latimes--2020-11-05--Missing girl, 14, found hidden in closet; authorities uncover trapdoor in Calaveras County home

A weeklong search to find a missing 14-year-old in Calaveras County ended Friday when authorities discovered a trapdoor leading to a makeshift sleeping area under a home where the girl had gone to spend the night and found the teen hiding in a closet , sheriff ’ s officials said .
Three adults were arrested in connection with the Sacramento area incident , which was initially reported as a missing person ’ s case , authorities said .
Isaiah Haggard , 20 , and his mother , Annie Pearl Abernathy , 41 , both of West Point , were charged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the delinquency of a minor and providing false information to a peace officer , court records show .
They were being held in lieu of $ 100,000 each , but their bail was lowered to $ 20,000 each , according to the Calaveras County Sheriff ’ s Office .
Another West Point man , whom sheriff ’ s officials identified as Jose Tinocopureco , 34 , was arrested on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and providing false information to a peace officer .
He has since been released from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Before the girl was reported missing by her family , she was given permission to spend a few nights at her friend ’ s West Point home , southeast of Sacramento , authorities said .
When her grandmother arrived to pick the teen up on Oct. 22 , the adults in charge told the woman she had already left .
The girl ’ s family immediately called sheriff ’ s deputies , who came to the house to investigate , according to a news release .
Deputies interviewed Abernathy , Haggard and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a tenant in the house , Sgt .
Greg Stark said .
“ Occupants at the residence told deputies that [ the girl ] had left and was last observed walking down the driveway , ” a sheriff ’ s release said .
The Times is not naming the girl to protect her privacy .
Detectives launched a broad investigation into the missing teen , interviewing friends and acquaintances , canvassing the area and searching through the girl ’ s cellphone records .
Meanwhile , Stark said , the girl ’ s family @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she had last been seen , leading the homeowners to ask for law enforcement patrols to protect them from “ being harassed by local townspeople.
” “ They were painting themselves as the victims when they were , in fact , victimizing , ” he said .
Although detectives had already searched the house when the child was first reported missing , “ new information ” led them back to the property eight days later , according to a news release .
Detectives obtained a search warrant to secure the suspects ’ electronic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some communication between the occupants and [ the girl ] , ” Stark said .
When sheriff ’ s deputies returned to the property Friday , Haggard and Abernathy met them in the front yard and insisted the girl was not there .
Inside the house , deputies found a man who was not identified who had a warrant for an unrelated , minor crime and cited him , according to Stark , who added that there were also other children of Abernathy ’ s inside .
Officials found the missing girl hidden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crossbow , Stark said .
“ Detectives located [ the girl ] deep within the corners of two adjoining closets as she was intentionally hiding amongst densely hanging clothes , ” a news release said .
“ [ She ] was removed from the closet and found to be unharmed.
” The girl spoke with deputies and did not require immediate medical attention , Stark said .
It was unclear why she was in the closet , but authorities said she was “ intentionally hiding.
” “ I don ’ t think it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Stark said .
“ The suspects in this case failed her at every turn .
They could have gotten her help .
...
They took advantage of a 14-year-old girl.
” The officers also found a trapdoor leading to a hiding spot on the dirt floor under the house , according to the news release , where they discovered the girl ’ s phone among some makeshift bedding .
“ We ’ re not sure if she was sleeping there only [ or ] if she was there continually being concealed , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was sleeping in a hole under a house , ” Stark said .
Child Protective Services temporarily took custody of Abernathy ’ s other children after their mother was arrested until other family members could collect them , according to Stark .

A Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office photo shows a hidden compartment in the house where a 14-year-old who had been missing for several days apparently slept.
A weeklong search to find a missing 14-year-old in Calaveras County ended Friday when authorities discovered a trapdoor leading to a makeshift sleeping area under a home where the girl had gone to spend the night and found the teen hiding in a closet, sheriff’s officials said.
Three adults were arrested in connection with the Sacramento area incident, which was initially reported as a missing person’s case, authorities said.
Isaiah Haggard, 20, and his mother, Annie Pearl Abernathy, 41, both of West Point, were charged with felony child endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and providing false information to a peace officer, court records show. They were being held in lieu of $100,000 each, but their bail was lowered to $20,000 each, according to the Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office.
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Another West Point man, whom sheriff’s officials identified as Jose Tinocopureco, 34, was arrested on suspicion of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and providing false information to a peace officer. He has since been released from custody, sheriff’s officials said.
Before the girl was reported missing by her family, she was given permission to spend a few nights at her friend’s West Point home, southeast of Sacramento, authorities said. When her grandmother arrived to pick the teen up on Oct. 22, the adults in charge told the woman she had already left. The girl’s family immediately called sheriff’s deputies, who came to the house to investigate, according to a news release.
Deputies interviewed Abernathy, Haggard and Tinocopureco, the latter of whom was a tenant in the house, Sgt. Greg Stark said.
“Occupants at the residence told deputies that [the girl] had left and was last observed walking down the driveway,” a sheriff’s release said.
The Times is not naming the girl to protect her privacy.
Detectives launched a broad investigation into the missing teen, interviewing friends and acquaintances, canvassing the area and searching through the girl’s cellphone records. Meanwhile, Stark said, the girl’s family members occasionally drove by the property where she had last been seen, leading the homeowners to ask for law enforcement patrols to protect them from “being harassed by local townspeople.”
“They were painting themselves as the victims when they were, in fact, victimizing,” he said.
Although detectives had already searched the house when the child was first reported missing, “new information” led them back to the property eight days later, according to a news release.
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Detectives obtained a search warrant to secure the suspects’ electronic devices. “They believed there was some communication between the occupants and [the girl],” Stark said.
When sheriff’s deputies returned to the property Friday, Haggard and Abernathy met them in the front yard and insisted the girl was not there. Inside the house, deputies found a man who was not identified who had a warrant for an unrelated, minor crime and cited him, according to Stark, who added that there were also other children of Abernathy’s inside.
Officials found the missing girl hidden in a closet, crouching beside a crossbow, Stark said.
A photo shows the closet where a missing 14-year-old was found in Calaveras County. (Calaveras County Sheriff’s Office)
“Detectives located [the girl] deep within the corners of two adjoining closets as she was intentionally hiding amongst densely hanging clothes,” a news release said. “[She] was removed from the closet and found to be unharmed.”
The girl spoke with deputies and did not require immediate medical attention, Stark said. It was unclear why she was in the closet, but authorities said she was “intentionally hiding.”
“I don’t think it matters what she was doing,” Stark said. “The suspects in this case failed her at every turn. They could have gotten her help. ... They took advantage of a 14-year-old girl.”
The officers also found a trapdoor leading to a hiding spot on the dirt floor under the house, according to the news release, where they discovered the girl’s phone among some makeshift bedding.
“We’re not sure if she was sleeping there only [or] if she was there continually being concealed, but it’s pretty obvious that she was sleeping in a hole under a house,” Stark said.
Child Protective Services temporarily took custody of Abernathy’s other children after their mother was arrested until other family members could collect them, according to Stark.


latimes--2020-11-05--DJ Marshmello's souped-up truck is stolen and becomes star of a televised L.A. pursuit

A monster truck owned by music producer and DJ Marshmello was stolen Wednesday night from a Ford dealership in Van Nuys , and the thief took the 3½-ton pickup on a joyride before crashing into a light pole , authorities said .
The enormous , custom-built black Ford F-550 6x6 was stolen from the service bay of a dealership on Roscoe Boulevard and belongs to Marshmello Music , according to the California Highway Patrol .
A man rode up to the dealership on a bicycle , tossed the bike into the bed of the $ 550,000 truck and drove off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A few hours later , Los Angeles County sheriff ’ s deputies spotted the truck driving recklessly near Malibu Knolls and Piuma roads , authorities said .
Deputies began to pursue the souped-up pickup , continuing the televised chase onto the southbound 101 Freeway , where CHP officers took over the pursuit .
Dave Sparks , the truck ’ s custom designer , posted a short video of the pursuit on Instagram and said that Marshmello ’ s team had contacted him to say the 26-foot truck , which he had left @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been stolen .
Video showed the pursuit eventually left the freeway and moved onto the wide boulevards of the San Fernando Valley .
A spike strip set across the truck ’ s path did little to stop the custom-built six-wheel vehicle .
An attempt to use a PIT move — a pursuit intervention technique in which police cruisers tap the rear of a vehicle in an effort to force it to spin out — also failed .
But shortly after 10 p.m. , the driver , whom authorities later identified as Edward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ while exiting a Taco Bell parking lot and drove up onto a sidewalk , where he sheared off a light pole .
CHP officers quickly surrounded the truck , and Cruz , 27 , surrendered without a struggle .
Investigators think drugs or alcohol may have been involved .
The Van Nuys man was booked on suspicion of grand theft auto and felony evading police , according to the California Highway Patrol .

