LOS ANGELES

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The “Purple Line Transit Neighborhood Plan” is nothing more than a deceptively misnamed specific plan, so please allow me a deep planning dive into this latest City Hall sting operation.

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--Do you know what time it is, California?

JOBS VS. UNION CASH-Prior to June 2016 janitorial services at the California Health Care Facility, a California State prison Facility located in Stockton, were provided by the individuals who were SEIU #1000 union members.

CORRUPTION WATCH-The parameters of judicial corruption appear rather straight forward within the system as a whole.

FIRST PERSON-Recently, I've had the pleasure of re-connecting with the talented award-winning filmmaker Linda Yellen.

ALPERN AT LARGE--I doubt I'm the only fifty-something that enjoys both family-friendly and cynical humor, and that I can both love "South Park", "Family Guy", and "Rick and Morty"... as well as a wonderful, family-friendly show like "Stuck In The Middle". 

CAL MATTERS--When phone bank worker Melissa Mendez, age 26, felt financially squeezed a few months ago—“I was short on cash and needed to pay rent”—she walked into a Cash 1 storefront in Sacramento and took out a payday loan. The annual interest rate: 460 percent.

RANTZ & RAVEZ-First, a personal note: When it all began: It was August 1 when a little boy was born into the loving arms of Alice and Phillip Zine. While both Mom and Dad have passed onto Heaven, I will always remember the love and attention they showed me over the many years of my childhood and into adulthood.

GELFAND’S WORLD--I think that the word ordeal is too strong a term.

EASTSIDER-You have to hand it to Jose Huizar.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-On Thursday, July 26, 2018, the Department of City Planning unveiled a secretive and still skimpy Purple Line Extension Transit Neighborhood Plan (TNP).

GUEST WORDS--Brandishing a wire coat hanger, New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon took the podium at a rally against the nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court earlier this month.

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.