LOS ANGELES

EASTSIDER-While everyone seems surprised by Biden’s pick of Xavier Becerra to head the seriously messed up Department of Health and Human Services (thank you, Donald Trump), I think he’s a great choice. 

RANTZ & RAVEZ-I will begin with the smooth-talking “do as I say and not as I do” Governor of California.

VIEW FROM HERE-I am by no means a medical expert. And when it comes to disease control and public health measures, I automatically defer to Dr. Fauci and other scientists working on these enormous problems.

LEANING RIGHT--Way to go, LA! You sure showed THOSE LAPD officers and County Sheriffs a thing or two! Or maybe even three or five! 

GUEST COMMENTARY-Six months ago, there was plenty of support for defunding the police.

GUEST WORDS--If 2020 taught us anything, it’s that the unexpected can happen in a flash.

VIEW FROM HERE--We’ve all heard about Trickle Down economics where the government gives millions, billions or even trillions of dollars to the wealthiest and then tells us that it is good for the little guy as enough edible scraps will fall from the banquet tables for the rest of us.

LEANING RIGHT--It's been proclaimed, and hotly-debated, that too many Republicans, including the Orange Man presumably leaving the White House, don't care about people.

GELFAND’S WORLD-This is going to be an argument that at least one government agency here in Los Angeles have its budget cut, but it's not the LAPD.

BREAKING--Just weeks away from relinquishing power to incoming President-elect Joe Biden, the Trump administration is quietly launching a last-minute assault on Social Security by rushing ahead with a rule that, if implemented, could deny critical benefits to hundreds of thousands of people with disabilities.

GUEST WORDS-Atomic Scientists have the Doomsday Clock, which is a mere 100 seconds to midnight.

THE GUSS REPORT-Many people distrust the LAPD because it claims that it is not a politically driven law enforcement agency even though it consistently demonstrates that it is, especially when it is in crisis mode. 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA- California's future looks grim, but a genre-bending movie and a master-planned community offer unexpected inspiration. 

JUSTICE 4 GEMMEL-It took almost three years, but Ed Buck is finally sitting in a jail charged with nine federal counts – including that he supplied the crystal meth that caused two overdose deaths and that he engaged in a pattern of soliciting Black men to consume drugs that he provided. 

VIEW FROM HERE--The mentally ill Donald Trump labors under the delusion that he won the November 3^rd election. 

AT LENGTH-This has been a rather sad and sorrowful beginning to the holiday season except for a brief moment of joy after the conclusion of the 2020 general elections.

GELFAND’S WORLD--It's been a struggle since the novel corona virus was first identified and then began to chew us up, wave upon wave.

PLANNING WATCH-Because Donald Trump has a well-deserved reputation for making the climate crisis worse, many pro-Biden pundits believed that Biden’s victory over Trump means the United States government will now take the climate crisis seriously.

@THE GUSS REPORT-True story. This column was going to be titled, “Herb Wesson’s Final Middle Fingers to LA.”

EXPOSED--The Crenshaw Mall is for sale, but it has not been sold yet.

EASTSIDER-Recently, two important measures were voted in to help provide alternatives to jail in Los Angeles County