Rutten: Amazon's shameful California tax dodge

Public health: Not vaccinated? Not acceptable

What does society do when one person's behavior puts the greater community at risk? We make them stop. We pass laws, or impose economic...

Science and religion: God didn't make man; man made gods

Before John Lennon imagined "living life in peace," he conjured "no heaven … / no hell below us …/ and no religion too."

Newton: A new voice atop L.A.'s teachers union

Warren Fletcher wrapped up his work three weeks ago as an English teacher at City of Angels and moved over to the headquarters of United...

Israel: 'Delegitimization' is just a distraction

Suddenly, all the major pro-Israel organizations are anguishing about "delegitimization." Those who criticize Israeli policies are accused...

McManus: A deal with the Khartoum devil?

How do you deal with a genocidal dictator who says he wants to reform?

Britain's phone-hacking scandal and the power of newspapers

A few years ago my old boss, David Laventhol, had an extended conversation with Rupert Murdoch about newspapers. It was after some sort of...

The upside of living downtown

Eight years ago, as I watched a building near my work be converted from vacant offices into lofts, I couldn't stop thinking about it. If I...

Downtown L.A.: A nightmare on Every Street

"Look, Daddy, that man's going to the bathroom!"

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...

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.

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...

Can Britain survive tabloid fever?

Britain's drama has penetrated even the carapace of American self-preoccupation.

McManus: One good debt debate deserves another

Republican leaders blinked this week in their standoff with President Obama over raising the nation's debt ceiling. That means we're...

Daum: Jaycee Dugard and the feel-good imperative

To watch Diane Sawyer's interview Sunday night with Jaycee Dugard was to wonder at times if that was Dugard herself on screen or an...

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?

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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."

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...

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

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...