LOS ANGELES

GUEST COMMENTARY--In a new grim grotesquerie, sales of bulletproof backpacks are up as much as 300% as parents frantic to keep their children alive prepare to send them to this year's killing fields - once called going back to school - after our latest slaughter in El Paso and Dayton.

RANTZ & RAVEZ-Mayor Eric Garcetti is the 42nd mayor of the City of Los Angeles. He is an educated, respected and very nice man with an annual city salary of $248,141, in addition to having a city-provided residence, a city car and driver, and an LAPD security detail for his every move around Los Angeles and the world.

ALPERN AT LARGE--For those of us who remember when Mayor Riordan established Neighborhood Councils in the year 2000 (approximately), and for those of us who remember when they sprouted up all over the City, and for those of us who thought that our opinions meant something...it's very hard to see THIS evil nonsense:

EASTSIDER--Clearly, Metro’s plan for a NoHo to Pasadena BRT project has torn the community of Eagle Rock apart.  So where do we go from here? 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The Los Angeles City Charter, Sections 554-558,and the State of California’s planning laws require all cities and counties to have a General Plan.

THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION SPEAKS-Fears are mounting across the United States over a proposal by President Donald Trump’s administration that would force tens of thousands of families to choose between splitting up or being homeless together. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-Cassandra’s always see the seeds of destruction and warn of the need for change.

SOMETHING’S WRONG HERE-“Many people think that the fight for America is already lost. They couldn’t be more wrong.

AT LENGTH-As much as the mainstream media and the conservative side of the Democratic Party try to deny it, Sen. Bernie Sanders has redefined the platform on which the party and the top 10 primary candidates are running —

VIEW FROM HERE-According to a recent NYT article, when he was governor of California in 1971, Ronald Reagan phoned the White House to express his political virulence to President Richard M. Nixon.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Go ahead...by all means...insulate yourself and dismiss "the other side". Go ahead...by all means...insulate yourself and ask why there IS another side. 

CALBUZZ--President Trump continually uses the word “invasion” to describe the immigration issue on the U.S. Southern border not just for its inflammatory, provocative and incendiary usefulness to his cause, but because it would lay the foundation for his dictatorial seizure of the National Guard.

TALKIN’ BASEBALL-According to ESPN, attendance for Major League Baseball games are down for the fourth straight year.

THE GUSS REPORT-One of my favorite Mark Twain observations is “politicians and diapers must be changed frequently, and for the same reason.” 

CLIMATE POLITICS--In this summer of alarming international climate news, it’s clear that California must adapt to its own growing threats.

GELFAND’S WORLD--Beto O'Rourke just stated that the president is "sick" and "unfit for this office."

DEEGAN ON LA-”These are not poor homeless families, these are drug addicts, who attract the thieves who steal from us and make us feel insecure, who when they are high, yell and rant and rave into the night,” alleged an irate resident in the Beverly La Brea neighborhood a few days ago. 

CLIMATE ECONOMICS-When it comes to heat, extreme weather, wildfires, and melting glaciers, the planet is now in what the media increasingly refers to as “record” territory, as climate change’s momentum outpaces predictions.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-We all have lives to live, jobs that demand attention, traffic congestion to fight, exorbitant housing prices to pay.

CAN’T GET THE COWBOY OUT OF THE COUNTRY--The two recent mass shooting incidents in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, in which more than 30 people were killed and dozens injured, are one more manifestation of a culture of violence that threatens not only people’s lives but also our future as a civilized society.

PERSPECTIVE--You probably haven’t heard about it, but there’s another mass migration coming across the U.S.-Mexico border.