LOS ANGELES

GUEST COMMENTARY--It is painful to be an American today. Our hearts are broken by the senseless & needless death of George Floyd and the subsequent civil unrest of the past few days.

GUEST COMMENTARY-After meeting with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) last October, the Budget Advocates recommended that they implement regular Neighborhood Council (NC) member training programs on meeting protocols and methods, and that they establish a workgroup of NC members to discuss NC system issues and concerns. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Somewhere, far above America, there are two astronauts in the International Space Station who are the first to have achieved orbit after launching in a private vehicle (SpaceX), and the first to have launched from Cape Canaveral in roughly a decade.

DEEGAN ON LA-An ambitious initiative by the City Planning department, The Wildlife Pilot Study, is one of many programs facing budget cuts as the City tries urgently to stabilize its finances that the pandemic has scrambled. 

OTHER WORDS-In some ways, this horrible pandemic has brought out the best in humanity. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-On Friday, the LAPD made 533 arrests of anarchists, looters and arsonists who brought mayhem and destruction to our streets. And that’s just within LA city limits. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-“Surely death and destruction shall follow you all the days your lives.” Psalm 23.6, when life is without the rule of law. 

VOICES-When Donald Trump was elected President in 2016, many people predicted that he would usher in a fascist government in the United States, an updated version of the fascist regime Sinclair Lewis imagined 86 years ago in “It Can’t Happen Here.” 

GUEST COMMENTARY--Merely labeling the Minneapolis police, who killed George Floyd, racist ignores the underlying real cause of these ever more frequently occurring and regrettable situations.

GELFAND’S WORLD--As the late television news explained on Wednesday -- ever so pointedly -- Donald Trump somehow forgot to mention the 100,000 dead in this country from Covid-19.

PLANNING WATCH-While trying to avoid catching or spreading the Covid-19 virus, I have ventured outside to take long bike rides in my own neighborhood, and in many adjacent Wilshire area neighborhoods.

EASTSIDER-The world seems upside down to me and sinking fast. Just look what’s happened to our celebration of May Day, Memorial Day, and the ever so lame latest contretemps from the Democratic National Committee (read establishment Dems).

VOICES-176,090%. That’s a significant number, a really big number.

ALPERN AT LARGE--It still stands to reason that those who WANT to divide the nation should be the ones we fear the most.

DIRTY TRICKS--The California Apartment Association is up to its dirty tricks again — and has stooped to a new low.

PUBLIC HEALTH-On May 20, 2020, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), the lead agency for the cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) issued a press release:

PART OF AN ON-GOING SERIES-Between June 30, 2001 and June 30, 2019, the investments of the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System (LACERS) made $2.7 billion less than anticipated to fund retirement benefits (not including retiree health benefits). 

CORONA’S WRATH VISITED ON LA COUNTY-Over the next year, experts estimate that the number of unhoused people in California due to rising unemployment from coronavirus can grow by up to 20%, from 150,000 people currently to 180,000.

CLIMATE POLITICS-Earth at 10°C above pre-industrial is unimaginable. It’s a deadly horrifying thought, but as shall be explained here, it should not be dismissed out of hand. 

REPORT FROM THE INTERCEPT--As the coronavirus pandemic devastates the economy and tax revenues drop massively across the U.S., cities have begun to prepare for the hard times ahead by proposing slashed budgets and reduced public services at a time when so many of their residents need them more than ever.

GUEST COMMENTARY-Almost a million and a half Americans have been infected so far in the pandemic.