First they came for ACORN, then it was Planned Parenthood and NPR. Now, the right-wing smear machine is at it again, targeting a local group that has had a strong impact in advancing important progressive causes. The group is LAANE or the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy, and the provenance of persecutor is unknown, and mysterious.
From an extensive Jim Newton column in the the LA Times, here's a description of the kind of work LANE does:
LAANE, as it's known, is an 18-year-old advocacy organization that seeks to fashion and influence public policy relating to jobs, the environment and community development. The group, widely perceived as having a strong liberal slant, has a staff of 45 people and an annual budget of $4 million, and it is headed by a shrewd executive director, Madeline Janis. Housed in a tiny suite of offices just west of downtown (LAANE rents the space from the union UNITE-HERE), its modest quarters give little evidence of its impact, which is profound. In project after project -- from winning passage of the city's Living Wage Ordinance to revamping the way the Los Angeles port handles truck traffic to reimagining the region's approach to recycling -- LAANE has shown itself to be one of Southern California's most potent political organizations.
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