Opinion

Trump's foreign policy nominees flat-out disagree with him

Among inner-city muralists, Obama is in serious rotation

Farewell to Barack Obama: A humane, intelligent and (mostly) effective leader

Ban developer contributions to City Hall

Only one week left until President Trump. Buckle up

Will 2017 be the year the anti-vaccination movement goes mainstream?

End of preferential treatment for Cuban migrants was long overdue

Meryl Streep delivers a message to Trump, one celebrity to another

Will John McCain protect America from Trump’s strange affinity for Putin?

House Republicans start the new Congress with an assault on federal lands

Do Americans hate each other too much to find common ground?

A big cartoon vision of an epic year in U.S. politics

Donald Trump didn't get elected to be politically correct

To the editor: So the news conference was depressing to you and the liberals you represent. Trump doesn’t need to act or speak with greater care. When are you liberals going to get the message? ( “An unpresidential display, “ Editorial, Jan. 12) PC is over! He didn't get elected to be politically...

Presidential press conferences are the new reality show. Or perhaps the new circus

To the editor: Welcome to the new regime. Trump is officially vilifying the free press, calling it “fake news” for reporting a story that was not fawning to him. Tyrants do that, presidents don’t. We are in for four very long years unless Republicans in Congress finally say enough and impeach and...

How much entertainment is too much? Mixed thoughts on L.A. landing the Lucas museum

To the editor: Wow, another museum. We can find land for stadiums, museums, theaters, and state of the art arenas, but we can’t find land to build housing for the poor? So much for L.A. being a progressive city. ( “New force in L.A.” Jan. 11 and “Lucas museum puts L.A. in old role,” Column, Jan....

Is the left in denial? No, it is quite rightly preparing for the worst

Much more so than in 2012, many of the letters about last year’s election have been written about the supporters of the nominees rather than the candidates themselves. In other words, readers have nearly as much to say about the people who voted for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton as they do about...

L.A. gets the Lucas museum — yes, the force was with us

Trump just compared the U.S. intelligence community to Nazi Germany. Let that sink in

Stop publishing unverified information, you numbskulls. Donald Trump feeds on your rumors

Why Airbnb shouldn’t be held liable for its ads (but Backpage.com should)

Meryl Streep did the right thing at the Golden Globes

Despite huge wins for media diversity, Trump's cloud rained on Hollywood's good time at the Golden Globes

California's minimum wage isn't the problem. The cost of housing is

L.A. drivers are terrible. Could dashboard cams help make things safer for everyone?

The Chargers leave San Diego for L.A. Um, welcome back?

The Chargers will become Los Angeles’ newest football team in 2017. But will the team be able to generate much enthusiasm in the city it left more than half a century ago?   The move has been expected since San Diego voters said no to raising taxes to subsidize a new stadium for the team in November....

Are fierce polemics free speech?

The climate scientist Michael Mann imagines himself on a crusade to save the planet. But if he gets his way in his lawsuit against my magazine, his legacy will be reducing the 1st Amendment’s protection for vigorous debate. Friends of free speech are understandably alarmed every time Donald Trump...

A radical hybrid tax reform deserves a full hearing, not a rushed vote

The new Congress and President-elect Donald Trump have made corporate tax reform one of their top legislative priorities, after repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The political jockeying is intense, but the most plausible scenario has congressional Republicans using reconciliation procedures to...

The only way to fix parking tickets is to make it easier not to get one

The second worst thing about driving in Los Angeles is parking in Los Angeles — and getting a ticket for it. In the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2015, the city handed out nearly two and a half million tickets. A little more than a quarter of them were written for parking during street sweeping...

How much sugar is too much?

Sugar may well be a killer. The conventional thinking is that it’s an “empty calorie” — it fills you up without providing nutrients. But there’s a growing body of research suggesting that sugar actually triggers a disorder known as metabolic syndrome, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Charges against VW execs put blame for corporate crimes in the right place

Volkswagen’s indefensible meddling with vehicle emissions to circumvent U.S. environmental standards has cost the international car maker billions of dollars in settlements, fines and lost sales. Now the Justice Department has taken a new, welcome step and indicted six high-level VW employees on...

