[Breitbart] DEI hire failure Janisse Quiñones, the CEO of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) who was accused of leaving the reservoir empty during the 2025 Palisades Fire, will be stepping down.
Quiñones will be returning to her home in Puerto Rico, where she will take on a leadership role in “supporting the modernization and transformation” of its electric grid, per the California Post.
“Janisse brought steady leadership and engineering expertise to LADWP during a critical period for our city,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “Her focus on resilience, reliability, and strengthening the workforce has helped position the Department for continued progress. We thank her for her service to Los Angeles.”
Quiñones expressed gratitude to Karen Bass for entrusting her with the position.
“Serving the people of Los Angeles has been one of the greatest honors of my professional life,” Quiñones said. “I am deeply grateful to Mayor Karen Bass and the City of Los Angeles for the trust placed in me to steward essential infrastructure that supports the health, safety, and economic vitality of our communities.
“Los Angeles is a city defined by innovation, diversity, and resilience. It has been a privilege to serve a community that continually rises to meet its challenges,” she added.
Quiñones leaves with a major controversy under her belt after coming under scrutiny in 2025 for the “poor handling of the response to the Los Angeles fires, specifically for leaving reservoirs empty and not addressing nearly 400 fire hydrants that needed repair,” as noted by the California Post.
“More than 1,300 Los Angeles fire hydrants needed maintenance or repair—some flagged nearly a year before the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires—raising questions about whether broken hydrants impacted firefighting efforts, according to a KCAL News investigation,” it reported.
“Furthermore, Quiñones oversaw the shutdown and emptying of a reservoir in the Pacific Palisades during brushfire season, the Daily Mail reported. This reportedly resulted in firefighters running out of water faster,” it added.
In her position, Quiñones earned over $750,000, which was double that of her predecessor, Martin Adams — the highest-paid city employee.Unable to connect to
#2
So now Puerto Rico's electrical grid will be as well prepared for hurricanes as LA's reservoirs were for the Palisades fire.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/05/2026 14:01 Comments ||
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#3
And with Karen Bass appointing her successor, with approval of the LA City Council, the DWP will continue to be as well prepared for future fires as they were for the Palisades fire.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/05/2026 14:10 Comments ||
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#4
In a more ideal world, Karen Bass's endorsement and compliments would be considered career ending to whomever received them.
[FoxNews] Travis County DA José Garza instituted 2021 policy requiring all officer-involved shootings go before a grand jury
Bodycam video from the Austin mass shooting, which is being investigated as a terrorist attack, will be released on Thursday as the county's liberal district attorney announced he would take no action against the three officers who killed the suspect.
In a news release on Wednesday, Travis County District Attorney José Garza
…a wholly owned property of the Soros Foundations…
announced no action would be taken against the three police officers who killed 53-year-old Ndiaga Diagne.
…mentally unstable, antisemitic, misogynistic, racist illegal immigrant criminal from Senegal who suddenly decided to kill a bunch of people for the greater glory of Iran and Allah, but may not be the lone wolf jihadi he first appeared — exactly the kind of person the Obama administration liked to grant citizenship…
Diagne shot and killed three people and left more than a dozen other people injured on Sunday outside a bar in Austin, Texas.
"Today, the Travis County District Attorney’s Office notified the Austin Police Department that it has formally concluded its review of the mass shooting on 6th Street and will take no action against the three officers who stopped the shooting," the news release stated.
Under a 2021 policy by Garza's office, all officer-involved shooting cases were to be presented to a grand jury.
Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock told Fox News Digital he wishes Garza would have made the decision to not convene a grand jury much earlier, and said police officers are under constant fear of being targeted by the liberal district attorney.
"The reality is APD officers are more afraid of the DA targeting them than a gunman shooting at them," Bullock told Fox News Digital.
Bullock said it's the first time Garza hasn't presented an officer-involved shooting to a grand jury since implementing the policy.
Doug O'Connell, a criminal defense attorney representing the Austin police officers, told Fox News the 2021 policy was instituted at the direction of the Wren Collective, which is a criminal-justice reform group providing financial support to progressive prosecutors.
