LOS ANGELES

BCK FILE--With the November 6 midterm elections right around the corner, it’s time to put down the beach reads to take a look at some important races. 

CORRUPTION WATCH-One would think that people living in the nation’s wealthiest state with a gross state product of $2.746 trillion would be upset that they are the nation’s poorest people. Angelenos seem oblivious. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--The title to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night doesn't refer to anything in the play, but rather to the fact that it was written to be performed on the twelfth night of Christmas, a festive time in England as the seventeenth century began.

TENANTS’ RIGHTS-On one side there’s an ultra-rich landlord, a white woman with tens of millions of dollars in property that she inherited from her father, and who boasts a long history of slumlord-like abuse of her tenants.

DEEGAN ON LA-Not long ago, the bike community was demonized as interlopers who were taking over our roadways.

GUEST WORDS--The Miracle Mile Residential Association has taken a position to oppose the Purple Line Transit Neighborhood Plan (TNP) for several reasons.

ALPERN AT LARGE--There is a difference between liberal and being closed-minded.

EDUCATION POLITICS--Don’t squeeze your kids too hard as you send them off to another school year, because the state of California is already squeezing your kids hard enough to hurt their future.

RANTZ & RAVEZ-This summer some of my motorcycle friends and I rode our Harleys and BMWs nearly 5,000 miles during the months of July and August to destination points starting in the west in California and traveling east to Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and finally, the Grand Daddy of them all, Sturgis, South Dakota.

EASTSIDER-I know it’s hard for anyone to write honestly about race, but as a third generation Californian, I’ll give it a whirl. With a different context. 

Two years from now, California voters may have a chance to touch the third rail of state politics.

ALPERN AT LARGE--A funny thing happened when the Mar Vista Community Council (MVCC) raised the issue of regular street-sweeping on Centinela Blvd. in West Los Angeles

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-In recent weeks I have written a series of columns exposing another quickly unfolding City Hall real estate scam,

CORRUPTION WATCH-One of the acts of tyranny which prompted Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence was a corrupt judicial system where the whims of men, primarily King George’s, supplanted rule of law.

GELFAND’S WORLD--The idea of Resilience is not inherently a bad idea.

CAL MATTERS--Between the end of last year’s deadly wildfires and the start of this summer’s fatal blazes, utilities and insurers with a huge stake in the aftermath have poured more than $3.2 million into California campaign donations and another $5.2 million into state lobbying—a big spike.

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--How can Californians rise from horrific local circumstances to national influence?

GUEST WORDS--Expect to hear about folks in the Los Angeles area taking stands on the app-based, pay-by-the-mile electric scooters that seem to be scattered about the City of Angels in greater numbers by the day.

CORRUPTION WATCH-All three of these men have a grandiose sense of entitlement. Whatever they say or do is, by definition, correct. All three appear to suffer from a Narcissistic Personality Disorder as opposed to momentary lapses in judgment. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-We had some fun with the toadies at the Los Angeles Times last week to see whether an embarrassed politician can be prompted to run to the newspaper’s servile reporters for some TLC (Tender Loving Cover) and damage control PR. 

SOUTH OF THE TEN-Has Inglewood Mayor James Butts’ bullying encroached on neighboring city boundaries?