CHP officers chased a Ford F-550 6x6 that was stolen from the service bay of a Ford dealership in Van Nuys until the driver crashed into a light pole in Valley Glen. The truck belongs to mega-producer DJ Marshmello.
A monster truck owned by music producer and DJ Marshmello was stolen Wednesday night from a Ford dealership in Van Nuys, and the thief took the 3½-ton pickup on a joyride before crashing into a light pole, authorities said.
The enormous, custom-built black Ford F-550 6x6 was stolen from the service bay of a dealership on Roscoe Boulevard and belongs to Marshmello Music, according to the California Highway Patrol.
A man rode up to the dealership on a bicycle, tossed the bike into the bed of the $550,000 truck and drove off into the night, CHP officials said.
A few hours later, Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies spotted the truck driving recklessly near Malibu Knolls and Piuma roads, authorities said. Deputies began to pursue the souped-up pickup, continuing the televised chase onto the southbound 101 Freeway, where CHP officers took over the pursuit.
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Dave Sparks, the truck’s custom designer, posted a short video of the pursuit on Instagram and said that Marshmello’s team had contacted him to say the 26-foot truck, which he had left at the dealership to be serviced, had been stolen.
Video showed the pursuit eventually left the freeway and moved onto the wide boulevards of the San Fernando Valley. A spike strip set across the truck’s path did little to stop the custom-built six-wheel vehicle. An attempt to use a PIT move — a pursuit intervention technique in which police cruisers tap the rear of a vehicle in an effort to force it to spin out — also failed.
But shortly after 10 p.m., the driver, whom authorities later identified as Edward Cruz, lost control of the truck while exiting a Taco Bell parking lot and drove up onto a sidewalk, where he sheared off a light pole.
CHP officers quickly surrounded the truck, and Cruz, 27, surrendered without a struggle. Investigators think drugs or alcohol may have been involved.
The Van Nuys man was booked on suspicion of grand theft auto and felony evading police, according to the California Highway Patrol.


latimes--2020-11-05--After winning Prop. 22, Lyft president says he still wants a deal with unions

Lyft President John Zimmer is extending an olive branch to his labor foes .
After the company he co-founded notched a decisive victory on Proposition 22 in Tuesday ’ s election , he said he ’ s ready and willing to return to the California Capitol and work out a deal that allows the unions that opposed his campaign to represent workers in the industry .
“ We ’ re ready to work with labor leaders and all interested parties who want to move forward and build a stronger safety net , ” Zimmer said in an interview with The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a way we can work more together , which to me seems totally attainable and seems better , then we should pursue that.
” Zimmer ’ s desire for peace may seem unusual after his company joined Uber , DoorDash , Instacart and Postmates in spending an unprecedented $ 200 million to win the ballot fight and keep ride-hail and delivery drivers classified as independent contractors , a major triumph for business and turning point in the conversation about the future of work .
Lyft ’ s offer to negotiate also came just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fight against ride-hail and delivery companies , a reminder of the gulf between labor and business on how to treat a workplace behind the wheel .
Zimmer has two potential paths forward after Election Day .
He and his allies can use the momentum of their election win to end the feud with unions and strike a deal on a framework for an independent workforce with union representation that can be replicated in other states or at the federal level .
Or they can continue an expensive and bitter battle with labor in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ around the country .
Some in labor were skeptical about a deal and view the latter path as more likely unless a compromise between labor and the app-based companies is brokered in another state .
But Rome Aloise , vice president-Western Region for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and president of Teamsters Joint Council 7 in California , said the union could be open to continuing conversations .
“ If you don ’ t have a discussion , you can never resolve an issue , ” Aloise said .
Labor and rideshare and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over worker classification for several years .
Unions helped pass Assembly Bill 5 in 2019 to require more companies to treat their workers as employees and provide benefits and job protections .
Gov .
Gavin Newsom urged a compromise to grant Uber and Lyft an exemption to the state law .
When those talks between the app-based companies and unions halted , the companies responded with Proposition 22 .
Closely watched across the country , the passage of the measure sent a signal to corporations , proving they had a new way to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ paying a full suite of worker benefits — even in a deep-blue state that is a labor stronghold .
“ People wanted to see where voters stood and this helps clarify that , ” Zimmer said of Proposition 22 ’ s approval .
Parties on all sides say a deal could allow for some form of sectoral collective bargaining and the creation of employer-funded portable benefits for industry workers .
Zimmer said voters settled the debate about treating app-based workers as independent contractors .
Whether the different factions of organized labor at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , or can agree to what exactly a deal would entail , remains unclear .
Labor conceded on Tuesday night before Uber and Lyft were officially declared the winners of the Proposition 22 ballot measure contest with 58 % of the vote .
But the statement from the California Labor Federation read more like a declaration of war than an opening for new conversations .
“ The obscene amount of money these multi-billion dollar corporations spent misleading the public doesn ’ t absolve them of their duty to pay drivers a living wage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the pandemic deepens or repay taxpayers for the nearly half a billion these companies have cheated from our state unemployment fund , ” said Art Pulaski , the executive secretary treasurer of the California Labor Federation .
“ The end of this campaign is only the beginning in the fight to ensure gig workers are provided fair wages , sick pay and care when they ’ re hurt at work.
” Among concerns that stalled earlier negotiations , unions worried that any special employment rules created for Uber and Lyft could open the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their workers as employees if they don ’ t want to pay traditional benefits .
Some questioned sectoral bargaining , an untested form of representation in California .
Tuesday ’ s election results dealt a blow to organized labor and gave app-based companies the upper hand , but the measure also created new roadblocks .
Some in labor argue that the language Uber and Lyft included in Proposition 22 , requiring a seven-eighths vote of the Legislature to make future amendments , all but nixes any hope of legislators settling the dispute .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ challenge that provision of the measure in court .
Although both legislative houses maintained their Democratic supermajority on Tuesday , with Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins picking up at least one seat and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon losing one , reaching the seven-eighths threshold to change the measure would be politically difficult and require support from several Republicans .
Representatives for Uber declined to comment on the possibility of a deal .
When asked what it would take to bring unions and the industry together again , Zimmer pointed to Newsom .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ opportunity to forge a deal after his previous attempts failed .
Wedged between labor unions and tech companies , the governor remained neutral on Proposition 22 .
Days before the election , he said his neutrality afforded him the benefit of being in a better position to broker a compromise “ if there is a need , a desire.
” “ We need political leaders and third parties to pull us together , ” Zimmer said .
“ I ’ ve tried .
I ’ ve listened and I will continue to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are parties , like the governor ... they have a willing and ready partner in Lyft and myself .
”

Lyft President John Zimmer is extending an olive branch to his labor foes.
After the company he co-founded notched a decisive victory on Proposition 22 in Tuesday’s election, he said he’s ready and willing to return to the California Capitol and work out a deal that allows the unions that opposed his campaign to represent workers in the industry.
“We’re ready to work with labor leaders and all interested parties who want to move forward and build a stronger safety net,” Zimmer said in an interview with The Times. “If there’s a way we can work more together, which to me seems totally attainable and seems better, then we should pursue that.”
Zimmer’s desire for peace may seem unusual after his company joined Uber, DoorDash, Instacart and Postmates in spending an unprecedented $200 million to win the ballot fight and keep ride-hail and delivery drivers classified as independent contractors, a major triumph for business and turning point in the conversation about the future of work. Lyft’s offer to negotiate also came just hours after labor threatened to expand its fight against ride-hail and delivery companies, a reminder of the gulf between labor and business on how to treat a workplace behind the wheel.
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Zimmer has two potential paths forward after Election Day. He and his allies can use the momentum of their election win to end the feud with unions and strike a deal on a framework for an independent workforce with union representation that can be replicated in other states or at the federal level. Or they can continue an expensive and bitter battle with labor in California and in statehouses and on ballots around the country.
Some in labor were skeptical about a deal and view the latter path as more likely unless a compromise between labor and the app-based companies is brokered in another state.
But Rome Aloise, vice president-Western Region for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and president of Teamsters Joint Council 7 in California, said the union could be open to continuing conversations.
“If you don’t have a discussion, you can never resolve an issue,” Aloise said.
Labor and rideshare and delivery companies have been fighting in California over worker classification for several years. Unions helped pass Assembly Bill 5 in 2019 to require more companies to treat their workers as employees and provide benefits and job protections.
Gov. Gavin Newsom urged a compromise to grant Uber and Lyft an exemption to the state law. When those talks between the app-based companies and unions halted, the companies responded with Proposition 22.
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Closely watched across the country, the passage of the measure sent a signal to corporations, proving they had a new way to write their own employment classifications and avoid paying a full suite of worker benefits — even in a deep-blue state that is a labor stronghold.
“People wanted to see where voters stood and this helps clarify that,” Zimmer said of Proposition 22’s approval.
Parties on all sides say a deal could allow for some form of sectoral collective bargaining and the creation of employer-funded portable benefits for industry workers. Zimmer said voters settled the debate about treating app-based workers as independent contractors.
Whether the different factions of organized labor at the California Capitol share a willingness to negotiate, or can agree to what exactly a deal would entail, remains unclear.
Labor conceded on Tuesday night before Uber and Lyft were officially declared the winners of the Proposition 22 ballot measure contest with 58% of the vote. But the statement from the California Labor Federation read more like a declaration of war than an opening for new conversations.
“The obscene amount of money these multi-billion dollar corporations spent misleading the public doesn’t absolve them of their duty to pay drivers a living wage, provide PPE to protect workers as the pandemic deepens or repay taxpayers for the nearly half a billion these companies have cheated from our state unemployment fund,” said Art Pulaski, the executive secretary treasurer of the California Labor Federation. “The end of this campaign is only the beginning in the fight to ensure gig workers are provided fair wages, sick pay and care when they’re hurt at work.”
Among concerns that stalled earlier negotiations, unions worried that any special employment rules created for Uber and Lyft could open the door for other companies to stop classifying their workers as employees if they don’t want to pay traditional benefits. Some questioned sectoral bargaining, an untested form of representation in California.
Tuesday’s election results dealt a blow to organized labor and gave app-based companies the upper hand, but the measure also created new roadblocks.
Some in labor argue that the language Uber and Lyft included in Proposition 22, requiring a seven-eighths vote of the Legislature to make future amendments, all but nixes any hope of legislators settling the dispute. Labor unions are also considering lawsuits to challenge that provision of the measure in court.
Although both legislative houses maintained their Democratic supermajority on Tuesday, with Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins picking up at least one seat and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon losing one, reaching the seven-eighths threshold to change the measure would be politically difficult and require support from several Republicans.
Representatives for Uber declined to comment on the possibility of a deal. When asked what it would take to bring unions and the industry together again, Zimmer pointed to Newsom. The situation could give the governor another opportunity to forge a deal after his previous attempts failed.
Wedged between labor unions and tech companies, the governor remained neutral on Proposition 22. Days before the election, he said his neutrality afforded him the benefit of being in a better position to broker a compromise “if there is a need, a desire.”
“We need political leaders and third parties to pull us together,” Zimmer said. “I’ve tried. I’ve listened and I will continue to do so. And I think if there are parties, like the governor ... they have a willing and ready partner in Lyft and myself.”


latimes--2020-11-05--L.A. 'in for a big change,' could see first rain of season as temperatures dive

Following the election , even the weather is polarized these days .
Dry and warmer-than-normal temperatures across Southern California will make way for a notable cooldown this weekend that may include rain , gusty winds and mountain snow , the National Weather Service reported .
Following an unseasonable warm day Thursday — with temperatures in the 80s and 90s in some inland areas — a low-pressure system is expected to move from the Pacific Northwest into California on Friday , followed by a second system over the weekend .
“ Tomorrow we ’ re in for a big change , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ service meteorologist in Oxnard .
Parts of Los Angeles County could see rain for the first time in months , and temperatures will dive into the 60s by Saturday , Stewart said .
Rain could arrive Friday and stay into Saturday , with a slight chance of showers Sunday , according to Stewart .
Downtown L.A. and nearby areas could see up to a quarter-inch of rain , said Stewart , who described the coming weather system as “ the first rain event of the season.
” The storm could also bring fresh @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s mountains are expected to see snowfall above 5,000 feet , Stewart said .
The California Department of Transportation will require motorists to use chains on their tires in mountainous areas .
Elsewhere , the same system is predicted to bring a foot of snow to the Lake Tahoe region as it sweeps into the Sierra Nevada .
The area has been experiencing record or near-record high temperatures for the past week .
The about-face comes after weeks of punishing heat and dry winds that have sparked destructive wildfires up and down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to this report .

