The issue: Let the court decide whether rates are proportional under the law The people have spoken. Now, it’s time to move on. THAT’S WHAT WE have to say to residents who plan to launch a signature-gathering campaign in support of an initiative challenging Davis’ water rates. Those rates were approved this spring by the […]

The issue: Forget privacy; that’s so 20th century One of the last venues offering any kind of privacy in this country is — or was — your car. No longer. According to a study by the American Civil Liberties Union, law enforcement agencies across the country using automated scanners are able to pinpoint in real […]

The issue: Typewritten notes can’t be downloaded With every keystroke, mouse click, phone call and download thought to be on the block for government surveillance, it’s good to know that low tech can still be an option for secure communications. THE RUSSIAN newspapers Izvestia and Moscow Times both reported last week that the Federal Guard […]

The issue: Turns out it was really scary, after all The pyramid of really scary creatures has been restored to its natural hierarchy and once again Tyrannosaurus rex is back at the top. The huge, meat-eating T. rex, all 40 feet and seven tons of him, was long thought of as the baddest dinosaur of […]

The issue: Other states, and the feds, should join New York’s effort Too often, consumers are left with the sense that part of an insurance company’s business model is to avoid paying out rightfully owed claims. A recent New York Department of Financial Services investigation uncovered just such a pattern of nonpayment and, hopefully, will spur […]

The issue: McConnell has nothing to show for his acrimonious two-year battle to stymie Obama’s appointees The Senate, when it rouses itself to do so, does work. Slowly, inefficiently, maddeningly, but it does work. Proof of that was the Republicans’ decision last week to allow quick votes on seven of President Barack Obama’s nominees to […]

The issue: But legal recognition for same-sex couples is making steady progress Deciding to strike in the exuberant wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling that ended in a partial victory for the cause of same-sex marriage, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania — aided by volunteer counsel — has filed a federal lawsuit […]

The issue: House legislation faces uphill road in Senate, and Obama has pledged to veto it Republicans in the House of Representatives last week pushed through an agriculture bill that, for the first time since 1973, did not include the nation’s vast food stamp program. OFFICIALLY KNOWN as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, […]

The issue: Rail, pipelines each pose serious safety threats The tragic loss of at least 13 lives in the Canadian border town of Lac-Megantic to a fireball of burning crude oil is sure to ramp up debate about how petroleum products should be moved across North America. ONE SURE talking point is that oil is […]

The issue: If his disclosures have opened our eyes, and we act on what we see, he will have done a great public service Edward Snowden’s continuing efforts to elude U.S. efforts to criminalize leaks confirming we live in a 1984-like surveillance state should be stirring more debate on whether Americans have unknowingly given up […]

The issue: Keep in mind that these are investments in higher education, and our future While the Senate missed a July 1 deadline to prevent interest rates on certain student loans from doubling to 6.8 percent, it continues to negotiate a solution. But it shouldn’t compromise by incorporating the House of Representatives’ proposed market-based approach […]

The issue: The only worrisome spots in the improvement are out of our control — the economies in Europe and China The June unemployment figures should make everybody happy — except large borrowers from the government and the 11.8 million unemployed who didn’t get one of the 195,000 jobs created last month. THE UNEMPLOYMENT rate, […]

The issue: Ouster of Egyptian leader was a setback for the principle of elected democracy In retrospect, Mohammed Morsi, ousted last week after a year as Egypt’s president, should have done what he’d promised voters in the country’s first free election: Rebuild the economy, beginning with tourism, the country’s largest industry, by reassuring the safety […]

The issue: It probably will be up to the private sector to restore it to grandeur Conservatively, the July 4 fireworks show on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., attracts several hundred thousand visitors and generates huge amounts of trash. It’s almost a miracle that by the following dawn, all that trash is gone, thanks […]