LOS ANGELES

RANTZ & RAVEZ-On May 12 at the Skirball Center, I attended -- along with hundredsof Los Angeles residents, business owners and Los Angeles Reserve Police Officers -- the annual “Twice a Citizen” banquet honoring Los Angeles Reserve Police Officers, author Michael Connelly and actor Titus Welliver from the popular hit Bosch.LAPD Chief Charlie Back and his wife Sharon, along with many members of the LAPD command staff, line officers and detectives were also there to celebrate the 70^thanniversary of the Los Angeles Police Reserve Corps and to honor Reserve Officers for their years of service to the people of Los Angeles. All were dressed in their Hollywood best to show appreciation and support for the Reserve Officers. 

EASTSIDER-Personally, I find President Trump uninteresting. I am very interested, on the other hand, in the group of people referred to in the news media as “The Base,” as if they were a new segment of the population which has magically appeared. 

BELL VIEW--Turns out, liberals aren't as smart as we think we are. So says University of Virginia Professor Gerard Alexander in an Op Ed in the New York Times.Like Professor Alexander, I too, have been trying to figure out a way to relate to the 32% of the population that currently governs the country.

POLITICS TO THE END--A Riverside County Superior Court judge Tuesday threw out California’s landmark law allowing physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients, just shy of its two-year anniversary.  

MORALITY POLITICS-Speaking as a male domestic violence counselor I was surprised but not shocked to learn about NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's history of abuse against women and his sudden resignation. 

K’TOWN ON ALERT-Koreatown came out ROARING in PROTEST against City Council President Herb Wesson and Mayor Garcetti’s glib attitude in coming out to Koreatown and announcing that the Temporary Homeless Shelter will be located at 682 S. Vermont -- the northern portion of CD 10 that is represented by Wesson.

CORRUPTION WATCH-Lies, similitudes and myths ruled the ancient world. Plato and Aristotle spoke of Socratic lies, while the Arab political philosopher al-Farabi referred to similitudes, and Maimonides in “The Guide to the Perplexed” warned that Biblical myths were not necessarily true.

CALIFORNIA--There are not as many propositions on the June ballot as usual, but none has fewer supporters than Proposition 70, a constitutional amendment calling for a one-time, two-thirds vote in 2024 to determine how the billions of dollars generated by California’s cap-and-trade program will be spent.

D.C. DISPATCH-(Editor’s Note: Alan Lowenthal is United States Congressman for California’s 47^thDistrict … which is centered in Long Beach and extends through western Orange county. This interview with Mr. Lowenthal is the first of a two-part series.) 

GELFAND’S WORLD--Was this the week that signified the beginning of the decline of the American Century? 

PERSPECTIVE--The only thing as bad as Congress impulsively passing a tax reform bill, is conjuring a half-baked, equally impulsive countermeasure.

MOMENTS IN TIME-(Editor’s Note: This is the first of an ongoing series.) There are moments in time that are transformative. January 3, 2018 was one such moment.

CAL MATTERS-The political whirlwind raging around California’s “sanctuary” laws isn’t doing much damage to the laws themselves, according to many state legal experts. In fact, the brunt of any legal damage may be felt most by the small city that started the rebellion.

ALPERN AT LARGE-Much that is wrong in life cannot be helped. When others in power do stupid things, and promote stupid ideas, there is little that the rest of us can do but protest.  But we don't need to double down on stupid. 

WHY THIS MATTERS TO YOU-Eric Garcetti wants to be seen as the greenest Mayor in the nation.

DEEGAN ON LA-Housing anxiety does not discriminate -- from the homeless who have no permanent housing to tenants in rent-controlled apartments who are afraid of losing what they have, to single family residents of homes near transit lines who see zoning variances that could put their neighborhoods into play -- everyone except the upper-middle and upper classes can be hit by the same thought: “Where will I live tomorrow?”  

CORRUPTION WATCH-In January 2015, the federal courts warned Californians that our entire state judicial system was suffering from an “epidemic of misconduct.”

VOICES-- In its new budget, the Los Angeles City Council is throwing another $91 million of taxpayer dollars into road diets ignoring the fact that Venice Boulevard --  the plan’s “poster child” – has proven to be an Epic Fail during its year-long pilot test, according to data from the city’s own Department of Transportation.

@THE GUSS REPORT-The corporate chaos continues at the Los Angeles Timesand its parent company, Tronc, which may be resulting in poor supervision over transparency on stories it publishes. 

RANTZ & RAVEZ-I am sure like most voters you have felt duped in previous elections when you were promised one thing for agreeing to tax increases but ended up with something else that was hiding deep in the proposition.

ICE RAID, UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL—(Editor’s note: Numerous similar ICE raids are occurring regularly in our own SoCal backyard.) A woman in southern California repeatedly told Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents that her seven children were present and demanded to see their warrant as they forced their way—guns drawn and using heavy shields—into the family's home.