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Rutten: America's Murdoch problem

Rutten: America's Murdoch problem

The Anglo-American democracies owe their durability to many attributes, but two of the most crucial involve restraint: No exercise of...

 

Grandparents can be a lifeline for kids caught in upheaval

My mother married my father, a violent and abusive man, when she was 17 — a week after she graduated from high school. We fled from...

 

Keeping L.A.'s taps flowing

What's the most reliable source of water in Los Angeles? Your kitchen tap, your bathroom shower, even your toilet.

Immigration policy: U.S. should abolish its 'diversity visa' program

Immigration policy: U.S. should abolish its 'diversity visa' program

The U.S. "diversity visa" program — 50,000 green cards allocated by lottery each year to applicants who only need a high school...

For sale: U.S. infrastructure?

For sale: U.S. infrastructure?

Greece is having a fire sale of its publicly-owned transportation system, with planes, trains and roads all being sold off as the country...

Rutten: News Corp.'s widening scandal

Rutten: News Corp.'s widening scandal

The only sort of power a news organization can wield safely is the power to persuade.

Haiti: Why an accurate count of civilian deaths matters

Haiti: Why an accurate count of civilian deaths matters

Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, there have been at least 60,000 civilian deaths that wouldn't otherwise have occurred. Or maybe...

Immigration detainees: Lost in America

Immigration detainees: Lost in America

Trinity Park, south of downtown Los Angeles, is bustling on a late Friday afternoon. I scan the crowd: teenagers on skateboards, a heated...

Goldberg: The presidency matters, but how much does Obama?

Goldberg: The presidency matters, but how much does Obama?

In 1994, the Republicans took back the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. The significance of that victory is hard for...

Newton: Mean streets — for police

Newton: Mean streets — for police

By almost every measure, Los Angeles police are succeeding: Crime is down, public confidence up, and police who were once reviled in many...

McManus: A measured U.S. response in Syria

McManus: A measured U.S. response in Syria

When pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in Syria this spring, President Obama offered Syrian President Bashar Assad one more chance to...

405 Freeway shutdown: Two words of advice — surface streets

405 Freeway shutdown: Two words of advice — surface streets

About the first thing I heard 20 years ago, when I moved to Los Angeles, was this: "Take surface streets."

Assessing the space shuttle program

Assessing the space shuttle program

I began covering the space shuttle project in 1972, soon after President Nixon authorized it. I had recently joined this newspaper as a...

L.A. teachers union needs to get on board

L.A. teachers union needs to get on board

In Pittsburgh, according to an Aspen Institute report, the local teachers union and the school district have gone from "sitting across the...

Human behavior: To resist temptation, forget guilt or shame and think positive

Human behavior: To resist temptation, forget guilt or shame and think positive

Anytime a VIP gets caught with his (or her) pants down — Arnold Schwarzenegger or Anthony Weiner, for example — you can almost...

In Casey Anthony's case, the law worked

In Casey Anthony's case, the law worked

After Casey Anthony was found not guilty of murdering her daughter Caylee this week, a disturbing spectacle unfolded outside the Florida...

How President Obama can reclaim his green cred

How President Obama can reclaim his green cred

Environmentalists worked hard to help Barack Obama win the presidency. Three years later, many of us are disappointed with the...

Rodriguez: L.A.'s way is the freeway

Rodriguez: L.A.'s way is the freeway

Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's office released a mildly amusing list of 53 suggestions for surviving "Carmageddon," one for...

America's judiciary: Courting disaster

America's judiciary: Courting disaster

Denouncing a proposal to cut $150 million out of a courts budget that has already absorbed a $200-million reduction, California's chief...

Charities can be the nation's conscience

Charities can be the nation's conscience

Among the many proposals to raise taxes and cut and reallocate government spending to regain our country's economic health, one of the...

Climate change and disaster in Montana

Climate change and disaster in Montana

"We're a disaster area," Alexis Bonogofsky told me, "and it's going to take a long time to get over it."

McManus: Team Obama's victory plan

McManus: Team Obama's victory plan

President Obama faces an uphill struggle in his campaign for reelection next year. His job approval rating is stuck just below 50%. The...

The Supreme Court closes the door to justice

The Supreme Court closes the door to justice

Has the Supreme Court lost faith in the American court system? That is a strange question to ask about the justices who sit at the top of...

Rutten: The end of American optimism

Rutten: The end of American optimism

It's sometimes useful to see ourselves as others do, and reports this Independence Day weekend in a couple of English-speaking newspapers...

Daum: You pays your money …

Daum: You pays your money …

There's something exhilarating about walking out of a movie. Not only does it reacquaint you with the notion of your own free will ("Wait...

Iran's execution binge

Iran's execution binge

Why not Iran?

U.S. foreign policy: In praise of nation-building

U.S. foreign policy: In praise of nation-building

The signature line of President Obama's June 22 Afghanistan address was "America, it is time to focus on nation-building here at home." This...

Goldberg: 'That's racist' as a punch line

Goldberg: 'That's racist' as a punch line

"That's racist."

McManus: Debt-limit delay in the real world

McManus: Debt-limit delay in the real world

In 2008, as financial crisis threatened the U.S. banking system, President George W. Bush asked Congress to approve an emergency bailout....

Rodriguez: Land of the free, home of the fake

Rodriguez: Land of the free, home of the fake

Kim Kardashian's butt is real. Some haters said it was fake. To prove them wrong, she had a doctor take X-rays to show that it was implant-...

Newton: DWP's new general manager is on the hot seat

Newton: DWP's new general manager is on the hot seat

The view from the top floor of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power testifies to its place in the life and history of the city....

Texas, the jobs engine

Texas, the jobs engine

For the last few weeks, I've been unable to get a startling statistic out of my head: Since the recession officially ended, Texas has...

A Fourth of July primer: Born in the U.S.A.?

A Fourth of July primer: Born in the U.S.A.?

There's nothing quite as American as the Fourth of July, the day our nation's founders declared independence from Britain. But like...