LOS ANGELES

@THE GUSS REPORT-Truth and page count are as thin at the LA Timesthese days as the broth at the local soup kitchen.

NEW GEOGRAPHY--“If my thought dreams could be seen …They’d probably put my head in a guillotine” — Bob Dylan, “It’s All Right Ma”, 1965

JUSTICE THROUGH UNITY-The people of the County of Los Angeles and beyond need to understand that spending $3.5 billion on new jails instead of focusing on local services that could prevent mostly black and brown people from ending up behind bars in the first place is in the best interest of all of us—and not just black and brown people. 

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-The “Purple Line Transit Neighborhood Plan” is nothing more than a deceptively misnamed specific plan, so please allow me a deep planning dive into this latest City Hall sting operation.

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA--Do you know what time it is, California?

JOBS VS. UNION CASH-Prior to June 2016 janitorial services at the California Health Care Facility, a California State prison Facility located in Stockton, were provided by the individuals who were SEIU #1000 union members.

CORRUPTION WATCH-The parameters of judicial corruption appear rather straight forward within the system as a whole.

FIRST PERSON-Recently, I've had the pleasure of re-connecting with the talented award-winning filmmaker Linda Yellen.

ALPERN AT LARGE--I doubt I'm the only fifty-something that enjoys both family-friendly and cynical humor, and that I can both love "South Park", "Family Guy", and "Rick and Morty"... as well as a wonderful, family-friendly show like "Stuck In The Middle". 

CAL MATTERS--When phone bank worker Melissa Mendez, age 26, felt financially squeezed a few months ago—“I was short on cash and needed to pay rent”—she walked into a Cash 1 storefront in Sacramento and took out a payday loan. The annual interest rate: 460 percent.

RANTZ & RAVEZ-First, a personal note: When it all began: It was August 1 when a little boy was born into the loving arms of Alice and Phillip Zine. While both Mom and Dad have passed onto Heaven, I will always remember the love and attention they showed me over the many years of my childhood and into adulthood.

GELFAND’S WORLD--I think that the word ordeal is too strong a term.

EASTSIDER-You have to hand it to Jose Huizar.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-On Thursday, July 26, 2018, the Department of City Planning unveiled a secretive and still skimpy Purple Line Extension Transit Neighborhood Plan (TNP).

GUEST WORDS--Brandishing a wire coat hanger, New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon took the podium at a rally against the nomination of Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court earlier this month.

BCK FILE--The events lining up to Election Night 2016 read like a political thriller, in the vein ofThe Manchurian Candidate.

@THE GUSS REPORT-Who is funding the lavish lifestyle of Herb Wesson, the Los Angeles City Council President, and his wife Fabian?

PERSPECTIVE-In keeping with the city’s long-term commitment to overdevelopment, the Planning Department is hatching another scheme to build, baby, build.

AT LENGTH-There’s something in the American psyche that fundamentally believes that all new things are good.

EDUCATION POLITICS--The three-year scandal that has embroiled the Los Angeles Unified school board concluded anticlimactically this week when besieged District 5 board member Ref Rodriguez tendered his resignation.

FIRST PERSON-Over the last nine years I have written about the purposeful failure to educate predominantly Latino and African American children in still segregated public school districts like LAUSD.