Opinion

Opinion: Will California's new tax on gun sales reduce firearm violence?

The state's new excise tax on firearms and ammunition is similar to taxes on alcohol and tobacco, other legal products that can cause significant harm to society.

Editorial: China embraced electric vehicles. The U.S. didn't. Now we're paying the price

President Biden's tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and batteries will hurt consumers and slow the transition to zero-emission vehicles at a time when the U.S. needs to rapidly reduce its reliance on fossil fuels.

Letters to the Editor: A modest proposal for transit safety: Every rider gets a gun

A reader's modest proposal for increasing Metro safety: Every rider gets a gun. Except children: They get knives.

Letters to the Editor: Trump the insurrectionist doesn't deserve to share a debate stage with Biden

Trump is an insurrectionist; Biden is not. Putting them on the same stage fosters false equivalence between them.

Letters to the Editor: Mike Johnson showed up at Trump's trial. Is that part of the speaker's job?

MAGA lawmakers seem more interested in providing emotional support to defendant Trump than running the country.

How rap and writing help heal a family's old wounds

Asante's layered voice creates its own rhythm and flow, as he weaves a personal story with reflections on Black American history.

Letters to the Editor: Speed traps and small speed bumps: Reader ideas for slowing PCH traffic

Tells drivers on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu that they're entering a speed trap. That could slow traffic on that deadly stretch.

Editorial: Critics say Prop. 28 arts funding is being misspent. School administrators need to show their work

Proposition 28 directs nearly $1 billion to expand arts and music classes at California schools. But critics say some districts, including LAUSD, are using the budget bonanza for other things.

Opinion: Alice Munro's stories gave voice to women's unspoken, almost unspeakable, inner lives

The author, who died on Monday, used fiction to get at the truth of private grief and doubt.

Letters to the Editor: Remembering Sam Rubin, 'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' pitchman

A reader who wrote copy for VHS cases recalls Sam Rubin's humor when he used the KTLA journalist's review to hype "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes."

Calmes: The Supreme Court's conservatives onstage, unplugged, unrepentant

When these justices deign to meet-and-greet, it's with people who won't ask them about conflicts of interest or gifts from billionaires.

Letters to the Editor: Carbon removal won't save us from climate change. We need to end fossil fuels

It's impossible to remove enough CO2 from the atmosphere to fight climate change. The solution is to stop using fossil fuels.

Letters to the Editor: I was removed from my Chavez Ravine home in 1951. This is what L.A. owes displaced residents

A displaced resident of Chavez Ravine expresses reservations with Assembly Bill 1950, the Chavez Ravine Accountability Act.

Opinion: A job can't always lift someone out of homelessness. What more is needed?

One man's experience points to an answer: He was able to rent a home not through employment alone but because he reached the age for Social Security and Medicare.

Opinion: I'm an American doctor stuck in Gaza. As Israel moves into Rafah, where will physicians and our patients go?

Israel has seized the border crossing with Egypt in Rafah. My volunteer team doesn't know when we'll be able to leave, while the hospitals here remain at risk.

Editorial: L.A. City Council just proved it can't be trusted to fix itself

The City Council's decision to eliminate key changes to strengthen the Ethics Commission proves, yet again, that City Hall insiders are incapable of making meaningful reforms.

Letters to the Editor: Opposing views on Israel's tactics in the Gaza Strip

One reader says the ratio of civilian deaths to fighter deaths in Gaza is low for urban warfare. Another says Israel's tactics are self-defeating.

Letters to the Editor: Clarence Thomas starts using the 'fake news' defense

Justice Clarence Thomas accepted gifts from a billionaire, and his wife tried to overturn the 2020 election. These are facts, not 'lies.'

At last, a midlife-crisis novel that's not about a man

Miranda July's book 'All Fours,' about a Los Angeles woman's reckoning with perimenopause, imagines the end of fecundity as a joyful second flowering.

Letters to the Editor: At long last, USC valedictorian Asna Tabassum gets her due

The focus on valedictorian Asna Tabassum at USC's recent graduation ceremonies shows that those who tried to silence her have lost.

