LOS ANGELES

VIEW FROM HERE-On September 11, Evan Dawson, host of Rochester's WXXI's “Connections” had a program on climate nihilism, and discussed author Jonathan Franzen's recent piece in the New Yorker, basically arguing that it's time to spend more effort preparing for climate catastrophe rather than trying to avoid it through small, personal acts of environmentalism. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Keep LA Moving will hold a national conference in Mar Vista on October 5th to address the impacts of road diets such as the Venice Blvd. Road Diet that--no matter what its over-empowered proponents state--still has devastating and ongoing impacts on businesses, mobility, and quality of life. 

EASTSIDER-The September GPNC meeting was packed to the gills. Even more unusual, the guts of the meeting (and reason for a 50+ turnout) was . . . Street Vendors. And they were pissed. 

THE CITY--We’re not against the police. We’re not against the police department, but we are against police who commit misconduct (and those who help cover it up).

WORLD WATCH-I could not possibly applaud enough the young men and women who flooded the streets in hundreds of cities around the world demanding from their government to take immediate and long-term action to combat climate change.

NEW GEOGRAPHY-To understand how American democracy has worked, and why its future may be limited, it’s critical to look at the issue of property.

IMPEACHMENT WATCH--“Has Trump finally gone too far?” There’s a headline you’ve seen a thousand times.

PLANNING WATCH-Los Angeles, like most American and global cities, is facing three, inter-connected crises.

JUSTICE -The Los Angeles County Department of Probation is overcharging probationers from county jails and state prisons with fines and fees they can’t afford, while the Board of Supervisors directs the cash into county coffers before compensating victims, according to a lawsuit filed September 20 by a grassroots group of formerly incarcerated Angelenos. 

WHISTLEBLOWER WATCH--House Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Richard Neal is reportedly sitting on a credible and "potentially explosive" whistleblower complaint alleging that President Donald Trump attempted to influence an IRS audit of his tax returns.

BACKTALK--In regard to your article on the Brentwood Community Council, I think there are a few things that you got wrong and am rather surprised that you wrote a public piece without doing the investigative reporting such a piece would require. 

PERSPECTIVE--Earlier this year, a number of wealthy parents, celebrities, and college prep coaches were accused of offering large bribes to elite universities in order to get their children into schools they didn’t qualify for. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Since few of us recall pre-World War II America, we know of no time when America was not the leader of the Free World.

PHARMA POLITICS-Congress and other decision makers need to act now to bring back to the United States the manufacturing of not only our prescription drugs and our over-the-counter medications, but even more importantly, the precursor chemicals used in the manufacturing of those medications.

@THE GUSS REPORT-In my recent return to 790-KABC, I told host Peter Tilden that LA City Council president Herb Wesson’s campaign to become an LA County Supervisor poses an existential threat to Los Angeles because Wesson – a career politician who has been in his current gig since January 12, 2012 – deserves most of the blame for the myriad crises facing the city, most of which are far worse now than then. (Photo above: LA Times.) 

CLIMATE POLITICS--A home burns as the River Fire, part of the Mendocino Complex, moves through the area on July 31, 2018 in Lakeport, California. (Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

ALPERN AT LARGE--I've never met Scott Presler, who is a Virginia activist that spends an extraordinary amount of time cleaning up and bringing hope to the homeless and the forgotten amongst us.

NEW GEOGRAPHY-The term “useful idiot,” often credited to Vladimir Lenin, applies to people supporting a cause or movement injurious to their own self-interest.

GELFAND’S WORLD--I walked into Fry's Electronics in Manhattan Beach on Saturday afternoon. My first clue that something was amiss was that the parking lot was nearly empty.

DEEGAN ON LA-“We are never going to get our planet back to the way it was,” exclaimed 16-year-old Claremont high school student Sofia Cervantes, whose role model is 16-year-old Swedish schoolgirl climate activist and Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Greta Thunberg (photo above). 

BUSINESS POLITICS-Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote of being leery of a fast-talking huckster who visited his home: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons,” Emerson exclaimed.