DRIVE THRU PRIVACY--The great thing about corporate giants is that they’re such amazing business innovators. For example, in the category of “wheel-spinning” innovation — i.e., trying to change a corporation’s course without actually changing anything — it’s hard to top McDonald’s.

EASTSIDER-You’ve heard the headlines time and again: “The Economy Is Doing Great, Unemployment is at Its Lowest Ever, and Wages are Rising.”  

EDUCATION POLITICS--It has been 296 days since Ref Rodriguez pleaded guilty to felony charges and was forced from the  Board District 5 seat.

LA WATCHDOG--“This has to be about congestion relief, not revenue.” Mayor Eric Garcetti. 

YOUNG LEARNERS IN JEOPARDY-In California, three percent of the state’s enrolled K-12 students or over 200,000 -- as well as a couple hundred thousand college students -- are living in cars, motels, shelters, on the street, or in crowded homes shared with other families. This is the largest number of homeless students in any state. Other states also have thousands of homeless high school and college students. 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING:  The intense debate over Senate Bill 50 really turns on a more important, but poorly articulated debate about California’s real housing crisis. 

CLIMATE POLITICS--Years ago, tobacco companies discovered the link between their products and lung cancer. Did they warn their customers? No — they denied the link entirely, misleading the public for decades while killing their customers.

SURVIVAL FOR THE WORLD OF TOMORROW-Over the last year, the country has been shocked by reports of the inhumane treatment of children and families in immigrant detention. Now, the Trump administration appears to be increasing the scope and severity of its immigrant detention scheme by potentially detaining immigrants at Guantanamo Bay. 

LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS-Direct democracy works like a charm. Check out Venezuela’s Communes. They are ubiquitous proof that direct democracy works.

ANIMAL WATCH--"No Kill" has been a gruesome experiment that has resulted in the painful mauling and deaths of thousands of innocent people and far more pets by Pit Bulls. 

ALPERN AT LARGE—Only in California could something as awful as SB 50 have had a chance of becoming reality. 

ENVIRONMENT POLITICS--There has been a lot of alarm in the areas impacted by the Woolsey Fire about the risk of exposure to radiation.

WORLD WATCH--On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the end of Kosovo war, the country is facing a dramatic large-scale brain drain.

PERSPECTIVE--“Over these last few years, given the wars it has waged and the international treaties it has arbitrarily reneged on, the U.S. government perfectly fits its own definition of a rogue state.” — Arundhati Roy

ONE MAN’S OPINION-The phrase often attributed to Edmund Burke that all it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to remain silent rests on the questionable premise that people who remain silent in the face of evil are good people. The more apt word is “coward.”