Blanca Torres walks in the rain in downtown Los Angeles in May. Parts of L.A. County could see rain this weekend for the first time in months.
Following the election, even the weather is polarized these days.
Dry and warmer-than-normal temperatures across Southern California will make way for a notable cooldown this weekend that may include rain, gusty winds and mountain snow, the National Weather Service reported.
Following an unseasonable warm day Thursday — with temperatures in the 80s and 90s in some inland areas — a low-pressure system is expected to move from the Pacific Northwest into California on Friday, followed by a second system over the weekend.
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“Tomorrow we’re in for a big change,” said Kristen Stewart, a weather service meteorologist in Oxnard.
Parts of Los Angeles County could see rain for the first time in months, and temperatures will dive into the 60s by Saturday, Stewart said.
Rain could arrive Friday and stay into Saturday, with a slight chance of showers Sunday, according to Stewart.
Downtown L.A. and nearby areas could see up to a quarter-inch of rain, said Stewart, who described the coming weather system as “the first rain event of the season.”
The storm could also bring fresh snow to higher elevations. Southern California’s mountains are expected to see snowfall above 5,000 feet, Stewart said. The California Department of Transportation will require motorists to use chains on their tires in mountainous areas.
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Elsewhere, the same system is predicted to bring a foot of snow to the Lake Tahoe region as it sweeps into the Sierra Nevada. The area has been experiencing record or near-record high temperatures for the past week.
The about-face comes after weeks of punishing heat and dry winds that have sparked destructive wildfires up and down the state.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-11-05--'He's our Satan': Mega music manager Irving Azoff, still feared, still fighting