"When our current district attorney came into office about six years ago, he instituted this policy at the direction of the Wren Collective, and it's been in place since that time. Every officer-involved shooting has been presented to the grand jury," O'Connell said. "It's not required by law. It is simply a policy decision that he's instituted at the direction of Wren Collective."
Bullock said the Wren Collective has recently pushed "to increase the number of indictments against officers which can only be done through grand jury."
#1
Austin Police Association President Michael Bullock told Fox News Digital he wishes Garza would have made the decision to not convene a grand jury much earlier, and said police officers are under constant fear of being targeted by the liberal district attorney.
"The reality is APD officers are more afraid of the DA targeting them than a gunman shooting at them," Bullock told Fox News Digital.
#2
YES!! An independent impartial review should be done for any shooting.
BUT!!!! Not by a bunch of Political hacks and/or Jurors that could "accidentally" be selective picked by an ANTI-Law Enforcement Agenda click, or a DA with Grand Political career goals.
In my part of GA. the GBI reviews all county police officer/deputy shootings. ONLY THEN & IF!!! the GBI warrants it, can the DA proceed.
More Agitprop/apologia for ChiComm hegemony? "Why, yes!" Unexpectedly!
[PalladiumMag] Which ideological system a country implements depends on one crucial issue: can this ideology resolve the historical problems facing the country? In the days when the Chinese people were poor, weak, and at the mercy of others, all sorts of ideologies and theories were attempted. The capitalist road was tried and found wanting. Reformism, liberalism, social Darwinism, anarchism, pragmatism, populism, syndicalism—they all were given their moment on the stage. They all failed to solve the problems of China’s future destiny. It is Marxism-Leninism and Mao Zedong Thought that guided the Chinese people out of the darkness of that long night and established a New China; it is through socialism with Chinese characteristics that China has developed so quickly.
Now from the moment China’s opening up and reform began—and especially after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the tremendous changes in Eastern Europe—international public opinion has continuously railed against China. There has been no end to the different flavors of "China collapse" theory. Yet China has not collapsed. To the contrary, our comprehensive national strength increases day by day. The living standards of the people are constantly improving. "The scene before us is unique in its beauty."
Comrade Deng Xiaoping once made a profound observation: "Our modernization must flow from Chinese realities. No matter if it is revolution or construction, we should pay attention to, learn from, and borrow from foreign experience. However, copying other countries’ experiences and models has never been successful. We have learned a lot in this respect."
In the past it was impossible to import the Soviet system full-scale; today it is just as impossible for us to import the Western system full-scale. After the conclusion of the Cold War many developing countries were forced to adopt the Western model. The consequence of this has been party feuds, social unrest, and peoples left homeless and wandering—all of which have, to this day, been difficult to stabilize.
Why did the Soviet Union disintegrate? Why did the Communist Party of the Soviet Union fall to pieces? An important reason is that in the ideological domain, competition is fierce! To completely repudiate the historical experience of the Soviet Union, to repudiate the history of the CPSU, to repudiate Lenin, to repudiate Stalin was to wreck chaos in Soviet ideology and engage in historical nihilism. It caused Party organizations at all levels to have barely any function whatsoever. It robbed the Party of its leadership of the military. In the end the CPSU—as great a Party as it was—scattered like a flock of frightened beasts! The Soviet Union—as great a country as it was—shattered into a dozen pieces. This is a lesson from the past!
#1
"agitprop"? How does this make anyone angry?
I simply did some research and here is China's ideology from Xi himself. Sure, take his words with a grain of salt but if you want to know that they think about themselves this is it. This is like a free university course. I got the idea that a lot of posters are intelligence officers but maybe I was wrong. This is old-fashioned open source intelligence where you just buy all the magazines and newspapers and translate and summarize them for an audience.
#2
Careful Jairong, I've been bitten hard by misinformation from China related "news sources"
BTW Jairong, you might want to replace the "+s" in your signature name with spaces. Leaving the "+s" in your name somehow makes you look like an amateur.
