GUEST WORDS - I recently watched with great sadness the press conference held by attorney Ben Crump who is now representing the family of Valentina Orellana-Peralta, a fourteen-year-old girl tragically killed by an LAPD officer responding to what he believed was an active shooter call at the Burlington Coat Factory in North Hollywood, on 12/23/2021.

PLANNING WATCH - In last week’s Planning Watch column, I pointed out that LA’s underwhelming urban forest is a key indicator that the city’s planning glass is mostly empty.

SPECIAL REPORT - I am Janet Gunter and am with the San Pedro Peninsula Homeowners United, INC.

COVID WATCH - Unauthorized pop-up testing sites have been reported in northeast Los Angeles, along the Wilshire corridor and across LA County. 

NEIGHBORHOOD POLITICS - The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday called for the state to pass legislation requiring a minimum of five years of ownership before a homeowner can invoke the Ellis Act to evict tenants and take the property off the rental market.

WORKERS STRUGGLE - An analysis released this week shows that many of the employees of the nation’s largest grocery chain, Kroger, workers who manage and sell food, are themselves scrambling to get enough to eat, struggling with bills because of part-time and unpredictable schedules and contending, as front-line workers do, with the COVID threat

CANNABIS ANALYSIS - Fines for cannabis grow operations and illegal dispensaries in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County will soon be set at up to $30,000 per day, based on a vote by the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Jan. 11.

EDUCATION COMMENTARY - If “zoom schooling” has taught us anything, it’s that we’re locked in and our kids are learning things that shock us.

THE DOCTOR IS IN - I very much prefer the company of children to that of adults, because only children act their age. 

MEDIA WATCH - Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) is continuing to taunt out MSNBC host Rachel Maddow over an email her producer accidentally sent to his office.

THE VIEW FROM HERE - America is a nation which runs on lies.  Worse yet, we are a nation where each group manufactures its own lies. 

AN ANALYSIS - This year, the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, an agency of the Arkansas Department of Education, has invited an un-reconstructed Southern Baptist preacher, right wing politician, and Fox News pundit named Mike Huckabee to deliver a “keynote address” during what it terms an “inter-faith prayer breakfast” on the King holiday (January 17). Attendance will be by invitation only.

ERIC PREVEN’S NOTEBOOK - Ezra Klein had the opinion in the New York Times, that to protect democracy, Democrats have to win more elections. And to do that, they need to make sure the country’s local electoral machinery isn’t corrupted.

NUCLEAR WASTE OF TIME - Tokyo Electric Power Company-TEPCO- has been attempting to decommission three nuclear meltdowns in reactors No. 1 No. 2, and No. 3 for 11 years now.

CONFRONTING WHITE NATIONALISM - “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.” — Archbishop Desmond Tutu

RACIAL RECKONINGS - 2022 has begun with melancholy, as our country sees the pandemic reach new heights.

VOTING RIGHTS LAW - President Joe Biden’s recent visit to Atlanta, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s hometown, focused national attention on a somber fact: the legacy of the civil rights movement is threatened by recent and ongoing attacks on voting rights.

COMMENTARY -  Love thy enemy? I get a chance to do so on a regular basis, thanks to the email (or nasty-mail) I sometimes get in response to my column, e.g.:

EDUCATION WATCH - As critical race theory and school board meetings grab headlines, it’s easy to forget that we are all the product of the childhood education we received. 

CALIFORNIA MATTERS - Splashy headlines, viral videos and fear of lawlessness have spurred the beginnings of a proverbial pendulum swing in California. 

CORPORATE MALFEASANCE - In its ranking of business values, corporate America proudly provides a special place for elevated moral behavior. That place is the trash can.

ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY - "Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can do much to help it…The freedom to do as one likes leads straight to its overthrow." —Judge Learned Hand, 1944

HOUSING WATCH - New laws that took effect on January 1 end single-family home zoning in California.

LA WATCHDOG - Corruption permeates the City of Los Angeles.