VOICES

LABOR WATCH - Veronica Gonzalez can’t wait until July. That’s when a union election is scheduled for the Starbucks store where the 26-year-old barista works with 40 others in the Cypress Park neighborhood near downtown Los Angeles.

POLITICS WATCH - President Joe Biden recently flew off to Taiwan to assure our allies there that he will fight for them.

GUEST COMMENTARY - Over five millennia, urban centers have been drivers of civilization and progress, and have adapted in ways that have changed their form and function but assured their survival.

CONNECTING CALIFORNIA - Watching Top Gun: Maverick made me feel sad—for San Diego.

MY THOUGHTS - Have you noticed that all the Southern California channels always start the 11:00 News with police chases, accidents, or something awful? 

GUEST COMMENTARY - We shall state our position at the outset: The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) does not speak for all Jews, it certainly does not speak for us—the daughters of Holocaust survivors and refugees—and increasingly, it does not speak for anyone who cares about justice and human rights.

GUEST COMMENTARY - After a violent mob assaulted the U.S. Capitol last year, injuring more than 150 law enforcement officials, 147 GOP lawmakers voted against certifying the election for Joe Biden.

GUEST COMMENTARY - Multiple teachers working under Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. Middle School principal Gilberto Samuel report being subjected to or observing sexual harassment, homophobic discrimination, and retaliation.

JAN 6 JUSTICE - Last night the January 6th Committee's co-chair Liz Cheney told us that "Representative Scott Perry sought a pardon" along with "multiple other members of Congress" for their participation in the attempted coup, their sedition against the United States of America.

THE DOCTOR IS IN - After a California primary election that had nothing to do with science, economics, logic, or the law, it shouldn't be surprising that our nation, state, or city is shucking and chucking science, economics, logic, or the law. 

THE VIEW FROM HERE - Few have heard about The Great American Walk Away (GAWA) aka The Power of One, because it is part of Future-History or exists only in an alternate universe. 

VOICE IN THE CHEAP SEATS - I can't decide if Dick Platkin's latest “hit piece” (Why the Grove Mall cannot be scaled up to fix LA - 6/9/2022) is targeting the Grove or Rick Caruso or political corruption or just plain city planning that does not conform to his vision of an ideal city.

GUEST COMMENTARY - I am at a loss for words to express my horror as I watched the first segment of the public hearing of the Congressional committee investigating the January 6 insurrection.

GUEST COMMENTARY - Now that the verdict in the Depp-Heard trial is in, the media spectacle of the case may finally begin to die down.

DIVIDED POLITICS - As we look at the pictures from Uvalde, Buffalo, and other mass shootings, we’re having agonized conversation.

GUN VIOLENCE - Mass shootings are good for gun sales.

GUEST COMMENTARY - Usurping the fundamental rights of women to control their own bodies.

AMERICAN DICTATORSHIP - It's time to talk about what an American fascist government would look like.

ACCORDING TO LIZ - Did you vote? If you didn’t, you may be responsible for some of the unexpected consequences from Tuesday’s California primary election. 

THE VIEW FROM HERE - The US Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) presents the nation with a constitutional nightmare.

GUN VIOLENCE - This year through June 8, 2022, there have been 18,971 gun violence deaths in the U.S., 8,477 homicides, murders, and unintentional deaths due to gun violence, and 10,494 deaths by suicide, according to the Gun Violence Archives.