claim to be nothing more than the owner’s agent. Instead, the rest of the subcontract made clear that it was a separate and independent contract between the contractor and the subcontractor. The subcontractor signed the contract in its own name. The subcontractor’s obligations ran to the contractor, not the owner. The contractor couldn’t escape liability by claiming it was an agent.

    Although this contractor lost its litigation with the subcontractor, the “agency” theory just might work in a future subcontract. A contractor would need to play it through thoroughly. The contract would need to make clear throughout that the contractor is a mere innocent “agent” of the owner, and signs and acts only in that capacity.

    If the contractor were in fact a construction manager, then such agency status makes sense. In a traditional general contract arrangement, however, where the contractor expects to make a profit after paying subcontractors, it’s not so easy for the contractor to claim to be the owner’s agent. Contractors may have to come up with some other solution to the problem.

    [ad_2]

    Joshua Stein, Contributor

    Source link