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Tue, Dec

The Flood of Sexual Harassment Claims: No End In Sight

BCK FILE--Another week has passed with yet more women coming forward with sexual harassment allegations against a who’s who of Hollywood and politics, including Sen. Al Franken, former SNL cast member, Roy Moore, the candidate to replace Attorney Jeff Sessions senate seat, Roy Moore, actor Jeffrey Tambor, and Russell Simmons, among others. 

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California: Where Orange is the New Red and School Accountability is Getting Harder to Read

EDUCATION POLITICS--Oh, California, you paradise, you far-flung western shoal, you frontier beyond purple mountains and fruited plains, you earth-shaking technological marvel, you never-ending party — California, you’re the land of good news, where the economy booms and the culture is wildly, diversely, supremely cool. You’re the golden realm at the end of our national rainbow. 

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Crossing the Pedophile Line: No Going Back

BELL VIEW-I once did a short stint at Gigi Gordon’s Post-Conviction Assistance Center. My first week on the job, Gigi dropped 80 pedophile cases on my desk. The Supreme Court’s decision in Stogner v. California, which held California’s retroactive extension of the statute of limitations for child molestation unconstitutional, invalidated hundreds of convictions under the statute. I wasn’t long for that job. I didn’t have the constitutional grit necessary for criminal defense. But I learned a little something about pedophiles in the process. 

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The Question is: Who Believes LAPD Chief Charlie Beck?

PREVEN REPORT--During the past few years, according to a federal lawsuit filed last year by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, four separate police captains serving at various times on a disciplinary panel called the Board of Rights have come forward to accuse LAPD Chief Charlie Beck of pressuring them to return guilty verdicts and then punishing them in cases where they refused to tow the line.  

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How Soon? How Much?  The Missing Pieces of the 50-year Environmental Battle

AT LENGTH-On Nov. 2, the joint commissions at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach voted unanimously to approve the Clean Air Action Plan 2.0. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti called this a visionary action that would affect the lives of millions and those of generations to come. Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia mostly agreed. But this document was signed despite vocal criticism from the community advocates who have been pushing for policy changes for decades. 

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East Coast Elections Suggest West Coast GOP Will Pay a Price for Trump

CAL MATTERS-You’ve heard the term “all politics is local”? California Republicans had better hope so. The polls told us that this week’s gubernatorial matchup in Virginia would be a nailbiter. Instead, it was an electoral thrashing. Voters handed the governor’s mansion to Democrat Ralph Northam with a decisive 9-point margin while stripping the state GOP of its firm grip on the legislature’s lower chamber, reducing a supermajority to within spitting distance of a tie (and counting). 

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‘I Think (And Love), Therefore I Am’-- Blade Runner 2049

ALPERN AT LARGE--One of my favorite classes in college at UCSD/Revelle College was Freshman Humanities, a damned-hard writing/history/humanities course that (despite the demanding reading/writing requirements) forced its students to explore the recurring question civilized societies have asked since the dawn of recorded history:  What makes us human, and what makes us special? 

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Getting Out While the Getting’s Good: Why Family Millennials Will Move Away from LA

CORRUPTION WATCH-Los Angeles’ corruptionism will last until LA real estate crashes and burns.  A sociological explanation for this might be that “we grow up to become our parents.” Many of LA Millennials’ parents or grandparents were immigrants from the East Coast or other countries, which means their history has been to leave bad conditions rather than stay and fight for reform.   

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Should California Animal Rescuers Be Registered?

ANIMAL WATCH-When Assembly Bill 485, which banned pet shops from selling dogs, cats or rabbits other than “rescued" animals or face a $500 fine, was signed into state law by Governor Jerry Brown on October 13, it also created and legalized an entire new California industry, devoid of regulation and oversight. It seems that the ramifications were also not considered. Sacramento legislators basked in a near-nirvana moment of media attention and glowed in the hype that they were “saving lives” -- as if they had just solved a problem, rather than potentially creating one. 

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Will a New Family of Mountain Lions Soon Be Looking for a Hollywood Hills Home?

DEEGAN ON LA-The recent news that an as yet gender-unidentified mountain lion has been discovered in the Hollywood Hills reminds us that, while we live in a very dense city, our urban landscape also includes a thriving wilderness. If the mystery cat is a female and if she mates with one of the better-known local mountain lions – such as the iconic P-22 – we could soon have a new family in search of a hillside habitat. It would be, however, a family without a “dad” since male mountain lions leave “mom” within days of mating. 

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Opposing the Liars … Our Civilization Depends on It

GELFAND’S WORLD--Harlan Ellison, Timothy Snyder, and Ta Nehisi Coates are modern authors who have written with great eloquence that Truth Matters. It may seem strange that someone has to say so, but in this era it becomes a painful necessity. Snyder wrote On Tyranny, Coates has written two well received books and a column for The Atlantic. Ellison has published nearly two thousand stories and columns. And they all keep saying that truth matters. They're not alone, but their outspokenness in response to modern forms of public dishonesty stands out. 

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