LOS ANGELES

GUEST WORDS--Thousand Oaks: a city torn apart by wildfire and gunfire. Both are unnatural disasters.

SHORT-TERM RENTAL POLITICS--For three years, city officials have been designing an ordinance to address the unregulated home-sharing economy, made popular by sites like Airbnb. Soon, they will vote on it, and if passed, it will go into effect as early as July. 

BCK FILE--As I write this column, the Woolsey and Hill Fires continue to rage in Southern California, cutting a destructive path through Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Once upon a time, there was a burning desire to connect Metro Rail to LAX, and there was a burning desire to connect four non-connecting rail lines Downtown to each other.

EXPLOITATION OF FEAR-Trump’s insult of three black women reporters seemed to shock more than a few.

OPEN LETTER TO MAYOR GARCETTI--The Budget Advocates, at their last meeting, passed the following motion. 

ANIMAL WATCH-On November 4, Gary Giles, 55, of Moroni, Utah, died after contracting rabies from handling and feeding a bat. Giles is the first recorded rabies death in Utah in 74 years. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Nancy Pelosi’s favorable ratings are 31%, while Donald Trump’s favorable ratings are 45%.

EIGHT MOST READ - DEEGAN ON LA-While cut through traffic, especially during rush hours, is disrupting neighborhoods cutthroat like, it appears that community voices have not cut into the official City Hall conversation, and there’s an easy solution for that: it’s called a Community Impact Statement. 

FIRST PERSON-I am a whistle blower and ex-LAUSD teacher who was fired in 2010 on completely fabricated charges, even though I had well-documented evidence and an exemplary 20-year teaching career.

GELFAND’S WORLD--November 11 is an incredibly important date in the history of our civilization.

@THE GUSS REPORT-While Florida is once again mired in post-election chaos, one thing Floridians made perfectly clear was that they wanted to end the cruel and exploitive “sport” of greyhound racing.

THE CITY--Last spring, the voters put tremendous pressure on the City Council to oppose California State Senator Scott Wiener’s SB 827. 

DEVELOPER DOUBLE TALK-Lately I’ve begun to take more interest in neighborhood politics.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-Every year I used to look forward to Esquire’s Dubious Achievement awards, and since the magazine has revived these awards, I have two nominees.

CORRUPTION WATCH-In the 1950s Eric Hoffer wrote about True Believers -- people who stick to their beliefs without regard for the evidence.

JUST SAYIN’-Election day came and went. And so did the Measure B scheme that would have allowed the City Council to forge ahead and open a local bank. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--It is November, and YOU decided.  

GELFAND’S WORLD--Here's one for the new House of Representatives to investigate: Yesterday, at a contrived and seemingly scripted performance at the presidential press conference, a young woman -- supposedly an intern -- tried to take the microphone from a senior White House Correspondent. 

UNEASY HINDSIGHT-I can’t be the only one who spent the night of the midterms tossing and turning.

COLE CABLE--More progressive Democrats in the House must be prepared to fight like hell against the Pelosi-Schumer establishment, which will try to make them quiescent and go along with corporate priorities.