Abcarian: 'Diaper Don'? Trump's supporters turn the tables on his puerile critics

At MAGA rallies across the country, Trumpers joyfully proclaim that 'real men wear diapers.'

Opinion: Florida just picked the wrong kind of meat to ban

Why is Gov. Ron DeSantis making it a crime to produce a meat alternative that could be part of a humane, healthful and environmentally sustainable future food system?

Editorial: House antisemitism bill would stymie free speech and wouldn't make students safer

There's no place for antisemitism in the U.S. But House's Antisemitics Awareness bill goes too far in infringing on free speech.

Goldberg: Biden still trails Trump in the polls. His problem goes beyond inflation, Gaza and age

The president has tried to leverage abortion rights, tout progress on the economy and adjust his Israel policy. What he can't change are the "vibes."

Granderson: The NCAA's dilemma about trans athletes shouldn't be that hard of a call

Why do college sports exist anyway? It's not to make money or serve politicians' agendas.

Letters to the Editor: 'Are you a Zionist?' reveals something deeply disturbing about UCLA encampment

Camp guards making people prove they weren't Zionists before passing shows the protests were about demonization, says a reader.

Letters to the Editor: Did Jane Fonda save American lives by visiting North Vietnam in 1972?

A reader says he had orders to deploy to Vietnam for dangerous missions in 1972 — then Jane Fonda visited, and 'all hell broke loose.'

Letters to the Editor: Sam Rubin was my kid's soccer coach. He treated all of us like celebrities

Sam Rubin "was the exact same person on the pitch that viewers saw on air," says a reader whose daughter's soccer team was coached by the late KTLA journalist.

Opinion: Today's protests are tamer than the campus unrest of the 1960s. So why the harsh response?

College presidents in the Vietnam era would have thanked their lucky stars to face the relatively low disruptions caused by student movements in 2024.

Litman: Michael Cohen is testifying against Trump. Here's what prosecutors need from him

The key witness in the New York hush money trial said the then-candidate told him to do what he had to do to suppress Stormy Daniels' story of a liaison with him.

Opinion: How L.A.'s Chinatown helped reinvent Southern California

Los Angeles' three Chinatowns have been central to the region's transformation from suburban fantasy into multiethnic metropolis.

Editorial: SoCal air quality officials haven't acted to cut port pollution. They escaped to a desert resort instead

Southern California air quality officials discussed port pollution at a luxury Rancho Mirage resort 100 miles from the harbor, when they should be adopting long-delaying rules for L.A. and Long Beach ports to slash health-damaging emissions.

Opinion: Californians love the state's parks. We just don't know they're state parks

Gov. Gavin Newsom's proposal to trim $3 million from the Parks Department reflects skewed priorities. Few residents are aware how much they use and enjoy the 280-site system.

Opinion: The real reason why Oregon recriminalizing drugs is a cautionary tale

Rising homelessness and visible crime in Portland fed panic over a drug decriminalization measure passed in 2020. But rolling that back won't solve the state's problems.

Letters to the Editor: To police standing around in Metro stations: Get on the trains

Metro needs better security, so a rider gives security personnel a tip: Get off the platforms and on the trains, where the problems are.

Letters to the Editor: Liberals don't need to get a gun because everyone else has one

An article on a gun class for liberals "feeds the gun lobby's circular, paranoid talking point that a gun is needed to keep one safe from ... people with guns," says a reader.

Calmes: Our elections have integrity. These politicians do not

Of all Trump's shattered norms, the refusal to commit to accept election results is the most corrosive to American democracy.

Letters to the Editor: Have pro-Palestinian protesters forgotten Hamas' Oct. 7 attack?

Questions for pro-Palestinian protesters: Would we be here if Oct. 7 hadn't happened or if Hamas wasn't in power in Gaza?

Letters to the Editor: A $24 monthly fee for power? It's time for solar users to go off grid

With the new $24 monthly fee, a solar customer frustrated with increasing expenses says it may soon be time to go off grid.

