LOS ANGELES

BCK FILE--The events lining up to Election Night 2016 read like a political thriller, in the vein ofThe Manchurian Candidate.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Who is funding the lavish lifestyle of Herb Wesson, the Los Angeles City Council President, and his wife Fabian?

PERSPECTIVE-In keeping with the city’s long-term commitment to overdevelopment, the Planning Department is hatching another scheme to build, baby, build.

AT LENGTH-There’s something in the American psyche that fundamentally believes that all new things are good.

EDUCATION POLITICS--The three-year scandal that has embroiled the Los Angeles Unified school board concluded anticlimactically this week when besieged District 5 board member Ref Rodriguez tendered his resignation.

FIRST PERSON-Over the last nine years I have written about the purposeful failure to educate predominantly Latino and African American children in still segregated public school districts like LAUSD.

DUBIOUS DEVELOPMENT DECISIONS-It's clear that the City of LA needs to take action to deal with the homeless crisis.

CORRUPTION WATCH-China’s Liu Qiangdong, founder of China’s “Amazon,” variously known as Jongdong, JD.com or simply JD, provides insight as to why the American judicial system is making America non-functional.

NEW GEOGRAPHY--Progressives praise California as the harbinger of the political future, the home of a new, enlightened, multicultural America.

DEEGAN ON LA-Citing his “creative eye, and his understanding of urban design” Mayor Eric Garcetti recently announced that Christopher Hawthorne, architecture critic for the Los Angeles Timessince 2004, was joining his administration as Chief Design Officer.

ALPERN AT LARGE--There's a lot of us who have been, remain, and will be volunteers.

CORRUPTION WATCH-Without people, there is no need for values, but without values, people’s lives are short, nasty and brutish.

SOUTH OF THE TEN-Was Inglewood Mayor James Butts involved in covering up a crime committed by an LAXPD officer? Department insiders say that’s affirmative. 

GUEST COMMENTARY-Prop 47 ushered in an increase in property crime statewide because many theft offenses were made inconsequential misdemeanors that carried little likelihood of incarceration.

MY TURN-Yeah, remember 2010 Midterms? Remember the look on President Obama’s face when he realized that we lost so many seats?

GELFAND’S WORLD--Donald Trump may well be dead broke. So says Paul Campos, a respected law professor and blogger. 

VOICES--Oh dear. Increasingly but mystifyingly, it seems some people are unhappy with their "president."

LATEST CES REPORT--The City of Los Angeles saw 997 more Ellis Act Eviction application filed by landlords and developers for the first half of 2018, January through June. 

DISABILITY PERSPECTIVE--Nearly one in five Americans are living with a disability, according to data from the United States Census Bureau.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-If you live, work, shop in, visit, or care about the Beverly-Fairfax, Miracle Mile/Museum Row, Restaurant Row, LaBrea Corridor, and Pico/San Vicente neighborhoods,

CAL MATTERS--Jessica Rosales recalls plunging into a downward spiral after discovering that her birth control had failed and she was pregnant.