Opinion

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.”

“Once burned, twice shy. That adage warning against duplicating past errors appears to have framed the U.S. Forest Service’s strategy fighting the July 21 Sugar Fire. If so, the agency made a mistake when it immediately suppressed the small outbreak rather than manage it to achieve key ecological benefits.”

by Char Miller | Special to the Courier The significance of the news that San Bernardino County has closed the Tesla Supercharger station in Upland is perfectly captured in the canvas sheaths that now cover nearly all 64 charging pedestals. The whole thing looks like a cemetery. As grave are the implications that Elon Musk […]

“In an era where headlines move faster than ever, trust in the institutions that deliver them is unraveling. Nowhere is this more evident than in the growing skepticism — and sometimes outright hostility — toward mainstream media. Once considered a cornerstone of democracy, the press is increasingly viewed with suspicion. Politicians, pundits, and even citizens themselves are working, knowingly or not, to discredit journalism at the exact moment it’s most needed.”

“On Saturday I managed to get my kids up and in the car ‘at the asscrack of dawn,’ as my daughter put it (8 a.m. to you and me), for a drive up to Tehachapi and a day of rural detective work. The aim was to locate the home my grandfather built — pretty much by himself — in the 1970s on the outskirts of the high desert town about 140 miles northwest of Claremont. That we made it up there in time for breakfast is a small miracle. With summer here, the ‘kids,’ 15, 19, and 23, are all sleeping well into the afternoon, so sitting down at Henry’s Cafe for chicken fried steak and biscuits and gravy at 10:15 was a rare mid-morning victory.”

“The issue of immigration affects me on a personal level. My parents emigrated legally from Germany to America in 1958. I’m first generation American and was born at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in 1960. My parents went through the arduous process of submitting lengthy documents, finding a sponsor, providing proof that they would be able to financially support themselves without state assistance and then … they waited in line. After a long while they finally received that coveted green card. I wonder how today’s immigrants who follow the same process feel about those who simply stroll across the border.”