Top Headlines

Buy a license plate, fund a California park?

Actually collecting parking fees, a vanity license plate and other small but creative ideas in an Assembly bill are worth considering to help California's budget-strapped parks.

Derailing rail safety

By Emily Dwass

Some House Republicans are trying to delay federally mandated technology that could prevent deadly train wrecks like the 2008 Metrolink crash in Chatsworth.

A press window on L.A.'s dependency courts

Judge Michael Nash of the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court takes a welcome step by allowing the press to observe proceedings.

California's death penalty law: It simply does not work

Why gay marriage is inevitable

An ominous silence on the Supreme Court

McManus: Romney's pain, Obama's gain

Michelle Rhee's advice: Stop overpraising kids

America's 'kill list' and who's responsible for it; Jonah Goldberg's proposal of a U.N. for good guys; a Washington state senator's blog post in favor of gay marriage

Should L.A.'s supervisors say 'shut up'? to commenters

More: Letter submission form | Letters archive

Impounding unlicensed drivers' cars: A matter of life and death

A private-equity president: Be afraid of Romney

Drug war: Time for an exit strategy

About Blowback: FAQs and submission policy

Campaign 2012

Obama, Romney and the battle of the bands	Will 'super PACs' ruin politics?	Those mudslinging Republicans
McManus: The consequences of Santorumania	Could GOP contests Tuesday produce a wave for Rick Santorum?	Roseanne for pres: A chicken in every bucket, a pie in every face
Romney shifts attack ads from Gingrich to Santorum	A new pro-Romney group: Career politicians for Mitt	100 years of American politics
The GOP presidential race so far	McManus: The Gingrich playbook	McManus: How Mitt Romney won Florida

Poll: Who else would you like to see on the 2012 presidential ballot?

Opinion L.A. Blog
Latest posts from the best in Southern California opinion journalism

Michelle Rhee's advice: Stop overpraising kids 02/11/2012, 8:00 a.m.
My Furry Valentine 02/10/2012, 7:43 p.m.
Mitt Romney doth protest too much about his conservative credentials 02/10/2012, 12:43 p.m.
Contraception and women's rights -- it's still a man's world 02/10/2012, 12:07 p.m.
The White House wishes away the cost of contraception coverage 02/10/2012, 10:33 a.m.
Obama, Romney and the battle of the bands 02/10/2012, 5:00 a.m.
What California got for holding out for a better foreclosure deal 02/09/2012, 5:11 p.m.
Trutanich: I am a liar 02/09/2012, 2:46 p.m.
The green jobs debate: A boon or a bust for the economy? 02/09/2012, 2:18 p.m.
Does the Miramonte case argue for cameras in the classroom? 02/09/2012, 12:30 p.m.

More ...

Op-Ed columnists

Sue Horton, Op-Ed and Sunday Opinion editor of The Times, is in Rwanda on a two-week Gatekeeper Editor fact-finding trip organized by the International Reporting Project.

She is chronicling her trip on Opinion L.A.
Law of the land | Genocide survivors' testimony | More...

About Us

Editorials

English-only for candidates?

It began as a local story. Citing a state law requiring public officials to know English, a judge in Arizona ruled that city council...

Avoiding the Syria trap

Given the continued carnage in Syria, and given Russian and Chinese obstruction of a plan to have Syrian President Bashar Assad step aside,...

L.A. DWP's gold-plated jobs

Few kids grow up dreaming of becoming a parking lot attendant, but the job can be quite lucrative — at least if you land one at the L....

The union key to opening L.A.'s jails

The citizens commission created to examine problems of violence in the troubled county jails is facing its first test. The Assn. for Los...

Salvaging Miramonte's year

Memories of molestations by Roman Catholic priests are fresh in the public's mind, along with the cover-ups of those crimes by church...

Will more money buy an Alzheimer's cure?

Just as scientists are announcing a breakthrough in their understanding of howAlzheimer'sspreads through the brain, robbing its sufferers of...

'Obamacare' insurance exchanges: Let's get going

The 2010 healthcare reform law gave states until Jan. 1, 2014, to create "exchanges" in which individuals and small businesses could shop...

A banner day for gay rights

What rational basis is there for telling same-sex couples they can't marry? Why … none, really, as the U.S. 9th...

Hollywood in black and white

Judging by the entertainment awards that are being handed out, this is a great year for black artists. A black woman won the U.S. drama...

Regarding U.S. drones

When the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism released a report Sunday claiming that U.S. drone strikes have killed dozens of...

More...

Op-Ed

Kinsley: Are blogs killing good writing?

By Michael Kinsley

It's been going on for too long, right before our eyes. Inevitably, someone was going to blow the whistle, and wouldn't you know it would be...

On immigration, 'amnesty' isn't a four-letter word

By Jack Shakely

In 1987, I started the Fund for New Americans at the California Community Foundation with the help of the Hilton, Irvine and Weingart...

Germany, the Eurozone's reluctant driver

By Timothy Garton Ash

In 1953, the novelist Thomas Mann appealed to an audience of students in Hamburg to strive for "not a German Europe but a European Germany."...

Tiger Moms vs. 'Bébé' moms

By Meghan Daum

A little more than a year has passed since the publication of Amy Chua's "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" — the paroxysm-inducing...

The Afghanistan equation: U.S. + Taliban + Pakistan = peace?

By Peter Tomsen

In 1989, soon after I was appointed U.S. special envoy and ambassador on Afghanistan, the late mujahedin commander Abdul Haq conveyed a...

Prop. 8 ruling: The legal path ahead

By Erwin Chemerinsky

Tuesday's federal court ruling declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional can be easily explained: There is no legitimate government...

Rethinking redevelopment in California

By Madeline Janis

Last week, one of the country's oldest and largest public economic development programs came to an inglorious end when the governor and...

New beach water rules: Enough to make you sick

By Mark Gold

When Congress approved the Beach Act in 2000, I was hopeful. The law required the Environmental Protection Agency to develop federal...

Goldberg: A U.N. — but for good guys

By Jonah Goldberg

The governments in Russia and China very much want to uphold the principle that every now and then the state must crush people who want...

A U.S. author's book, an Iranian translator's peril

By Firoozeh Dumas

A translator is an alchemist, transforming cadence, voice, meaning and symbol from your mother tongue to mine, from my culture to yours....

More...

Save over 50% off the newsstand rate. Click here to subscribe to The Times.

Advanced Search

Top Headlines

Op-Ed columnists

About Us