Howard Blume

For eight years, mega-builder Donald Trump, the poster boy of the get-richer-quick set, has quietly endured a $50 million beating out West. Worse yet, the drubbing has come at the hands of the L.A. school district, which has fought him tooth and nail over the site of the defunct Ambassador......

On one point, there has never been disagreement. The kids who live in the Echo Park and Temple-Beaudry areas near downtown L.A. need a school. Overcrowded, undersized Belmont High can barely accommodate its 5,000 students. Many teachers don't even have regular classrooms, moving throughout the day from one briefly available......

A quiet milestone was achieved last month when L.A. school board member Jeff Horton won election to the executive committee of the California School Boards Association, putting him in line to be the group’s first openly gay president. If past practice holds, Horton will become president-elect next year, and the......