Politics and governing

Amid the fuss about the private outside lawyers hired by City Atty. Mike Feuer to litigate a big case, I wonder why there wasn't anyone among his office's more than 500 lawyers who could do the work at city pay.

City Atty. Mike Feuer was his usual knowledgeable self as he explained what he'd been doing to combat Los Angeles' seemingly incurable affliction of homelessness.

I don't want to let Mayor Eric Garcetti off the hook but in confronting homelessness, he is dealing with a decades-old tragedy that is woven deeply into Los Angeles' fabric.

The fight over SB50, the housing density measure, is far from over even though the measure has been shelved by a powerful Senate committee chairman.

Mayor Eric Garcetti has strongly disagreed with the legislature's dumping SB 50, the controversial bill encouraging developers to build big apartments and condos in areas zoned for single family homes.

Legislation encouraging the building of tall multiple dwellings around transit lines in single-family neighborhoods faces obstacles in Sacramento.

"Friends with Guns" at the Road Theater in North Hollywood may challenge some of your core beliefs.

Campaign manager Douglas Jeffe, who died in a tragic accident last week, combined skill, intelligence, compassion and humor in a career that made him respected by friends and foes and placed him in the middle of the most tumultuous years of California politics.

When you stay at a hotel, or throw a big event there, you usually don't get out the door without paying. That wasn't the case with prominent L.A. politicians at the downtown Luxe City Center Hotel.

Gary catches up with Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren in Glendale.

Kitty Felde: Don't be too embarrassed, Los Angeles. City Hall isn't the only political palace overrun by rodents.

Former school board member Jackie Goldberg wants to return to elected office.

Joel Bellman: We laugh at the comically deranged LaRouche because "it can't happen here." It already has.

Mayor Eric Garcetti's press conference announcing his decision not to upgrade three natural gas-burning power plants the city operates along the coast.

The Secretary of State for President Bill Clinton was in Culver City.

Joel Bellman: The recent media blowup over the Covington Catholic kids and the tribal drummer at the Lincoln Memorial may have been too much ado, but it was about something.

Careful Herb Wesson won't say much about the federal investigation of LA city hall.

A UTLA rally downtown during the run-up to the teachers strike.

No matter how the dispute between the teachers union and the Los Angeles school district ends, poverty, the root cause of failure in L.A. schools, won't go away.

The Times also named the editor who will oversee presidential campaign coverage and hired LZ Granderson, formerly of ESPN, as a hybrid sports and culture columnist.

The Los Angeles City Council's Planning and Land Use Management Committee is known for short as the PLUM committee. PLUM is perfectly descriptive.

Gov. Jerry Brown's pardon of former State Sen. Rod Wright focuses attention on one our most useless laws, the one imposing residency requirements on elected lawmakers.

The former Los Angeles County labor leader celebrated her election to the state Senate.

Wednesday night, the downtown central library continued its community involvement with a deep dive into one of the most important aspects of civic life--the courts. It was serious and detailed.

A Change.org petition by Rob Eshman asks Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to make it happen.

Joel Bellman: I've been asking myself that question after attending not one, but two civic conversations this month dealing with the future of cities.

"It's about equity. It's about opportunity," City Councilman David Ryu told the Los Angeles Current Affairs Forum.

UCLA report convincingly links rent increases and the housing shortage to the homelessness which afflicts the LA area today.

Joel Bellman: My male students tend to write about their insecurities around a loss of power; Women, the terror of a sexual assault or domestic violence.

City Hall protest of people and groups opposed to Trump Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

The San Francisco state senator who wants to build more tall buildings around rail stations and bus stops will have to come up with new legislation that is more politically acceptable to cities and suspicious neighborhood groups, says Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon.

Cities again barred from prosecuting the homeless. Hands across the aisle at USC. Much more.

Joel Bellman: As disappointing as "BlacKKKlansman" was, it triggered my curiosity about other films prominently featuring Klan storylines. There I discovered some interesting things.