LOS ANGELES

THE DOCTOR IS IN--For months now, I've inquired and urged my grocery store clerks and managers to push for their vaccinations.

CLIMATE POLITICS-“The most toxic substance on Earth is separated from exposure to society by ½” of steel encased in a canister.” (Blanch) 

CITY HALL--The big dogs are now officially running for Eric Garcetti's seat.

GUEST COMMENTARY--When your country has a white supremacy problem, it's not bad enough when another young, sick, white, racist guy with a fetish commits mass murder at three Atlanta-area massage parlors, killing six Asian women and two other people;

VOICES-Time and again, the people of Los Angeles have demanded and awaited reform.

EASTSIDER-At Lincoln Heights, the Neighborhood Congress, and BONC, DONE gives advice contrary to their own unilaterally imposed Bylaws, leaves a rudderless Congress, and evidently gives ex parte advice to some Board members contrary to issues that other Board members have raised. 

THE CITY--Back in the Spring months of 2020, Los Angeles City Mayor Eric Garcetti established a MEGA Coronavirus testing site at Dodger Stadium.

POLITICS--The U.S. Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed Xavier Becerra to serve as Secretary of Health and Human Services following weeks of stiff opposition from Republicans.

RANTZ & RAVEZ-Like many of you, I read the newspaper crime reports and watch TV News broadcasts and those daily police pursuits showing people resisting law enforcement personnel in the performance of their duties.

PLANNING WATCH-For the past decade I have closely followed the faltering efforts of City Hall to update the Hollywood Community Plan.

MY TURN-Since power tends to corrupt and courts concentrate enormous power in a very few people, some judicial corruption is inevitable. 

GUEST COMMENTARY-To use the words of the great Swedish bard Cornelis Vreeswijk: ”Last night, my friends, I dreamed a dream I never dreamed before.”

WHITE OUT---Ideas count -- sometimes, they are even stronger than material interests.

GELFAND’S WORLD--Over the course of the pandemic, we have dealt with the New Rules by huddling indoors and avoiding public contact (except for when we didn't).

INSIDE THE LAPD--The lawsuit caused by Robert Cain, an LAPD officer who had been grooming and abusing a teenage Cadet was settled by the city for just under $2 million of taxpayer funds to the family of Jane MBQ.   

CORPORATE GREED-Billionaire Stephen Schwarzman, a fierce opponent of rent control, raked in an astounding $610.5 million from dividends and compensation last year, according to Reuters.

THE DOCTOR IS IN--For months now, I've inquired and urged my grocery store clerks and managers to push for their vaccinations.

MY TURN--Fund raisers on the Right and on the Left know that the best way to raise vast sums of money is to claim an existential threat to their base.

CLIMATE POLITICS-CNBC recently produced a 17-minute video about direct air capture (DAC) and corporations, specifically big oil, funding R&D operations.

GELFAND’S WORLD--In terms of Meghan, Harry, and Oprah, I think Patrick Freyne says it best: 

LA COUNTY POLITICS-Near the end of last year’s swirling and ongoing feud between the LA County Board of Supervisors and Alex Villanueva, the first LA County Sheriff to unseat an incumbent in over 100 years, County CEO, Sachi Hamai, left her $450,000 a year position with a $1.5 million dollar payout from the county.