LOS ANGELES

@THE GUSS REPORT-A while back I challenged myself to find something undeniably good going on at LA City Council.

DEEGAN ON LA-Dodger Stadium has many sounds -- the cheering of fans, the hawking of hot dogs by vendors, the dramatic exhortations from umpires on close calls, the crack of the bat and, more recently, the crack of a skull. 

NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS--The Pacific Palisades Design Review Board (DRB) has lost members due to term limits. For many months, the DRB has asked Councilman Mike Bonin for replacements, but he has not responded. 

AFFORDABLE HOUSING--Senator Wiener’s transit density bill, SB 50, is touted as a “bold step” to tackle California’s housing crisis.

MY TURN-For anyone who has studied history it is painfully obvious that those individuals who support an agenda of racism and bigotry are never satisfied. In the world of the trumptrolls, this equates to segregating everyone who isn’t “white” and their version of “Christian,” and their hate runs very deep.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-To what extent, if any, did Dem anti-Semitism in the U.S. indirectly impact Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu’s (expected) re-election?  

GUEST COMMENTARY--When Jonathan Kotler applied for a vanity license plate with the acronym COYW — which he said stood for “Come on You Whites” — the California Department of Motor Vehicles rejected his request.

AFFORDABLE HOUSING FIGHT--In a dramatic 9-2 vote against SB 50, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on April 9 delivered a blow to state Sen. Scott Wiener’s unprecedented law that would reward developers who buy up and demolish as many as 3,000 California neighborhoods.

GUEST COMMENTARY-The most dangerous number in Sacramento these days? 1182. That's the designation of the latest assault on public safety. Assembly Bill 1182, introduced earlier this month by Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, would reduce the amount of time even dangerous offenders must spend on parole after being released from prison. 

EASTSIDER-In recent weeks, the notoriously closed California Democratic State Party has seen a number of challenges and exposure in the media, including challenges to their election for Assembly District 51 party delegates, and other instances lacking real transparency. Now they seem to be responding. 

RANTZ & RAVEZ-My column this week reflects the continuation of the high car registration fees and gas tax that California voters failed to modify with Proposition 6 not long ago.

ALPERN AT LARGE--One of the stupidest, knee-jerk tweet-wars President Trump has ever leaped into was that with Lakers star LeBron James, who like the recently slain Grammy-nominated rapper Nipsey Hussle has given a great deal back to the inner city and truly cares about his fellow Americans, black or otherwise. 

SPORTS POLITICS--Probably the Lakers will recover. They’re the Lakers. Anyway, judging by the vaguely bitchy tweets, he wasn’t actually doing all that much work in the first place, and judging by the results of the past two-plus years, he may not have been very good at it.

TONGUE-IN- POLITICAL-CHEEK--To use the words of the great Swedish bard Cornelis Vreeswijk: ”Last night, my friends, I dreamed a dream I never dreamed before.” 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The who-benefits list is the same list as those who sing the praises of Scott Wiener’s proposed Senate Bill 50 as a masterful solution to California’s chronic crises of housing, transit, and climate change. 

OTHERWORDS--In tax season, most of us think more about getting our forms in on time — and getting our refunds — than about where our tax dollars actually go.

POLITICS-On October 17, 2014, a document was uploaded to the website of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC). It went out to people on their distribution list for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. The notice said:

AT LENGTH-I mailed the last issue of this newspaper first class, to a long-time subscriber, from the San Pedro Post Office to a San Pedro address, and it took nearly a week to get there.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Why might a deeply troubled member of LA City Council allegedly have people solicit donations on his behalf if he is termed-out in another year and has zero chance of ever being elected to another office? 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--If we can’t get rid of the California Rule, can we at least ditch the name?

BCK FILE-In 2018, 117 women were either appointed to or elected to Congress. Just two years earlier, only 89 women had been elected. The increase led to the media designation as The Year of the Woman. Yet, just one year later, the four women who have thrown their hats into the Democratic presidential primaries are getting less media coverage than the men.