This is not Irving Azoff ’ s house .
Irving and his wife Shelli own houses all over , from Beverly Hills to Cabo San Lucas , but right now in the last week of October it ’ s too cold at the ranch in Idaho and too hot at the spread in La Quinta , so he ’ s renting this place — a modest midcentury six-bedroom that sold for $ 5 million back in 2016 .
From the front door you can see all the way out , to where Arrowhead Point juts like the tail of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carmel Bay .
More importantly , the house is literally across the street from the Pebble Beach Golf Links , where Azoff likes to play with his college buddy John Baruck , who started out in the music business around the same time Azoff did , in the late ’ 60s , and just retired after managing Journey through 20 years and two or three lead singers , depending how you count .
Azoff is 72 , and this weekend he ’ ll be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jon Landau .
Beatles manager Brian Epstein and Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham are already in , but Azoff and Landau are the first living managers thus honored .
Azoff is not only alive — he ’ s still managing .
As a partner in Full Stop Management — alongside Jeffrey Azoff , his oldest son and the third of his four children — he steers the careers of clients like the Eagles , Steely Dan , Bon Jovi and comedian Chelsea Handler , and consults when needed on the business of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Roddy Ricch , Anderson .Paak and Maroon 5 .
Azoff has Zoom calls at 7 , 8 and 9 tomorrow morning , and only after that will he squeeze in a round .
The work never stops when you view the job the way Azoff does , as falling somewhere between consigliere and concierge .
“ My calls can be everything from ‘ My knee buckled , I need a doctor ’ to ‘ My kid ’ s in jail , ’ ” Azoff says .
“ I mean , you have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s in jail ’ one was a funny one , because the artist then said to me , ‘ Y ’ know , I ’ ve thought about this .
Maybe we should leave him there for a while.
’ ” Golf entered Azoff ’ s life the way a lot of things have — via the Eagles , whom Azoff has managed since the early ’ 70s .
Specifically , Azoff took up golf in the company of the late Glenn Frey , the jockiest Eagle , the one the other @ @ @ @ @ @ @ By the time the Eagles returned to the road in the ’ 90s they ’ d left their debauched ’ 70s lifestyles largely behind , but Azoff and Frey got hooked on the little white ball .
“ Frey would insist on booking the tour around where he wanted to play golf , ” Azoff says .
“ We made Henley crazy .
Henley would call me in my room and he ’ d go , ‘ Why the f— are we in a hotel in Hilton Head North Carolina and starting a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ f— golf tour ?
’ ” Trailed by Larry Solters , the Eagles ’ preternaturally dour minister of information , Azoff makes his way down the hill from the house for dinner at the golf club ’ s restaurant .
He ’ s only 5 feet , 3 inches , a diminutive Sydney Pollack in jeans and a zip-up sweater .
In photos from the ’ 70s — when he was considerably less professorial in comportment , a hipster exec with a spring-loaded middle finger — he sports a beard and a helmet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his shades , and looks a little like a Muppet who might scream at Kermit over Dr. Teeth ’ s appearance fee .
His father was a pharmacist and his mother was a bookkeeper .
He grew up in Danville , Ill. , booked his first shows in high school to pay for college , dropped out of college to run a small Midwestern concert-booking empire and manage local acts such as folk singer Dan Fogelberg and heartland rock band REO Speedwagon .
Los Angeles soon beckoned .
He met the Eagles while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ management company and followed the band out the door when they left the Geffen fold ; they became the cornerstone of his empire .
“ I got my swagger from Glenn Frey and Don Henley , ” he says .
“ No doubt about it.
” Azoff never took to pot or coke .
The Eagles lived life in the fast lane ; he was the designated driver .
“ Artists , ” he once observed , “ like knowing the guy flying the plane is sober.
” This didn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hotel rooms , frequently with guitarist Joe Walsh — whose solo career Azoff shepherded before Walsh joined the Eagles , and who was very much not sober at this time — as an accomplice .
“ This was a different age , ” Walsh says of his time as the band ’ s premier lodging-deconstructionist .
“ We could do anything we wanted , so we did .
And Irving ’ s role was to keep us out of prison , basically.
” He recalls a pleasant evening in Chicago in the company @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which culminated in Walsh laying waste to a suite at the Astor Towers hotel that turned out to be the owner ’ s private apartment .
“ We had to check out with a lawyer and a construction foreman , ” Walsh remembers .
“ But Irving took care of it .
Without Irving , I ’ d still be in Chicago.
” Azoff became even more infamous for the pit bull brio he brought to business negotiations on behalf of the Eagles and others , including Stevie Nicks and Boz Scaggs .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ if people liked him , and his artists loved him for that .
Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker said they ’ d hired Azoff because he “ impressed us with his taste for the jugular … and his bizarre spirit.
” Jimmy Buffett ’ s wife grabbed him outside a show at Madison Square Garden , pushed him into the back of a limo and said , You have to manage Jimmy , although Buffett already had a manager at the time .
His outsized reputation as an advocate not just willing but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his clients became an advertisement for his services , a phenomenon that continues to this day .
In August 2018 , Azoff ’ s then-client Travis Scott released “ Astroworld , ” which debuted at No .
1 on the Billboard 200 chart , and occupied that slot again the following week , causing Nicki Minaj ’ s album “ Queen ” to debut at No .
2 .
On her Beats One show “ Queen Radio , ” Minaj accused Scott of gaming Billboard ’ s chart methodology to keep her out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manager out by name : “ C—sucker of the Day award , ” she said , “ goes to Irving Azoff.
” Azoff says he reacted as only Azoff would : “ I said , ‘ I ’ m really unhappy about that .
I want to be c—sucker of the year.
’ ” In 2019 , Minaj hired Azoff as her new manager .
Most of the best things anyone ’ s ever said about Azoff are statements a man of less-bizarre spirit would take as an insult .
When the Rock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Eagles in 1998 , Don Henley stood onstage and said of Azoff , “ He may be Satan , but he ’ s our Satan.
” An N95-masked Azoff takes a seat on a patio with a view of hallowed ground — the first hole of the Pebble Beach course , a dogleg-right par 4 with a priceless view of the bay .
He cheerfully admits that he and his partners at Full Stop are “ obviously , as a management business , kind of losing our ass ” this year due to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Eagles would have played Wembley Stadium in August before heading off to Australia or the Far East .
Styles would have just finished 34 dates in the U.S. , Canada and Mexico .
As it stands Azoff is hearing encouraging things about treatments and vaccines and new testing machines , and is reasonably confident that technology will soon make it possible for certified-COVID-free fans to again enjoy carefree evenings of live music together ; he doesn ’ t expect much to happen in the meantime .
“ What are you gon na do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an act that used to sell 15,000 seats and tell them to play to 4,000 in the [ same ] arena ?
The vibe would be horrible , and production costs will stay the same.
” He knows of at least six companies trying to monetize new concert-esque experiences — pay-per-view shows from houses and soundstages , drive-in events and so on .
But he ’ s not convinced anybody wants to sit in their parked car to watch a band play .
More to the point , he ’ s not convinced @ @ @ @ @ @ @ roll .
“ Fallon and Kimmel , all these virtual performances — people are sick of that , ” he says .
“ Your production values from home aren ’ t that good .
And they ’ re destroying the mystique .
I mean , Justin Bieber jumping around on ‘ Saturday Night Live ’ the other night without a band , and then he had Chance the Rapper come out ?
It made him look to me , mortal .
I didn ’ t feel any magic .
So we ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ just wait it out.
” In the meantime , he says , Full Stop is picking up new clients during the pandemic .
Artists with time on their hands , he believes , “ have taken a hard look at their careers— so we ’ ve grown .
No revenues , ” he adds with a chuckle , “ but people are saying , ‘ We need you , we need to plan our lives.
’ ” “ IN HIGH SCHOOL , ” Jeffrey Azoff says , “ I wanted to be a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me.
” He never expected to take up his father ’ s profession .
“ But my dad has always loved his job so much .
There ’ s no way that doesn ’ t rub off on you.
” The younger Azoff got his first industry job at 21 , as a “ glorified intern ” working for Maroon 5 ’ s then-manager Jordan Feldstein .
After a week of filing and fetching coffee , he called his father and complained that he was bored .
According to Jeffrey , Irving responded @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ m going to say this one time .
You have a phone and you have my last name .
If you can ’ t figure it out , you ’ re not my son.
” “ Direct quote , ” Jeffrey says .
“ It ’ s one of my favorite things he ’ s ever said to me .
And it ’ s the spirit of the music business , by the way .
There are no rules to this .
Just figure it out.
” Over dinner I keep asking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a kid barely out of college , to plunge into the shark-infested waters of the ‘ 70s record industry in Los Angeles .
He just shrugs .
“ I never felt the music business was that competitive , ” he says .
“ It ’ s just not that f—ing hard .
I don ’ t think there ’ s that many smart people in our business.
” It ’ s been written , I say , that once you landed in California and sized up the competition , you called John @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ We can take this town , ” Azoff says , finishing the sentence .
“ Where ’ d you get that ?
John told that story to [ Apple senior vice president ] Eddy Cue on the golf course three days ago .
It ’ s true .
I called John up and said , ‘ OK , get your ass out here .
We can take this town.
’ ” In the ensuing years , Azoff has occupied nearly every high-level position the music industry has to offer , surfing waves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been the president of a major label , MCA ; the CEO of Ticketmaster ; and executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment , the behemoth formed from Ticketmaster ’ s merger with Live Nation .
In 2013 he and Cablevision Systems Corp. CEO and New York Knicks owner James Dolan formed a partnership , Azoff MSG Entertainment ; Azoff ran the Forum in Inglewood for Dolan after MSG purchased it in 2012 .
Earlier this year Dolan sold the Forum for $ 400 million to former Microsoft CEO and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to build a new stadium on a site just one mile away .
Despite the apocalyptic parking scenario that looms for the area — two stadiums and a concert arena on a one-mile stretch of South Prairie Boulevard — Azoff is confident that the Forum will live on as a live-music venue .
“ People are going , ‘ They ’ re going to tear it down ’ — they ’ re not going to tear it down , ” Azoff says .
“ It ’ s going to be in great hands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we represent booked in the Forum , waiting for the restart based on COVID.
” The holdings of the Azoff Co. — formed when Dolan sold his interest in Azoff MSG back to Azoff two years ago — include Full Stop , the performance-rights organization Global Music Rights and the Oak View Group , which is developing arenas in Seattle and Belmont , N.Y. , and a 15,000-seat venue on the University of Texas campus in Austin .
Azoff describes himself as increasingly focused on “ diversification , and building assets for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on commissions , shall we say.
” But as both a manager and a co-founder of a lobbying group , the Music Artists Coalition , he ’ s also devoting more time and energy to a broad range of artists ’ -rights issues , from health insurance to royalty rates to copyright reversion to this year ’ s Assembly Bill 5 , which threatened musicians ’ independent-contractor status until it was amended in September .
( “ That was us , ” Azoff says , somewhat grandly .
“ I got to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Newsom was great on it.
” ) He describes his advocacy for artists — even those he doesn ’ t manage — as a “ war on all fronts , ” and estimates there are 21 major issues on which “ we ’ ve sort of appointed ourselves as guardians.
” He does not continue to manage artists because he needs the money , he says .
( As the singer-songwriter and Azoff client J.D .
Souther famously put it , “ Irving ’ s 15 % of everybody turned out to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of themselves.
” ) Everything he ’ s doing now — building clout through the Azoff Co. , even accepting the Hall of Fame honor — is ultimately about positioning himself to better fight these fights .
“ I ’ d rather work on [ these things ] than anything else , ” he says .
“ But if I didn ’ t have the power base in the management business , I couldn ’ t be effective.
” The recorded music industry , having fully transitioned to a digital-first business , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he points out , but even less of that money is trickling down to artists .
That imbalance long predates Big Tech ’ s involvement in the field , but the failure of music-driven tech companies to properly compensate musicians is clearly the largest burr under Azoff ’ s saddle .
“ These people , when they start out — whether it ’ s Facebook , Snapchat , TikTok , whatever — they resist paying for music until you go beat the f— out of them .
And then of course , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and they get away with it .
Your company ’ s worth $ 30 billion and you can ’ t spend 20 grand for a song that becomes a phenomenon on your channel ?
Even when they pay , artists don ’ t get enough .
Writers don ’ t get enough .
Music , as a commodity , is more important than it ’ s ever been , and more unfairly monetized for the creators .
And that ’ s what creates an opportunity for people like me.
” AZOFF ’ S @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the way .
“ Travis is unmanageable , ” Azoff says , nonchalantly and without rancor .
“ We ’ re involved in his touring as an advisor to Live Nation , but he ’ s calling his own shots these days.
” I ask if , in the age of the viral hit and the bedroom producer , he finds himself running into more artists who assume they don ’ t need a manager .
Ehh , Azoff says , like it ’ s always been that way .
“ There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he says .
“ I haven ’ t seen one that ’ s better off without a manager than with , ” he says , and laughs a little Dennis the Menace laugh .
We ’ re back at the house .
Azoff takes a seat on the living-room couch ; Larry Solters sits across from him , his back to the sea .
Azoff recalls another big client .
Declines to name him .
Says he was never happy , even after Azoff and his people got him everything on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me with a couple bad emails .
Just really disrespectful s— .
I sent him an email back that said , ‘ Lucky for me , you need me more than I need you .
Goodbye.
’ ” He will confirm having resigned the accounts of noted divas Mariah Carey and Axl Rose .
Reports that he once attempted to manage Kanye West have been greatly exaggerated , he says , although they ’ ve spoken about business .
“ Robert [ Kardashian ] was a good friend of mine .
The kids @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Azoff says .
“ What I always said to Kanye was , you ’ re unmanageable , but we can give you advice .
“ A lot of people could have made a dynasty on the people we used to manage , ” Azoff says , “ let alone the ones we kept.
” But he still works with many artists who joined him in the ’ 70s — with Henley , with Steely Dan ’ s Donald Fagen and with Joe Walsh .
Walsh has been sober for more than 25 years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Henley and Frey , who talked him into rehab before the Eagles ’ 1994 reunion tour .
“ Irving never passed judgment on me , ” Walsh says .
“ And from that meeting on , he made sure I had what I needed to stay sober.
” If he hadn ’ t , Walsh says , there ’ s no chance we ’ d be having this conversation .
“ All the guys I ran with are dead .
Keith Moon ’ s dead .
John Entwistle ’ s dead .
Everybody @ @ @ @ @ @ @ m here .
That ’ s profound to me.
” The first client Azoff lost was Minnie Riperton — in 1979 , to breast cancer when she was only 31 .
Then Warren Zevon , to cancer , in 2003 .
Fogelberg , to cancer , four years later .
“ And then Glenn , ” says Azoff , referring to the Eagles co-founder who died in 2016 .
“ I miss Glenn a lot .
And now Eddie.
” Van Halen , that is .
I ask Azoff if he can tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of guy Eddie Van Halen was ; he tells me a beautiful one , then says he ’ d prefer not to see it in print .
It makes perfect Azoffian sense — profane trash talk on the record , tenderness on background .
I ask if he ’ s been moved to contemplate his own mortality , as his boomer-aged clients approach an actuarial event horizon .
Of course the answer turns out to involve keeping pace with an Eagle .
“ Henley and I are having a race , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us has given in .
Neither one of us is going to retire.
” Henley was born in July 1947 ; Azoff came along that December .
Does Don plan to keep going , I ask , until the wheels fall off ?
Do you ever talk about it ?
“ Yeah !
He ’ ll call me up and he ’ ll go , ‘ I really feel s— today.
’ And I say , ‘ Well , you should , Grandpa .
You ’ re an old man .
You ready @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
OK. ’ ” Azoff says , “ I contend that what keeps us all young is staying in the business .
I ’ ve had more people tell me , ‘ My father , he quit working , and then his health started failing , ’ and all that .
Every single — I mean , every single rock star I know is basically doing it to try and stay young .
And I think it works .
I really think it works .
“ I have this friend , ” Azoff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week , he ’ s sending me tapes , it ’ s his next big record .
Paul Anka !
He ’ s 80 years old .
OK ?
And my other friend , Frankie Valli … ” “ Do you know how old Frankie Valli is ?
” Solters says .
“ Eighty-six .
And he still performs.
” “ Not during COVID , ” Azoff says .
“ I told the motherf— , ‘ You ’ re not going out .
’ ”

