PUBLIC ED IN PERIL?-That noisy rumbling sound in LA County comes from teachers who are in “teacher jail” rattling their cages at the news this week that the bought and paid for LAUSD Board of Education announced they hired Wall Street billionaire, Austin Beutner, to finally privatize the District.
LOS ANGELES
CSU Northridge Eats Lawsuits for Breakfast: Taxpayer Cost for Institutional Racism
PERSPECTIVE--Serious issues are surfacing at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). These issues are reflected in disparities’ that involve civil rights, education, discrimination and employment. An adverse treatment that has a direct impact on members of a particular minority group and the failure to enforce implicit rules that regulate behaviors seem to be non-existent.
Mr. Garcetti, Please Keep the Special Interest Hands Out of Metro’s Cookie Jar
ALPERN AT LARGE--For the past several decades, honest and generous taxpayers have bravely offered their hardworking dollars to creating an Expo Line, a Wilshire Subway, a Foothill Gold Line, a LAX/Metro Connection, and a Downtown Light Rail Connector to help wrap these projects together in a coherent rail network.
We Need Trees, Not Fees
GUEST WORDS--The City has a problem. The Urban Forestry Division (UFD) has scores of trees sitting in boxes in storage that it can’t plant. Why is this? In large part it’s because when developers remove trees to build projects, they agree to replace them by purchasing new ones for the City to plant elsewhere.
Bombshell! Report on Harbor Benefits a Shocker!
AT LENGTH-For as long as I can remember, the narrative pushed by the Port of Los Angeles and other boosters of industry and commerce has been this: the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are an “economic engine” that are jointly responsible for more than $400 billion in annual cargo value and create some 190,000 jobs in Los Angeles and Long Beach. That’s 1 in 12 jobs with an impact of creating 2.8 million jobs nationally in direct or indirect employment.
How To Silence ‘Russia Today’ Forever
VIEW FROM HERE--Loyalists of the western empire have been growing increasingly honest about their desire to use censorship and propaganda in order to win an “information war” against Russia.
Neighborhood Council Congress: Celebrating the Status Quo (Excuse the Yawn)
GELFAND’S WORLD--I took a swipe at the annual Neighborhood Council Congress in a previous column and got some positive feedback. In brief, I suggested that the yearly meeting spend less time on goody-goody subjects.
America’s Word is Good … for Nothing
GELFAND’S WORLD--Earlier this week, Donald Trump was shown on television pulling the United States out of the Iranian anti-nuclear deal. Trump likes to say that unlike other politicians, he keeps his word. We got a bit more of that bragging this time around:
Could Beutner’s Lack of Ed Background Become His Greatest Asset at LAUSD?
FIRST PERSON-In the selection of Austin Beutner as the new Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) permanent superintendent last Tuesday, those against his choice found his biggest deficit to be his lack of a background in education.
LA City Council’s Anti-Semitic Jokes and Stereotypes at Jewish Heritage Event
@THE GUSS REPORT-It was a brutal suggestion, to say the least, from a member of the public at Friday’s LA City Council Jewish Heritage Month event, where Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti spoke a few minutes earlier at the same podium:
State GOP Tosses Holocaust Denier from Convention
BCK FILE--A GOP candidate for the Senate seat held by longtime incumbent Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Little was removed from the Republican state convention in San Diego on Saturday. Patrick Little, a Holocaust denier who characterizes himself as a “Counter-Semitic” and a white nationalist, polled as high as 18 percent in an April 27 SurveyUSA poll.
Consensus in Mar Vista on the Venice Blvd Road Diet: Promises Broken!
ALPERN AT LARGE--There's been a lot of increases in the Mar Vista region (which is smack dab in the center of the Westside), and a lot of decreases as well. We've got increased commute times, increased cut-through traffic through residential neighborhoods, potentially an increased response time for first-responders, and certainly an increased division among neighbors, thanks to "the Road Diet".