$2.00 DESIGNATED AREAS HIGHER
© 2017 WSCE
D
latimes.com
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017
Brown warns of deficit in new budget Governor predicts a $1.6-billion gap and urges fiscal prudence. Education spending would be hit hardest. By John Myers
Lucas Museum of Narrative Art
A RENDERING shows proposed Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, with Coliseum nearby. The newcomer
would alter the local art museum landscape; L.A.’s mayor says it will bring a legion of construction jobs.
NEW FORCE IN L.A.
George Lucas sets sights on Exposition Park for museum By Deborah Vankin For months, “Star Wars” creator George Lucas held the art world in suspense: Would he put his $1-billion Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles or San Francisco? On Tuesday came the answer. Lucas’ personal collection of fine and popular art, including ephemera related to his “Star Wars” franchise, will fill a futuristic-looking new museum planned for L.A.’s Exposition Park that beat out a competing design for Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay. The rivalry had pitted the two cities in the competition not only for Lucas’ collection and the tourism it will bring but also for the thousands of jobs that backers said the project will create. Lucas has said he will fund the project to the tune of about $1 billion, including building costs, his art and
Michael Kovac Getty Images
“STAR WARS” creator Lucas
has spent years trying to erect a museum for his art collection.
an endowment of at least $400 million. The Lucas Museum further expands the art museum landscape in greater L.A., which has become a global hot spot for art production. The Broad museum opened in late 2015 in downtown L.A., across the street from the Museum of Contemporary Art. The former Santa Monica Museum of Art will reopen in the Arts District this fall, renamed the Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles. Meanwhile, the noncollecting Main Museum made a soft debut in downtown’s Old Bank District in October. “It feels like this incredible gift has come home. I always thought Los Angeles was the natural place to spread the vision of George Lucas and Mellody Hobson, to make art and creativity accessible and inspirational to the next generation,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said of the filmmaker and his wife. “It’s [See Lucas, A8]
SACRAMENTO — Less than four years after declaring California’s budget balanced for the foreseeable future, Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday said the state is projected to run a $1.6-billion deficit by next summer — a noticeable shift in the state’s fiscal stability that could worsen under federal spending cuts championed by President-elect Donald Trump. “The trajectory of revenue growth is declining,” Brown said in unveiling his $179.5-billion plan for the fiscal year that begins in July. The governor’s sober assessment comes on the heels of several months of lagging tax revenue collections, a change in the state’s fortunes that could stifle his fellow Democrats’ call for additional spending and give fuel to Republican demands for additional cuts. Brown’s budget advisors lowered the official tax revenue forecast, in part, because of slower than expected growth in wages. They also reduced expectations for sales and corporate taxes because of broader national trends. Brown proposed to address the deficit primarily by slowing the growth in spending on public schools by $1.7 billion, a change that brings funding down to the minimum required by for-
L.A. targets ‘pay to play’ image Officials seek to block campaign gifts from builders with projects under city review. By David Zahniser and Emily Alpert Reyes Real estate developers have long been a pivotal part of political fundraising at Los Angeles City Hall, bankrolling the campaigns of mayors, City Council members and other elected officials. That phenomenon has fueled persistent suspicions that campaign contributions — not established planning rules — influence
the votes of local lawmakers as they approve shopping malls, hotel towers and other building projects. Now a handful of Los Angeles lawmakers are calling for a ban on such donations from real estate developers, saying they want to counter the perception that money drives those decisions. The proposal, unveiled Tuesday by City Council members David Ryu, Joe Buscaino, Paul Krekorian, Paul Koretz and Mike Bonin, would direct city officials to draft a new law that would prohibit donations from development companies and their principals during, and shortly after, city reviews of their building projects. [See Contributions, A12]
Former sheriff faces a retrial
Drought-ravaged lakes revived
Federal prosecutors will press ahead with a new obstruction of justice trial for ex-L.A. Sheriff Lee Baca. CALIFORNIA
Weeks of rain have dramatically raised water levels in the state’s reservoirs. CALIFORNIA
Weather Morning rain. L.A. Basin: 63/52. B6
mulas enshrined in California’s Constitution. The governor also proposed scrapping $1.5 billion worth of spending ideas left over from last year’s budget negotiations, including higher subsidies for childcare programs and awarding new college scholarships to California students from middle-class families. “To manage unreliability requires prudence,” Brown said of his decisions to address the projected budget shortfall. The governor’s fiscal blueprint is the ceremonial first pitch in Sacramento’s annual budget writing season, and, as such, the details will shift in coming months to address changing fiscal conditions. That could include any effort by the nation’s ruling Republicans to rethink any of the $105 billion in federal funding promises the state expects to receive for a variety of services. The most consequential [See Budget, A9]
Sessions defends rights record At his confirmation hearing, he also vows to uphold laws at odds with his own views. By Del Quentin Wilber
Zbigniew Bzdak Chicago Tribune
“I AM asking you to believe not in my ability to bring about change, but in yours,”
said Obama, with wife Michelle, daughter Malia and Vice President Joe Biden.
‘Yes, we did. Yes, we can’ In his farewell address, Obama warns of threats to democracy but calls for optimism. By Christi Parsons and Michael A. Memoli CHICAGO — President Obama reprised his message of hope and change Tuesday as an antidote to an unstable world, delivering a
farewell address in which he exhorted allies to keep the faith as President-elect Donald Trump assumes power but also painted a realist’s portrait of the threats to democracy. From his adopted hometown of Chicago, Obama spoke frankly about the dangers posed by economic inequality, divisiveness and a lack of a “common baseline of facts” in public discourse. He returned again and again to the importance of pre-
serving and upholding democracy. But in refashioning his winning 2008 campaign message for 2017, he asked the crowd of friends and supporters to hold fast to their optimism and to look within for leadership. “I am asking you to believe not in my ability to bring about change, but in yours,” Obama said. “I am asking you to hold fast to that faith written into our [See Obama, A6]
WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Sessions forcefully defended his civil rights record Tuesday and pledged, if confirmed as the nation’s next attorney general, to put aside his personal views and uphold laws protecting abortion and same-sex marriage. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee as President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Justice Department, Sessions also vowed to recuse himself from decisions involving former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified material. The daylong confirmation hearing was a mostly collegial affair with fellow senators politely prodding the 70-year-old former federal prosecutor to explain his record on issues ranging from torture to immigration. As a longtime member of the committee now reviewing his expected nomination to become the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Sessions has sat on the opposite side of the witness table for five previous confirmation hearings for attorney general candidates. So it’s no surprise that the seasoned Alabama lawmaker avoided any self-inflicted wounds during his testimony, keeping his composure amid questioning and periodic disruptions from protesters in the audi[See Sessions, A9]
F O R YO U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE B E ST O R I G I N A L S CO R E