In the News
Los Angeles: De-densify or Die!
The laws of economics are slow acting, but when a critical mass of people realize what has happened, then we have a crash. The groundwork for the Crash of 2008 began in 1999 with the repeal of Glass-Steagall Act. U.S. Senator Bryon Dorgan…
How LA Helped Its Homeless During the Wildfires
LA CARES--The devastating impact of wildfires exploding across swaths of California is captured nightly in dramatic television footage. Lar…
GOP Tax Plan Targets California’s Elderly … Safety Nets Getting Cut
SLICING AWAY AT THE SAFETY NET-The Senate’s version of tax reform, 479 pages with last-minute, handwritten changes in the margins, passed s…
City Council President Stepping Deeper into Free Speech Do Do
@THE GUSS REPORT-It is the proverbial loose thread on the free speech sweater. It should not have been pulled, but now that it has, it will…
Christmas Card for the Metropolitan Tenants: Happy Holidays! Now Get Out!
TENANTS’ RIGHTS-That's what City Councilman Mitch O'Farrell and United Way board member Jerry Neuman are permitting as they look the other…
California: Universal Health Care for Less $$$
CAL MATTERS-When the Legislature reconvenes and the campaigns for governor heat up next year, Californians will be hearing a lot – and a lo…
What Alabamians and Angelenos Have in Common
CORRUPTION WATCH- People love lies, myths and feel-good beliefs, but we shun facts. The sooner we recognize that our lives are founded on o…
United Nations Investigation Visits LA’s Skid Row … the World Needs to Know!
DTLA SKID ROW- Last week, Philip Alston, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty and Human Rights, visited Skid Row in Downt…
The Danger of Race-Based Politics
RACISM CUTTING BOTH WAYS-Overall, perceptions of worsening racial relations have been building since the Obama years. And now, with everyth…
The Crime Debate Gets Louder, Bail Reform is Next
CAL MATTERS--California, which had led the nation in cracking down on crime in the 1980s and 1990s by locking up tens of thousands of felon…
‘RFPs … We Don’t Need No Stinking RFPs’
PREVEN REPORT--In California, public agencies are required to put major contracts out to bid, so why did the Mayor and City Council of Los…
Oh Lord, the Democratic Establishment Rides Again!
EASTSIDER-Just when I was going to do a column on Neighborhood Councils, the National Democratic Party struck again! I just don’t understan…
New Billboard Law Allows Flashing Ads Every 8 Seconds … Yes, It's That Bad
BILLBOARD BLIGHT-There will be hundreds of new digital billboards all across the city, flashing ad messages that change every eight seconds…
It’s Not Complicated
BELL VIEW--This morning we woke to news of a miracle in Alabama: a tough-on-crime prosecutor who brought justice to unrepentant terrorists…
First-Person Report: Cancer-Causing Chemicals Endanger SoCal Kids
‘I DON’T WANT TO DIE’-As a veteran teacher of 25 years, I‘ve heard children say a lot of things. But, in 2010 one of my second-grade studen…
City Hall Putting Its Thumb on the Land Use Scale
PLATKIN ON PLANNING-In the fanciful world of high school and college “civics” and political science classes, government is portrayed as a n…
Loser Trump: Uniquely Awful and at the Tipping Point
POLITICS-Does Tuesday’s election of Doug Jones as Alabama’s first Democratic U.S. Senator in more than two decades signal the beginning of…
USC Equity ‘Mavens’ Promote Spending on Expensive Mass Transit and Housing that Benefit the Rich
CORRUPTION WATCH-All educated people have heard Lord Acton’s quote from 1887, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutel…
Okay, Your Company Doesn’t Have a Harvey Weinstein Issue, But …
SMALL BIZ WATCH--As sexual harassment allegations spread to more individuals and industries, the sad facts are coming out regarding treatme…
LA Sups Sticking It to the Poor: Hiking Admission Fees to Natural History Museum
PREVEN REPORT-How is charging admission to a public museum not the same thing as charging admission to a public library?