Music industry mogul Irving Azoff is a 2020 inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: “I don’t think there’s that many smart people in our business.”
This is not Irving Azoff’s house. Irving and his wife Shelli own houses all over, from Beverly Hills to Cabo San Lucas, but right now in the last week of October it’s too cold at the ranch in Idaho and too hot at the spread in La Quinta, so he’s renting this place — a modest midcentury six-bedroom that sold for $5 million back in 2016.
From the front door you can see all the way out, to where Arrowhead Point juts like the tail of a comma into the calm afternoon waters of Carmel Bay. More importantly, the house is literally across the street from the Pebble Beach Golf Links, where Azoff likes to play with his college buddy John Baruck, who started out in the music business around the same time Azoff did, in the late ’60s, and just retired after managing Journey through 20 years and two or three lead singers, depending how you count.
For the record: An earlier version of this post said Irving Azoff and Jon Landau are the first living managers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They are the first active managers so honored.
Azoff is 72, and this weekend he’ll be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame alongside Bruce Springsteen’s longtime manager Jon Landau. Beatles manager Brian Epstein and Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham are already in, but Azoff and Landau are the first active managers thus honored. As a partner in Full Stop Management — alongside Jeffrey Azoff, his oldest son and the third of his four children — he steers the careers of clients like the Eagles, Steely Dan, Bon Jovi and comedian Chelsea Handler, and consults when needed on the business of Harry Styles, Lizzo, John Mayer, Roddy Ricch, Anderson .Paak and Maroon 5. Azoff has Zoom calls at 7, 8 and 9 tomorrow morning, and only after that will he squeeze in a round.
The work never stops when you view the job the way Azoff does, as falling somewhere between consigliere and concierge. “My calls can be everything from ‘My knee buckled, I need a doctor’ to ‘My kid’s in jail,’” Azoff says. “I mean, you have no idea. The ‘My kid’s in jail’ one was a funny one, because the artist then said to me, ‘Y’know, I’ve thought about this. Maybe we should leave him there for a while.’”
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Golf entered Azoff’s life the way a lot of things have — via the Eagles, whom Azoff has managed since the early ’70s. Specifically, Azoff took up golf in the company of the late Glenn Frey, the jockiest Eagle, the one the other Eagles used to call “Sportacus.” By the time the Eagles returned to the road in the ’90s they’d left their debauched ’70s lifestyles largely behind, but Azoff and Frey got hooked on the little white ball.
“Frey would insist on booking the tour around where he wanted to play golf,” Azoff says. “We made Henley crazy. Henley would call me in my room and he’d go, ‘Why the f— are we in a hotel in Hilton Head North Carolina and starting a tour in Charlotte? Is this a f— golf tour?’”
Don Felder, Randy Meisner, Bill Graham, Joe Walsh, Irving Azoff, Don Henley and Glenn Frey of the Eagles at Oakland Coliseum in 1977. (Brad Elterman/BuzzFoto/FilmMagic)
Trailed by Larry Solters, the Eagles’ preternaturally dour minister of information, Azoff makes his way down the hill from the house for dinner at the golf club’s restaurant. He’s only 5 feet, 3 inches, a diminutive Sydney Pollack in jeans and a zip-up sweater. In photos from the ’70s — when he was considerably less professorial in comportment, a hipster exec with a spring-loaded middle finger — he sports a beard and a helmet of curly hair and mischievous eyes behind his shades, and looks a little like a Muppet who might scream at Kermit over Dr. Teeth’s appearance fee.
His father was a pharmacist and his mother was a bookkeeper. He grew up in Danville, Ill., booked his first shows in high school to pay for college, dropped out of college to run a small Midwestern concert-booking empire and manage local acts such as folk singer Dan Fogelberg and heartland rock band REO Speedwagon. Los Angeles soon beckoned. He met the Eagles while working for David Geffen and Elliot Roberts’ management company and followed the band out the door when they left the Geffen fold; they became the cornerstone of his empire. “I got my swagger from Glenn Frey and Don Henley,” he says. “No doubt about it.”
Azoff never took to pot or coke. The Eagles lived life in the fast lane; he was the designated driver. “Artists,” he once observed, “like knowing the guy flying the plane is sober.” This didn’t stop him from trashing his share of hotel rooms, frequently with guitarist Joe Walsh — whose solo career Azoff shepherded before Walsh joined the Eagles, and who was very much not sober at this time — as an accomplice.
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“This was a different age,” Walsh says of his time as the band’s premier lodging-deconstructionist. “We could do anything we wanted, so we did. And Irving’s role was to keep us out of prison, basically.” He recalls a pleasant evening in Chicago in the company of John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, which culminated in Walsh laying waste to a suite at the Astor Towers hotel that turned out to be the owner’s private apartment. “We had to check out with a lawyer and a construction foreman,” Walsh remembers. “But Irving took care of it. Without Irving, I’d still be in Chicago.”
Azoff became even more infamous for the pit bull brio he brought to business negotiations on behalf of the Eagles and others, including Stevie Nicks and Boz Scaggs. He didn’t seem to care if people liked him, and his artists loved him for that. Steely Dan co-founder Walter Becker said they’d hired Azoff because he “impressed us with his taste for the jugular … and his bizarre spirit.” Jimmy Buffett’s wife grabbed him outside a show at Madison Square Garden, pushed him into the back of a limo and said, You have to manage Jimmy, although Buffett already had a manager at the time.
His outsized reputation as an advocate not just willing but eager to scorch earth on behalf of his clients became an advertisement for his services, a phenomenon that continues to this day. In August 2018, Azoff’s then-client Travis Scott released “Astroworld,” which debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, and occupied that slot again the following week, causing Nicki Minaj’s album “Queen” to debut at No. 2. On her Beats One show “Queen Radio,” Minaj accused Scott of gaming Billboard’s chart methodology to keep her out of the top slot and singled his manager out by name: “C—sucker of the Day award,” she said, “goes to Irving Azoff.” Azoff says he reacted as only Azoff would: “I said, ‘I’m really unhappy about that. I want to be c—sucker of the year.’” In 2019, Minaj hired Azoff as her new manager.
One-time client Christina Aguilera and Irving Azoff at a pre-Grammy gala honoring Azoff in 2016. (Kevin Mazur/WireImage)
Most of the best things anyone’s ever said about Azoff are statements a man of less-bizarre spirit would take as an insult. When the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the Eagles in 1998, Don Henley stood onstage and said of Azoff, “He may be Satan, but he’s our Satan.”
An N95-masked Azoff takes a seat on a patio with a view of hallowed ground — the first hole of the Pebble Beach course, a dogleg-right par 4 with a priceless view of the bay. He cheerfully admits that he and his partners at Full Stop are “obviously, as a management business, kind of losing our ass” this year due to COVID-19. In another reality, the Eagles would have played Wembley Stadium in August before heading off to Australia or the Far East. Styles would have just finished 34 dates in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. As it stands Azoff is hearing encouraging things about treatments and vaccines and new testing machines, and is reasonably confident that technology will soon make it possible for certified-COVID-free fans to again enjoy carefree evenings of live music together; he doesn’t expect much to happen in the meantime.
“What are you gonna do,” Azoff says, “take an act that used to sell 15,000 seats and tell them to play to 4,000 in the [same] arena? The vibe would be horrible, and production costs will stay the same.”
He knows of at least six companies trying to monetize new concert-esque experiences — pay-per-view shows from houses and soundstages, drive-in events and so on. But he’s not convinced anybody wants to sit in their parked car to watch a band play. More to the point, he’s not convinced it’s rock ’n’ roll.
“Fallon and Kimmel, all these virtual performances — people are sick of that,” he says. “Your production values from home aren’t that good. And they’re destroying the mystique. I mean, Justin Bieber jumping around on ‘Saturday Night Live’ the other night without a band, and then he had Chance the Rapper come out? It made him look to me, mortal. I didn’t feel any magic. So we’ve kinda been turning that stuff down to just wait it out.”
In the meantime, he says, Full Stop is picking up new clients during the pandemic. Artists with time on their hands, he believes, “have taken a hard look at their careers— so we’ve grown. No revenues,” he adds with a chuckle, “but people are saying, ‘We need you, we need to plan our lives.’”
Joe Walsh and Irving Azoff during the last leg of the Eagles’ Long Run tour in 1980. “Irving’s role was to keep us out of prison,” says Walsh. (Rick Diamond Photography)
“IN HIGH SCHOOL,” Jeffrey Azoff says, “I wanted to be a professional golfer, which has obviously eluded me.” He never expected to take up his father’s profession. “But my dad has always loved his job so much. There’s no way that doesn’t rub off on you.”
The younger Azoff got his first industry job at 21, as a “glorified intern” working for Maroon 5’s then-manager Jordan Feldstein. After a week of filing and fetching coffee, he called his father and complained that he was bored. According to Jeffrey, Irving responded, “Listen carefully, because I’m going to say this one time. You have a phone and you have my last name. If you can’t figure it out, you’re not my son.”
“Direct quote,” Jeffrey says. “It’s one of my favorite things he’s ever said to me. And it’s the spirit of the music business, by the way. There are no rules to this. Just figure it out.”
Over dinner I keep asking Irving how he got the temerity, as a kid barely out of college, to plunge into the shark-infested waters of the ‘70s record industry in Los Angeles. He just shrugs.
“I never felt the music business was that competitive,” he says. “It’s just not that f—ing hard. I don’t think there’s that many smart people in our business.”
It’s been written, I say, that once you landed in California and sized up the competition, you called John Baruck back in Illinois and said —
“We can take this town,” Azoff says, finishing the sentence. “Where’d you get that? John told that story to [Apple senior vice president] Eddy Cue on the golf course three days ago. It’s true. I called John up and said, ‘OK, get your ass out here. We can take this town.’”
In the ensuing years, Azoff has occupied nearly every high-level position the music industry has to offer, surfing waves of industry consolidation. He’s been the president of a major label, MCA; the CEO of Ticketmaster; and executive chairman of Live Nation Entertainment, the behemoth formed from Ticketmaster’s merger with Live Nation. In 2013 he and Cablevision Systems Corp. CEO and New York Knicks owner James Dolan formed a partnership, Azoff MSG Entertainment; Azoff ran the Forum in Inglewood for Dolan after MSG purchased it in 2012.
James Dolan, left, and Irving Azoff at a 2013 announcement regarding the refurbishment of the Forum. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Earlier this year Dolan sold the Forum for $400 million to former Microsoft CEO and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who’s since announced plans to build a new stadium on a site just one mile away. Despite the apocalyptic parking scenario that looms for the area — two stadiums and a concert arena on a one-mile stretch of South Prairie Boulevard — Azoff is confident that the Forum will live on as a live-music venue. “People are going, ‘They’re going to tear it down’ — they’re not going to tear it down,” Azoff says. “It’s going to be in great hands. I have many of the artists we represent booked in the Forum, waiting for the restart based on COVID.”
The holdings of the Azoff Co. — formed when Dolan sold his interest in Azoff MSG back to Azoff two years ago — include Full Stop, the performance-rights organization Global Music Rights and the Oak View Group, which is developing arenas in Seattle and Belmont, N.Y., and a 15,000-seat venue on the University of Texas campus in Austin. Azoff describes himself as increasingly focused on “diversification, and building assets for the family that aren’t just dependent on commissions, shall we say.”
But as both a manager and a co-founder of a lobbying group, the Music Artists Coalition, he’s also devoting more time and energy to a broad range of artists’-rights issues, from health insurance to royalty rates to copyright reversion to this year’s Assembly Bill 5, which threatened musicians’ independent-contractor status until it was amended in September. (“That was us,” Azoff says, somewhat grandly. “I got to the governor, the governor signed it — Newsom was great on it.”) He describes his advocacy for artists — even those he doesn’t manage — as a “war on all fronts,” and estimates there are 21 major issues on which “we’ve sort of appointed ourselves as guardians.”
He does not continue to manage artists because he needs the money, he says. (As the singer-songwriter and Azoff client J.D. Souther famously put it, “Irving’s 15% of everybody turned out to be more than everyone’s 85% of themselves.”) Everything he’s doing now — building clout through the Azoff Co., even accepting the Hall of Fame honor — is ultimately about positioning himself to better fight these fights. “I’d rather work on [these things] than anything else,” he says. “But if I didn’t have the power base in the management business, I couldn’t be effective.”
The recorded music industry, having fully transitioned to a digital-first business, is once again making money hand over fist, he points out, but even less of that money is trickling down to artists. That imbalance long predates Big Tech’s involvement in the field, but the failure of music-driven tech companies to properly compensate musicians is clearly the largest burr under Azoff’s saddle.
“These people, when they start out — whether it’s Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, whatever — they resist paying for music until you go beat the f— out of them. And then of course, none of them pay fair market value and they get away with it. Your company’s worth $30 billion and you can’t spend 20 grand for a song that becomes a phenomenon on your channel? Even when they pay, artists don’t get enough. Writers don’t get enough. Music, as a commodity, is more important than it’s ever been, and more unfairly monetized for the creators. And that’s what creates an opportunity for people like me.”
“I contend that what keeps us all young is staying in the business,” says Azoff. (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
AZOFF’S FIRM NO longer handles Travis Scott, by the way. “Travis is unmanageable,” Azoff says, nonchalantly and without rancor. “We’re involved in his touring as an advisor to Live Nation, but he’s calling his own shots these days.”
I ask if, in the age of the viral hit and the bedroom producer, he finds himself running into more artists who assume they don’t need a manager. Ehh, Azoff says, like it’s always been that way. “There’s a lot of headstrong artists,” he says. “I haven’t seen one that’s better off without a manager than with,” he says, and laughs a little Dennis the Menace laugh.
We’re back at the house. Azoff takes a seat on the living-room couch; Larry Solters sits across from him, his back to the sea. Azoff recalls another big client. Declines to name him. Says he was never happy, even after Azoff and his people got him everything on his wish list. “He hit me with a couple bad emails. Just really disrespectful s—. I sent him an email back that said, ‘Lucky for me, you need me more than I need you. Goodbye.’”
He will confirm having resigned the accounts of noted divas Mariah Carey and Axl Rose. Reports that he once attempted to manage Kanye West have been greatly exaggerated, he says, although they’ve spoken about business. “Robert [Kardashian] was a good friend of mine. The kids all went to school together,” Azoff says. “What I always said to Kanye was, you’re unmanageable, but we can give you advice.
“A lot of people could have made a dynasty on the people we used to manage,” Azoff says, “let alone the ones we kept.”
But he still works with many artists who joined him in the ’70s — with Henley, with Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen and with Joe Walsh. Walsh has been sober for more than 25 years; it was Azoff, along with Henley and Frey, who talked him into rehab before the Eagles’ 1994 reunion tour. “Irving never passed judgment on me,” Walsh says. “And from that meeting on, he made sure I had what I needed to stay sober.” If he hadn’t, Walsh says, there’s no chance we’d be having this conversation. “All the guys I ran with are dead. Keith Moon’s dead. John Entwistle’s dead. Everybody’s dead, and I’m here. That’s profound to me.”
The first client Azoff lost was Minnie Riperton — in 1979, to breast cancer when she was only 31. Then Warren Zevon, to cancer, in 2003. Fogelberg, to cancer, four years later.
“And then Glenn,” says Azoff, referring to the Eagles co-founder who died in 2016. “I miss Glenn a lot. And now Eddie.”
Van Halen, that is. I ask Azoff if he can tell me a story that sums up what kind of guy Eddie Van Halen was; he tells me a beautiful one, then says he’d prefer not to see it in print. It makes perfect Azoffian sense — profane trash talk on the record, tenderness on background.
I ask if he’s been moved to contemplate his own mortality, as his boomer-aged clients approach an actuarial event horizon. Of course the answer turns out to involve keeping pace with an Eagle.
“Henley and I are having a race,” he says. “Neither one of us has given in. Neither one of us is going to retire.”
Henley was born in July 1947; Azoff came along that December. Does Don plan to keep going, I ask, until the wheels fall off?
“I don’t know,” Azoff says.
Do you ever talk about it?
“Yeah! He’ll call me up and he’ll go, ‘I really feel s— today.’ And I say, ‘Well, you should, Grandpa. You’re an old man. You ready to throw in the towel? Nope? OK.’”
Azoff says, “I contend that what keeps us all young is staying in the business. I’ve had more people tell me, ‘My father, he quit working, and then his health started failing,’ and all that. Every single — I mean, every single rock star I know is basically doing it to try and stay young. And I think it works. I really think it works.
“I have this friend,” Azoff says. “Calls me once a week, he’s sending me tapes, it’s his next big record. Paul Anka! He’s 80 years old. OK? And my other friend, Frankie Valli …”
“Do you know how old Frankie Valli is?” Solters says. “Eighty-six. And he still performs.”
“Not during COVID,” Azoff says. “I told the motherf—, ‘You’re not going out.’”