#3
The plusses are an artifact of the last upgrade Fred and badanov did. It isn’t necessary to keep them, or indeed keep whatever Rantburg assigns to an anonymous post.
#4
You can say what you like about Chang
But at least it went off with a bang,
And it sure didn't weary
Its readers with theory
Or other ethereal thangs.
noun A set or system of theories and beliefs held by an individual or group, especially about sociopolitical goals and methods to attain them; in common usage, ideology is such a set of beliefs so strongly held by their adherents as to cause them to ignore evidence against such beliefs, and thus fall into error -- in this sense it is viewed as a negative trait; contrasted to pragmatism, and distinct from idealism.
I don't believe Dale was into CCP butt-licking as much as Jairong is, Skid.
He was more into licking Vladimir Vladimirovich.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/05/2026 9:18 Comments ||
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#8
So Xi is a communist with Chinese characteristics, meaning people get robbed Chinese-style and, if they give him any shit about it, they get murdered Chinese-style. I guess that answeres my question, Jairong. Thanks.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/05/2026 13:15 Comments ||
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#9
Of course, Mao was Chinese too so I'm still not sure how that makes any difference. Really, I don't believe it does because a commie is a commie whether he's Chinese, Russian, German, Cuban or American. A turd by any other name stinks just the same.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/05/2026 13:40 Comments ||
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#10
Maybe they won't be reading from The Little Red Book when they kneel you down and put a bullet through the back of your head.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/05/2026 13:54 Comments ||
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#14
Abu Uluque, he literally says what China has is socialism, not socialism with Chinese characteristics (this was an invention of Mao's that caused the Sino-Soviet split.) This is obviously not true, any Marxist professor will tell you a system in which the government directly controls great swathes of the economy directly is state capitalism.
It's why so many cheered when Obama bought General Motors or when Mamdani said he was going to open supermarkets in NYC.
There is an old dead movement called sewer socialism which nobody will bother to do any research on which is much the same.
I've read the Little Red Book and it's boring. It's a manual about how to overthrow a corrupt government like the KMT. About the only good thing that's in it is where Mao says the party must control the gun but the gun must never be allowed to control the party.
#15
#13 - Regardless of the nym, we'd recognize the endless blather, cut-n-paste from ChatGPT, Commie apologia.
I imagine in your native language it must be hard to pronounce Jairong+Scourge+of+the+Gepids2435.Work on it?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/05/2026 16:33 Comments ||
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#16
Another from that book club discussion at Big Wangs...
"As a child I read Deutscher entire,
Marx and Engels -- the boy was on fire! --
Then the riveting Frogs
In their fog-covered bogs...
Though no Sowell or Johnson."
Aim higher!
#17
I tried to create an account like a hundred times on this site but there is no login link I could find
We don’t have accounts — Fred made this site open for absolutely anyone to comment. :-) You can’t find the login because there isn’t one. To set your preferred nic (or is it nym? I’ve never been sure what the difference is), just delete what Rantburg gives you, in the Your Name box, type whatever you’d like it to be, and click on Submit.
Possibly Rantburg needs you to do that five times for it to remember… there’s something like that in the O Club, and I never comment enough times in a row there for the trailing wife nym to stick. The only thing I would request is that you have an interim stage where your nym is XX formerly Jairong for a few days before changing it to just plain XX, because I have a terrible memory and I’ll lose track of you. Good luck!
[NYPOST] The Baltimore mayor's office spent more than $890,000 on lavish meals and parties — including crab feasts, catered ''farewell'' bashes and massive tabs at Ravens football games, according to a report Wednesday.
Mayor Brandon Scott's administration blew taxpayer cash on over-the-top perks for staffers — including $52,589 on grub in the Mayoral Suite at Ravens and Orioles games — in a gross violation of the city's ''public funds'' rules, according to baltimorebrew.com.
One of the elaborate meals was served at a $3,636 farewell ''office party'' for Scott's former campaign manager Marvin James, which featured a $324 balloon arch, a $217 cake and a $2,600 catered spread with crab balls and grilled salmon in March 2025, according to the outlet.
