LOS ANGELES

BCK FILE--For those of us who live in Southern California, earthquakes seem to be the penance for eternal sunshine and a majestic coastline, along with nonstop traffic on the 405.

HOUSING CRISIS-Call me naïve. I used to think that to win a public debate you needed sound facts and rational arguments. 

NEW GEOGRAPHY--For the past decade, the soaring stock prices and nosebleed valuations of Silicon Valley’s IPOs and unicorns has been a boon for California, helping create a record budget surplus of almost $22 billion.

NUCLEAR DISASTER IN THE WINGS-We are THIS CLOSE to an unimaginable apocalyptic horror.

GELFAND’S WORLD--Saying that we told you so isn't polite, but it's something we should all be saying to the politicians in the aftermath of the twin earthquakes and the thousand or so aftershocks that centered out in the desert -- almost as far away as Death Valley it turns out -- and not directly under our feet.

DIGGING INTO MILITARY POLICY-But there’s something deeply troubling about O’Rourke’s proposition:

FIRST PERSON-The Civil War ended in 1865 with the occupation of the South by Northern troops, which established a Reconstruction plan to try and dismantle the South's several-centuries-old culture founded on slavery and the institutional legalized inferiority of African Americans.

PUBLIC HEALTH-Each year, we are notified by our elected officials about the risks associated with “safe and sane” fireworks. We are asked to not use fireworks ourselves, but rather to attend fireworks events where our fire departments put their safety on the line to give us a firework show. 

CLIMATE POLITICS--The next time you put your lips to a plastic bottle of “crystal-clear mountain spring water” think about Trump’s herculean efforts to dismantle federal agencies that protect health. 

RANTZ & RAVEZ- I am almost done complaining and writing about the never-ending problems concerning the growing homeless population in the greater Los Angeles area.

ALPERN AT LARGE-Blah, blah, blah -- we've heard all the "Debbie Downers" tell us how patriotic we are to criticize our nation...and while it's true, that stuff gets OLD.

EASTSIDER-Very quietly, the LA Housing and Community Investment Department sent a Status Report to the Mayor and Council this May, giving an overview of Measure HHH Projects to date.

PROTECTING CALIFORNIA’S RICHES--If you’ve driven between Northern and Southern California on the I-5 freeway, you’ve passed through one of California’s most biodiverse ecosystems, which sits on the Tejon Ranch. 

ONE MAN’S OPINION-The LAPD has gone super high tech and now uses Germ Zappers to rid its stations of biblical type diseases. Also, they’ve got some contraption that the officers step on to kill all the deadly uglies that cling to their shoes. 

AT LENGTH-The stage is set and the battle lines are drawn in the fight over automation at the Port of Los Angeles’ Pier 400.

@THE GUSS REPORT-At just 5’2” tall, the smallest person on the Democrat debate stage over two nights last week was the only one with the courage and verbal wingspan, as it were, to punch former vice president Joe Biden’s 76-year old glass jaw, making the politically engaged portion of America sit up and take notice of California’s junior senator Kamala Harris. 

FIRST PERSON-Whether to use a public single-payer government run or a private for-profit insurance company, each system's ultimate effectiveness -- or lack of same -- comes down to the convergence of three factors: 

OLYMPICS POLITICS--Mayor Eric Garcetti recently boasted that the 2028 Olympic Games that will be held in Los Angeles should turn a profit of $1 billion. 

ALPERN AT LARGE--As I stated in my last CityWatch article, the heart-rending photo of a drowned father and daughter brings home the risks and calamity of those trying to flee for their lives and for their futures. 

The Los Angeles City Council is moving forward on Tuesday, July 3, all but unnoticed by Angelenos, with a formal vote on creating special taxing districts -- purportedly to fund infrastructure -- that could instead destroy the heavily Latino and working-class neighborhoods along the Los Angeles River. 

THE CITY--It’s Wednesday, and I am off to another City Hall meeting. “What’s special about today,” you might ask?