Press Telegram

Speak Out

Poor caricature. Why couldn't you have run a photo of Sonia Sotomayor, instead of that ugly drawing you ran (Comment, June 18). Shame on you. Prager fan. Dennis Prager is far more knowledgeable about what's going on in the world than your letter writers give him credit for; they should listen to his radio show and hear for themselves.

Making Sausage in Sacramento

While most Californians have nothingbut bad things to say about our legislative sausage-makers, we want to remind voters that while the Legislature is in session, they never forget their mission, although there are times we wish they would. What they do when they're not balancing the budget or assigning their responsibilities to taxpayers is make laws. Lots of laws. Laws you never hear about and probably don't care about, except for the fact that, given a finite amount of time to do the job t...

Monday's Letters to the Editor

Questionable protection Other than in pictures I'll bet most of us have never seen a California condor, a spotted owl or a timber wolf. Would we be able to distinguish a "regular" condor from a California condor if we saw one in the zoo? Could we tell the difference between one type of smelt and another (say, the delta smelt)? The answer to both of these questions is, probably not. And yet our lives and, in some cases, our livelihoods are being adversely effected by programs and decisions ena...

Humanitarian but Questionable 'Parole' for Young Illegals

Those of us who live near the U.S.-Mexico border are used to seeing bizarre things - but not this bizarre. Law enforcement agencies don't typically come to the aid of those who break the law. But that's what happened last week when three San Diego-area high school students who were in the country illegally and had been deported to Mexico were given "humanitarian parole" and allowed to rejoin their families in the United States. The Border Patrol notified lawyers handling the minors' cases tha...

Old Problems for New Energy

Just like the fossil fuel industries, rush to go green could harm environment. Western governors, animated by President Obama's goal of doubling renewable energy production in the U.S. within three years, have identified dozens of areas rich in "new energy" sources. However, they're now facing some of the same "old energy" obstacles to getting the projects moving.

Speak Out

Hail Kobe. It's absurd to ask Kobe Bryant to pay for the Lakers parade. We owe him a debt a gratitude. LBUSD tax. If the LBUSD raises our property taxes, we all know that the money will only go to raising teachers' pay, and we're sick and tired of that.

Sunday Letters to the Editor

Frustrated at DMV My wife and I were at the Long Beach DMV recently when we witnessed two LBPD officers ask to speak to the manager on duty. What we overheard over the next several minutes spoke volumes about the sorry condition of this state, but was a tribute to the Long Beach Police Department.

A Model Proposal for Education

Closing underperforming charter schools fulfills the movement's original goals. The charter school movement has taken an important step to keep standards high with its proposal last week to close underperforming schools.

New Tax Would Hurt U.S. Firms

We live in difficult times. In May, the national unemployment rate rose to 9.4 percent, coupled with a loss of 156,000 manufacturing jobs. Long Beach's unemployment rate is in the double digits. As our nation's economy continues to struggle, one would think that government and business leaders would be working together to improve America's competitiveness in the global marketplace and spur domestic job growth. Unfortunately, government has moved to do exactly the opposite, potentially hurting...

Look for Surprises in Governor Race

There have already been plenty of surprises in the ongoing contest to become the next governor of California, and chances are there will be plenty more. For 2010 marks the first campaign since 1998 with no incumbent involved, and that situation always invites the unexpected. No one guessed in 1998, for instance, that the underfunded Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, who spent less than $7 million in the primary, would triple the vote of Northwest Airlines mogul Al Checchi, who spent $39 million.

The Flaws in Obama's Health-Care Reform

To dissect today's health-care debate, the crux of which concerns a "public option," use the mind's equivalent of a surgeon's scalpel, Occam's razor, a principle of intellectual parsimony: In solving a puzzle, start with the simplest explanatory theory. The puzzle is: Why does the president, who says that were America "starting from scratch" he would favor a "single-payer" - government- run - system, insist that health-care reform include a government insurance plan that competes with private...