James, however, didn't actually leave City Hall and is still on the payroll as the mayor's $190,000-plus-a-year senior adviser.
In total, the office spent $801,839 on meals and catering, $42,691 on floral arrangements and funeral services, and $45,646 ''unreconciled'' expenses between July 2022 and November 2025, according to the outlet.
The administration spent lavishly on food such as banana bread pudding, pizza, bottomless freshly popped popcorn and ''a fresh fruit tray available to everyone in the mayor's suite daily,'' according to the outlet, which cited a report from Inspector General Isabel Mercedes Cumming, the city's waste and fraud watchdog.
It also forked over more than $10,000 for flowers, which city regulations state shouldn't be purchased ''for any reason,'' the report states.
The investigation found other extravagant so-called ''P-Card'' — aka procurement card — expenses related to birthday celebrations, baby showers and flowers ''for a selected few, including executive leadership,'' according to the report.
At least 336 of the ''P-card'' transactions violated city rules, which require a waiver to use public funds ''for any social functions or activities'' without the express approval of the Bureau of Purchasing, Cumming notes in the report.
''[The watchdog] found that taxpayer funds were used for floral purchases for events, employee celebrations, recognition, baby arrivals, funerals bereavement and condolence,'' the report states.
When the purchasing bureau denied the mayor's office's request to use taxpayer money to host an annual crab feast, the mayor's office went to finance director Michael Mocksten, who approved the event, according to the report.
The administration has been trying over the past month to restrict Cumming's access to city financial and personnel records — which would prevent her from exposing over-the-top spending, she told the outlet.
The mayor's chief of staff, JD Merrill, defended the food and drink spending as ''legitimate expenses that support efficient and necessary operations of city government,'' according to the outlet.
#3
Democrat senator from Maryland Van Hollen did not have time for a statement nor a condolence when a Maryland mother of 5 was raped and murdered in Suburban Maryland.
But he had time to fly to Central America for GangBanger Albrego Garcia.
#4
You would think that statistically Baltimore would elect a less stupidly corrupt mayor as a random occurrence, but their streak continues. Corruption can be be complex and hard to discern, but not in the Baltimore mayoral office apparently. This is one step up from thugs looting a CVS. Maybe it’s a step down because it’s hard to catch those guys.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/05/2026 5:41 Comments ||
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#5
Every civilian public employee in the U.S. is overpaid. No exceptions.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
03/05/2026 7:09 Comments ||
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#6
^^^ and don't forget not worth a shit at the job they are over payed for.
Posted by: chris ||
03/05/2026 7:41 Comments ||
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#7
You would think that statistically Baltimore would elect a less stupidly corrupt mayor as a random occurrence
I'm totally stealing that, SH.
Posted by: Matt ||
03/05/2026 8:47 Comments ||
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#8
and don't forget not worth a shit at the job they are over payed for.
Even if they were good at doing their jobs at one time, the systems in place now no longer allow them to do so.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/05/2026 9:46 Comments ||
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#9
Try finding the law covering the abuse of taxpayer funds. It's a job in itself.
[IsraelTimes] Rev. Frederick Haynes III, who heralded antisemitic Nation of Islam leader, wins Democratic primary; weapons YouTuber Brandon Herrera progresses to GOP primary
The Reverand Frederick Haynes III, pastor to US Representative Jasmine Crockett who has praised Louis Farrakhan and whose progressive sermons have included denunciations of Israel, easily won the Democratic primary to replace his congregant in Texas’s 30th district on Tuesday.
Haynes now becomes the likely next congressman for the Dallas-area Democratic stronghold, while Crockett lost her high-profile Senate bid to state Senator James Talarico, who is also a pastor. His was one of a handful of primary results Tuesday that were closely watched by Jews and pro-Israel groups.
Haynes, a Baptist minister, had criticized Israel in a sermon the day after the October 7, 2023, attacks, and has called Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who has a history of antisemitism, "a wonderful and great man."
