LOS ANGELES

MORE WAR THAN WE NEED--In an effort to rein in the bloated military-industrial complex and free up funds for "programs that nurture human lives rather than take them away," a coalition of nearly two dozen progressive advocacy groups on Thursday launched a campaign urging 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to support cutting the Pentagon budget by at least $200 billion per year.

VOICES--Hi, Steve. I’ve been a reader and admirer of yours for years. I’m a writer, too, having penned the screenplay for Denzel Washington’s THE GREAT DEBATERS, among other credits. I was born to a working-class family in Los Angeles, and I’ve worked with the homeless and against mansionization. (Photo: LA Times.)

SPECIAL REPORT-Even before the formal proclamation of the #MeToo Movement in October 2017, Texas State Rep. Jessica Farrar (D-Houston) had taken a bold and unique public stand against the subjugation of women to men's rules on sexual equality and abortion. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--To think that transportation/infrastructure grassroots advocates used to enjoy tackling a bipartisan, or even non-partisan, issue! It appears that the grassroots will have to take it up again, because (again!) our political leaders are failing us! 

RANTZ & RAVEZ-How many times do you have to be snookered by government officials until you begin to question the numerous tax increase proposals they claim will rectify the many quality of life and educational issues facing those of us who live in Los Angeles and the State of California? 

CLIMATE POLITICS--A recent article in Arctic News on the outlook for global warming foresees a frightening scenario lurking right around the corner.

GRADING LA’S CHARTER SCHOOLS--School suspensions are out, restorative justice is in.

VOICES-Last week, SB 50, a controversial bill proposed by State Senator Scott Wiener, was stopped by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

EASTSIDER-All the pro-life “heartbeat” laws are being discussed as a matter of law. They’re not. They are religion masked as a legal issue. 

BUSINESS POLITICS--What’s the matter with Donald and The Trumpeteers?

WORLD WATCH--Waging a war against Iran, or even thinking of doing so, is sheer madness. Trump has thus far wisely rejected the warmonger National Security Advisor John Bolton’s outrageous advice.

ONE MAN’S OPINION--Most Californians know about riptides, those currents which can carry unwary swimmers far from shore and drown those who do not know to swim parallel to the current.  Fighting a political riptide can likewise be deadly, as Hillary discovered in 2016. 

CALBUZZ--Let’s dispense with the notion that name ID explains why former Vice President Joe Biden is repeatedly showing up with double and triple the support of other Democrats in states like New Hampshire and South Carolina and in national polls.

AT LENGTH--On any given morning, I can hear both the sounds of the port and the traffic on Pacific Avenue from my back porch while having coffee and reading the news. The buzz of the traffic and the occasional siren on one side and foghorns and whistles of the tugboats on the other are recognizable if not consistent.

@TheGussReport – You wouldn’t eat a week-old donut.  And you wouldn’t read a week-old Dodgers box score.  But the LA Times last week published in print an article that it ran online a week earlier without explaining its timing to its readers.

VOICES--Dear City Clerk, I would like to challenge the election for the Neighborhood Council of Valley Village, held on May 16th, 2019.  

GELFAND’S WORLD--It's almost amusing that there is a move to break up Facebook due to its semi-monopoly power.

GUEST WORDS--A year-round fire season, excessive heat, drought, flooding and mudslides are the new normal in Los Angeles. 

ABORTION POLITICS--With six of fifty states having recently passed restrictive abortion legislation, reproductive rights are almost assured to be central to the 2020 election cycle. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-The phrase often attributed to Edmund Burke that all it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to remain silent rests on the questionable premise that people who remain silent in the face of evil are good people. The more apt word is “coward.” 

ENVIRONMENT POLITICS--There has been a lot of alarm in the areas impacted by the Woolsey Fire about the risk of exposure to radiation.