RACIAL CONSERVATISM - Out on the dusty prairie west of Houston, the construction crews have been busy.

VIRTUAL UNREALITY - Three years ago, my wife and I moved from a spacious apartment. What we couldn’t fit into our new digs, we gave away.

LGBTG NATION - A viciously anti-LGBTQ pastor was arrested on the tarmac as he exited a plane in Canada after touring the U.S. to spread COVID-19 misinformation on a contempt of court charge.

COMMENTARY - The historic center of Puebla city, where I live, is a World Heritage site.

U.S. UNINTELLIGENCE - The jokes regarding the “I” in “CIA” are familiar and predictable. The middle letter in the initialism might stand for imbecility, ignorance, or incompetence – essentially anything other than “intelligence.”

NEW GEOGRAPHY-Many of us have spent the last week glued to our televisions watching the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.

COMMENTARY - We know Republicans lie. We know they are racist.

RANDOM LENGTH NEWS - Several years ago I was standing in front of the art deco Palais de la Porte Dorée in Paris, France and was admiring the block-long park across the street with lush palm trees and cascading water feature.

LGBTQ POLITICS - The state of Texas just declared that gender affirmation surgery for minors is child abuse and that teachers, doctors, and other mandatory reporters in the state are legally required to tell the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) if they have “cause to believe” that a child has undergone the procedure under the threat of jail time.

Alexander Vindman, the former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, provided testimony to the Congress in 2019 that framed the charge of abuse of power in the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump. 

SPACE TRAVEL-Three of the richest billionaires on Earth are now spending billions to exit Earth’s atmosphere and enter into space. The world is watching — and reflecting.

SB10 WATCH-Scott Wiener styles himself an environmental legislator. In February 2017, the then-rookie state senator averred that “having good, well-planned, transit-oriented, compact housing…[is] one of the most critical things we can be doing to meet our climate goals.

GUEST WORDS-In the 38 years that I have worked in the City of Los Angeles (at two chambers of commerce), I have never seen anything quite like the rollout of RecycLA. It is fair to say that it has been nothing short of a disaster. 

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. 

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.

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.

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?