latimes--2020-11-05--L.A. County coronavirus cases hit highest daily level in three months

Los Angeles County logged 2,065 new coronavirus infections Thursday , a single daily case count one health official said hasn ’ t been seen in the region for months .
Over the last two days , health officials have announced roughly 3,900 new coronavirus cases in the county and on Thursday there were 25 additional deaths , totals reflecting what has long been warned : The disease is still spreading , and residents need to take precautions to keep the number of infections from climbing further .
Though a spike in cases last month was attributed to a backlog of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not associated with delays in reporting , public health officials said .
The last time the daily case count was this high was Aug. 15 , according to The Times ’ tracker .
of coronavirus cases has also increased from about 940 new cases a day in early October to more than 1,275 each day as of last week , health officials said .
In announcing an elevated number of positive cases on both Sunday and Monday — days when the county typically reports fewer new cases because of reporting lags over @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ferrer said “ if that trend holds true , we ’ re going to see higher numbers the rest of the week.
” In another troubling trend , the projected transmission rate has again surpassed 1.0 in L.A. County .
That means the number of people who could contract the virus from one infected person is probably rising .
It ’ s estimated that 1 in 670 residents are infected with the virus , county health officials reported Wednesday .
Last week , that estimate was 1 in 1,000 .
“ I thank @ @ @ @ @ @ @ residents who continue to make COVID-19 safety measures part of their daily routine , ” Ferrer said in a statement .
“ Unfortunately , the continued significant increase in cases reflects many instances where basic prevention measures were lacking , ” she said .
“ Unless we can all get back to protecting each other , our recovery will stall.
” The rise comes the country enters what experts have said will be a particularly dangerous period of the pandemic .
Officials have said that private gatherings are greatly contributing to the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ residents should continue to follow oft-recited infection prevention protocols : Practice physical distancing , wear masks in public , stay home when you ’ re sick , and regularly wash your hands .
Falling temperatures will increasingly push people indoors — where the coronavirus can more easily spread — and approaching holidays will tempt residents to gather with family and friends outside their households , heightening their infection risk .
“ We do worry , with the colder weather , more people being inside , the fatigue , people wanting to socialize more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that creates a mix of circumstances that could lead to an accelerating increase , ” Dr. Paul Simon , chief science officer of the L.A. County Department of Public Health , said during a briefing Thursday .
Recent data show that California has seen an increase in its statewide positivity rate for infections from 2.6 % to 3.3 % over the past 14 days .
Despite the uptick , California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the state ’ s rate still compares favorably with the rest of the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about 6.7 % .
“ Although we ’ re seeing some trends up here in California , those trends are modest , steady .
We ’ re watching them closely , and certainly [ they are ] not the same as many of the states throughout the nation , ” he said during a briefing Wednesday .
However , the statewide number of COVID-19 hospitalizations has also increased by 13.5 % over the past 14 days , and the number of patients in intensive care has grown by nearly 20 % .
Though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ surprising — “ we always know when we see increases in our case numbers that roughly three , three-and-a-half weeks later , we ’ ll see that manifest in hospital increases ” — a significant and sustained surge in new patients “ will put our hospitals in a difficult position during flu season and when we ’ re trying to keep up with all other routine healthcare.
” Aside from the potentially devastating health effects , any growth in infections also jeopardizes the ability of California counties to relax coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
California ’ s four-tier , color-coded reopening roadmap is based on two metrics : the seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and the testing positivity rate .
Counties can move into less-restrictive tiers if their numbers improve or backslide if conditions worsen for two consecutive weeks .
Two counties moved backward Wednesday : Shasta regressed to Tier 1 , the most restrictive “ purple ” tier , and Plumas moved back to Tier 3 , or “ orange.
” San Diego County , currently in the “ red ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of regressing to Tier 1 .
While in that category , a county ’ s schools , many businesses and public facilities either can not operate indoors or can do so only in a strictly limited capacity .
L.A. , Riverside , San Bernardino and Imperial counties are in the purple tier .
Given that cases are presently on the upswing in L.A. County , Simon said he doesn ’ t “ think we ’ re going to get to that next tier anytime soon , but we ’ re obviously watching the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feelings about jumping into the next tier , ” he said .
“ On the one hand , we want to open things up as much as possible .
At the same time , we don ’ t want to do anything reckless that will result in a new surge and then require that we move backward again.
” With no end in sight , officials acknowledge that Californians may be understandably experiencing some pandemic fatigue , growing weary of living under restrictions that have been in place for nearly eight months .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ their efforts .
“ We know that the pandemic has altered our way of living , ” he said .
“ We ’ ve all made sacrifices — some we ’ ve been OK with , others have been really hard — and each of these sacrifices has helped us slow the spread of COVID in our state .
And I would say Californians have done an incredible job.
” But , he emphasized , residents need look no further than other parts of the U.S. to see how quickly the coronavirus can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to keep these efforts up , ” he said .
“ As we know , cases can begin to skyrocket quickly.
” That ’ s a reality facing much of the nation now as the coronavirus continues to surge to staggering heights .
Daily new confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. have risen 45 % over the past two weeks , to a record seven-day average of 86,352 , according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University .
Deaths are also on the rise , up 15 % to an average of 846 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ country reported roughly 103,000 new cases on Wednesday , the most in any one day to date , according to the COVID Tracking Project .
Daily new case loads topped 1,000 in 34 states — also a record , according to the latest project data — and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients peaked in 16 states , including many in the Midwest .
“ It ’ s a number , but we can ’ t forget the sort of personal pain , suffering and trauma that thousands and probably millions of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Associated Press contributed to this report .

