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When secrecy gets out of hand

When secrecy gets out of hand

Every 6-year-old knows what a secret is. But apparently our nation's national security establishment does not.

 

Car rental companies: Driven to danger

A long-standing threat to rental car customers from unrepaired defective cars — an issue that received virtually no attention until...

 

Don't look to a third-party candidate

Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, Barack Obama and an independent and pragmatic president beholden to no party, ideology or interest group...

  • What did Nixon say?

    Last month, a federal court ruled that the testimony Richard Nixon made to the Watergate grand jury in the summer of 1975 should be unsealed...

     
  • Goldberg: Wake up and smell the tea

    "Is this a wake-up call to Washington?" NBC's David Gregory asked Sen. John Kerry on "Meet the Press," referring to the S&P; downgrade.

     
  • Israel protests show nation's beating heart

    Israel has never been an egalitarian state. But in its heyday, it was more egalitarian than most states in the world. The poverty wasn't...

More freeways won't end L.A.'s traffic woes

More freeways won't end L.A.'s traffic woes

There are two things on which most Southern Californians enthusiastically agree: Vin Scully should announce Dodger baseball forever, and...

Home sweet shopping cart

Home sweet shopping cart

It looked like an anti-terrorist takedown: five cop cars, 10 police officers, a yellow skip loader and a 5-ton dump truck. They screeched to...

Newton: County contract blues

Newton: County contract blues

There's trouble brewing at the Los Angeles County Hall of Administration, where a very big problem threatens to get much, much bigger.

California's water wars

California's water wars

California's water wars aren't about scarcity. Even with 37 million people and the nation's most irrigation-intensive agriculture, the state...

A false sense of national security

A false sense of national security

The raid to kill Osama bin Laden is barely three months old, but already it is one of the proudest chapters in the history of the U.S....

After the gold rush in Peru

After the gold rush in Peru

Seventeen thousand feet above sea level, at the top of the Lake Titicaca basin in Peru, the gray-black slopes sparkle with tiny flakes of...

Shark fin soup: The taste of extinction

Shark fin soup: The taste of extinction

I still remember the last time I ate shark's fin, in a grand, now-defunct Monterey Park seafood palace, more than 15 years ago. This...

Obama's biggest challenge: Jobs

Obama's biggest challenge: Jobs

The central question facing Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign is this: Can the president persuade voters to let him keep his job...

North Korea's carrot-and-stick strategy

North Korea's carrot-and-stick strategy

July is typically the time of year when North Korea makes peace overtures toward the United States. This is when it tries to rekindle...

Newton: Today's politicians could learn from Eisenhower

Newton: Today's politicians could learn from Eisenhower

When Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president in 1952, he came to office convinced that among the obligations he assumed was that of...

McManus: Obama's clarity gap

McManus: Obama's clarity gap

We all know by now that the eleventh-hour deal to raise the federal debt ceiling didn't solve much. Federal debt is still ballooning,...

Daum: Norway's paradise lost

Daum: Norway's paradise lost

Anyone who's hung around in liberal circles and found himself in those perfunctory What's Wrong With America conversations has heard the...

The hidden costs of credit cards

The hidden costs of credit cards

It seems like a no-brainer. Your credit card offers you a $1 reward for every $100 you spend. It's not a huge payback, but it's something: a...

How the GOP lost on the debt deal

How the GOP lost on the debt deal

The chorus of liberal lament began even before the details of the deal to raise the debt ceiling were known. Rep. Raul Grijalva, co-chair of...

New voting districts give the GOP that boxed-in feeling

New voting districts give the GOP that boxed-in feeling

The Citizens Redistricting Commission has drawn its lines, and the latest redistricting, like all redistrictings, has lessons to teach us...

AIDS divides the globe

AIDS divides the globe

At the International AIDS Society's annual meeting in Rome last month, there was a lot of good news. Chief among it was the presentation...

Cutting back on housekeepers' heavy lifting

Cutting back on housekeepers' heavy lifting

Some hotel guests may be getting a better night's sleep these days, but at the expense of the housekeepers who clean their rooms. In what...

What about a war ceiling?

What about a war ceiling?

On July 25, while John A. Boehner raced around the Capitol desperately pressing Republican House members for votes on a debt ceiling bill...

Health officials, speak up

Health officials, speak up

An outbreak of food-borne E. coli infections have killed at least 50 people in Europe this year and sickened thousands of others....

Rodriguez: Zero-sum games in an interconnected world

Rodriguez: Zero-sum games in an interconnected world

What's wrong with this picture: Even as the world is becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent, we seem to be approaching...

Newton: The tangled web of DWP rate increases

Newton: The tangled web of DWP rate increases

Once the Los Angeles City Council quits its faux hand-wringing and approves AEG's proposal to build a football stadium downtown, it will...

McManus: The write stuff

McManus: The write stuff

The news from Washington — bickering over the debt ceiling, poor prospects for the economy — hasn't been uplifting lately. It'...

The myth of the extraordinary teacher

The myth of the extraordinary teacher

The kid in the back wants me to define "logic." The girl next to him looks bewildered. The boy in front of me dutifully takes notes even...

A free-market fix to the nation's housing hangover

A free-market fix to the nation's housing hangover

There's a reason California hasn't seen as much of an economic recovery as some states: It has a serious debt problem.

The contract L.A. Unified needs

The contract L.A. Unified needs

We are currently negotiating the most important labor contract in the history of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Teacher turnover and the stress of reform

Teacher turnover and the stress of reform

When UC Berkeley released a study this month showing alarmingly high teacher turnover rates at Los Angeles charter schools, I wasn't...

LAPD's Beck on Giovanni Ramirez arrest, clearance in Stow case

LAPD's Beck on Giovanni Ramirez arrest, clearance in Stow case

The March 31 beating of Bryan Stow at Dodger Stadium was a horrific crime. On May 22, the Los Angeles Police Department's original suspect,...

Finish the 710 Freeway

Finish the 710 Freeway

In the best case, the political impasse over raising the nation's debt ceiling would lead to a new political reality for evaluating...

Hikers' families await justice from Iran

Hikers' families await justice from Iran

Two years ago, our families received an unexpected telephone call from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. We were told that our sons, Josh...

When the speaker wouldn't speak

When the speaker wouldn't speak

On July 22, a Washington Post story about how talks broke down on the debt ceiling contained a disturbing sentence: "Then Obama called...