CAL MATTERS-The COVID-19 pandemic has done what more than a century of past plagues, recessions, crime waves, droughts and earthquakes couldn’t.  

CALBUZZ--The MSM chases Caitlyn Jenner like dogs in heat and John Cox’s big bear makes it official: the attempted recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom is a circus.

COMMENTARY-I remember the 1960s. It was a time of idealism and the flourishing of the American Dream, of flower children and free love. Of folksongs. Of hope long before Obama politicized the word. 

THE CITY-Judicial Blowback: Federal Judge Carter made a decent point about monitoring the county and the city's activities intended to improve the homelessness situation, but the wind has been blowing against him.   

LEANING RIGHT--It's not hard to suggest or conclude that former President Trump did not come through with his promises to "drain the swamp" or bring Americans together.

ANIMAL WATCH-At 1:00 p.m. on May 7, her last day as General Manager of Los Angeles Animal Services, Brenda Barnette issued the announcement that she launched the Safety Net Foster Program for LA City residents “facing a crisis and needing short-term housing for their pet.” 

RACHAEL ROSE LUCKEY is a Transgender Activist and President Emeritus of the Rampart Village Neighborhood Council, running for the LA City Council District 13.

VIEW FROM HERE-Sen. Mitch McConnell actually gave a truthful answer – “without Trump the GOP cannot win.”

SKID ROW-The intricately detailed, in-depth, historical analysis within the 110-page preliminary injunction issued recently by Federal Judge David O. Carter (photo above, center) clearly identifies the roles both the City of LA and LA County have played in masterminding structures of racism through policies, laws, ordinances and more.

CLIMATE POLITICS-Our Planet, Our Future is the title of the 2021 Nobel Prize Summit. As a follow up to that summit, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine recently published Our Planet, Our Future: An Urgent Call for Action d/d April 29, 2021. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY--Even as vaccination increases across the United States and an end to the tragedy of the Covid-19 pandemic seems in sight, the economic, fiscal, political, and geographic fallout from the virus cannot be overstated:

LA WATCHDOG--The Mayor’s Proposed Budget calls for an “investment” of $24 million in a Universal Basic Income (“UBI”) pilot program that will provide 2,000 low income Angelenos with $1,000 a month in unrestricted funds for one year, a total of $12,000 for each participant.  

NC VOTER SUPPRESSION--This Tuesday, May 11, 2021, at the Los Angeles’ City Council’s Arts, Parks, Health, Education, and Neighborhoods Committee meeting, the Committee will consider Council File # 21-0407, offered by Councilmember Monica Rodriguez (photo above). 

GUEST COMMENTARY--An effort to recall Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman was launched yesterday, according to a group calling themselves the Los Angeles City Council District 4 Neighborhood Coalition.

GUEST WORDS-The first neighborhood council board was seated in 2002, and since then the neighborhood councils have collectively failed to live up to one important expectation -- to fundamentally improve government.