Erika Aklufi, Santa Monica police officer, attorney, and triathlete, represents the American immigrant family dream come true. Her paternal grandfather was a Sephardic Jew from Yemen who came to Brooklyn, N.Y. in the early part […]

No one ever presumed that both our history with race in America and any and all contemporary problems related to race would magically disappear following the election of our first African American President. But I […]

Let’s define our terms. If I walk into Costco and carry out a bubble pack with 40 double A batteries pasted to it, I think I’m a consumer. I’m consuming the batteries. Same with Band […]

In a two-person political contest, voters only occasionally get the chance to judge candidates on their personal qualities of character. These rare chances can come when politicians are suddenly confronted by unexpected, unscripted crises of […]

[Editor’s note: This is an abbreviated and edited excerpt of Thomas Elias’s originally submitted column.] The most contentious issue University of California campuses last year was whether the Board of Regents should divest itself of […]

Whew! The LUCE is finally approved. After six years of well-attended community meetings, single-minded focus by dedicated planning staff, and beaucoup bucks spent on consultants, the City Council approved Santa Monica’s Land Use and Circulation […]

On the one hand, the exultant high following Obama’s election had to wear off or at least morph into something new at some point, and we are in Year Two. It was beautiful and real […]