LOS ANGELES

GUEST WORDS--Scott and Erica Rothenberg thought the years of scrimping and saving had finally paid off.

GELFAND’S WORLD--News sources tell us that Nikolas Cruz … admitted Parkland shooter … is willing to plead guilty to his seventeen murders, provided that the DA takes the death penalty off the table. This is pretty close to that classic definition of chutzpah -- the guy who kills both of his parents and then pleads for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan. I mean, what business does Cruz have in bargaining for preserving his own life after taking so many others? Is he suggesting somehow that his life is worth more than those of the people he killed? 

DEEGAN ON LA-Neither side really won a full victory in a dispute between the Koreatown community and a major K’Town developer that had turned ugly. But a calmer vibe could now emerge as both sides acknowledge that they may need to work with each other on any development of Liberty Park. This came as a result of two important votes this week involving Beneficial Plaza and Liberty Park. 

CAL MATTERS--After the newly created Citizen Redistricting Commission redrew congressional and legislative districts in 2011, Republicans complained that the new maps were tilted in favor of Democrats.

TRUTH WATCH-Riddle me this: In what part of life does anyone get the right to demand that they get their way and throw everyone else out that has variations of opinion? 

RANTZ AND RAVEZ-California State Assemblyman Matt Dababneh recently resigned from office leaving the 45^th Assembly District seat open for a Special Election. The 45^th District covers a major portion of the West San Fernando Valley and the Bell Canyon, Hidden Hills and Calabasas communities.  

FIRST PERSON-Why is what might be the most effective way of dealing with epidemic levels of school gun violence never even considered? The all too predictable Left-Right polemics on the issue have ignored an otherwise obvious third way forsolving the school shooting insanity.

CORRUPTION WATCH-The massive multi-billion-dollar fraud behind Los Angeles’ homeless crisis has taken a gigantic leap forward with the LA Times’ multi-part editorial which has one basic solution: give billions more dollars to real estate developers. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Maybe the business journals are right, and maybe they're wrong, but if California does have the worst quality of life in the 50 US states, then we can either stop digging the hole we've dug ourselves into, or double down and dig ever faster. 

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--Which city—San Francisco or Los Angeles—do you love to hate more?

D.C. DISPATCH-Washington D.C. is a capital and an international city. It's common to hear people speaking different languages while walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, but in the past year, one might notice a disquieting change: an influx of Russians has invaded the Potomac. 

EXPOSED!--Online dictionary Merriam-Webster.com defines corruption as: "DISHONEST OR ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR ESPECIALLY BY POWERFUL PEOPLE (SUCH AS GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS OR POLICE OFFICERS): DEPRAVITY."

@THE GUSS REPORT-One of the few things governments do well is creating faux “celebrations” with catchy names that comprehensively fool and satisfy nobody but themselves. 

FIRST PERSON-For the generationally entrenched, self-serving LAUSD administration and the vendors who own them, the collection of Average Daily Attendance (ADA) money from the state and federal governments for students present at school -- whether they are learning anything or not -- will always trump any other consideration. This includes students’ justifiable safety concerns about what seems to be the ever more frequent use of guns to kill students on campuses across the country. 

GELFAND’S WORLD--Hubris might not be the exact word to describe Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, but it is close enough to the idea expressed by the Greek tragedians. There is pride and there is arrogance, there is cruelty and there is a colossal level of foolishness. Together, these character defects have led to this latest bit of posturing that may ultimately damage the national economy and in so doing, destroy Trump's presidency. The problem for the rest of us is that the tariff, should it actually be effectuated, is likely to do significant economic damage to the whole western world. 

CAL WATCHDOG-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom appears comfortable with borrowing from Bernie Sanders’ playbook and embracing single-payer health care in his bid to succeed Gov. Jerry Brown in the June open primary and the November general election. 

DEEGAN ON LA-It got ugly at a meeting hosted by City Council President Herb Wesson (CD 10) a few days ago, where he was attempting to bring both sides of a development dispute together -- community stakeholders and the developer -- in an attempt to reach consensus. The dispute, that led to a threat of assault weapon violence by the developer, Dr. David Lee of Jamison Services, has pitted some of the Koreatown community against a major K’town developer. 

CAL MATTERS-The U.S. Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on a high-profile case that could slash the power of public-employee unions. But California labor leaders are already planning to push for new state laws to blunt the impact of an unfavorable ruling. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY--Once seen as the saviors of America’s economy, Silicon Valley is turning into something more of an emerging axis of evil. “Brain-hacking” tech companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, as one prominent tech investor puts it, have become so intrusive as to alarm critics on both right and left.

GELFAND’S WORLD--Have you ever noticed that when a suspect in a TV crime show says "I swear" to the detectives, it is a subliminal signal that the guy is telling the truth? It's actually a little weird when you think about it. 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The column hopefully begins to examine the connections between City Hall and real estate investments pouring into Los Angeles. While this story gets to the foundation of municipal politics, the mainstream news media either ignores it completely or only reports small snippets of the big picture.