Shortly before the primary, he appeared on the YouTube channel The Young Turks for a friendly interview with Cenk Uygur, who, together with Tucker Carlson, has promoted conspiracy theories about Israel.
Haynes took an overwhelming 72% of the primary vote, according to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella went down under the weight of the custard... across the state, Brandon Herrera, a gun-rights YouTuber and firearms manufacturer whose videos have included reviews of Nazi weapons and recreations of Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like... ’s suicide, will advance to a runoff in his own GOP congressional primary against the 23rd district’s scandal-plagued incumbent, US Representative Tony Gonzales.
Neither candidate won more than 50% of the vote in the West Texas district, though Herrera had secured around 1,000 more votes than Gonzales as of Wednesday morning with 94% of votes tallied. The runoff will be held on May 26.
Gonzales has faced calls to step down over revelations of an affair with, and sexual coercion of, a staffer who later died by suicide, though GOP leaders did not rescind their endorsements of him. He and Herrera previously dueled to a runoff in 2024, when Gonzales ultimately bested the influencer by around 400 votes.
Since that loss, Herrera’s YouTube persona "The AK Guy" — whose output had already included a 2022 video that called Nazi weaponry "the original ghetto blaster" — uploaded a 2025 video about Hitler’s gun, replete with jokes about Nazis and the far right.
In North Carolina, a Democratic primary where Israel was also on the ballot came down to the wire. Incumbent US Representative Valerie Foushee eked out a narrow lead over her progressive challenger, Nida Allam, who conceded on Wednesday.
Foushee declared victory in a statement to news outlets that emphasized her progressive bona fides, including a stricter tone on Israel than she has taken in the past.
"The people of the 4th District demand progressive change like dismantling ICE, ensuring Medicare for All, regulating AI, establishing a Green New Deal, and passing legislation to block arms sales to Israel," Foushee’s statement said. "This remains my top priority in Congress — no matter what narrative out-of-state groups attempt to cast about my voting record."
Both Foushee and Allam, a Durham County Commissioner endorsed by US Senator Bernie Sanders
...The only first openly Socialist member of the U.S. Senate. Sanders was Representative-for-Life from Vermont until moving to the Senate for the rest of his life in 2006, assuming the seat vacated by Jim Jeffords. He ran for the 2016 nomination for president, to be cheated out of it by Hillary Clinton, then went back to being an Independent socialist, waiting for 2020 to roll around... , have criticized Israel’s actions in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and sworn off campaign support from pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC.
But Allam was also the beneficiary of a large chunk of cash from an anti-AIPAC PAC, and her campaign still tied Foushee to pro-Israel money — which had spent heavily on Foushee in her 2022 race — at a moment when many Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... are turning away from such funding sources.
On social media the day before polls opened, AIPAC stated that Foushee had "rejected AIPAC support and we are not involved in or participating in any way in this race."
#6
Here's a video he did on the really weird shotgun Kurt Cobain supposedly used to "kill himself" and why it couldn't have happened. Nazi gun is just a slur, I've seen plenty of gun youtubers try out original STG-44s (they were used by Iraqi insurgents and SDF in Syria) and that weird device that lets you shoot around corners.
I've always wanted an imperial German artillery Luger like the one Hunter S. Thompson had. Here it is in action while he's having a recreational gunfight with a neighbor. But it's a Luger so if he ran for office he'd be a Nazi gun enthusiast, too.
#7
Interesting, Grom. I guess the Muslim community is expanding — originally the Yemenis had a bunch of small prayer rooms in the First Ward of neighbouring Lackawanna, plus a single mosque on the opposite side of the city in Amherst Township for the Moslem university professors.
I agree that the Nazi-gun claim is overly broad contentiousness just for the sake of being difficult, Jairong. Not like the politician running for office up north in somewhere like Maine or Vermont who has the SS skull tattoo with certain opinions to match.
#8
Usually a House member that wants a Senate seat will run for both. If they win both they take the Senate seat and there is a subsequent special election for the House seat. Same for president and VP. I thought they had redistributed so that the seat could not be won by a Dem party hack.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/05/2026 21:29 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like...
