HEWS MEDIA GROUP
Winner of Fourteen LA Press Club Awards from 2012-2018. Serving Cerritos and ten other surrounding communities • November 5, 2021 • Vol. 36, No. 2 • loscerritosnews.net
HMG-CN INVESTIGATION:
‘Megataxers’ Hang $516 Million in Bonds on Pasadena Unified The pattern of violating Government, Education, and Elections Codes mirror those HMG-CN has exposed inside other Districts.
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS CELEBRATION AT ARTESIA CEMETERY ALTER DE OFERENDAS: Alter of offering at the Artesia Cemetery, the cemetery hosted a movie night and over 150 visitors attended, and enjoyed discounted meals, drinks and a movie.
Carpenters Memorabilia at Downey Library By Tammye McDuff To honor the career of Richard and Karen Carpenter, one of the greatest music duos of our time, the Downey City Library has established the Carpenters Collection.
Long Beach, where they were both enrolled. That group was also short-lived. Phenomenal success was just around the corner, though. Richard and Karen signed a contract with A&M record in 1969. Their first single, "Ticket to Ride,"
Appeals Court Dismisses Lawsuit by Gaming Tribes Against Cardrooms By Brian Hews Last week, the California Fourth District Court of Appeals affirmed a San Diego Superior Court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by several gaming tribes against Southern California cardrooms; the Gardens, Commerce, and Bicycle Casinos are included in that list. The Court held that the tribes
See CASINOS page 12
BY BRIAN HEWS AND THE IRISHMAN HMG-CN’s exposé has outlined the malfeasance of the Megataxers and their school board allies in passing bonds. We have outlined the corruption in Bassett Unified’s $50 million bond, with a cost to taxpayers of $96 million; Citrus College’s $298 million bond, with a cost of half billion; Duarte Unified’s $79 million bond, with a cost of $148 million; Inglewood Unified's $240 million bond, with a cost of nearly half billion. All told, $670 million in bonds, over $1.3 billion in costs to taxpayers. We have revealed school board members using illegal processes to approve bonds, rubber-stamped by their chosen law firms. We have found violations of the State’s Education Code and Elections code. Exposed District
officials in a conflict of interest position, opening political committees acting as treasurers in charge of the cash. Finally, we exposed blatant conflicts of interest between firms donating large sums of cash to the bond committees, and then landing lucrative contacts for construction after the bond passes. Now we look into Pasadena Unified, but first, some background. Ever play checkers? In 2016, San Francisco Unified School District not only passed Proposition A for the authority to issue $744 million in public school bonds, at a cost of well over $1 Billion, the Board also placed Proposition N on the ballot to allow non-citizen voting in school board elections. Proposition N allowed parents, legal guardians, and caretakers of children to vote in school board elections and bond elections. Professor Keith Shirey provided profound insight, “Plato’s greatest of lessons is that virtue must be caught, it cannot be taught.” Confucius also advised, “If your plan is for one year,
See MEGATAXERS page 12
DOWNEY NATIVES Richard and Karen Carpenter's music memorabilia on display now through the end of April 2022. In 1963, the Carpenter family moved to Downey, where Richard and Karen attended Downey High School. They helped form an instrumental trio in 1965, which won a battle of the bands at the Hollywood Bowl. The group was signed to a recording contract, but their songs were never released. After disbanding, Richard and Karen formed a new vocal group at California State University,
was a modest hit, but their next release, "Close to You," was a number one best-seller, with over one million copies bought. During the next several years, the Carpenters achieved fame with a string of top-40 hits and sold-out concerts around the world. They were three-time Grammy winners, made numerous television appearances, even debuting their own television se-
See CARPENTERS page 12
PICO RIVERA CONSIDERS NAMING RIGHTS FOR MINI-PITCH THE PICO RIVERA Council, at their last meeting, considered entering into a naming rights contract for their new mini-pitch soccer field with the Roldan Brothers; Christian, Alex, and Cesar. Christian and Alex are both pro soccer players; Cesar is L.A. Galaxy coach. All are from Pico Rivera. See page 4.