By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Most people would go, Zach you don’t get to make endorsements, but I do! This will actually be the second endorsement that I make as severely underfunded independent journalist covering politics, investigations and media in Los Angeles. That’s something that newspapers do, and with all the discussion lately about the endorsements made at the Los Angeles Times, like Nika Soon-Shiong alone was the only reason they endorsed Karen Bass and Kenneth Mejia, it’s come to the point where I feel no shame at all in saying that I want Aura Vasquez on the Los Angeles City Council.

On March 5, 2024 voters will go to the polls for the primary election, the top two without regard to party advanced the final stage. In the Council District 10 race, which covers neighborhoods ranging from Koreatown to West Adams to the north and west, and even down to the Baldwin Hills along Crenshaw Boulevard. This was the district held by Mark Ridley-Thomas, and after he was suspended from Los Angeles City Council and eventually Heather Hutt was appointed to serve as the interim councilmember, and later voted in as a full voting member of the Council.

Link:https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-69-with-love-in-defense-of-los

Part 68: Religion in Hollywood – Scientology and the LAPD vs. Social Media Influencers
Published January 21, 2024

By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Well Rolling Stone went for it, so I might as well too! On January 10, the legendary publication put out a piece entitled: “How TikTok Accidentally Created a Scientology Heartthrob” by journalist EJ Dickson. It was subtitled “A group of protesters is trying to "end" Scientology — but a social media obsession with one person could derail the movement” because Lord knows you better have something catchy there, because the last thing I would want to see happen is a movement against this controversial institution derailed with the questions I have about what’s going on in Los Angeles lately. Not too poke at the cult group too much, but it’s that time!

The story profiled the efforts of fitness model Jessica Palmadessa and cop watcher William Gude, better known by his handle Film the Police LA. Now Gude to some is a controversial figure, and full disclosure I’ve interviewed Gude before on background to learn more about the relationship between USC, the LAPD and wait for it, the Church of Scientology. You could literally make a chart out of this, and I admire his passion for keeping an eye on the Los Angeles Police Department even as some may find his approach confrontational much like that of street vendor activist Edin Alex Enamorado. Gude even did me a solid helping seek tips on USC Senior Vice President Sam Garrison after the LA Fed Tapes leak.

Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-68-religion-in-hollywood-scientology

Part 67: Understanding the Culture of Indifference – Can The Los Angeles Times Be Saved?
Published January 19, 2024

By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Today was a wild day in Los Angeles. For the first time in their 142 year history Los Angeles Times journalists organized by the newsroom guild organized a work stoppage, and I was there to see it in the newly renamed Gloria Molina Park next to Los Angeles City Hall. It was a slightly overcast mood, and after parking I struck up conversation with Richard Serrano, who ran as a write-in candidate in the Council District 6 Special Election to replace former Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez in April 2023 following the LA Fed Tapes leak..

They won’t be renaming any parks after Nury, that’s for sure, not after the racist Tapes which cost her the seat as President of said governing body. After assuring Serrano of my diligent follow-up as always, I went to see the wildness myself of what I heard were 350 journalists at the Los Angeles Times rejecting the proposal of billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong to cut 20% percent of their workforce. This comes following the departure of top Editor Kevin Merida last week over the matter, as well as unspecified editorial decisions.

Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-67-understanding-the-culture

BY MEG JAMES
SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
JAN. 18, 2024 UPDATED 4:55 PM PT

Los Angeles Times newsroom guild leaders called for a one-day walkout Friday to protest planned cuts to offset steep financial losses that owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong and his family have absorbed since acquiring the paper nearly six years ago.

The Times disclosed Thursday that substantial layoffs were coming due to a widening budget deficit. The one-day strike represents the newsroom’s first union-organized work stoppage in the paper’s 142-year history.

Management has not publicly disclosed the number of newsroom positions that will be eliminated, but knowledgeable people said the plan is to lay off at least 100 journalists, or about 20% of the newsroom — the largest staff cut since the paper was owned by Tribune Co.

Link: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2024-01-18/la-times-guild-calls-for-one-day-walkout-to-protest-looming-staff-cuts

By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

I’m not making this up, the University of Southern California, USC has a rape cover-up problem. In fact, they have a very big rape cover-up problem. In prior parts of my reports on this topic, specifically Part 49 and Part 55, I couched this language out of the interest of moving my journalistic inquiry slowly to corroborate my initial assessment of the recovered Notice of Investigation. Now there’s no question about it, it’s not my speculation, in fact, it’s been reviewed by three experts in Title IX campus policy and law to fully verify my reporting.

USC has a very, very big rape cover-up problem. Even my Jane Doe, a brave whistleblower who contacted me after I conducted brief online outreach seems surprised that I have just identified the accused John with an allegation of sexual assault, as they say, doing so would undoubtedly create quite a stir when you finally pull the big reveal on the secret. I won’t do that though, because that wouldn’t protect the source, but at the same time, now that USC has seen fit after more than 2.5 years to offer her a Live Hearing, I’m not about to let them win this battle!

https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-65-usc-has-a-rape-cover-up-problem

By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Last Saturday I had a feeling that the departures were about to come, but the first one I wasn’t quite expecting. On Monday the Los Angeles Times announced that billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong and top Editor Kevin Merida, a veteran journalist, had agreed to part ways. Merida would issue his own statement, and the New York Times would report that the dispute centered not only around business issues, but also editorial decisions. That the information in the newspaper is in dispute.

