LOS ANGELES

EASTSIDER-Back in 2015, a nonprofit group from the Republic of Santa Monica called Consumer Watchdog, went after the DWP Ratepayer Advocate, Fred Pickel. Now they’re back, again demanding his termination. The question is, why? 

BELL VIEW-In 1923, in the case of Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, the Supreme Court held the federal minimum wage unconstitutional because it infringed on “the liberty of contract,” which the Court ruled was encompassed within the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. In other words, the minimum wage interfered with workers’ ability to compete on wages. 

FIRST PERSON-The new Crenshaw subway line extension and related mall and housing development projects have falsely been sold as a form of positive urban renewal.

CORRUPTION WATCH-The townfolk are up in arms, gathering with their self-righteousness and torches of indignation because Cambridge Analytica (C.A.) asked them questions that they answered. 

REPORT--With gun sales still in decline since President Donald Trump took office and with the recent Parkland school shooting prompting more debates on the gun industry, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s States Most Dependent on the Gun Industry.

LAWS WORD--It is called home-sharing, Airbnb, or short-term rentals. It involves renting a room or guest unit at a primary residence for extra income, which can help cover the cost of a high mortgage payment.

HOUSING CRISIS MADE WORSE-We all agree that we need to build more housing, particularly affordable housing near transit, but SB 827 introduced by Senator Scott Wiener (SF-D) is not the answer. In fact, SB 827 could have an even more detrimental impact on our housing crisis by increasing gentrification, destroying existing affordable housing, and displacing low income and working-class tenants. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--Is 54 years too soon? What if we're talking about a dramatized love story between Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife-to-be Marina?

DEEGAN ON LA-Westlake, one of the original neighborhoods for the gentry, was spiraling downward for many years but is now facing gentrification, and that inevitability is bringing objections about how the neighborhood is scaling upward. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-In about a month, the United States Supreme Court is expected to rule on a case out of Illinois,Janus v. AFSCME, that could crush the influence that public sector unions have on Los Angeles politicians and their peers across California and the U.S. But don’t look to the recently unionized LA Times on how that ruling might impact you on a day-to-day basis.

TENANT JUSTICE -The nearly one dozen tenants facing eviction in South Los Angeles, after a transitional housing manager failed to pay rent and abandoned the property, will have to return to court after attorneys on both sides agreed to a continuance on Friday. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Mayor Garcetti, you have it within your power to enact first-rate reforms, or to enact first-rate failures.  Or maybe a bit of both.  But inasmuch as you've terrorized and betrayed Angelenos with misguided and misinterpreted methods of mayhem to enact some sort of "Vision Zero" policy, you have also brought on a courageous, common-sense, consultant to fix LA's transportation and infrastructure problems. 

BCK FILE—(As Beth Cone Kramer explains, another billionaire thinks he can buy his way around California law.

AT LENGTH-Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. Dominic H. Choi appeared at the Los Angeles Police Commission this week and explained that LAPD officers had arrested 14,500 homeless people in 2017 as part of his year-end homelessness report. This is a 10 percent increase from the year before for an agency that claims that this is a problem that we can’t arrest our way out of. But apparently, they’re trying. 

ANIMAL WATCH-Not everyone who loves animals has a “rescue” mentality. Many loving, responsible pet owners do not see adding a dog or cat to their family as a purpose, but just as an enrichment to their normal lives. If an Angeleno chooses to obtain a dog (or cat) from a source other than LA Animal Services or another shelter, or decides to clone a current beloved pet, does that make them a traitor or less compassionate than an adopter?   

CORRUPTION WATCH-“Gallia estomnisdivisa in partestres.”(Julius Caesar, de Bello Gallico.) Likewise, our California judiciary’s money laundering is divided into three parts: (1) the judges and justices themselves (2) The Commission of Judicial Performance and (3) the California State Bar.  

RANTZ AND RAVEZ-When I joined the LAPD in 1968, the world existed just fine without the Internet, electric cars, Amazon, Costco, the delivery of fast foods to your home or business and a host of other current conveniences that we can’t seem to live without. Today, here in LA, along with other major cities throughout the state and the nation, we face the challenges of high taxes, seven days-a-week gridlock, andincreasing numbers of homelesspeople in our neighborhoods, as well as many other obstacles. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--I am NOT a fan of guns in the wrong hands (including poorly-trained teachers), and I am NOT a fan of weapons normally used for self-defense turned into weapons able to kill defenseless children.  

FIRST PERSON-The public debate over assault weapons brings to mind the harrowing experience I had in my early twenties. I learned from experience that people do not know what they would do in an emergency situation…until they do it. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--This week, a Democrat won a special congressional election in a solidly red Pennsylvania district. It wasn't by much, but it was equivalent to at least a ten point turnaround. Trump won the district by twenty points in 2016. 

CAL MATTERS--Should an organization that opposes abortion be required to tell women where they can seek an abortion? It’s a question the U.S. Supreme Court will face this month as it considers a challenge to a California state law.