My family's generations of mothering

As I decide if I want to have kids, and my mother is thrust into the role of caregiver, we each find ourselves with parenting at the center of our lives.

Letters to the Editor: The worst Jan. 6 offender hasn't spent a second in prison

Trump has said he will pardon the imprisoned Jan. 6 offenders, which reminds us: He is still free after inciting the Capitol insurrection.

Abcarian: The porn star with a well-deserved place in American history

The porn star's testimony in Donald Trump's election interference trial was off the legal point, but her story and her feisty performance are details that make a difference.

Letters to the Editor: A Latino moderator, mic cutoffs, no audiences: Reader ideas for Biden-Trump debates

Reader suggestions for another round of Trump-Biden debates range from strict rules on microphone cutoffs to no rules at all.

Commentary: Mother's Day without our matriarchs

For a family established by immigrants, there's an extra dimension of grief when those who were born in the old country are gone.

'My Octopus Teacher' star takes a cold plunge to reconnect with nature in 'Amphibious Soul'

In Craig Foster's new memoir, the filmmaker calls on us to reclaim our wildness, even as humans don't seem too inclined to try to reverse climate change.

Letters to the Editor: Protesting the killing of 34,000 Palestinians isn't antisemitic

'Students want America to stand with the wretched and the poor — on the right side of history, not with criminals,' says a reader in defense of protesters.

Letters to the Editor: I was at Kent State in 1970 when my friend was killed. Why are we still using force against college protests?

A reader whose friend was killed at Kent State on May 4, 1970, says it's dismaying to see force still being used in response to college protests.

Commentary: Being a porn star doesn't make Stormy Daniels a liar. Trump's lawyer should have known that

The idea that working in porn automatically makes you a liar or amoral is deeply offensive, and a vestige of antiquated attitudes about sex work and what women, in particular, should and should not do with their lives.

Granderson: Biden is right to nudge Israel toward protecting civilians in Rafah

Pausing a shipment of weapons sends a message that the U.S. values human life.

Claire Messud mixes truth and invention to tell her French Algerian family's story

The epic, the intimate and the autobiographical meet in Claire Messud's latest novel, 'This Strange Eventful History'

Opinion: Struggling to find meaning and happiness at work? Here's where you may have gone wrong

Most Americans look to their jobs for a sense of purpose, but few succeed in finding one there. The answer is to look beyond our careers.

Editorial: Biden's plan to reschedule marijuana may finally end 'Reefer Madness'

The federal government's plan to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug will allow important medical research into how cannabis can help or hurt users.

Opinion: The commencement USC students, and their parents, should have had

Absent truly profound danger, administrators should do all they can to preserve the milestone experience of a community-wide graduation ceremony.

Letters to the Editor: Opposing views on Proposition 47 and a new 'tough on crime' ballot measure

A reader is unconcerned about prison population. Another says an effort to weaken Proposition 47 is the type of "tough on crime" approach that doesn't work.

Letters to the Editor: To the protest decriers — would you rather students didn't care?

Police stood by as protesters at UCLA were viciously assaulted. Let's hope facial recognition technology can ID the attackers and bring justice.

Letters to the Editor: 88 years later, 'Migrant Mother' is still reality on Skid Row

A reader likens an article and photos on families living on Skid Row to Dorthea Lange's chilling 1936 picture, "Migrant Mother."

Opinion: Why L.A. County's 'Jane Fonda Day' declaration was so astoundingly insensitive

Los Angeles County leaders showed disregard for Vietnamese Americans by choosing the fall of Saigon anniversary to honor the actress who infamously visited Hanoi.

Editorial: What does Los Angeles owe the people who lost their homes in Chavez Ravine? More than an apology

A community was uprooted for the land that became home to Dodger Stadium. The city of Los Angeles should make amends to the displaced families of Chavez Ravine.

Calmes: Trump promises to subvert the law — first by freeing the Jan. 6 criminals

The U.S. president is sworn to uphold the law, but presidential candidate Donald Trump keeps pledging to break it. We should believe him.

