GUEST WORDS—(This Insider look at Vladimir Putin was made available to CityWatch through the auspices of our Washington DC Bureau Chief, Sara Corcoran.)  When I look at coverage of Vladimir Putin in the American media, I’m regularly shocked and puzzled by what I see.  Russia’s authoritarian, mobbed-up president is commonly portrayed as an authoritarian superman: Putin the uber-politician; Putin, the commanding figure of power and puissance on the world stage; Putin, the Machiavellian master schemer whose tentacles stretch from the Kremlin to the Trump White House, where he has skillfully managed to collude with, if not the president, then almost certainly those around him.

VIEW FROM HERE--According to Donald Trump, the American economy is bigger and better and more beautiful than it has ever been. So why did the stock market take a tumble, losing more than 10 percent of its value in the space of a couple of weeks? It continues to bounce up and down by a few points, not moving decisively in one direction or another. Clearly, traders are not heeding the Donald’s warning about letting the Dow Jones decline.

GELFAND’S WORLD--One or two mass shootings ago, the Commander in Chief responded to a reporter's question by stating that it wasn't the time to talk about gun control. Well, he's had weeks and weeks to talk about it since then and doesn't seem to have gotten around to it. I guess it just slipped his mind. What will the Republican congress do in light of yesterday's massacre? Do we even need to ask? 

GUEST  COMMENTARY-I am, and will remain, concerned that legalizing the sale of marijuana could be detrimental to the health and safety of vulnerable neighborhoods, leading to unintended consequences that cannot be offset by overblown estimates of the profit that commercialization might bring. Still, I recognize that Prop. 64 offers an opportunity to address at least some of the profound injustices perpetrated by the War on Drugs, especially against people of color.