CityWatch

RUSS REPORT - Hats off to California State Assembly by Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco for passing what could become one of the most contentious bills in the state. AB 1266, dubbed the “School Bathroom Bill” by some, sailed through the Assembly on May 9 with a strictly partisan vote of 46 to 25. Ammiano’s legislation mandates that elementary, middle and high school students be allowed, among other things, to access opposite sex bathrooms, locker rooms, and other “facilities,” based on the student’s chosen “gender-identity” and regardless of what gender is listed in the pupils records.  Read More...

PARK POLITICS - I’m lying low this election. Since both mayoral candidates are products of the dysfunctional Los Angeles City Council, my preference in the mayoral race is not someone I feel very good about. By contrast, I have friends all over town who have passionately jumped on board some candidate’s platform – and I don’t want to rain on their parades with my gloomy outlook for our City’s future. Read More...

LANNING POLITICS - It is now up to Councilmember Ed Reyes, as well as Councilmembers Jose Huizar and Mitchell Englander, to prove that there is such as a thing as rules and proper conduct in the City of Los Angeles, because to date Mayor Villaraigosa, the City Planning Commission and their "Planning Politburo" have shown there are virtually NO rules that need to be followed. Read More...

LA WATCHDOG - Even the most casual observer knows the City is cooking the books. We are all familiar with the angst associated with the annual budget. But this year is a cake walk as General Fund revenues are projected to increase by $325 million, accompanied by unanticipated pension savings of over $50 million. But the Mayor’s budget that was approved by the Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday is hardly balanced as the City once again has failed to provide adequate funding for its two severely underfunded pension plans and our failing infrastructure. It even assumes that the civilian work force will forego a 5.5% raise in January and contribute 10% to the cost of its very generous health care benefit.  Read More...

MUSE WITH ME - Sometimes a misapprehension is so absurd the disconnect from reality just doesn’t register. I am absolutely dumb-founded to learn that evidently some believe ‘teachers want lower class-sizes for the sole benefit of permitting more teachers to be hired. It’s a “labor-thing”’, and thus teachers have a ‘conflict of interest’ in their opinion regarding class-size, or so the thinking apparently goes.  Read More...

SIN TAX POLITICS - The legislature seems intent on fast tracking a cigarette tax increase, passing it through two senate committees on the same day last week despite economic and criminal consequences that could arise if the tax becomes law. Testifying against SB 768 authored by Senator Kevin De Leon, California Retailers Association president Bill Dombrowski warned passing the 230% tax increase on a pack of cigarettes (from $ 0.87 to $2.87) would cost jobs and increase the sale of cigarettes through the black market. He’s right on both counts.  Read More...

A TAKE ON THE TALK - I did a double take when I saw the headline announcing that Angelina Jolie has recently had a double mastectomy. The woman who has kept stealing headlines for years with her beautiful babies and her beautiful baby daddy, her charitable works and her constantly evolving career was brave enough to put her human vulnerability out there for public consumption in an op-ed in the New York Times titled My Medical Choice. Read More...

GALPERIN FOR CONTROLLER - I am voting for Ron Galperin for Controller because he will be a tenacious watchdog for the Citizens of Los Angeles and the… Read More...

PERSPECTIVE - I am in pretty good spirits as I write this. Read More...

PROGRESSIVE VOICES - Driven by disgust for the way our democracy seems to be for sale to the highest bidder, several dozen activists from Los Angeles… Read More...

HEALTH POLITICS - With most samples of several common store-bought meats testing positive for antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," factory farming… Read More...

VIEW FROM HERE - On Thursday, May 2, 2013, the Villaraigosa administration carried out one final act of vandalism against the idea of public… READ MORE...

ANALYSIS - Forget about what you've been reading the last few days. READ MORE...

POT POLITICS - As a cancer patient who relies on medical marijuana to survive, I have been through the ups and downs of the medical marijuana… READ MORE...

URBAN PERSPECTIVE - May is National Foster Care Month and many commemorating activities are happening around Los Angeles County to bring awareness to… READ MORE...

RANDOM LENGTHS - I have lived in this seaport community for 40 years now and I’m still discovering secrets in this close-knit town. Secrets that even some of the long-time residents don’t know or understand. READ MORE...

LA WEEKLY - Could gays of the 1980s imagine what it would be like to be gay in 2013? From the Supreme Court pondering marriage equality to NFL players weighing how best to come out, the way we're gay today is nothing like it's ever been before. READ MORE...

EAGLE ROCK PATCH - I write this with utter frustration with our city services. READ MORE...

EAGLE ROCK PATCH - A longtime Occidental College athletics trainer who resigned last month following allegations that he sexually harassed female students READ MORE...