Harold Meyerson

The View From the Black Tower

Lew Wasserman was the pre-eminent figure in the film industry from 1960 through 1990, and quite possibly of all time -- but to say this is almost to miss the point. Viewed through a broader lens, Wasserman, who died Monday from the effects of a stroke, was a major figure......

City Without a Story

QUICK, NOW: WHAT'S L.A.'S STORY? Not: "What are some L.A. stories?" Every city has stories, but they can't be added together and averaged out. I mean: Come up with a brief description of what our city is about, that captures it over the flow of time, that encompasses, say, both......

Boundaries Going Up

They’re talking fences in the Mideast -- indeed, the Sharon Cabinet has already authorized two of them. The first -- between Umm el Fahm in Israel and Tulkarm in the occupied territories -- would run pretty much along the 1967 borders, as was envisioned in the Oslo accords. The second......

Gray in His Groove

I. Cloudless Gray Skies I always thought that if Gray Davis put his mind to it, he could win a Republican primary. Let‘s be clear: Last week’s primary outcome was far more a victory for Gray than it was for Lucky Bill Simon. Gray‘s $10 million campaign to take down......

The Wrong Battle

Photo by Robert Yager In announcing Tuesday that he was through with Bernie Parks, Jim Hahn said that a reform-minded police department headed by a non-reformer like Parks was nothing less than “a house divided.” But the real house divided in Los Angeles is the Hahn coalition, which just seven......

Let’s Roll!

Great applause line: Our new national slogan, said W. on Tuesday night, is “Let’s roll!” It’s most certainly the administration’s slogan — its mantra and mission, as President Bush made abundantly apparent in his State of the Union address. He’s gonna roll the war right on, to the Philippines and......
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Where’s the Rest of It?

The Democrats have issued their program for 2002, and, as proclaimed by Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle last Friday, it is one resounding peep. Woe unto us, the Democrats cry, for the tax cuts have undone us (the ”us“ in question here isn‘t the Democrats -- at least, not initially......

Wendy Greuel for City Council

After three decades on the City Council, with term limits breathing down his neck and his mayoral aspirations dashed, Joel Wachs has resigned his seat and moved to New York, where this bubbly arts maven now heads up the Andy Warhol Foundation, a major source of funding for American artists......

A Place for Us?

There’s room at the inn in L.A. these days, what with the near collapse of tourism, but that’s about the only place there is. Los Angeles is plainly the most overcrowded housing market in the land. In last year’s census, 19 of the 25 most residentially overcrowded American cities were......

One-Trick Party

WASHINGTON -- War is a continuation of Republican economics by other means. And if Clausewitz never quite said that, well, Clausewitz didn’t spend the last couple of weeks in Washington. There are really two Washingtons these days. One is bound together, tenuously, by a kind of camaraderie of apprehension. No......