DEEGAN ON LA-Housing anxiety does not discriminate -- from the homeless who have no permanent housing to tenants in rent-controlled apartments who are afraid of losing what they have, to single family residents of homes near transit lines who see zoning variances that could put their neighborhoods into play -- everyone except the upper-middle and upper classes can be hit by the same thought: “Where will I live tomorrow?”  

GELFAND’S WORLD--Was this the week that signified the beginning of the decline of the American Century? 

VOICES-- In its new budget, the Los Angeles City Council is throwing another $91 million of taxpayer dollars into road diets ignoring the fact that Venice Boulevard --  the plan’s “poster child” – has proven to be an Epic Fail during its year-long pilot test, according to data from the city’s own Department of Transportation.

PERSPECTIVE--The only thing as bad as Congress impulsively passing a tax reform bill, is conjuring a half-baked, equally impulsive countermeasure.

WHY THIS MATTERS TO YOU-Eric Garcetti wants to be seen as the greenest Mayor in the nation.

MOMENTS IN TIME-(Editor’s Note: This is the first of an ongoing series.) There are moments in time that are transformative. January 3, 2018 was one such moment.

ALPERN AT LARGE-Much that is wrong in life cannot be helped. When others in power do stupid things, and promote stupid ideas, there is little that the rest of us can do but protest.  But we don't need to double down on stupid. 

CAL MATTERS-The political whirlwind raging around California’s “sanctuary” laws isn’t doing much damage to the laws themselves, according to many state legal experts. In fact, the brunt of any legal damage may be felt most by the small city that started the rebellion.

@THE GUSS REPORT-The corporate chaos continues at the Los Angeles Timesand its parent company, Tronc, which may be resulting in poor supervision over transparency on stories it publishes. 

D.C. DISPATCH-(Editor’s Note: Alan Lowenthal is United States Congressman for California’s 47^thDistrict … which is centered in Long Beach and extends through western Orange county. This interview with Mr. Lowenthal is the first of a two-part series.) 

ANIMAL WATCH-Sheriff Jim McDonnell served with the Los Angeles Police Department for 28 years before becoming Chief of the Long Beach Police Department in 2010.

PLATKIN ON PLANNING-Finally, some potentially good news. The Los Angeles City Council has taken a long over due baby step to create a new City department, whose mission will be adaptation to and mitigation of climate change.  

GUEST COMMENTARY--“Greed is good,” proclaimed Gordon Gekko (photo above), lead character in a 1987 film lampooning the low ethics of the high finance barons of Wall Street.

MORALITY POLITICS-According to the New York Times, in late 2002, Gina Haspel was dispatched to oversee a secret CIA prison in Thailand code-named Cat's Eye. While she was there, CIA contractors waterboarded al-Qaeda suspects including Abd al-Rahim al-Nashir, the man accused of orchestrating the bombing of the American destroyer U.S.S. Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000

CORRUPTION WATCH-In January 2015, the federal courts warned Californians that our entire state judicial system was suffering from an “epidemic of misconduct.”