City of Los Angeles Nearly Tripled My Fine; LA Times Publishes My Story

Paul Cook wasn't about to fold — not with Mohandas Gandhi's words ringing in his ears.

Never mind that the issue at the center of the David-versus-Goliath fight was a parking ticket that he could afford to pay. Never mind that if he was the David, then the Goliath was the Los Angeles Department of Transportation's parking division, notoriously difficult to challenge. Never mind that even his friends told him fighting would be a waste of time.

"People are just, like, 'You can't win against them,'" Cook said. "For me, it's just — it's wrong."

So drawing on Gandhi's teachings about the unwavering power of righteous "soul strength" to overcome the greatest obstacles, Cook set forth on a journey through L.A.'s byzantine parking dispute process that would last some 16 months.

Cook's story starts on Dec. 19, 2024, in Chinatown, when he returned to his car to find a yellow envelope tucked under his windshield wiper. Recalling the day in a recent interview with The Times, Cook quickly turns indignant about the bureaucratic odyssey that yellow slip launched. He's mad not just because he feels his time was wasted, but also because he knows that many others without his legal background, perseverance or media savvy would simply pay the fine.

"The city of Los Angeles is unreasonable," Cook told The Times. "You get a parking ticket, they want their pound of flesh."

. . .

Read more here.

Gordon and Eliza Allen Save Their Neighbor's Life During the Eaton Fire

 

Gordon and Eliza Allen, who lost their home in the Eaton Fire, risk their lives to save their neighbor. Watch video here:

https://test-mobile-feeds.cbsnews.com/losangeles/video/a-neighborly-rescue-for-sports-central-producer/

2026 - the Year of the Fire Horse - the Year of Velocity

2026 is the Year of the Fire Horse, which translates into the Year of Velocity. On the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, I fasted without drinking water or eating food for an entire day. During that time, I was reading the Holy Scripture, and I felt like the Lord told me to proclaim this verse:

“But the LORD is still in the city; he does what is right and never what is wrong. Every morning without fail, he brings justice to his people. And yet the unrighteous people there keep on doing wrong and are not ashamed.” (Zephaniah 3:5.)

Horses represent movement, power, work, loyalty, and kindness. In Revelation, horses are agents of divine judgment. The red one, in particular, represents war. Given the verse I was given, I believe this is the year that God will act and grant judgment accordingly and swiftly.

* * *

The Year of the Snake, 2025, as predicted, was a difficult year. It started with a crisis. My father’s nursing home burned down; thankfully, he lived. It entered with attempting to resolve a crisis, where it appears that fraudsters dangerously staged a car crash - where the car spun out and hit the freeway rails. The aftermath was ugly.

Then, in the middle of 2025, I had great difficulty in one of my cases. Finally, the last season of the year, from Fall into Winter, ended with a personal crisis, which finally resolved on Christmas Day.

* * *

This year, I exposed a car crash that appears to have been an orchestrated fraud ring. Unfortunately, even after exposing them, this seems to have made little impact on the suspects.

I made a lot of progress on my main quiet title action case, which I will be writing more about this year.

The stepmother in my family’s life filed a conservatorship to try to take my father away from me, even though we had a three-year elder abuse restraining order against her. I was able to defeat the conservatorship in August of this year.

 * * *

Last year, I did my best to bring “the utter darkness into the light.”

In 2026, I’ll be writing more on my father’s case and the evils of elder abuse in our Los Angeles community. I just need some time. Sorry, I haven’t written as much in 2025. 

As you can see, 2025 was the year of getting repeatedly and venomously bitten. But on the flip side, it was also the year that grace and the antidote to these problems surfaced and purified.

2025 came with the Eaton Fires, the Pasadena car crash and its aftermath, the summary judgment erroneously granted in my father’s case, and a personal crisis, all of which were challenging. But I persevered.

How? I can’t even tell you, and I didn’t even know I had that in me. I believe my faith lit the path during the darkest times of 2025.

The Year of the Snake has ended. Thank God. I welcome the Year of the Horse, which in my life has been a prosperous symbol. I predict both velocity and justice for this year.