Mon05202013

Last updateThu, 16 May 2013 10pm

LOS ANGELES Monday, May 20th 2013 12:00

Uniquely In Touch

Jerry Brown: California’s Mystery Man

Bill Boyarsky
May 16, 2013
GUEST WORDS - One of California’s great mysteries is the state’s governor, Jerry Brown. In a time when America’s politicians strive to be everywoman and everyman, Brown goes his own way. While a nation frantically chases youth, the 75-year-old governor who glories in his age and experience, is at the top of his game. In his new and informative biography of Brown, “Trailblazer,” journalist Chuck McFadden offers an explanation. He describes the governor as a “contrasting amalgam of religious questing, down-and-dirty politics, and consistent, fervent ambition.” (Full disclosure: As the book’s acknowledgements indicate, I saw the manuscript before it was published and made suggestions.)  Read More...

California Takes on Delicate Dilemma: Which Bathroom for Transgender School Children

Katharine Russ
May 16, 2013
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...

Don’t Talk to Me About Parks

David Bell
May 16, 2013
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...

Will the Lobbyists Drown Out the City Attorney on the Casden Sepulveda Project?

Ken Alpern
May 16, 2013
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 is B-R-O-K-E

Jack Humphreville
May 16, 2013
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...

Smaller Class-size: Not Just for Teachers

Sara Roos
May 16, 2013
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...

The Economic and Criminal Consequences of Raising the Tobacco Tax

Joel Fox
May 16, 2013
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...

Many US Women Can't Afford To Do What Angelina Jolie Did

Sadhbh Walshe
May 16, 2013
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...


 

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Taking Stock Header
 

Ron Galperin Will be Tenacious Watchdog

Jack Humphreville
May 16, 2013
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...

The Looong and Winding Campaign Trail: The End, at Last

Paul Hatfield
May 16, 2013
PERSPECTIVE - I am in pretty good spirits as I write this. Read More...

Making a ‘C’ Change in Campaign Spending

Dick Price
May 16, 2013
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...

Alert: Be on the Lookout for New ‘Superbugs’ at Your Memorial Day Barbecue!

Jill Richardson
May 16, 2013
HEALTH POLITICS - With most samples of several common store-bought meats testing positive for antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," factory farming… Read More...

Villaraigosa Policy Looms Large: Panel Pulls Plug on PCAC

Bob Gelfand
May 16, 2013
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...

The Real Story on the IRS 'Scandal' (it's not what you think)

Mark Lacter
May 16, 2013
ANALYSIS - Forget about what you've been reading the last few days. READ MORE...

Rosendahl: Prop D is about Moving LA’s Medical Marijuana Industry Forward

Bill Rosendahl
May 13, 2013
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...

South LA Interfaith Community Vows to Change the Foster Care Pipeline to Homelessness, Gangs and Jail

Janet Denise Kelly
May 13, 2013
URBAN PERSPECTIVE - May is National Foster Care Month and many commemorating activities are happening around Los Angeles County to bring awareness to… READ MORE...
Neighborhood Politics header

San Pedro Still On the Verge

James Preston Allen
Apr 22, 2013
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...

Move Over West Hollywood -- Silver Lake Is the True Gay Mecca

Tyler Trykowski
Apr 22, 2013
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...

Is it Time to Privatize City Services?

Henk Friezer
Apr 22, 2013
EAGLE ROCK PATCH - I write this with utter frustration with our city services. READ MORE...

Questions Still Remain About Sexual Misconduct Scandal Surrounding Oxy Athletics Trainer

Ajay Singh
Apr 11, 2013
EAGLE ROCK PATCH - A longtime Occidental College athletics trainer who resigned last month following allegations that he sexually harassed female students READ MORE...

 

  

But, Can Governor Brown Handle a Mule?

Joe Mathews
May 16, 2013
CONNECTING CALIFORNIA - Last week, I watched a Zócalo/KCRW debate between Los Angeles mayoral candidates Eric Garcetti and Wendy Greuel, and a clear… READ MORE...

How Does the Closing of Crenshaw High School Capture the Essence of 'Reform?'

John Thompson
May 16, 2013
EDUCATION POLITICS - Dana Goldstein's "Activist Teachers Targeted for Dismissal" recalls the poet's wisdom that to understand the reconstitution of… READ MORE...

Eager to Keep Us in the Dark, Big Ag Chokes on Its Own Scam

Jim Hightower
May 16, 2013
ANIMAL RIGHTS - Big Ag's eager to keep us all in the dark about what they're doing to the pigs, cows, and chickens under their care.  READ MORE...

Obsession with Leaks, Secret Wars, Enemies List … Is Obama the New Nixon?

Jonathan Franklin
May 16, 2013
SCANDAL - Without going over the edge to Rush Limbaugh territory, the internal spying on reporters and politicization of the IRS do raise the… READ MORE...

Cerritos Mayor and His Council-Cohorts Setting a Double Standard

Brian Hews
May 16, 2013
CERRITOS WATCH - When Mayor Barrows, Councilwoman Carol Chen and Councilman George Ray voted to remove Frank Yokoyama from his Planning Commissioner… READ MORE...

Is ‘Inglewood Today’ Trying to Mislead Voters?

Randall Fleming
May 13, 2013
INSIDE INGLEWOOD - The City of Inglewood has a run-off election on June 11. It may seem that a nine-square mile charter city in the middle of LA… READ MORE...

Exposing the LA Port Trucking Cover-Up

Jessica Durrum
May 13, 2013
OUT OF THE FRYING PAN - What do big banks and LA port trucking companies have in common? Fine print in contracts that traps victims into signing bad… READ MORE...

LA Artist Nichole Blackburn: ‘Earning Lots of Money Wasn't Enough’

Diana L. Chapman
May 13, 2013
MY TURN - Financially, Nichole Blackburn was doing well. Her small business as a professional muralist and decorative painter was thriving. READ MORE...

In case you missed it - front pg. header


 

 

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Matt Lauer's bizarre late night TV appearance

‘710 Day’ … celebrating awful!

Fox guest compares Obama’s IRS uproar to Nazi Germany

Take a look at NASA’s amazing Kepler telescope … while you can!



 

 

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