VOICES

MISINFORMATION - I remember hearing it all the time, it was half joking and half serious, my father was a pediatrician and he’d say: take two pills and call me in the morning.

DEAR CITYWATCH - Why is Metro allowing unauthorized activists to redesign Colorado Blvd.

VOICES--Following today’s introduction of a City Council motion to suspend Mark Ridley-Thomas from his official duties due to federal felony bribery and fraud charges, L.A. Controller Ron Galperin announced that he will stop paying Mr. Ridley-Thomas’s salary if the suspension is approved:

CITY HALL--I don’t come from the political class. I was not groomed to become anything but an honest person.

PEACE VOICE - A year ago, when I Examined the lessons of hatred and political violence in the US, I made note of the ugly role dehumanization and hate played in the alt-right’s support of Donald Trump.

SOUTH OF THE 10 - I urge the City Council to immediately suspend Councilmember Ridley-Thomas just as they did after the arrest of former Councilmember Jose Huizar last year.

GUEST WORDS - In country after country around the world, people are rising up to challenge entrenched, failing neoliberal political and economic systems, with mixed but sometimes promising results. 

ANTI-SOCIAL MEDIA - So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, good night

COMMENTARY - If Colin Powell’s life has meaning, it is as a cautionary tale about the perils of going along to get along.

WORK FORCE - On September 14, a young woman in Louisiana named Beth McGrath posted a selfie Facebook video of herself working at Walmart.

LABOR WATCH - Labor advocates are calling it “Striketober.”

SPYWARE IN THE CLASSROOM - Since spring 2020, Minneapolis schools have been using an online surveillance application called Gaggle to spy on students’ online activity.

COURTING CHANGE - Progressive lawmakers and advocacy groups on Friday urged President Joe Biden to disregard the advice of a bipartisan panel he convened earlier this year and embrace Democratic legislation that would add four justices to the U.S. Supreme Court,

POLITICS & HATE - In the weeks since the 20th anniversary of 9/11, sensory memories of that disastrous day -- things I haven’t thought about in years – came flooding back.

KINDNESS FACTOR - I have been young, and now am old, but one thing has not changed: I am an American. 

THE SECURITY STATE - Of the estimated 1.4 million top security clearance U.S. personnel employed by one or another of the government’s 18 braches of its $81 billion annually budgeted “U.S. Intelligence Community,” perhaps one or two individuals each year are designated as “whistleblowers” and persecuted to the high heavens.

LANDMARK LEGISLATION - In Washington, the big debate over President Biden's Building Back Better program is coming to a head. It will soon be settled—one way or another.

DIVIDED NATION - We have a two-party political system, one that evolves with time, people, and circumstance.

COMMENTARY - The Southwest strike has given me renewed hope that Americans have not become complete doormats. In recent times as a society, we seem to be more concerned about tiptoeing around China, whether it’s bad to call it “China virus”, instead of actually solving the problem of a worldwide pandemic.

CHILD POVERTY - American families have struggled for decades to make ends meet with stagnant wages and a decimated social safety net. The U.S. now spends less on children than nearly any other wealthy nation.

CLIMATE WATCH - It's taken too long, but the mainstream media—finally and haltingly—seems to be realizing that the climate crisis is a story that can no longer be ignored.