Opinion

“There is an urgent need and opportunity for California’s schools to strengthen protections and cultivate a climate of inclusion for Jewish students, aligning with their existing support for other targeted groups. It brings parity to how antisemitism is addressed within existing anti-discrimination frameworks and offers a systematic and overdue response to the rise in antisemitism.” Photo/courtesy of Jewish Federation of GSGPV

“California’s classrooms should be places of learning, curiosity, and critical thinking that enrich and guide our next generation of leaders. However, a dangerous bill being considered in the California state legislature, AB 715, threatens to chill free speech and comprehensive learning in classrooms, punish educators for discussing global human rights issues, and adds a financial strain on the state’s already deficient budget by adding additional levels of bureaucracy.” Photo/courtesy of CAIR California

“There’s a lot going on in ‘1991: The Year Punk Broke,’ but the most impactful character in the documentary film, which includes Kurt Cobain no less, does not appear on screen: it’s the approaching cultural tsunami that would be felt around the world just months later. Dirty Opera, is screening the film by director Dave Markey at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, September 18 at the Laemmle Claremont 5.”

“Inflation, though down sharply from its short-lived post-pandemic peak of 9%, is holding stubbornly above the Fed’s 2% target — currently closer to 3%. Arguably, current policies on trade and immigration are also inflationary. Meanwhile, recent jobs reports show significant slowing in new job creation. Despite the inflation risks, it appears likely the Fed will cut rates in its September 17 announcement, giving greater priority to its employment mandate for the moment.”

“At the Claremont Courier, we don’t just believe in the First Amendment — we affirm it every single day. We question authority, publish the truth, and keep public servants in the public eye. The right to speak, write, and know what’s happening isn’t some abstract legal concept; it’s the oxygen of a free community. When those rights get chipped away, we all breathe a little less freely.”

I met John when I was at UCLA for the spring 1984 quarter. He was from Maine and was a big guy, like a dairy farm boy, with a big grin. But he was no country hick. Not only was he at UCLA as an out-of-state student, he was majoring in bio-chemistry or some such, way outside my English/humanities lane.

One of my favorite photos, taken in 2007, is of my second daughter’s first day of kindergarten at Palisades Charter Elementary School in Pacific Palisades.

“Rabbi Kupetz believes humanitarian aid must enter Gaza, he also thinks that no military has an obligation to feed its enemy’s people. Disturbingly, Kupetz does not acknowledge Israel’s role in bringing about the Gaza famine … So yes, when a country deliberately and intentional kills civilians by starving them like Israel has been and is doing to Gazans, the world demands that its army provides the level of aid that’s needed to its ‘enemy’s population.’”

“Democrats’ response to all this insanity has been to hold periodic press conferences and craft strongly worded letters to the manager. Most, save a handful of reliable firebrands, have hidden from cameras, apparently clinging to Michelle Obama’s now wildly archaic “we go high” philosophy. Thankfully, it appears a meaningful response is beginning to coalesce right here in California: Governor Gavin Newsom is getting down in the gutter with Trump, trolling him by aping his own ridiculous barrage of misspellings-laden, all caps social media posts.”

“We are living in a military occupation of Los Angeles orchestrated by the Trump regime. Let that sink in. Read it again. For most of the summer we have endured federal agents of different sorts (ICE, CBP, DHS, FBI) and paramilitaries (or ’empowered bounty hunters,’ as the media is calling them) roaming the streets of Los Angeles with ski masks and loaded high-caliber weapons as if they are in a war zone. Their target: defenseless and unarmed Angelenos.”

With the horrific images of dead and starving Palestinian children now reaching mainstream U.S. media, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are speaking up, some now calling the 22-month old conflict in Gaza a genocide. To better understand the impact of this conflict on our local Jewish and Muslim communities, I  spoke separately with Rabbi Jonathan Kupetz, 55, from Pomona’s Temple Beth Israel, and Mahmoud Tarifi, 67, president of the Islamic Center of Claremont’s Board of Directors. Below is the full, unedited transcript of my July 30 interview with Tarifi. Courier photo/Andrew Alonzo

With the horrific images of dead and starving Palestinian children now reaching mainstream U.S. media, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle are speaking up, some now calling the 22-month old conflict in Gaza a genocide. To better understand the impact of this conflict on our local Jewish and Muslim communities, I  spoke separately with Rabbi Jonathan Kupetz, 55, from Pomona’s Temple Beth Israel, and Mahmoud Tarifi, 67, president of the Islamic Center of Claremont’s Board of Directors. Below is the full, unedited transcript of my August 11 interview with Kupetz. Courier file photo

by David Andrews Claremont — the City of Trees and Ph.D.s — is blessed beyond measure. The city is beautiful, with rich infrastructure and deep traditions. The Colleges, the Village, and the natural beauty of the city’s setting all combine to magnificent effect. We have much to be thankful for. Amidst this abundance, however, many […]

“I’ve always liked alcohol’s tingly euphoria, and the (usually) slow ramp up to inebriation. Sometimes I’d get it right and my buzz would plateau somewhere near optimum. On those occasions I was fun, affable, high functioning. Other times I’d blow it, go too far, and wake up unable to recall periods of time from the night prior. That was rare, but it certainly happened, and I’m not proud.”

“The scale of the annual loss — $1.1 billion nationally — may simply be too large for some to absorb. Since the percentage of federal dollars varies from organization to organization, some will feel the cuts deeper than others. That said, cuts are coming, the question is exactly how big they will be locally. ‘We built a media system on the idea that public service was worth investing in,’ KPCC host Larry Mantle said in a statement. ‘Now that promise is being broken.’ For Claremont residents, it means more than just losing a favorite program. It’s about losing a resource that informs, educates, and connects.”