LOS ANGELES

PLANNING WATCH-We could easily balance our budgets if we were paid each time an official or municipal pundit called for updating LA’s 35 Community Plans, heirlooms from LA’s boom years.

OTHER WORDS--The Supreme Court is considering a case, Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, that once again pits LGBTQ rights against so-called religious liberty.

ALPERN AT LARGE--The cost of health care can and should remain a high priority for this nation's upcoming election cycle, although those running for higher office too often don't appear to have a grip on how to lower health care costs (and I don't see enough doctors running for positions of power, probably because their calling is too honorable to stoop so low as to be a pandering politician).

EASTSIDER-It’s a sad truth. Every year I look at the races for LA County Superior Court and feel guilty, because I have no idea what I’m doing.

VOICES-Shades of the famous quote from the movie “Cool Hand Luke,” the City of Los Angeles is shutting down Wilshire Boulevard from Fairfax to La Brea on the weekend of March 14 and 15 to shoot a television show and they didn’t tell anyone in the Miracle Mile that it was happening. 

RANTZ & RAVEZ-I wrote in a previous column that the Election Commercials on TV were going to bombard you to the point of nausea.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Well, that was quick. The South Coast AQMD, an important agency doing valuable environmental work, was eager to speak with me recently about its scientific endeavors, but went suddenly silent when two top executives were asked to field live questions about its bizarre employment arrangements with, among other politically connected employees, Fabian Wesson, wife of LA City Councilmember Herb Wesson. 

LOS ANGELES-George Gascon is an advocate for Criminal Justice Reform,. But what is criminal justice reform? 

GUEST WORDS--Super Tuesday is just a few days away and I’ve been thinking a lot about the turnout for this election.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Socialism is “a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.” 

WOMEN’S RIGHTS--Reproductive rights advocates criticized a federal court's ruling on Monday upholding the Trump administration's Title X rule, which bans health clinics from counseling patients on abortion care

DEEGAN ON LA-A recent state-sanctioned murder of a mountain lion known as P-56 (photo above), in the Santa Monica Mountains, has sparked community and politico outrage. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--It’s hard to know whether to join the people of Costa Mesa in panicking over the new version of coronavirus or whether to treat it as the newest Ebola – that is, something that kills a few thousand people but is put under control before the rest of us seven billion folks are bothered – something that will come back from time to time, but be put under control with each event. 

ALPERN AT LARGE:-The rightful analogy of LA City (and County, and by extension the State) Planning to Transportation is one where the earner (Transportation/Infrastructure) gets a 25% raise, and then the spender (Planning) goes on such a shopping spree that the raise is overwhelmed by the staggering, devastating debt that cannot possibly be paid down. 

VIEW FROM HERE-In a Nov 27, 2018 blog, I argued that a Biden-Booker ticket looked unbeatable. I was completely wrong about Joe Biden.

@THE GUSS REPORT-In “How Herb Wesson Cheated LA, Part 1,” this column updated how the LA City Councilmember manipulated (read: lied) about his residency and sundry other ways he cheated the public and how some members of his family did the same. 

AT LENGTH-The sky was overcast on Saturday, Feb. 8 when I showed up at the foot of Kaiser Point at the intersection of 22nd and Miner streets for the street renaming ceremony in honor of labor icon Dave Arian.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-In the February 21, 2020 issue of Forward, which was established by Socialist Jews in 1897, Aiden Pink writes: 

HEALTH POLITICS-Lyndon Johnson had a saying about special interests trying to get his support to pass some blatantly self-serving legislation: “They can’t make chicken salad out of chicken (bleep)!”

PLANNING WATCH-In American elections politicians veer left during campaigns to catch the attention of the electorate, which is more progressive on the issues than the two major political parties.

VOTING FOR GREEN SOLUTIONS-In 2018, California committed to getting all its electricity from climate-friendly sources by 2045.