The U.S. war against marijuana has failed and actually threatens public safety and rests on false medical assumptions. Guest columnist John McKay, Seattle's former U.S. attorney, argues why the laws...

We need to take a time out on immigration reform so we can get it right, writes columnist Mary Sanchez. To do so, we need to police our borders but also address humanely the 10 million people here...

So very hard to imagine Sarah Palin as a presidential candidate, writes columnist Gail Collins. So very easy to imagine her on a reality TV show. "Sarah Palin's Alaska" is set to premiere in November...

The actual economic lessons of 2009-2010, writes columnist Paul Krugman, are that scare stories about stimulus are wrong, and that stimulus works when it is applied. But it wasn't applied on a...

The jobs outlook is not especially sizzlin' this Labor Day, as unemployment creeps up to 9.6 percent. But private-sector jobs are growing, and President Obama is wisely considering tax cuts for small...

Even before the Israeli-Palestinian talks began Sept. 2, an attack by Hamas and a death call by a prominent Jewish rabbi have signaled that extremists want to derail the negotiations. Benjamin...

September 3, 2010 Once when I was 9, my Mennonite mother busted me for reading during a spectacularly dull sermon that looped around and around like one of those Hindenburg bees. I had smuggled in...

Geoff Nunberg says that pop singers such as The Beatles and Elvis Costello may have visited wordplay from time to time -- but country music lives...

The danger in the debate about the mosque near Ground Zero is that Americans start believing every Muslim thinks alike, much less that they support the 9/11 terrorists. Would that kind of group think...

And Tim Scott is black.Even more surprising, Mr. Scott's platform is a repudiation of Barack Obama's agenda. He promises to support a repeal of the health-care law, simplify the tax code, and cut...

bleak report on the state of black male education. Only eight states graduate more than 70 percent of black non-Hispanic males from their high schools. Four states have a graduation rate between 60...

• Private employers hired more workers over the past three months than first thought, lifting hopes for the weak economy ahead of the Labor Day weekend. But the unemployment rate rose in August...

exploded Thursday morning. Fortunately, all thirteen members of the rig crew survived and were rescued successfully. But uncertainty remains over whether we're facing a second catastrophic oil spill...

A protester urges congress not to pass the March health care overhaul. Conservatives have touted health care as the issue that will hurt Democrats most in the midterm...

LA Weekly. Sharron Angle has no business being in the Senate, at least according to many of her fellow Nevada Republicans. The GOP mayor of Reno called Angle "wild" when he publicly endorsed her...

When the Puritans sailed from England in the 1630s to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony, they imposed a ban on "games of chance." For a short time, the Pilgrims couldn't even possess...

The war that began on a false pretense ended in ambiguity. President Obama declared this week that it was time for the United States to "turn the page" in Iraq. The combat mission is officially...

Muni operators seem to have lost their sense of direction. Consider their union's latest move: asking the California Public Employment Relations Board to stop Muni from restoring 61 percent of the...

If we told you that a poorly regulated energy facility killed thousands of birds this year, you could assume we were talking about BP's Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico. But we also...

President Obama's ambitious effort to lift the nation's schools draws heavily from the playbook employed in Chicago and New York City: Test kids more often, open more charter schools and tie teacher...

Though none envisions being a mere underling, the nine candidates hoping to be lieutenant governor all agree the job is likely to be defined more by the next governor's policies -- and his...

As the political season heads toward the primary election, a recognizable silliness is pervading the commentaries and news coverage. Nonsense from the right includes Maui News letter writers...

Welcome to the Crusades, version 2.0. It certainly was predicted that the white-hot emotional debate on whether gays should be accorded full civil rights would engage religious conservatives. But...

The Star-Advertiser welcomes letters that are crisp and to the point (~175 words). The Star-Advertiser reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length. Please direct comments to the issues;...

September 3, 2010 Angelo Bruno, 60, spent more than 30 years as a sanitation worker in New York City. He and his partner, Eddie Nieves, cleared more than 14 tons of garbage from the city streets...