Letters to the Editor: It's not just a hush money trial. It's also about election interference

Plenty of rich men pay their mistresses to keep quiet. Not many of them do so to get elected to public office.

Letters to the Editor: Our secret weapon against homelessness: increasing General Relief payments

A former L.A. city controller says he was shocked to learn that General Relief payments are stuck at $221, where they've been since the 1970s.

Letters to the Editor: The situation at UCLA is unacceptable. Blame campus leadership

Decisions by UCLA leaders on recent protests 'have been both morally bankrupt and catastrophically foolish,' says a university employee.

Letters to the Editor: A fast-food operator calls AI a 'godsend.' God would like a word

Artificial intelligence is a 'godsend' because it allows you to have fewer workers? What does the Bible say about the rich getting richer?

Editorial: Biden's limit on bomb shipments to Israel may finally get Netanyahu's attention

President Biden's decision to delay arms shipment to Israel is a very small and belated gesture that may nevertheless make a point.

Litman: Did Stormy Daniels' testimony help or hurt the case against Trump? It's complicated

The adult-film star's testimony in the New York hush-money trial is legally peripheral but central to the drama the prosecution has been framing for the jury.

Opinion: Do campus protests show Americans' support for Palestinians has reached a turning point?

Gaza protests across the U.S. are showing unprecedented support for Palestinians, and demanding accountability like never before.

Opinion: The 'Man versus Bear' TikTok meme went viral. Here's another way to approach the question

Instead of comparing one fear to another, women could look to years of fictional heroines who asked themselves whether they wanted the lesser evil or the greater thrill.

Opinion: For the greats of the jazz age, life on the road was perilous as well as glamorous

Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Louis Armstrong created a template for what it means for a musician to be 'on tour.' How much of their accounts was pure myth?

Letters to the Editor: You don't have to be religious to revere Father Greg Boyle

Father Greg Boyle lives out his faith with humility and love. His Presidential Medal of Freedom was long overdue.

Letters to the Editor: I served in Vietnam, and I don't remember the protests fondly

In comparing today's college unrest to the 1960s, we must remember that many Vietnam veterans were deeply hurt by the protests.

Letters to the Editor: We can have wildlife protection and clean energy. These groups are showing the way

For a 'grand bargain' to end infighting on utility-scale renewable energy, look to the Northern Chumash Tribal Council and other groups.

Abcarian: How many ways can a political memoir backfire? Ask Kristi Noem.

First the South Dakota governor shot her puppy, now she's the poster child for lying GOP politicians. At least she's paying a price.

Editorial: Of course the death penalty is racist. And it would be wrong even if it weren't

Racism taints every stage of death penalty proceedings in California, as the state Supreme Court should acknowledge. It's present in other criminal sentences as well.

Editorial: To reach climate goals, L.A. needs action on its Green New Deal — not excuses

L.A. has ambitious climate goals, and deadlines are just around the corner. Officials should be redoubling efforts, not making excuses for why they can't be met.

Goldberg: What happened to the Republican war on 'woke' — and what we should have learned from it

Democrats' far-left excesses are collapsing under their own weight. Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump and other culture warriors had little to do with it.

Granderson: Trump's racist 'welfare' dog whistle is nonsense just like Reagan's

The poorest Americans are mostly rural and white, and they're loyal to Republicans who keep bashing them.

Letters to the Editor: O.C.'s far right has usurped the American flag. Let's take it back

In Huntington Beach, run by a far-right City Council, you wonder what someone really means when they're flying the American flag.

Opinion: This tough-on-crime proposal won't solve California retail theft, but it would crowd our prisons

Retailers including Walmart, Home Deposit and Target are backing a measure to undo effective criminal justice reforms.

Letters to the Editor: Did the UCLA protesters invite mockery, or should we take them seriously?

Some of the rhetoric and tactics were hardly 'peaceful,' says one reader. Another compares the demonstrators favorably to Vietnam War protesters.

Letters to the Editor: Angelenos need to stop trashing the majestic San Gabriel Mountains

Let's hope Biden's expansion of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument will help with the graffiti and trash problems.

