LOS ANGELES

EASTSIDER-I like Gavin Newsom. Even though I initially supported John Chiang, it was pretty clear that Gavin was the best/most likely to succeed candidate in the pack. Lack of name recognition in Southern California aside.

CORRUPTION WATCH-While everyone is all atwitter about the FBI’s investigation of Councilmember Jose Huizar and few Chinese, let’s take some time to ponder the FBI’s possible end games. Who thinks that after all these years, the FBI intends to stop Los Angeles corruptionism? 

AFFORDABLE HOUSING DEBATE-Senator Scott Wiener has come up with a solution to the housing crisis: Over-ride local control to make sure more housing units can be built.

ALPERN AT LARGE--It is probably the utmost in hypocrisy to suggest that anyone reading this, and/or who writes articles for CityWatch, tone down their passion about the whole Trump and/or Pelosi and/or Schumer and/or Clinton thing. After all, CityWatch readers have a passion for politics and current affairs … otherwise, they wouldn’t be here. 

AT LENGTH-To understand the historical significance of the recent teachers’ strike against Los Angeles Unified School District I direct you to a PBS documentary that aired a few weeks ago, and now online, about the Latino student uprising in East Los Angeles in 1967-68. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-2019 is young – still in the top of the first inning, if you will – yet LA City Hall has already had more than its fair share of awkward moments. 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--The county sheriff is the problem child among California elected officials. No office is less accountable, or more reliable in producing scandal.

CAL MATTERS--Mention Pacific Gas & Electric to Victor Porter, and the response is nothing like the bland non-opinion most Americans have of the companies that provide their electricity. (Photo above: Erin Brockovich speaks to Paradise wildfire victims.)

HOSTED BY BRETT SHEARS-- Our guest for this episode of the EmpowerLA Podcast is Ken Draper, a founding Board Member from the Mid City West Community Council and Editor-Publisher for LA’s most notorious watchdog, CityWatch.

DEEGAN ON LA-High tech will step up in 2019 to help make life a little easier for the homeless in LA, thanks to a new app called “Get Help for Homeless.” It will give first responders in Los Angeles access to medical, mental health, recovery and shelter resources for homeless people. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--It's been a demanding year. We've had several of the worst brush fires in the history of California. In the northern part of the state, the death toll has been astonishing, at more than 80 in one incident.

MUST READ-In recent decades, I have been one of those celebrating the power of urbanism: the capacity of cities and towns to create economic dynamism, expanded life choices, opportunities for active living, and healthier, more resource-efficient lifestyles.

ONE MAN’S OPINION-By last week, We the People had deteriorated to a state of FUBI or F’d Up Beyond Imagination.

ALL THAT MONEY CAN’T BUY-Imagine you were the most powerful person in the world for a second. Yes, really. What would you do?

CAPITAL & MAIN--It’s over. Following a 21-hour, all-night bargaining marathon, United Teachers Los Angeles president Alex Caputo-Pearl and Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner appeared with Mayor Eric Garcetti on Tuesday morning, the sixth day of the L.A. teachers’ walkout, to announce a tentative settlement of the first Los Angeles teachers strike in 30 years. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Being homeless is NOT a crime, but it is a sad state of human affairs, and really has no place in a modern, civilized nation such as ours. That said, urinating and defecating and breaking into a person's yard and/or home certainly IS. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY--The decisions by Amazon and Google to expand into the New York area have led some pundits to claim that the nation’s high-tech economic future will be shaped in dense urban areas.

FIRST PERSON-The collusive settlement of the UTLA-LAUSD strike just announced on the morning of January 22 by LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner, UTLA's President Alex Caputo-Pearl, and LA Mayor Eric Garcetti predictably fails to consider the real reasons for LAUSD's longstanding failure to educate its predominantly minority and still segregated student population.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The current FBI investigations of City Hall corruption are over due.  Hopefully, the FBI will now reach past the low hanging fruit of sweetheart pay-to-play deals to uncover hard facts and produce indictments of higher levels of corruption. 

EASTSIDER-Are Charter Schools really public schools like they claim? It depends on your definition. And the recent UTLA strike isn’t going to resolve the issue. 

OTHER WORDS--The Supreme Court just paved the way for Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military to move ahead, at least pending other court challenges.