LOS ANGELES

VIEW FROM HERE--If the chief of a fire department purposely refuses to deploy firefighters until the victims curry a personal favor, the public would view such an action as not only a violation of their professional duty but also criminally negligible.

PLANNING WATCH-To solve a worsening problem, like homelessness, you have to ask the right questions if you intend to come up with the right answers. 

CAL BUZZ-By the time the California Democratic Party weekend convention in Long Beach ended  – after Not-So-Favorite Daughter Kamala Harris took the stage at “Dems, Drinks and Drag Queens”; after the Women’s Caucus gave disgraced ex-Rep. Katie Hill a standing ovation and greeted Mayor Pete Buttigieg as a rock star;  after Bernie, Amy, Julian, Cory and Kamala others pitched themselves via a weird Univision forum while Joe and Liz played hooky — the bottom line was this: 

EASTSIDER-The two entities designed to support Neighborhood Councils – DONE and BONC -- now seem to be actively hostile toward them. Should we fix these two entities or dump them?

SOUTH OF THE 10-The year was 2015 and talks of the NFL coming to Inglewood were brewing. SB Strategies, helmed by Steve Bellheumer, was tasked with putting paid canvassers on Inglewood streets to solicit support for the return of the NFL. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-The main danger to the inalienable right of liberty on which the nation was founded is the concept that Might Makes Right.

RANTZ & RAVEZ-Whatever the reason, there was a man who recently threatened to jump from a bridge along the Hollywood Freeway causing both north and south bound lanes to be shut down for 11 hours.  

CLIMATE POLITICS---Nick Hanauer, a self-professed capitalist billionaire, spoke at a TED conference only recently. He exposed neoliberalism’s brand of capitalism getting away with murder in plain sight. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-When a society takes a nosedive, it is not one person’s fault.

NEW GEOGRAPHY-Most American concerns with China revolve around economic issues, and, for some, the threat posed by that country’s expanding military.

ALPERN AT LARGE--True to form, and as I've stated in a recent CityWatch article, President Donald Trump continues to poke the other side, and encourages calls for his ouster, and House Representative Adam Schiff continues to be unprofessional, and appears to be doing his best (unwittingly so, of course) to ensure Trumps’ political survival.

SOUTH OF THE 10-In June, 2UrbanGirls published a Letter to the Editor stating the city was under a special audit from the State Controller’s website.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Government is great at snatching failure from the jaws of success, isn’t it?

GUEST COMMENTARY--In the midst of a tumultuous ideological divorce, it’s best to leave the kids out of it.

ESSAY-It’s no secret that Donald Trump is one of the most aggressive arms salesmen in history. How do we know?

GELFAND’S WORLD--It’s that time of year when two minor states take over all the news. Who is Iowa going to support for the Democratic presidential nominee?

FORCING THE ISSUE-On September 20, 2019, the Aids Health Care Foundation filed a California Public Records Act (CPRA) petition against the city of Los Angeles — just four days after receiving a characteristically inadequate denial from the Office of the Mayor.

OTHER WORDS-The Trump EPA wants to introduce a new rule: Its scientists can only use studies that make all of their data public.

MY TURN--Are you there yet?

By “there,” I mean have you at last become a 1 percenter?

NEW GEOGRAPHY-The recent rash of fires, like the drought that preceded it, has sparked a new wave of pessimism about the state’s future.

EL CHAPO WATCH--Just as the post-mortem analyses of the botched capture and release of El Chapo’s son, Ovidio Guzman, was dying down, Mexico suffered another atypical act of violence.