Talk:James T. Butts Jr./draft

Mayor
Some citizens suspected budget approval was rushed, because the city was under the influence of stadium developers, who made $100,000 in donations to the city. Butts said the same stadium developers also donated to his political opponents. In a 14-page report commissioned by opponents of the stadium plan, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warned that, because of its proximity to LAX, terrorists could score a "terrorist event 'twofer' by shooting down an airplane over the stadium. Aviation experts, in a study commissioned by city of Inglewood, disputed the report’s claims. Butts called the Ridge report "fraudulent."

Anschutz Entertainment Group, which had already bought property to build a rival NFL stadium in Los Angeles, hired former Secretary of Homeland Security, Tom Ridge, to author a 14-page report opposing the stadium. In it he warned there was a risk of terrorists getting a "twofer" by shooting down a plane over the stadium, since it will be 3-4 miles from LAX and under the flight path of airliners taking off. Butts rebutted that planes hijacked by terrorists going 600 miles an hour could be crashed into many major buildings and said Ridge was serving a financial interest for a competing stadium project.