Howard Blume

Is the oil-field site of the Belmont Learning Complex, the nation’s most expensive and notorious high school construction project, safe for a school? The answer from the school district, it turns out, depends on where you ask the question. Inside a Los Angeles courtroom, L.A. Unified says the half-finished Belmont......

As many as 70,000 families apply for some 15,000 magnet-school openings; this year‘s application deadline was January 18. A winning draw can get your child into a high-achieving gem. Losers can get stuck in overcrowded, unattractive neighborhood schools with bottom-feeding test scores. Magnets were set up as a voluntary integration......

Sometimes you can spend close to a million dollars on a City Council race and settle nothing. Such was the uncomfortable prospect that greeted Tony Cardenas and Wendy Greuel the morning after Tuesday’s primary in the 2nd District City Council race. Thanks to a spoiler candidate, neither front-runner got more......

The region’s highly regarded but financially strapped Jewish Community Centers will shut down most services at the end of the month. The centers closing include the flagship Westside Jewish Community Center and the North Valley Jewish Community Center, which attracted national attention in 1999 when a white supremacist shot and......

The political one-two punch of Beth Garfield looked unstoppable in the 4th City Council District: First, she earned the influential endorsement of the County Federation of Labor; then she spent enough of her family fortune to swamp opponents. It was like combining the wealth of Richard Riordan with the union......

When it comes to the war of words, President George W. Bush is all over the place. In one moment, he‘s declaring war. In another, he’s fighting terrorism. At other times, he‘s pursuing criminals. Sometimes, he’s leading a crusade against evil. These interpretations of the cause are hardly synonymous. Fighting......

In a sweeping rebuke, a Los Angeles federal judge has rejected the city school district‘s attempt to retake control over programs for students with disabilities. At stake are services for 83,000 students -- about 12 percent of district enrollment -- and district funds totaling $1.1 billion. The district had lost......

History is littered with victims of those who learned the wrong lessons from history. Last week‘s attacks resembled Pearl Harbor in their element of surprise and the extreme loss of life, but the destruction of the World Trade Center heralds a very different sort of threat, one that requires a......

Tom LaBonge and Beth Garfield smashed fund-raising records on their way to claiming the top two spots in Tuesday’s primary in the 4th City Council District. LaBonge, a longtime City Council field deputy, cruised in with more than 32 percent of the vote. Garfield, a community college trustee, just edged......

The ascension of Marlene Canter to the school board next month supposedly cements a ”Riordan reform majority“ to run L.A. Unified, capping a throw-out-the-rascals campaign begun three years ago. But it wasn‘t money from Mayor Riordan and friends that elected Canter. It was mainly dough from Canter herself, who spent......