Making sense of the ‘wage gap’
What’s behind the wage gap between men and women?
Think life just keeps getting worse? Try being nostalgic — for the present
Nostalgia seems harmless enough, and then someone starts earnestly — absurdly — glamorizing the Stone Age.
Letters to the editor for Thursday, April 18, 2024
Please honor island’s emergency dispatchers
We have to blame someone for school shootings
Perhaps you can imagine punishments more to be feared than a lengthy prison sentence, but in a country that proscribes cruel and unusual punishment — except the death penalty — the only thing I can think of that would be worse than confinement in prison is confinement as the result of a crime that I did not commit.
How can evangelicals like Mike Johnson tolerate Trump?
At the 2016 Republican National Convention, when I told Donald Trump’s “God whisperer” Paula White that he referred to her as his pastor, she said she was his spiritual adviser — as if that were some sort of “get out of jail free” card for her. And yet White worked hard in our conversation to convince me that the foul-mouthed person on the campaign trail was godly.
Florida aims to protect teens from social media addiction
Studies show that young children and social media can be a bad combination. Florida is doing something about it.
Letters to the editor for Wednesday, April 17, 2024
Think about animals during disaster prep
Lab-grown beef is red meat for the conservative base
What do some Republicans have against lab-grown meat? Legislatures in Alabama, Arizona, Tennessee and Florida are all considering bans on the sale or import of so-called “cell-cultured food products.” In Florida a bill has reached Governor Ron DeSantis’s desk, and though he has not yet signed it, he has come out strongly in favor of meat.
House, Senate play politics on impeachment
Democrats have a tendency to elevate short-term political gain above more comprehensive strategies — sometimes with results they later regret. Harry Reid’s “nuclear option” on federal judges comes to mind as an example of a gambit that came back to backfire spectacularly on the party.
I was homeless in college. California can do more for students who sleep in their cars
When I first came to California to apply for graduate school in the late ’80s, I drove to Santa Monica and parked my car. There were more homeless people than I’d ever seen, living here in tents on the grass by the ocean under palm trees.
Going backward in Arizona: Terrible 1864 abortion ban’s return is the result of Donald Trump
Donald Trump had really lousy timing to announce Monday that he wanted to return abortion policy back to the states as it was before Roe v. Wade and promptly on Tuesday, Arizona returned back to 1864, with an ancient ban on the medical procedure. Oh, Arizona is one of the five states that Trump won in 2016 and then lost to Joe Biden in 2020. Oops.
Biden thumbs his nose at the Supreme Court
Democrats have worked to tear down support for the U.S. Supreme Court because they abhor constitutionalist jurists who won’t bend to progressive prerogatives. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden expresses his enmity for the justices by simply proceeding in defiance of the high court as he attempts to buy votes.
Happy Tax Day. Are we getting our money’s worth?
Here comes Americans’ favorite day – April 15, Tax Day! In the land of “No taxation without representation,” we Americans throw a fit over how much we fork over to the government, which taps into related complaints over government waste, budget deficits and more.
‘Bougie broke’ Americans: Spending more while falling further behind
Despite inflation-adjusted incomes falling dramatically since January 2021, Americans are buying more than ever. That may sound like a contradiction, but it’s perfectly possible, at least in the short run. Americans today, especially the young, are just “bougie broke.” That’s a fancy way of saying people have given up on saving, investing and planning for their future, so they spend every last dime in hedonistic pleasure-seeking. Ironically, the sky-high cost of living is what drives people to spend frivolously.
The OJ trial defined an era when apocalyptic LA was the center of the universe
LOS ANGELES — Sometimes it is difficult to remember that the O.J. Simpson trial actually happened.
Letters to the Editor for April 13
Utility’s request hurts working people most
Health care is still too costly for Americans
America’s approach to health care is an outlier among the world’s rich countries, and not in a good way. Extraordinarily complex and hideously expensive, it still manages to leave some 26 million people without coverage. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 made notable progress, but failed to solve the pressing problems of high costs and less-than-universal access.
Vocational education finally making big strides
While the nation’s public schools in recent decades have emphasized college preparation, Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” fame has been preaching the gospel of vocational education. His efforts may be paying off.
Westside Stories: He’s just a third wheel
Some people just don’t get it.
Letters to the editor for Thursday, April 11, 2024
Taxpayers deserve a refund for rail