In the News
Death Penalty Agnosticism and the Very Definition of Chutzpah
I am, in general, not in favor of the death penalty. At the same time, I contend that it is possible and reasonable for people to be agnostic on the issue, and I continue to maintain that either side of the debate is logically and morally…
Community Showdown with Liberty Park Developer Ends in a Standoff - For Now
DEEGAN ON LA-Neither side really won a full victory in a dispute between the Koreatown community and a major K’Town developer that had turn…
CA’s New Redistricting Plan Did Help Dems … But It Was Fair
CAL MATTERS--After the newly created Citizen Redistricting Commission redrew congressional and legislative districts in 2011, Republicans c…
BernieBots Whine to Get their Way While Trying to Destroy Democratic Meetings
TRUTH WATCH-Riddle me this: In what part of life does anyone get the right to demand that they get their way and throw everyone else out th…
Assembly District 45 Special Election: The Road to Sacramento
RANTZ AND RAVEZ-California State Assemblyman Matt Dababneh recently resigned from office leaving the 45th Assembly District seat open for a…
A Quality Education Could Stop a Bullet
FIRST PERSON-Why is what might be the most effective way of dealing with epidemic levels of school gun violence never even considered? The…
Will the LA Times Editorial Board Keep Shilling for Billionaire Developers?
CORRUPTION WATCH-The massive multi-billion-dollar fraud behind Los Angeles’ homeless crisis has taken a gigantic leap forward with the LA T…
The Shift Has Hit the Fad … and, the Government Conned Us Out of Our Money
ALPERN AT LARGE--Maybe the business journals are right, and maybe they're wrong, but if California does have the worst quality of life in t…
The Race for Governor Could Turn on Which City Californians Loath the Most: LA or San Francisco
CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--Which city—San Francisco or Los Angeles—do you love to hate more?
Sowing and Reaping the Seeds of Russian Influence
D.C. DISPATCH-Washington D.C. is a capital and an international city. It's common to hear people speaking different languages while walking…
No Science but Plenty of Money Behind Greenwashed Anti-CEQA Bill
EXPOSED!--Online dictionary Merriam-Webster.com defines corruption as: "DISHONEST OR ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR ESPECIALLY BY POWERFUL PEOPLE (SUCH A…
LA’s Transparency Circle Jerk
@THE GUSS REPORT-One of the few things governments do well is creating faux “celebrations” with catchy names that comprehensively fool and…
Kids Set to March: LAUSD Student Walkout vs Average Daily Attendance – The Money Always Wins
FIRST PERSON-For the generationally entrenched, self-serving LAUSD administration and the vendors who own them, the collection of Average D…
Is Donald Trump Creating His Own Viet Nam?
GELFAND’S WORLD--Hubris might not be the exact word to describe Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, but…
Gavin Newsom Rips Defeatist Democrats Who Won’t Embrace Single-Payer
CAL WATCHDOG-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom appears comfortable with borrowing from Bernie Sanders’ playbook and embracing single-payer health care…
Developer in Dispute with Community Stakeholders Warns, ‘I’ll Use My AR-15’
DEEGAN ON LA-It got ugly at a meeting hosted by City Council President Herb Wesson (CD 10) a few days ago, where he was attempting to bring…
California Unions Prepare to Lose in the Courthouse and Strike Back in the Statehouse
CAL MATTERS-The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on a high-profile case that could slash the power of public-employee unions. But Cal…
How Silicon Valley Went from ‘Don’t be Evil’ to Doing Evil
NEW GEOGRAPHY--Once seen as the saviors of America’s economy, Silicon Valley is turning into something more of an emerging axis of evil. “B…
TV Writers: Cliches vs. Reality
GELFAND’S WORLD--Have you ever noticed that when a suspect in a TV crime show says "I swear" to the detectives, it is a subliminal signal t…
To Understand City Hall Politics, You Need to Understand LA’s Current Building Boom
PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The column hopefully begins to examine the connections between City Hall and real estate investments pouring into Los A…
