Yesterday, the Los Angeles Kings hockey team celebrated their Stanley Cup victory with a massive street parade, including another packed gathering at Staples Center while Mayor Eric Garcetti dropped the f-bomb on live national television. Mayor Garcetti was holding up a bottle of beer as he told more than 20,000 screaming fans inside Staples Center:

Dear Congressman Waxman: As you know, we have repeatedly and respectfully requested that you join with President Obama to declare a state of emergency in Los Angeles for disabled and homeless Veterans. Both of you have refused to provide any emergency humanitarian relief project at the Los Angeles VA here in our nation's capital for homeless Veterans.

As you probably know, the two candidates running to replace U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman in the 33rd Congressional District are both Veterans. While their politics certainly differ — one's a Republican and the other a Democrat — they should be unified on turning around the Los Angeles VA, the largest VA in the nation, which has become an international disgrace.

Fellow Americans, As we know, today is the 70th anniversary of the Invasion of Normandy — D-Day — the great crusade that essentially changed World War II and led to the overthrow of Nazism and to the liberation of Europe.

Fellow Americans and Friends of Veterans, First Lady Michelle Obama yesterday declared a “moral outrage” that 58,000 Veterans across America are homeless. While that figure is conservative, in November 2009 the President and the ex-VA Secretary promised to end all Veteran homelessness within five years, or by November 2014. The latest claim of moral outrage is …

War is hell. Whether America’s military men and women are fighting a war or trying to heal from fighting a war, it’s always hell because the war never ends. When our military troops go to war, they serve under the Dept. of Defense as highly trained professional warriors who are equipped with the finest defense weapons in the world to defeat the toughest enemies in the world. After returning from war, they are to be served by the Dept. of Veterans Affairs (VA) with …

First of two parts. From a West Point cadet to chief of staff of the United States Army, Eric K. Shinseki was promoted to the top of his profession and retired with revered accolades. He was appointed Secretary of the Dept. of Veterans Affairs, the VA failing greater than any of his six predecessors. How could that happen?

Only two out of ten applicants are accepted into our military. The other eight cannot meet the strict set of standards pertaining to physical fitness, appearance (i.e., tattoos), intelligence test results and an applicant’s criminal history. Yet why do so many of the exceptional two out of the 10 end up with mental, physical and emotional problems after serving in the military?

Editor’s Note: Most recent correspondence between Veterans leader/activist and the chairman of the County Board of Supervisors over accommodating a Veterans group with building space.

Eric K. Shinseki, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, has allowed the Los Angeles VA to be used as a political fundraiser for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma) while the Vietnam Veterans of America, Region 9 service organization, has been denied a permit to host their fourth \annual Veterans Summer Celebration & Picnic on these same sacred grounds.