Published: September 3, 2010 It has been a long time since it has been possible to be hopeful about the Middle East. But the one-year peace process undertaken this week by President Obama may...

If the chill in the morning air isn't hint enough, then perhaps the spate of impending ski and snowboard equipment sales are a tip-off. Ski season will soon be upon us, and with it concerns about...

THE move of Manny Ramirez from the Dodgers to the White Sox this week was met mostly with indifference. The great baseball slugger's act was getting old here in Los Angeles. Like movie stars who...

THE Bob Hope Airport in Burbank has an opportunity to become what LAX never has - the first true rail-accessible airport in the Los Angeles region. True, the airport is actually reachable now via a...

herald poll Controversy continues to swirl around plans to build a $100 million Islamic community center and mosque two blocks north of the World Trade Center site. It's called the Park 51 Islamic...

I have a problem with the "sight" that meets the eye as we come off the freeway onto Center Street and see the Roasted Artichoke building! Whether we are seeing it from the front or back, it is ...

Another season of BYU football is about to begin. Has BYU addressed the problem of how uninventive and predictable the offense has become? Everyone knows what plays the BYU offense is going run...

MEDIA VOICES From the Northwest Floria Daily News, Wednesday, Sept. 1: The oil that gushed from BP's busted well in the Gulf of Mexico has dissipated, but BP's fanciful claims about the crisis...

Media attention this week has focused on the Brigham Young University football team's declaration of independence, and for good reason. With a sweetheart ESPN contract and regular matchups with Notre...

On the eve of the 9/11 terrorist attacks' ninth anniversary, the controversy over locating a mosque near ground zero in New York City shows that we must stand for fundamental freedoms even as we...

In mid-August in the northern Afghanistan province of Kunduz, a horrific, Taliban-ordered sentence was carried out against two young, unmarried Afghan lovers who had eloped against their families'...

President Barack Obama went on TV the other night to talk about the end of the combat mission in Iraq, and what he did not say is what very few are saying, least of all the ideologically disturbed,...

President Barack Obama is embarking on something I've never seen before — taking on two Missions Impossible at the same time. That is, a simultaneous effort to heal the two most bitter divides...

In this time of change at the Deseret News, and in fact always, there are way too many shrill voices. I seek to be positive and to recognize the good the Deseret News has done and its being a key...

President Barack Obama stated that we "spent vast resources abroad at a time of tight budgets at home." I would have thought that most of the resources spent on the war have actually been expended in...

Glenn Beck has undertaken a long personal journey from his troubled beginnings in Mount Vernon, Washington, to the promised land of Cable TV and hallowed ground of the Lincoln Memorial. In the...

The Detroit City Council should support Mayor Dave Bing as he seeks an end to a standoff with one of the city's major employee unions. A state fact finder has said Bing is justified in seeking pay...

Advertisement When the two of us talked the other day, strategist-commentator Carville showed that 18 years later he hadn't lost a quip: "More than ever, it's the economy, stupid." The polls...

The National Bureau of Economic Research officially scored the recession as starting in December 2007. Since World War II, 65 years ago, the average duration of recessions has been 10 months, with...

Ignorant America often casts the final and deciding vote Are Americans getting dumber? Evidence of that dreary possibility is offered by two new polls that show an unexpected development: Since...

Ground zero, where many of our friends, relatives and countrymen lost their lives, is a place that will be hard to forget, for Muslims and non-Muslims alike. We are blessed to live with our family,...

America reaching a point of no return How did we get to the point where many people feel that the America they have known is being replaced by a very different kind of country, with not only...

The Detroit News editorial "Choose your poison" (Aug. 20) contributes to fear-mongering surrounding Wayne County retirees' so-called 13th check. It irresponsibly suggests that the county has a choice...

I was a little concerned over the Glenn Beck rally last weekend in Washington, D.C., for good reason. Whenever a mass of white Promise Keepers gather to make speeches it scares me as a black...