ALPERN AT LARGE--To many of us who remembered the dream of more responsive Los Angeles city government with respect to transportation and planning, and who remember the push for Neighborhood Councils and Neighborhood Plans, the year 2016 is part of an interesting turning point with respect to how Mayor Eric Garcetti and other City Hall officials chose to work with their citizens. 

BCK FILE--The Trump Administration has spawned an activist movement. At least one weekend a month, throngs bearing signs congregate in Pershing Square and at various locations throughout the city. 

AT LENGTH-Fresh from milking political cows in Iowa, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti on April 16 gave his annual State of the City address at City Hall.

GUEST COMMENTARY-Every Neighborhood Council has experienced it: Bad advice from the City Attorney. Conflicting advice from the City Attorney. No training from DONE. Scolding from DONE.

Well, enough is enough.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Leave it to politicians, such as Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian, to take tragic statistics about the enormous number of American gun deaths since the 1999 massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School and bastardize them for dramatic effect as he did last Friday, the 19^thanniversary of the incident. 

CAL BUZZ ON POLITICS--(Ed Note: Jerry Roberts spends most of his energy these days wrangling horses and politicos in Santa Barbara, where he is the RW Apple of hyper-local concerns. Occasionally he lifts his sights beyond Santa Maria to offer his thoughts on the state at large. This is from a recent post on the Santa Barbara Independent.)

EXPOSING THE WHYS-The JFK assassination is America's last unspeakable secret. To confess what really happened in Dallas that day is to admit that the whole goddamn thing is made up out of thin air.

ANIMAL WATCH-#BanPitBulls flyers, with the heading, Pit Bull Facts, were posted widely this month in Los Angeles and other cities, including Boca Raton, Florida, and they seemed to catch activists by surprise.

CORRUPTION WATCH-Corruption is dishonest or fraudulent conduct by individuals in power, typically involving bribery. “Corruptionism” denotes a system, be it a political, economic or social. There are tons of “isms” -- Capitalism, Communism, Socialism, etc., and the one most near and dear to Angelenos: “Garcettism.” 

President Donald Trump attacked California on Thursday for doing what he and his administration asked it to do: agreeing to deploy state National Guard members to help the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--Your Majesty, I realize you move slowly, and I don’t mean to rush someone who turned 92 this week.

GELFAND’S WORLD--A couple of decades ago, some of my environmentalist friends started talking about something they called the precautionary principle.