Letters to the Editor: Instead of scaremongering over Trump, focus on Biden's accomplishments

Many articles on the election focus too much on Trump's chances at the expense of mentioning President Biden's accomplishments.

Letters to the Editor: Gun violence in Mexico, courtesy of the United States

Two of the three surfers shot in Mexico were from Australia, a country that a reader notes has highly restrictive gun laws.

Opinion: Have we learned nothing? The protester's taunt, 'Go back to Poland,' is grotesque

Jewish collective trauma, like that of the Palestinians, is undeniable. One shouldn't have to go to Treblinka to be reminded of this.

Seeking community but finding a cult in the tense, compelling 'The Witches of Bellinas'

In her debut novel, J. Nicole Jones draws from our chaotic reality to create a dystopia where a woman awaits judgment for refusing to conform.

Editorial: L.A. Metro is doomed if it can't keep bus and train riders safe

Violent attacks on the Metro system have scared riders and present an existential threat to public transit in Los Angeles. Leaders have to make major changes to keep the system viable.

Opinion: Is the Los Angeles City Council serious about ethics reform or wasting an opportunity?

The package of reforms the L.A. City Council is considering has a problem: It doesn't give the City Ethics Commission the independence it needs to do its watchdog job.

Letters to the Editor: Diminishing the concerns of Jews because of the war is antisemitic

A reader asks, "Are Jewish Americans' concerns the only ones held to this dismissive standard, as though Jews are somehow 'responsible' for the war based on their ethnicity?"

Opinion: How L.A. can stop excluding Latin American Indigenous language speakers

We have the largest population of Native American and Indigenous peoples of any U.S. city, but we lack data on their linguistic diversity.

Letters to the Editor: Do nothing, or jail -- the only options for controlling Trump during his trial

Fining someone of Trump's wealth is pointless. He and New York Judge Juan Merchan are on a collision course.

Letters to the Editor: Careful, college protesters — you may get Trump elected president

Antiwar protests help elect Richard Nixon in 1968. Can the unrest on college campuses today have a similar effect for Donald Trump?

Opinion: Since the Hamas attack, Israelis have begun arming themselves the American way

The terror attack on Israel was a catastrophic failure of state protection. It is generating an unprecedented spike in Jewish civilians getting guns.

Letters to the Editor: It's not antisemitic to protest Israel's brutal war or its far-right government

Those who ask "why single out Israel?" engage in the kind of whataboutism meant to stifle any criticism of the war.

Editorial: Break out the hook. This time Trump-Biden debates need tight rules of civility

To avoid a repeat of the chaos of the 2020 Biden-Trump debates, there must be clear rules for civility and moderators who are not afraid to enforce them.

Calmes: Donald Trump's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad second term

Don't let the focus on holding Trump accountable for what he has done cloud your vision on what he will do, if voters give him the chance.

Letters to the Editor: Republicans, it's OK to admit you were wrong about banning abortion

With abortion bans wreaking havoc, a reader suggests lawmakers being sworn into office add "first, do no harm" to their oaths.

Letters to the Editor: Praise for Gail Abarbanel, who changed the way we treat rape victims

Readers share their personal experiences with Gail Abarbanel, who recently stepped down after 50 years directing the Rape Treatment Center.

Letters to the Editor: No, nuclear waste isn't just 'buried' near San Onofre

Nuclear waste from San Onofre is stored securely in concrete bunkers -- it isn't merely "buried" in a bluff.

A champion of psychedelics who includes a dose of skepticism

Ernesto Londoño's memoir 'Trippy' explores psychiatry's renewed flirtation with drugs such as LSD. He's a believer but not a zealot.

Letters to the Editor: My son was viciously attacked at UCLA. We feel betrayed by the university

A father whose son was attacked at UCLA on May 1 says all students, no matter their side on a protest, deserve protection.

Abcarian: Don't denigrate pro-Palestinian campus protests by claiming the Vietnam War protests backfired

It's become popular to blame the antiwar movement for prolonging the Vietnam War and electing Richard Nixon. That's misguided.

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