Politics and governing

An estimated 55,000 people took part in Saturday's Los Angeles march. Photos from Iris Schneider.

Mayor Eric Garcetti, facing one of the toughest decisions of his career, is being urged to consider a Latino to replace Police Chief Charlie Beck, who is retiring.

Under fire from his hometown paper, Mayor Eric Garcetti says he will work on a plan for every Los Angeles community to agree to accept housing for the homeless.

Fernando J. Guerra: The two recent forces that have most altered Los Angeles for the better have been demographic change and real police reform.

Ellen Alperstein: Being a good citizen, my parents taught me, makes America greater.

The LA Times staff voted union but there's a lot more going on. Val Zavala retires from KCET. Remembering Ed Moses and Greg Critser.

A new kind of pop-up was working through Sunday at the northern end of Chinatown.

Many public officials are already enthusiastically counting the tax dollars that legalization of marijuana will bring into their public treasuries, but not Mark Ridley-Thomas of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

LA Times journalists vote on a union this week. Plus the most-clicked story of 2017, Hollywood women organize, notes on media politics and place, and selected tweets.

Pressure will be heavy on Mayor Eric Garcetti and County supervisors board chairman Mark Ridley-Thomas to show much more progress with the so-far insoluble housing-homeless problem.

LA Observed contributor Iris Schneider recently visited Alabama to volunteer for Senate candidate Doug Jones.

Iris Schneider: So many people have asked about my recent expedition into the deep South to work on the Doug Jones campaign, I thought this might be helpful.

in which Joel Bellman argues that it's not witches, but the witch-hunters, that we should really fear these days.

Homelessness is an emergency, says Councilman Mike Bonin, and requires a response equal to what the federal disaster agency does when a hurricane strikes

The past shapes the future, and that was the theme of a report released Thursday, "Space To Lead: A Century of Civic Leadership In Los Angeles."

Banks, ATMs, retail and restaurants at Metro stations would produce revenue and be a great convenience for riders.

The scandal that won't go away. An LAT columnist apologizes. Job movies, an invite from the New York Times and other media notes.

Take My Picture Gary Leonard runs weekly at LA Observed.

Trump seems to be pursuing his own personal damnatio memoriae against the nation's first black president out of pure spite.

Take My Picture Gary Leonard appears weekly at LA Observed.

LA Observed Notes: Covering Harvey, Dodgers flailing, an editor change in LA, media notes, Angels Flight shuts again

This weekend's fire in Los Angeles isn't even the worst La Tuna Canyon fire in recent times.

Today's Bullet Points include LA Times newsroom love for a fired editor, pink blobs in Echo Park, media notes and selected tweets.

Bullet Points: A horrific jail death. Food writers in Tuscany. The LA Times follows on Canter's. A media promotion, a hire, and the celebrity terminal at LAX. Plus a difficult long read.

Bullet Points: An LA Republican discusses Trump. Nazis in LA. A new reporter in town. Tommy Hawkins dies.

Bullet Points: Attacking the Jews in Charlottesville. Zócalo on the move. USC Village. Transitions at City Hall and the Times.

Nazi and racist scum in Virginia, Trump equates, and a nation shakes its head. Plenty of media and politics notes and selected tweets.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon counts construction cranes in downtown Los Angeles. It helps him compare booming downtown to his economically depressed and neglected district in Southeast Los Angeles County.

Our occasional gathering of notes on media, politics and place with selected tweets.

LA Times explains how many times it gave USC a chance to comment on a dean's secret life. Plus LAT buyouts, media people doing stuff and selected tweets.

Why should a voter in Butte County, deep in the northern part of the state, have a say in how Los Angeles County is governed?

In dark times, is the role of the artist to expose? To comment, to criticize, to amuse? Since last fall, it's been all of the above onstage in Los Angeles.

The dean of newspaper science writers is apparently retiring at age 98. Slacker! Plus a ransomware attack at KQED and CalBuzz calls it quits for now.