People wear masks at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles. County health officials have reported a recent rise in the number of coronavirus cases.
Los Angeles County logged 2,065 new coronavirus infections Thursday, a single daily case count one health official said hasn’t been seen in the region for months.
Over the last two days, health officials have announced roughly 3,900 new coronavirus cases in the county and on Thursday there were 25 additional deaths, totals reflecting what has long been warned: The disease is still spreading, and residents need to take precautions to keep the number of infections from climbing further.
Though a spike in cases last month was attributed to a backlog of reported tests, the most recent increases are not associated with delays in reporting, public health officials said. The last time the daily case count was this high was Aug. 15, according to The Times’ tracker.
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L.A. County’s seven-day average of coronavirus cases has also increased from about 940 new cases a day in early October to more than 1,275 each day as of last week, health officials said.
In announcing an elevated number of positive cases on both Sunday and Monday — days when the county typically reports fewer new cases because of reporting lags over the weekend — Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said “if that trend holds true, we’re going to see higher numbers the rest of the week.”
In another troubling trend, the projected transmission rate has again surpassed 1.0 in L.A. County. That means the number of people who could contract the virus from one infected person is probably rising.
It’s estimated that 1 in 670 residents are infected with the virus, county health officials reported Wednesday. Last week, that estimate was 1 in 1,000.
“I thank all of our businesses, schools and residents who continue to make COVID-19 safety measures part of their daily routine,” Ferrer said in a statement.
“Unfortunately, the continued significant increase in cases reflects many instances where basic prevention measures were lacking,” she said. “Unless we can all get back to protecting each other, our recovery will stall.”
Advertisement
The rise comes as the country enters what experts have said will be a particularly dangerous period of the pandemic.
Officials have said that private gatherings are greatly contributing to the state’s increase in cases and that residents should continue to follow oft-recited infection prevention protocols: Practice physical distancing, wear masks in public, stay home when you’re sick, and regularly wash your hands.
Falling temperatures will increasingly push people indoors — where the coronavirus can more easily spread — and approaching holidays will tempt residents to gather with family and friends outside their households, heightening their infection risk.
“We do worry, with the colder weather, more people being inside, the fatigue, people wanting to socialize more, the holidays coming, all of that creates a mix of circumstances that could lead to an accelerating increase,” Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer of the L.A. County Department of Public Health, said during a briefing Thursday.
Recent data show that California has seen an increase in its statewide positivity rate for infections from 2.6% to 3.3% over the past 14 days.
Despite the uptick, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the state’s rate still compares favorably with the rest of the country, as the test positivity nationwide is about 6.7%.
“Although we’re seeing some trends up here in California, those trends are modest, steady. We’re watching them closely, and certainly [they are] not the same as many of the states throughout the nation,” he said during a briefing Wednesday.
However, the statewide number of COVID-19 hospitalizations has also increased by 13.5% over the past 14 days, and the number of patients in intensive care has grown by nearly 20%.
Though Ghaly said those numbers are not inherently surprising — “we always know when we see increases in our case numbers that roughly three, three-and-a-half weeks later, we’ll see that manifest in hospital increases” — a significant and sustained surge in new patients “will put our hospitals in a difficult position during flu season and when we’re trying to keep up with all other routine healthcare.”
Aside from the potentially devastating health effects, any growth in infections also jeopardizes the ability of California counties to relax coronavirus-related restrictions on businesses, schools and other places and activities.
California’s four-tier, color-coded reopening roadmap is based on two metrics: the seven-day average of daily COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents and the testing positivity rate.
Counties can move into less-restrictive tiers if their numbers improve or backslide if conditions worsen for two consecutive weeks.
Two counties moved backward Wednesday: Shasta regressed to Tier 1, the most restrictive “purple” tier, and Plumas moved back to Tier 3, or “orange.”
San Diego County, currently in the “red” Tier 2, also is at risk of regressing to Tier 1. While in that category, a county’s schools, many businesses and public facilities either cannot operate indoors or can do so only in a strictly limited capacity.
L.A., Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial counties are in the purple tier.
Given that cases are on the upswing in L.A. County, Simon said he doesn’t “think we’re going to get to that next tier anytime soon, but we’re obviously watching the numbers closely.”
“We have mixed feelings about jumping into the next tier,” he said. “On the one hand, we want to open things up as much as possible. At the same time, we don’t want to do anything reckless that will result in a new surge and then require that we move backward again.”
With no end in sight, officials acknowledge that Californians may be understandably experiencing some pandemic fatigue, growing weary of living under restrictions that have been in place for nearly eight months.
Ghaly said residents should be applauded for their efforts.
“We know that the pandemic has altered our way of living,” he said. “We’ve all made sacrifices — some we’ve been OK with, others have been really hard — and each of these sacrifices has helped us slow the spread of COVID in our state. And I would say Californians have done an incredible job.”
But, he emphasized, residents need look no further than other parts of the U.S. to see how quickly the coronavirus can roar to life.
“We have to keep these efforts up,” he said. “As we know, cases can begin to skyrocket quickly.”
That’s a reality facing much of the nation now as the coronavirus continues to surge to staggering heights.
Daily new confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. have risen 45% over the past two weeks, to a record seven-day average of 86,352, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Deaths are also on the rise, up 15% to an average of 846 deaths every day.
Collectively, the country reported roughly 103,000 new cases on Wednesday, the most in any one day to date, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
Daily new case loads topped 1,000 in 34 states — also a record, according to the latest project data — and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients peaked in 16 states, including many in the Midwest.
Simon called breaking the 100,000-daily-case barrier nationwide “a very sad milestone.”
“It’s a number, but we can’t forget the sort of personal pain, suffering and trauma that thousands and probably millions of people are experiencing,” he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


latimes--2020-11-05--Fake polling place or service to the community? Questions swirl around 'ballot room' in OC's Little

Fake polling place or service to the community? Questions swirl around 'ballot room' in OC's Little Saigon

