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Compton parents trigger reform

Compton parents trigger reform

Marlene Romero watched with growing anxiety as her 8-year-old son suffered through third grade at McKinley Elementary School in Compton. She...

 

'I'll take human ingenuity for $2,000'

A mere three years ago, the IBM computer now known as Watson was a "Jeopardy!"-playing fool. And that's putting it mildly.

 

Bursting our bubble

If President Obama could ask for one gift from the economy — one statistic that turns unexpectedly rosy — what would it be? If...

  • Gov. Brown's democracy dodge

    It would be "unconscionable," according to Gov. Jerry Brown, for the Legislature to "block a vote of the people" on a five-year extension of...

     
  • What are the ties that bind us?

    Multiculturalism breeds terrorism. That's what British Prime Minister David Cameron said Feb. 5 in a high-profile speech in Germany,...

     
  • Saving Social Security

    Social Security is the most successful social program in American history. It shouldn't be privatized; its benefits shouldn't be cut; and...

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Stick a fork in it, we're done

Stick a fork in it, we're done

After about a month in control of the House of Representatives, Republicans haven't managed to undo as many deeds of their Democratic...

No seeds, no independent research

No seeds, no independent research

Soybeans, corn, cotton and canola — most of the acres planted in these crops in the United States are genetically altered....

We could still 'lose' Iraq

We could still 'lose' Iraq

My kids — the oldest is 13 — seem to think that anything that happened in the pre-iPad era is ancient history and therefore of...

Mission not yet accomplished

Mission not yet accomplished

"Mission Accomplished" read the hauntingly familiar phrase from Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim on Thursday when the first word came that...

The party's over

The party's over

Every year about this time I start to squirm, watching my birthday lumber forth. I'm glad not to be dead. And even though my birthdays...

Not fit to be tried

Not fit to be tried

From the hysterical reaction of two local prosecutors, you'd think Southern California suddenly had become Paris in 1848 — or, maybe,...

Stuttering: It's on everyone's lips now

Stuttering: It's on everyone's lips now

Colin Firth's performance as the stuttering King George VI in "The King's Speech" was difficult for me to watch. Don't get me wrong —...

And the GOP front-runner is ...

And the GOP front-runner is ...

The race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination starts in earnest this week at the annual Conservative Political Action...

Free Pollard? Never

Free Pollard? Never

In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to President Obama asking for the early release of Jonathan Jay Pollard,...

Egypt's power players

Egypt's power players

Word came from the street: A mob had gathered in front of the ground-floor door, blocking the exit from the offices of the Hisham Mubarak...

Farrah Fawcett's swimsuit hits the big time

Farrah Fawcett's swimsuit hits the big time

Surely you noticed this urgent news item over the weekend: The red swimsuit worn by Farrah Fawcett in her iconic 1976 poster has been...

U.S. must back democracy in Egypt regardless

U.S. must back democracy in Egypt regardless

What Egypt needs now, before anything else, is free parliamentary elections that can help capitalize on the momentum in Tahrir Square and...

The polio virus fights back

The polio virus fights back

We've been waiting a long time for the eradication of polio. Since the World Health Organization's 1988 decision to eliminate polio from...

AOL ♥ HuffPo. The loser? Journalism

AOL ♥ HuffPo. The loser? Journalism

Whatever the ultimate impact of AOL's $315-million acquisition of the Huffington Post on the new-media landscape, it's already clear that...

Bare-knuckle politics

Bare-knuckle politics

The Los Angeles City Council's 14th District takes in Eagle Rock, Highland Park, Mount Washington, El Sereno and a chunk of central Los...

Rude awakening

Rude awakening

Snapshot from Los Angeles, the place Travel + Leisure readers deemed the rudest city in America: It's late morning in an L.A. coffeehouse....

The real 'realism' on Israel

The real 'realism' on Israel

Finally, I can put the rumors to rest: The land of Zion isn't merely an abstraction, it's an actual country.

Labor's love lost

Labor's love lost

Having delivered a clean sweep of state offices to California's Democratic Party in the November election, organized labor might want to...

Phony solutions for real social ills

Phony solutions for real social ills

Social conservatives say they're trying to address the problems of family breakdown, crime and welfare costs, but there's a huge...

Terrorism meets xenophobia in Russia

Terrorism meets xenophobia in Russia

If current demographic trends continue, within the next half-century Muslims will constitute a sizable part, perhaps even a plurality, of...

Missing out on health

Missing out on health

Last month, the state lost an opportunity to receive tens of millions of dollars in federal funding to provide healthcare to uninsured kids....

Beware the Islamists in the wings

Beware the Islamists in the wings

From the American perspective, the transition now underway in Egypt confirms John Kenneth Galbraith's famous appraisal of politics as a...

Obama channeling Reagan? Let's hope not

Obama channeling Reagan? Let's hope not

Time magazine's cover this week features a Photoshopped picture of Ronald Reagan with his arm around President Obama. The cover story...

The spirit of Tahrir Square

The spirit of Tahrir Square

Writing from Cairo — Was it ridiculous that I was perched on top of a ladder hanging curtains before going out to join the...

L.A. should follow the cheeseheads

L.A. should follow the cheeseheads

With all the recent attention over who may one day own Los Angeles' NFL football franchise and where it will play, it is appropriate in this...

Republican stonewalling won't close the state budget gap

Republican stonewalling won't close the state budget gap

The role that Republicans in the Legislature play in the great scheme of California government is becoming harder and harder to discern.

U.S. walks the line on Egypt

U.S. walks the line on Egypt

A little more than two months ago, when Hosni Mubarak's government rigged Egypt's most recent parliamentary elections, the Obama...

Beirut calling

Beirut calling

Despite the media's recent focus on Egypt, events in Lebanon may well tell us more about the troubled prospects for Middle Eastern...

In praise of snail mail

In praise of snail mail

I've always loved mail. By that I mean the mail that arrives in a physical mailbox six days a week, not e-mail. Well, I love that too, but...

Renovating CRAs

Renovating CRAs

Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to eliminate community redevelopment agencies throughout the state may have been made with the best of...