New York Times journalist Benjamin Mullen reported that this related principally to Merida’s handling of response to journalists signing a letter in support of Palestine, and that owner Patrick Soon-Shiong had sided with his daughter Nika Soon-Shiong against Merida. I was slightly less sure that this issue alone was the sole editorial decision that broke the camel’s back, the departure came only weeks after the bombshell report by journalists Libor Jany and Richard Winton that Los Angeles Police Department Chief Michel Moore had engaged in political meddling.

https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-64-los-angeles-deluged-in-scandals

BY NATHAN SOLIS, GUSTAVO ARELLANO
JAN. 10, 2024 11:10 PM PT

In early September, Edin Enamorado took to social media to ask his hundreds of thousands of followers to help find a security guard who had attacked a group of street vendors in Pomona.

“We’ll be holding him accountable,” Enamorado said in his livestream video from outside the Pomona police station, where he chastised police for not investigating the attack.

Several hours later, the security guard was lying on the floor of an El Super Market, battered and blasted with pepper spray by a group of activists allegedly led by Enamorado, according to the San Bernardino County district attorney’s office.

Now Enamorado, who has portrayed himself on social media as the voice of underserved communities and the loudest critic among an army of activists who have publicly shamed law enforcement officials and racists, is behind bars, accused of committing a pattern of “ritualized harassment to gain notoriety,” according to prosecutors.

Link: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-01-10/street-vendor-criminal-trial

Part 63: Terms of Whistleblowing and Love – Institutional Retaliation and Community Response

By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist
January 11, 2024

I have no grand journalistic ambitions for this part, we’ll save that for tomorrow, but for now I want to deliver on a long considered idea to write broadly about how love and whistleblowing relate, and how institutional retaliation targets both workplace and private relationships. I was planning to do this after reading Whistleblower of America founder Jackie Garrick’s enterprising 2022 book The Psychosocial Impacts of Whistleblower Retaliation: Shattering Employee Resilience and the Workplace Promise, but my copy somehow was not provided by the vendor despite weeks of hope.

Still I’m not going to let a little snafu like that get in the way of timely story telling. If you’re considering being a whistleblower, and value your family, even the love of your life, the employer playbook is to absolutely go after that in a targeted way to not only rob the whistleblower of their income pursuant to hostile termination, but also simultaneously damage their personal relationships. People often question my story, but I’m not saying anything radically different about the University of Southern California than was said by one of their own workplace investigators in July 2020.

Link: https://open.substack.com/pub/zacharyellison/p/part-63-terms-of-whistleblowing-and?r=1symt8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Lawsuit reveals details of LASD deputy shooting off colleague’s tattoo
A deputy sheriff who lied about shooting his colleague’s gang tattoo off was promoted under former Sheriff Alex Villanueva.
by Cerise Castle
01/09/2024 9:00 am

Internal investigatory files from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department obtained through a lawsuit filed by Knock LA reveal more details surrounding an incident where a deputy shot off another deputy’s gang tattoo during a camping trip.

In the early hours of Sunday October 18, 2015, Wyatt Waldron shot Travis Jonsen during a group overnight at the Dove Springs desert campground area in Kern County, according to the released internal records. The records confirm at least 22 other men, all who were then-current or former Palmdale station deputy sheriffs, were also on the trip. Neither Waldron nor Jonsen responded to a request for comment.

The incident caught the attention of the LA County Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission following Knock LA’s reporting. In February of 2023, the commission published a report investigating deputy gangs in LASD that asserted the shooting was in “retaliation for an act objected to by the Cowboys.”

Link: https://lapublicpress.org/2024/01/villanueva-deputy-gang-promotion/

By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

“I love LA!” The saying goes. In the land of the stars anything seems possible, but it would be hard to notice that Hollywood hasn’t become a little more diminished in our media landscape even before the writing and acting unions went on strike last year threatening to halt production. The effects weren’t immediate, and perhaps the highlight was Hear in LA journalist Tony Pierce capturing actor Ron Perlman rebuking studio executives who had been caught suggesting their striking workers should lose their homes. It was a watershed moment of mass frustration, of righteous anger.

“There’s a lot of ways to lose your house, some it is financial, some of it is karma, and some of it just figuring out who the fuck said that, and we know who said that, and where he fucking lives,” Perlman said in the viral video clip, in what some would later remark could be a threatening tone from the Sons of Anarchy actor. Perlman was talking about a studio executive, but the equation that loss is brought on my one’s own conduct, and that the source of a remark could be determined. Perlman didn’t know where the anonymous studio executive lived, but he was ready to take action in the fighting spirit of the common man being oppressed unduly by the overly powerful.

Link: https://zacharyellison.substack.com/p/part-62-substack-has-an-insurrection