LOS ANGELES

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--California education finances are an unholy mess—with incomprehensible budget formulas, a new equity funding program that doesn’t produce equity, and cuts to schools even during the current economic expansion. And our state’s so-called education leaders steadfastly refuse to fix the system. (Photo above: Camino Real Charter High wins national Academic Decathlon.)

ALPERN AT LARGE--Fair is fair, Mr. Garcetti:  If you want to throw your hat into the 2020 presidential ring, you need to confirm if LA is better BECAUSE of you (as you will try to claim) ... and not IN SPITE of you (the sad truth). 

PIECEMEALING IN HOLLYWOOD-If you've ever been involved in the approval process for a project in your neighborhood, you know it can be a long and complicated ordeal. Developers, city officials and citizens can spend years arguing over various issues, but there are good reasons to review everything carefully. 

TRUMP WATCH--"The nation, in fact, could conceivably benefit from the indictment of a president. It would teach the valuable civics lesson that no one is above the law."

RISE UP, COMMUNITIES OF COLOR-You'll be hard pressed to find a bill in the state legislature proposed by a Democrat that is a bigger threat to the stability of our community than SB 827, authored by the State Senator from San Francisco, Scott Weiner. 

DATELINE ENCINO--The photo above are prima facie evidence that the infrastructure in and around Encino and LA is taxed and at the breaking point. While I was taking these pictures the DWP crew was insistent that I leave the area because it was just not a water main break. The force of the water from the broken main corrupted a natural-gas line which was leaking creating an explosive situation!

GUEST COMMENTARY--This may sound like a movie synopsis or the plot of a novel, but it’s a true story.  

VIEW FROM HERE--Political pundits these days offer differing advice for Democratic and Republican candidates: if you’re a Republican, talk about Trump; if you’re a Democrat, don’t talk about Trump.

LGBT PERSPECTIVE--Michelangelo Signorile Christopher Wylie (photo above) is the self-described gay Canadian vegan who’s come forward to explain how he, as a young and brilliant data scientist, helped create Steve Bannon’s “psychological warfare mindfuck tool” and ultimately helped bring Donald Trump to the White House.

EASTSIDER-Back in 2015, a nonprofit group from the Republic of Santa Monica called Consumer Watchdog, went after the DWP Ratepayer Advocate, Fred Pickel. Now they’re back, again demanding his termination. The question is, why? 

BELL VIEW-In 1923, in the case of Adkins v. Children’s Hospital, the Supreme Court held the federal minimum wage unconstitutional because it infringed on “the liberty of contract,” which the Court ruled was encompassed within the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. In other words, the minimum wage interfered with workers’ ability to compete on wages. 

FIRST PERSON-The new Crenshaw subway line extension and related mall and housing development projects have falsely been sold as a form of positive urban renewal.

CORRUPTION WATCH-The townfolk are up in arms, gathering with their self-righteousness and torches of indignation because Cambridge Analytica (C.A.) asked them questions that they answered. 

REPORT--With gun sales still in decline since President Donald Trump took office and with the recent Parkland school shooting prompting more debates on the gun industry, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s States Most Dependent on the Gun Industry.

LAWS WORD--It is called home-sharing, Airbnb, or short-term rentals. It involves renting a room or guest unit at a primary residence for extra income, which can help cover the cost of a high mortgage payment.

HOUSING CRISIS MADE WORSE-We all agree that we need to build more housing, particularly affordable housing near transit, but SB 827 introduced by Senator Scott Wiener (SF-D) is not the answer. In fact, SB 827 could have an even more detrimental impact on our housing crisis by increasing gentrification, destroying existing affordable housing, and displacing low income and working-class tenants. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--Is 54 years too soon? What if we're talking about a dramatized love story between Lee Harvey Oswald and his wife-to-be Marina?

DEEGAN ON LA-Westlake, one of the original neighborhoods for the gentry, was spiraling downward for many years but is now facing gentrification, and that inevitability is bringing objections about how the neighborhood is scaling upward. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-In about a month, the United States Supreme Court is expected to rule on a case out of Illinois,Janus v. AFSCME, that could crush the influence that public sector unions have on Los Angeles politicians and their peers across California and the U.S. But don’t look to the recently unionized LA Times on how that ruling might impact you on a day-to-day basis.

TENANT JUSTICE -The nearly one dozen tenants facing eviction in South Los Angeles, after a transitional housing manager failed to pay rent and abandoned the property, will have to return to court after attorneys on both sides agreed to a continuance on Friday. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Mayor Garcetti, you have it within your power to enact first-rate reforms, or to enact first-rate failures.  Or maybe a bit of both.  But inasmuch as you've terrorized and betrayed Angelenos with misguided and misinterpreted methods of mayhem to enact some sort of "Vision Zero" policy, you have also brought on a courageous, common-sense, consultant to fix LA's transportation and infrastructure problems.