The Dealmaker: 2/13/2017

Are malls secretly hoping Sears goes bankrupt? The Motley Fool looks at how “mall operators such as General Growth Properties, Simon Property Group, and Macerich might… be rooting for anchors like Sears Holdings to go bankrupt so they can rent the space for more money [by ‘carving them up into smaller parcels’].” http://bit.ly/2lHy8jh

[OPINION] Measure S isn’t a solution to L.A.’s housing woes. If this “slow-growth, anti-development ballot measure,” is NOT a solution to what many are worried is a city “becoming too tall and too dense,” then what is Measure S?  According to this piece by the Los Angeles Times Editorial Board, Measure S is “a childish middle finger to City Hall.” (That actually seems like a rather childish way of looking at it!) See why the paper is urging Angelenos to give a finger back to the measure by voting it down. http://bit.ly/2kLBKTQ

Under Arizona bill, contracts in Spanish would have less legal force. According to HB 2045, “[i]f there are differences between the English version of [a] contract and any version in a foreign language… the English version governs.”¿Por qué? According Howard Fischer’s report: “[I]nsurance companies… fear that something might not have been translated correctly and a policyholder could claim that he or she is entitled to coverage based on the Spanish-language version.” More about the measure and why one Democratic lawmaker says it’s something that “the GOP majority… could eventually… regret”– at Arizona Daily Star. http://bit.ly/2lIsKxg

The revolt against the elites. Surveying the “antielitism” landscape in the wake of the “terrible” 2016 election, political satirist P.J. O’Rourke expresses hope that “such contrariness at the ballot box” didn’t foreshadow that “we live in [a country which] harbor[s] the kind of populism that goes psycho.” In The Weekly Standard. http://bit.ly/2lcsSHp

Trump’s Justice Department may crack down on thriving pot industry, but is it too big to jail? The Los Angeles Times looks at how the ”election of Trump (and the appointment of Jeff Sessions as AG) has shocked the marijuana industry into a state of high alert…” As the Times notes “[i]t was only 10 months ago that Sessions was scolding… that the drug is dangerous, not funny and that ‘good people don’t smoke [it].’” (A remark, BTW, that would seem to pretty much slam the door shut on any notions that the AG himself may have ever, in his life, “cheeched it up.”) http://bit.ly/2lCDyAv