Can a leopard change his spots? Here's hoping we don't find out with Jeff Sessions

Many Republicans always insisted that their aspiration to Make America Great Again did not mean Make America White Again.  Perhaps more are like Speaker Paul Ryan; six months ago Ryan called one of Donald Trump’s bigoted slurs “a textbook example of a racist comment,” but five months later found...

Backers of police discipline change should be careful what they wish for

Both the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department may soon make changes to their disciplinary processes — but the proposals for the two agencies are moving in decidedly opposite directions. The sheriff is seeking something more like what the LAPD has while the...

A time for budget caution — and tax reform

Gov. Jerry Brown sounded a bit like a broken record Tuesday when he released his proposed spending plan for next fiscal year, preaching prudence even as the economy seems to be booming. That’s what he said last year. And the year before that. Even the charts look the same. But Brown has solid reason...

Why Ferris Bueller is our everyman

The National Film Registry of the Library of Congress is a kind of hall of fame, a Cooperstown for important American films of every genre. “The Breakfast Club” just joined “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” another of John Hughes teen anthem picture, in the pantheon of America’s best. Some people grow...

Did Latino voters actually turn out for Trump in the election? Not really

When Donald Trump won the presidency on Nov. 8, pundits, reporters and political wonks turned to the national exit poll to find out exactly what had happened. How had various groups in various states voted? One of the exit poll findings was particularly surprising: Although Hillary Clinton triumphed...

Patt Morrison asks: Jason Diamond on the enduring genius of John Hughes

The National Film Registry of the Library of Congress is a kind of hall of fame, a Cooperstown for important American films of every genre. “The Breakfast Club” just joined “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” another of John Hughes’ teen anthem pictures, in the pantheon of America’s best. Some people grow...

At the Sessions hearing, the business of government is ... hysteria

Code Pink may get a bad rap, disrupting as it does seemingly every significant event on Capitol Hill. But the most hysterical performances at Tuesday’s serially interrupted Senate confirmation hearing for attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions came not from scrappy protesters, but from the august...

Ushering in our new robot overlords, one appliance at a time

This year’s International Consumer Electronics Show, which wrapped up Sunday in Las Vegas, was an orgy of smarts — “smart” Internet-connected appliances, smart television sets, smart lawn mowers, smart … everything.  The industry’s vision of a world of interconnected, programmable devices has become...

Trump’s cabinet nominees need extreme vetting from the Senate, not rubber stamps

Senate committees have planned hearings this week on nine of President-elect Donald Trump’s most important cabinet appointees, including his nominees for secretary of State, secretary of Defense and attorney general. On Wednesday — a day when Trump is already expected to dominate news coverage...

As IPOs decline, the market is becoming more elitist

Every entrepreneur used to dream of selling shares in an initial public offering, or IPO, and listing those shares for trading on a national stock exchange. Now many strive  to avoid that fate. The number of public companies has shrunk by more than one-third during a time when the U.S. economy...

‘The Real Housewives of ISIS’ deserves a laugh

Crazy, blood-curdling, infidel-hating, bearded dudes are clearly very funny, as anyone who has watched the film “Four Lions” knows. Released in 2010, Chris Morris’ dark satire follows five wannabe jihadists on their quest to strike a blow against the unbelievers of Britain. In the tradition of...

In gentrifying Venice, Trumpian rage

My mailman told me recently that he’s retiring soon and plans to move up to Mt. Shasta. When I asked him if he would miss Venice, he replied, “I already do.”  The neighborhood he’d once loved was long gone. Twenty-one years ago, when I moved to Venice, I installed large windows so that I could...

The Border Patrol has made improvements in accountability and use-of-force. Will Trump continue that progress?

Over the past three years, the Obama administration has struggled to change a culture of violence and impunity within the U.S. Border Patrol — a culture that has tolerated excessive force against suspected border crossers, including unnecessary lethal shootings. To its credit, the government has ...

For better schools, abolish the politicized Department of Education and give local districts more control

Republicans opposed the Department of Education from its beginning and regularly threaten to abolish it now, arguing that educational policy should be reserved to the states. Two respected Democrats also objected to the department’s creation almost 40 years ago. New York Sen. Daniel Moynihan warned...