LOS ANGELES

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--The deaths and damage of this year’s Wine Country wildfires are a historic disaster. They are also the product of an epic California success.

@THE GUSS REPORT-What is the coolest Dodger thing you own? Long before Pawn Stars and Antiques Roadshow made hit television viewing of gems people find, buy or inherit, I stumbled upon a Dodger treasure while shopping one day in the 1970s on an outing with my mom and grandmother. 

CALBUZZ--Kevin de Leon, the Democratic state Senate leader who wants to be a United States senator has a problem: Before he can make a compelling case for himself, he’s got to convince voters that after 24 years, they should fire U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

#ME TOO AT THE CAPITOL BUILDING-A letter signed by more than 140 women who work in the California Capitol, including six lawmakers, reveals that many women in the legislature have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace. The letter has shed light this week on the widespread nature of sexual harassment in many kinds of workplaces, in the wake of mounting allegations of sexual misconduct in the film industry and the #MeToo demonstration that garnered attention on social media this week. 

CIVIL LIBERTIES--President Donald Trump's revised travel ban was halted in the 11th hour by a federal judge just before it was expected to go into effect Wednesday. But almost since Trump's election, Californians—those both directly and indirectly affected—have been busy scrambling to fight not just the ban but also broader White House policies seen by many as targeting Muslims at home and abroad. Finally, they're seeing some legislative results. 

CAL MATTERS--Last year, California’s Legislature and voters enacted a veritable blizzard of legislation making private gun ownership more difficult and expensive, including new restrictions on magazine capacity and ammunition sales.

VOICES-The California Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeal requested by Sheriff Jim McDonnell (center, photo above) regarding the well-reasoned Appellate Court decision which found the department's proposed release of its self-created Brady list to be illegal. 

420 FILE--It’s no secret that Jeff Sessions has vowed to take American drug policy back 30 years with his desire to bring back the War on Drugs. The disastrous policy of the 80s and 90s has been called the New Jim Crow, as it oversaw a disproportionate amount of minorities incarcerated on inflated drug charges. This resulted in the US becoming the world’s leading jailer, with about 5 percent of the world’s population but over a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Moreover, there is hardly any evidence that it reduced crime or drug use in the US.

BELL VIEW--My dad died a couple years ago. Something about the South Side of Chicago – where he grew up and spent his entire life – breeds a certain toughness into you. He had stamina. I’ll give him that. On Wednesday of the week he died, he was out mowing the lawn; on Thursday, he collapsed in the bathroom; on Friday, he died from stage four cancer of the lungs, liver, pancreas, and bones. The only complaint he ever had was a little back pain. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-I’ve got a cracker jack idea – let’s freshen up our children’s classrooms with lead paint. Better yet, let’s protect the children from fire by using a lot of asbestos. 

Dear Senator de León-We are writing to you to express our deep disappointment regarding comments you made recently on ​News Conference hosted by Conan Nolan. In talking about the California ​L​egislature’s recent attempts to deal with the housing crisis, Nolan made the claim that Neighborhood Councils (NCs) are somehow obstructing the construction of affordable housing. Allow us to quote your response … 

ALPERN AT LARGE--No need to mince words here--it's been tough being a transportation advocate.  Political agendas, feel-good laws, ridiculous policies that send the wrong messages, and divisive paradigms have really distracted all of us from a unified approach to the planning, consensus and funding (and building) of a modern, 21st-Century LA City/County system.

PREVEN REPORT-For months last year, every other word out of LA City Attorney Mike Feuer's mouth was a condemnation of Wells Fargo Bank, but at the Taste of Soul street fair this coming Saturday Wells Fargo's giant logo will appear right beside the seals of the Los Angeles City and County. 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-As our illustrious President tries to bamboozle the American public into believing that his back-of-the-envelope tax and health plans  -- that allow the rich to get even richer  – will actually lift the income of working people, it is hard not to think about ever growing economic inequality in the United States. 

EASTSIDER-I’ve always been amazed at bureaucracies’ ability to mask their programs for the poor, the disabled, people of color and other under-represented/underserved groups, with opaque titles. Here, what is truly at the heart of the Equity Metrics Initiative is inequality. 

PERSPECTIVE—(Editor’s note: Amazon is looking for a second headquarters city. Los Angeles is preparing to make the case for Los Angeles. Rick Paulas thinks that may be a bad idea. Read on.) In early 2010, the city of Topeka, Kansas, was in trouble. The city's unemployment rate had risen to unprecedented levels. Some in the mayor's office thought that a lack of affordable broadband Internet access wasn't helping. Mayor Bill Bunten tried to remedy the situation by changing the city's name to Google.

CAL MATTERS-When Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed Assembly Bill 715 last week, he closed the book on even token legislative efforts to confront California’s epidemic of opioid abuse. 

CAL BUZZ--Ambitious but termed-out, Kevin de Leon, the 50-year-old state Senate President, on Sunday presented himself as a tougher progressive alternative as he announced a primary challenge to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, 84, one of the nation’s most venerable, influential and well-positioned liberal Democrats.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Earlier this year, this column was first to report that LA City Councilmember Curren D. Price, Jr. is presently – and has for a long while – been married to two women simultaneously, first wife Lynn Suzette Green and second wife Del Richardson. 

DEEGAN ON LA-What would you do with millions of dollars, handed to you from various City revenue sharing schemes with very little restriction or strings attached for how to spend it? All City Councilmembers face the challenge of how to manage their “discretionary funds” budgets. If you are Councilmember David Ryu (CD4), you would ask your constituents how they feel the funds should be spent, thereby mixing community empowerment with a campaign promise to get rid of what he called “slush fund” politics. He’s just published a report on how that’s been going. 

CAL MATTERS-Many of the 7 million Californians with a prior arrest or conviction can likely relate to Sandra Johnson’s job hunting experience nearly a decade ago. On every employment application, she checked a box that inquired about criminal history.