CAL MATTERS--Pacific Gas & Electric’s bankruptcy has set off a financial race among creditors, bondholders, wildfire victims, insurers and others hoping to recover as much money as they can from California’s largest utility.

PERSPECTIVE-I’ve written several articles over the years critical of California’s high-speed rail debacle. The last one was in November 2017. I suggested that gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom might come to his senses and end the project. After all, he was once against it, but flipped lest he alienate his union supporters in the primary. 

DC DISPATCH--Every 3rd week in January, the “.02%” take over Washington DC to host their annual dinner at the Capital Hilton. Established in 1913, the Alfalfa Club cultivates its membership of elite powerbrokers from all over the United States. 

CLIMATE POLITICS--Capitalism not only owns global warming, there’s a big red mitigation arrow pointed at the heart of today’s rampant capitalism, which is eerily like the loosie goosie version of the Roaring Twenties, but with a high-tech twist. 

EXPOSED-In 2013, Time magazine published an article entitled “Millennials: The Me Me Me Generation,” which bemoaned millennials’ inability to live up to the gumption and sturdiness of baby boomers or the entrepreneurial spirit of Generation X. It had a laundry list of criticisms, but the one that stood out was that millennials were “stunted, having prolonged a life stage between teenager and adult.” 

CORRUPTION WATCH-Capitalism’s birth date is often designated as 1776 when Adam Smith published Wealth of Nations.  No doubt the signing of the Declaration of Independence that same year has re-enforced using 1776 as a pivotal year.

LA WATCHDOG--The recent reports of rats, fleas, and vermin in City Hall have gone viral, eliciting comments from around the world.  This includes an appropriately titled, front page article in The Wall Street Journal, “Politics is a Dirty Business – Starting with the Rats at Los Angeles City Hall.” 

CLIMATE POLITICS-Progressive organizers are mobilizing behind the Green New Deal resolution—unveiled last week by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)—with renewed energy to build "an unprecedented political coalition" to radically transform the nation's energy system and address the climate crisis while also facilitating a just transition to a new, greener economy. 

OVER-DEVELOPMENT ON THE WAY-Developers got an awesome gift on Christmas Day 2013 when the Warner Center 2035 Specific Plan went into effect.

@THE GUSS REPORT-There are many ways that the Los Angeles Times misleads the public. As this column has shown over the past few years, the paper does this with misleading reporting, lying by omission and, as I will show today, featuring non-stories while burying the most important ones of the day. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Wow! Is Governor Gavin Newsom's brain insane as he pulls the High-Speed Rail train funding down the drain? 

VIEW FROM HERE--For nearly six years I lived next to a family from Yemen. Today it is impossible for me to see people from that country as the nameless victims shown on TV.

ANIMAL WATCH-LA Dog Bite Law Attorney Kenneth M. Phillips released his first Super Bowl video in a series, "Do Not Adopt a Pit Bull" in 2018.  

MY TURN--Conservatives seem to love spreading fake news, especially when it relates to topics where they are clueless.

URBAN PERSPECTIVE-When I visited the African American Civil War Museum in Washington, D.C., a volunteer docent asked the following question: “Who freed the slaves after the Civil War?”