On Election Day , voters arrived at a strip mall in the Orange County enclave known as Little Saigon .
“ POLLING PLACE , ” a large sign announced in Vietnamese .
“ Together , let ’ s vote.
” But the strip mall wasn ’ t an official vote center .
The nearest one was just up the road , at a community center in Westminster .
The office was in fact the headquarters of Apogee International , a skincare company owned by Kimberly Ho , vice mayor of Westminster .
The location doubled as Ho ’ s campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reelection to the City Council .
It ’ s not yet clear whether the voting site , which is under investigation by Orange County authorities , was in violation of any election laws .
Some of those involved in politics in Westminster ’ s large Vietnamese community defended it Wednesday as a natural outgrowth of a robust political culture that goes to great lengths to encourage voting .
Others questioned whether Ho ’ s campaign had gone too far .
Van Tran , an attorney for the campaign , said the site was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local community , the largest population of Vietnamese expatriates outside Vietnam .
Tran and others say people in Little Saigon often turn to local elected officials like Ho for help with voting because they ’ re seen as trusted figures in the community .
Claims that the campaign was running a fake voting center were coming from agitators without any understanding of the operation , he said .
“ Is it voting when you bring in your ballot to ask for help — then drop off your ballot with the campaign after they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ How can you physically cast a vote when we ’ re not set up to do that ?
Everything that we do , we do it within the confines of the law.
” Some immigrant voters say they rely on assistance from such centers , and in past election seasons , volunteers have offered visitors servings of sticky rice , cake and fresh tea .
Retiree Tony Dinh , a former maintenance worker from Westminster , said he stopped by one location once and found it “ very welcoming.
” “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so they understand all the regulations .
I did not receive my mail ballot and I gave them my ID number and they were able to go online and find it for me .
It ’ s much quicker than waiting so long on the phone , ” he said .
Even Ho ’ s opponent , Westminster Councilman Tai Do , seemed to accept the general idea of the center , which he described as part of a tradition of grassroots efforts to ignite community political participation .
“ Voting is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elders many need a lot of guidance , ” he said .
However , he added : “ I don ’ t have any evidence , but naturally , when someone comes to your center and asks for your help , people have a tendency to steer them to the candidate they support .
Is that wrong ?
It ’ s up to the rule book.
” With all precincts reporting Wednesday , Ho had defeated Do 64 % to 36 % .
The two incumbents faced each other as a result of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attempt in April .
Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said he asked the Ho campaign to take down signs identifying the voting site because he thought they could mislead voters into thinking it was an official polling location .
The sign Ho ’ s campaign removed translated to either “ polling place ” or “ ballot room ” in Vietnamese ; the same phrase was used for official locations on the Vietnamese language websites for the Orange County Registrar of Voters and the Los Angeles County Registrar .
Another handwritten sign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Vote here.
” “ There were different interpretations of what the sign was implying , whether it was saying to stop here and vote , ” Kelley said .
“ My main concern was confusing the voters.
” He referred the matter to the Orange County District Attorney ’ s Office to investigate whether any crimes occurred .
“ I ’ m not making any judgment .
It ’ s in the hands of the D.A.
, ” Kelley said .
Kimberly Edds , spokeswoman for the D.A.
’ s office , said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the site were not being “ discarded or destroyed , ” but that officials are still looking into “ whether any other illicit activity was occurring.
” Jessica Levinson , a professor at Loyola Law School , said the signage at the campaign headquarters “ certainly does give the impression that it ’ s a voting center , ” and that it ’ s “ dancing on misrepresentation.
” “ To me , ‘ ballot room ’ gets really close to official polling place , ” she said .
Levinson said it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ themselves as an election official .
So far , it looks as if they may have walked up to the line of illegality , but it ’ s unclear whether they crossed it , she said .
“ If they say , ‘ Hi .
I ’ m a poll worker , how can I help you ?
’ Then we have a problem , ” she said .
Levinson said this , along with ballot boxes that GOP officials in California placed around the state , are “ testing the boundaries of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re going to break.
” State Republican officials said they removed “ official ” signs placed on some of the boxes , and a judge said the party did not have to disclose information about the program to Atty .
Gen. Xavier Becerra .
A former Republican state assemblyman , Tran denied that voting took place in the office .
He said ballots were dropped off and then taken to county election offices or nearby official ballot drop-off boxes .
For weeks , radio and television advertisements ran in Vietnamese media across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The official polling places have opened .
Together let ’ s go vote to express our voice , ” said one television ad in Vietnamese .
The ad gave the address for the strip mall , calling it an “ election office.
” Funding for the advertisement came from state Assemblyman Tyler Diep ( R-Westminster ) , a friend of Ho ’ s who also mounted a campaign for separate seats on the Municipal Water District of Orange County and the Midway City Sanitation District .
Diep said he spent about $ 6,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Vietnam California Radio ( VNCR ) and Viet Face TV .
Diep said many of the elderly visitors wanted to deliver their ballots in person “ because they don ’ t know where their drop-off box is and because they were skeptical about mailing it in , after seeing the integrity of the U.S .
Postal Service compromised , perhaps , in candidate statements.
” After the barrage of advertisements , voters may have been under the impression that the strip mall was an official polling site .
Shortly after 7 p.m. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to vote before the 8 p.m. cutoff , according to Andrea Bird-Steiner , a volunteer attorney monitoring the election for Common Cause and Indivisible OC 48 .
When Bird asked if she had a ballot , the woman said , “ Mine apparently got lost in the mail or something .
I ’ ve been waiting for it but it hasn ’ t come , ” according to a video Bird provided .
Bird directed her to an official polling location nearby .
As 8 p.m. approached , Bird said that Westminster police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ parking lot or face arrest for trespassing .
Many voter integrity questions remained , Bird said .
She provided The Times with a photograph of what appeared to be a ballot ’ s inner envelope that had been discarded at the site .
“ Did these ballots ever actually make it to the polls ?
” said Bird .
“ What questions were people asked when they went in ?
Were they asked what political parties they were with ?
Was there voter intimidation happening in there to vote a certain way because @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Van Tran, attorney for Westminster City Councilwoman Kimberly Ho, in front of her campaign headquarters and skincare products store Wednesday.
On Election Day, voters arrived at a strip mall in the Orange County enclave known as Little Saigon. “POLLING PLACE,” a large sign announced in Vietnamese. “Together, let’s vote.”
But the strip mall wasn’t an official vote center. The nearest one was just up the road, at a community center in Westminster.
The office was in fact the headquarters of Apogee International, a skincare company owned by Kimberly Ho, vice mayor of Westminster. The location doubled as Ho’s campaign headquarters for her ultimately successful bid for reelection to the City Council.
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It’s not yet clear whether the voting site, which is under investigation by Orange County authorities, was in violation of any election laws. Some of those involved in politics in Westminster’s large Vietnamese community defended it Wednesday as a natural outgrowth of a robust political culture that goes to great lengths to encourage voting. Others questioned whether Ho’s campaign had gone too far.
Van Tran, an attorney for the campaign, said the site was providing a badly needed service to the local community, the largest population of Vietnamese expatriates outside Vietnam.
Tran and others say people in Little Saigon often turn to local elected officials like Ho for help with voting because they’re seen as trusted figures in the community.
Claims that the campaign was running a fake voting center were coming from agitators without any understanding of the operation, he said.
“Is it voting when you bring in your ballot to ask for help — then drop off your ballot with the campaign after they answer your questions?” he said. “How can you physically cast a vote when we’re not set up to do that? Everything that we do, we do it within the confines of the law.”
Westminster Councilwoman Kimberly Ho’s campaign headquarters and skin care products store in Westminster. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
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Some immigrant voters say they rely on assistance from such centers, and in past election seasons, volunteers have offered visitors servings of sticky rice, cake and fresh tea. Retiree Tony Dinh, a former maintenance worker from Westminster, said he stopped by one location once and found it “very welcoming.”
“A lot of the staff are bilingual so they understand all the regulations. I did not receive my mail ballot and I gave them my ID number and they were able to go online and find it for me. It’s much quicker than waiting so long on the phone,” he said.
Even Ho’s opponent, Westminster Councilman Tai Do, seemed to accept the general idea of the center, which he described as part of a tradition of grassroots efforts to ignite community political participation. “Voting is a complicated issue and of course, the elders may need a lot of guidance,” he said.
However, he added: “I don’t have any evidence, but naturally, when someone comes to your center and asks for your help, people have a tendency to steer them to the candidate they support. Is that wrong? It’s up to the rule book.”
With all precincts reporting Wednesday, Ho had defeated Do 64% to 36%. The two incumbents faced each other as a result of redistricting, after Ho survived a recall attempt in April.
Orange County Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley said he asked the Ho campaign to take down signs identifying the voting site because he thought they could mislead voters into thinking it was an official polling location.
The sign Ho’s campaign removed translated to either “polling place” or “ballot room” in Vietnamese; the same phrase was used for official locations on the Vietnamese language websites for the Orange County Registrar of Voters and the Los Angeles County Registrar. Another handwritten sign scrawled in black marker read, “Vote here.”
“There were different interpretations of what the sign was implying, whether it was saying to stop here and vote,” Kelley said. “My main concern was confusing the voters.”
He referred the matter to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office to investigate whether any crimes occurred.
“I’m not making any judgment. It’s in the hands of the D.A.,” Kelley said.
Kimberly Edds, spokeswoman for the D.A.’s office, said so far investigators concluded that ballots received at the site were not being “discarded or destroyed,” but that officials are still looking into “whether any other illicit activity was occurring.”
Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, said the signage at the campaign headquarters “certainly does give the impression that it’s a voting center,” and that it’s “dancing on misrepresentation.”
“To me, ‘ballot room’ gets really close to official polling place,” she said.
Levinson said it’s illegal for anyone to misrepresent themselves as an election official. So far, it looks as if they may have walked up to the line of illegality, but it’s unclear whether they crossed it, she said.
“If they say, ‘Hi. I’m a poll worker, how can I help you?’ Then we have a problem,” she said.
Levinson said this, along with ballot boxes that GOP officials in California placed around the state, are “testing the boundaries of our elections laws and seeing where they’re going to break.” State Republican officials said they removed “official” signs placed on some of the boxes, and a judge said the party did not have to disclose information about the program to Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra.
A former Republican state assemblyman, Tran denied that voting took place in the office. He said ballots were dropped off and then taken to county election offices or nearby official ballot drop-off boxes.
For weeks, radio and television advertisements ran in Vietnamese media across Southern California promoting the location.
“The official polling places have opened. Together let’s go vote to express our voice,” said one television ad in Vietnamese. The ad gave the address for the strip mall, calling it an “election office.”
Funding for the advertisement came from state Assemblyman Tyler Diep (R-Westminster), a friend of Ho’s who also mounted a campaign for separate seats on the Municipal Water District of Orange County and the Midway City Sanitation District. Diep said he spent about $6,000 to run ads on Little Saigon Radio, Vietnam California Radio (VNCR) and Viet Face TV.
Diep said many of the elderly visitors wanted to deliver their ballots in person “because they don’t know where their drop-off box is and because they were skeptical about mailing it in, after seeing the integrity of the U.S. Postal Service compromised, perhaps, in candidate statements.”
After the barrage of advertisements, voters may have been under the impression that the strip mall was an official polling site.
Shortly after 7 p.m. on Tuesday, a woman arrived looking to vote before the 8 p.m. cutoff, according to Andrea Bird-Steiner,
a volunteer attorney monitoring the election for Common Cause and Indivisible OC 48.
When Bird asked if she had a ballot, the woman said, “Mine apparently got lost in the mail or something. I’ve been waiting for it but it hasn’t come,” according to a video Bird provided. Bird directed her to an official polling location nearby.
As 8 p.m. approached, Bird said that Westminster police ordered her to leave the strip mall parking lot or face arrest for trespassing.
Many voter integrity questions remained, Bird said. She provided The Times with a photograph of what appeared to be a ballot’s inner envelope that had been discarded at the site.
“Did these ballots ever actually make it to the polls?” said Bird. “What questions were people asked when they went in? Were they asked what political parties they were with? Was there voter intimidation happening in there to vote a certain way because they were being told to?”