Harold Meyerson

Harold Meyerson has spent the bulk of his working life shuttling between the political barricades and the journalistic trenches. And for much of that time, he has championed his Los Angeles hometown as the left-wing mecca of the future. As executive editor and chief political columnist for the L.A. Weekly, Meyerson has argued that the new "L.A. model" of progressive politics, centered on a powerful labor-Latino alliance, offers a blueprint for reviving a sluggish U.S. liberalism.

Harold Meyerson has spent the bulk of his working life shuttling between the political barricades and the journalistic trenches. And for much of that time, he has championed his Los Angeles hometown as the left-wing mecca of the future. As executive editor and chief political columnist for the L.A. Weekly, Meyerson has argued that the new "L.A. model" of progressive politics, centered on a powerful labor-Latino alliance, offers a blueprint for reviving a sluggish U.S. liberalism.

A county that's home to 1.56 million poor people should probably do something about poverty, don't you think? According to the latest Census Bureau report, the number of people in L.A. County living below the poverty threshold of $10,956 for a single person or $21,954 for a family of four rose dramatically between 2008 and 2009. And if a million and a half people living in dire poverty isn't bad enough, consider also the hundreds of thousands of employed L.A. residents who are barely getting by. The Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)

American unions are waging epic battles today against the most serious assaults they've encountered in more than half a century, and they've had some major successes. No one could have predicted that union members and their supporters would flood state capitals in the way they have, or that polls would show Americans support collective bargaining rights for public employees by a 2-1 margin. The Republican governors who've gone after the unions — Wisconsin's Scott Walker and Ohio's John Kasich most prominently — have seen their poll ratings tank.

Nearly every day for three years, Josue Melquisedec Diaz reported to work by going to a New Orleans street corner where contractors, subcontractors and people fixing up their places went to hire day laborers. It was there, one day in 2008, that a contractor picked him up and took him to Beaumont, Texas, just across the Louisiana line, to work on the cleanup, demolition and reconstruction projects that Beaumont was undertaking in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. Diaz was put to work in a residential neighborhood that had been flooded.

A group co-chaired by former Gov. Edmund G. (Pat) Brown formally launched a campaign to fight "right-wing attacks on the (California) Supreme Court" and to help Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird and six other justices keep their jobs. Brown told reporters that the Independent Citizens Committee to Keep Politics Out of the Court would counter "the big lie" that the state's high court is soft on crime. "These are mean-spirited, misleading and untruthful right-wing attacks on the court," he said.

I take issue with Rep. Henry A. Waxman's contention that the state of California "taxed itself into prosperity" ("A Liberal Lion in Winter," by Harold Meyerson, Dec. 4). California's post-World War II boom was aided by a large tax base, government industry and higher incomes. As in the '80s, tax revenue increased because of lower tax rates. Gary O. Kent Torrance Waxman has been too busy being a "national congressman." Maybe losing his subcommittee chairmanship will give him time to return to basics and find out what's needed in his district.

Harold Meyerson (Opinion, June 9) got it all wrong when he claimed that "Wilshire Boulevard Temple has recently decided to abandon its venerable building .J.J. for new digs on the Westside." The congregation is remaining in its historic building on Wilshire Boulevard between Hobart and Harvard streets, and has no intention of abandoning its architectural or communal service legacy now, or in the future. The Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus that Wilshire Boulevard Temple is now building at the northeast block of Olympic Boulevard and Barrington Avenue in West Los Angeles will expand the temple's 134 years of service to children, youth, adults, seniors and families with a new educational and community center.

A quote in Janice Arkatov's otherwise lovely article on pianist/singer Michael Feinstein misrepresented one of Ira Gershwin's couplets from "Embraceable You" ("Fast-Rising Cabaret Star in Tune With Music of the '30s," Nov. 25). The rhyme is not "But hang it, you'll shout 'encore' of our love / Ding-dang it, come on, let's glorify love." It's "But hang it--Come on, let's glorify love / Ding dang it, you'll shout 'Encore!' if I love!" I run the risk of coming off as the couplet curmudgeon only because Ira would never have written the line as quoted.

The first Los Angeles Times Festival of Books will be held April 20 and 21 at UCLA's Dickson Plaza. Admission is free; parking at UCLA is $5. Among the more than 40 author events are the following: "Whose Life Is It Anyway? The Art and Craft of Biography" with A.

Re "A State of Change: California's Tilt Toward the Left," Opinion, Nov. 3: I seriously question Harold Meyerson's idea that California is a left-leaning state. After all, California voters have affirmed the death penalty, voted to make English the official language, voted to eliminate publicly funded benefits for illegal immigrants, moved against affirmative action and prohibited gay marriage. Oh, yeah, don't forget voters also threw out of office Chief Justice Rose Bird and two other liberal justices.