LOS ANGELES

CAL MATTERS--In one of his first official actions, Gov. Gavin Newsom has directed that state agencies, including the one that oversees Medi-Cal, negotiate as a block to demand prescription drug makers lower their prices.

DANGERS OF IDENTITY POLITICS-I’ve long had a penchant for writing about the absurdities — and counter-productiveness — of a certain kind of moral hyperventilation coming from my fellow liberals.

EASTSIDER-It has always puzzled me that City Council members get paid about $200,000 per year to do nothing (the highest paid in the nation), and yet that is apparently not enough. Particularly when it comes to Airbnb. 

JUST SAYIN’--I don’t think anyone in Washington is actually offended by Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s use of profanity.

BREAKING-A black man in his 50s was found dead early Monday at the West Hollywood apartment of Ed Buck, a prominent Democratic donor associated with a different death in his home last year.

CORRUPTION WATCH-Obviously, one should not ask why a non-teleological universe gave rise to teleological sentience. The practical question is: what are the objectives of our communities? 

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION REVISTED-In 1995, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan declared, “Sometime in the next century the United States is going to have to address the question of apportionment in the Senate.” Perhaps that time has come.

FIRST PERSON--If United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President Alex Caputo Pearl and the other leaders of the union really want to achieve their demands for a school work place environment with reasonable class size, administrative support for discipline, fair compensation for teachers, and an end to targeting teachers for removal who seek these and other excellent education goals, they need the support of their students' parents to join them in striking/boycotting LAUSD schools, which will cut off the Average Daily Attendance (ADA) funding from the State of California, based on in-seat student attendance, which regrettably is the only thing that those running LAUSD actually care about.

RANTZ & RAVEZ--It was a nice Friday evening when I met my son for dinner.  He is a commercial airline pilot with a major airline and is often out of town in other parts of the world enjoying the life of a pilot. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Those of us who've watched, who've advocated for, and who've critiqued the Green Line for years have noted its potential and its shortcomings.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Can the Los Angeles Times be shamed into publishing the truth, and correcting false allegations it published against an honest man by the name of John Vidovich? 

BCK FILE--The Participant Media film On the Basis of Sex is inspired by the challenges faced by Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a young law student and attorney, as well as the groundbreaking 1975 court case, Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld 420 U.S. The future Supreme Court Justice and her husband, tax attorney Martin Ginsburg, argued that gender-based distinction under the Social Security Act of 1935 violated the right to equal protection by the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

GELFAND’S WORLD--This little note is intended as advice to anyone who wants to complain -- and particularly to neighborhood council participants.

NEVER AGAIN MEANS NEVER AGAIN-I avoided the news, but my radio forced me to hear their eleven names: Joyce Fienberg, Irving Younger, Rose Mallinger, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Jerry Rabinowitz, Melvin Wax, Richard Gottfried, Daniel Stein, brothers Cecil and David Rosenthal.

EDUCATION POLITICS-What’s being contested in the current contract struggle between LAUSD and UTLA is far more important to all of education’s constituencies and the city itself than salaries and benefits or even a budget deficit. 

DEEGAN ON LA-It’s a new year, but there seems to be some old behavior carrying over. Empowered by many successes against what they see as predatory developers, “NIMBY’s” (not in my backyard) have identified a new target: shelters for the homeless in their neighborhoods. 

MY TURN-It happens every so many years. People in the U.S. seem to begin a slow crawl to the edge of a precipice and then jump off into worlds of their own creation. Violence and mayhem, for no apparent reason.

HYPER-HYPOCRISY-Netflix removed an episode of the comedy show “Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj” (photo above) that criticized Saudi Arabia’s human rights record after a request from the Saudi government to do so, according to a report by the Financial Times. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Once upon a time, California courts sought to stop corruption by the rich and powerful.

POLITICS--If you’d have asked me before if I was ever going to run for any type of public office, my answer would have been no. I’ve spent most of my career supporting those in elected office and getting others elected.  But then a few things happened.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Caught up in the "I hate/love Trump" or "MAGA is racist/wonderful" is the fact that we each have our own individual lives, and our own individual challenges, to contend with that have little direct results from what's going on in Washington. For example, are you familiar with "GHOSTING"?