LOS ANGELES

HOMELESS POLITICS-Los Angeles City Council Members Joe Buscaino and Paul Koretz have entered a motion for the city to withdraw from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, or LAHSA.

EASTSIDER - After all of the General Managers we’ve had at  the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE), both good and bad, never has anyone risen to the forefront with a move which jeopardizes the entire system. Not until “She Who Must Be Obeyed,” the current General Manager Raquel Beltrán. 

COVID WATCH - After months of reluctance, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday mandated that all California school employees be vaccinated for COVID-19 or be tested weekly.

ERIC PREVEN'S NOTEBOOK - Mapping the future.  A map letting unhoused Angelenos know where they are allowed to sit, sleep, and lie down is going to be needed.

GELFAND’S WORLD - I have an old friend who was running for a neighborhood council board seat a few months ago. One of her political opponents made claims about her that she says were false.

The Biden administration has given new life to a national discussion about the dangers of social media-induced misinformation following its request that Facebook censor Covid-19 anti-vaccination propaganda.

LABOR VIEW - The first time I met Rich Trumka, the president of the AFL-CIO who suddenly died this past Thursday, was in early 2008.

Two wheelbarrows full — that’s how much soil a composted human body creates. In California, it could soon be legal for people to be transformed into soil after death.  

THE DOCTOR IS IN - I say this as a Republican who LOVES all my patients, and anyone reading this, be they Democrat, Republican, Independent, or otherwise. I just don't want any of us to die.

Buscaino wins the anti-camping ordinance, but it’s still not a solution

THE DOCTOR IS IN - I say this as a Republican who LOVES transportation/infrastructure (T/I) but T/I spent WELL. 

GELFAND’S WORLD - In a previous article, I told you about a proposal from city government that would give unprecedented authority to one person to censor and punish neighborhood council board members for thought crimes.

LGBTQ NATION - Olympic gold medalist Caitlyn Jenner, who is transgender, spent years living in front of a television camera as part of the Kardashian clan.

President Joe Biden has nominated Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti as ambassador to India.

EDUCATION POLITICS - The full-court press* against public education began in earnest during the Reagan administration.

CLIMATE POLITICS - On July 21, I was walking in the forests surrounding the German Air Force Base at Büchel in the Eifel Mountains with three Catholic Worker friends,

PLANNING GONE AWRY-Re: Opposition to March 2021 Guidance Memo from Director of Planning Vince Bertoni Regarding the Mulholland Scenic Parkway Specific Plan. 

EASTSIDER-This week I have two stories that you couldn’t make up even if you smoked a doobie and drank a bunch of alcohol.

FALSE SOLUTIONS-It is important that Californians up and down the state understand just how terrible Senate Bills 9 and SB 10 are and that action must be immediately taken by all to express opposition to these measures to your local State Assembly representatives while the Assembly is in recess and returns on August 16th. Your local Senator should also be contacted.

VIEW FROM HERE-All politicians’ favorability ratings fluctuate, often based on factors beyond their control. 

CALIFORNIA DREAM REEXAMINED-California being what it is – a very large state with a complex social and economic matrix and a unique political structure – it generates an endless stream of analysis and criticism.