LOS ANGELES

VOICES-August of 2019 marked 400 years since Africans were brought to this country on slave ships.

EASTSIDER-I’ve been through this scene twice, and our current protests/looting seem like a bad dope dream where nothing ever changes. This time it must. 

GUEST WORDS--We live in an Orwellian era, in which working-class people pilfering convenience store goods is called “looting.” Rich people stealing hundreds of billions of dollars, on the other hand, is just well-functioning “public policy.” 

PLANNING WATCH-The Los Angeles Department of City Planning prominently placed two self-congratulatory awards on its web site. Other than promoting eye-rolling and head scratching, what else is going on? 

POLITICS NEIGHBORHOOD-The Bureau of Street Services (BSS) is the department responsible for 23,000 lane miles and 800 miles of alleys that link homes and businesses in Los Angeles.

RANTZ & RAVEZ-It all started as another case of police abuse against an African American caught on video.

ALPERN AT LARGE--Taking a knee is usually a sign of respect ... but it can also be a sign of submission.

GUEST COMMENTARY--What happened in Minneapolis was criminal. What is happening in Los Angeles is just as criminal. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-America’s most predatory, racist institution is its judiciary.

PART OF A CONTINUING SERIES-Among other things, the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System (LACERS) Board is charged with investing $18 billion to help ensure the retirement security of over 46,000 active and retired City employees.

GELFAND’S WORLD--Curiously, the weekend’s rioting forces us to admit that there is validity in the conservative viewpoint.

GUEST COMMENTARY--This was the statement released on the slaying of Louisville Businessman David McAtee (photo above) by Louisville police and national guard.

GUEST COMMENTARY-As I sit here writing, all surrounding cities have declared a 4 pm curfew. Los Angeles is still at 6 pm! 

GUEST COMMENTARY--It is painful to be an American today. Our hearts are broken by the senseless & needless death of George Floyd and the subsequent civil unrest of the past few days.

GUEST COMMENTARY-After meeting with the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment (DONE) last October, the Budget Advocates recommended that they implement regular Neighborhood Council (NC) member training programs on meeting protocols and methods, and that they establish a workgroup of NC members to discuss NC system issues and concerns. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--Somewhere, far above America, there are two astronauts in the International Space Station who are the first to have achieved orbit after launching in a private vehicle (SpaceX), and the first to have launched from Cape Canaveral in roughly a decade.

DEEGAN ON LA-An ambitious initiative by the City Planning department, The Wildlife Pilot Study, is one of many programs facing budget cuts as the City tries urgently to stabilize its finances that the pandemic has scrambled. 

OTHER WORDS-In some ways, this horrible pandemic has brought out the best in humanity. 

@THE GUSS REPORT-On Friday, the LAPD made 533 arrests of anarchists, looters and arsonists who brought mayhem and destruction to our streets. And that’s just within LA city limits. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-“Surely death and destruction shall follow you all the days your lives.” Psalm 23.6, when life is without the rule of law. 

VOICES-When Donald Trump was elected President in 2016, many people predicted that he would usher in a fascist government in the United States, an updated version of the fascist regime Sinclair Lewis imagined 86 years ago in “It Can’t Happen Here.”