editorials and opinion

Here's a question that all thoughtful college professors must ask themselves occasionally: Beyond the football and fraternities, the manicured lawns and the book-lined shelves in their own offices, beyond the binge drinking and parties and networking and casual sexual liaisons, beyond term papers bought and sold and sometimes actually written, beyond all of the genuine hard work and study and e

Last June, the Public Policy Institute of California released a highly critical report on California's "enterprise zone" program that provides big tax breaks to businesses for supposedly hiring workers in areas of high unemployment.

WASHINGTON - A few weeks ago I walked into the pharmacy of one of those "we sell everything and cheaper" places to fill a 14-pill prescription for a cancer patient. The smaller amount of a chemotherapy drug was needed to round out a course of treatment linked to a radiation regime for a brain tumor.

Many Americans, including a surprising number of black people, somehow believe that U.S. blacks did not start taking seriously the core traits of personal responsibility, valuing education, conducting their affairs ethically, condemning and avoiding crime, caring for one's family and being civic-minded until Barack Obama came along.

Even though more people want to visit the States than the U.S. can handle, the federal government is planning a $10 fee on visitors that will be used to attract even more of them.

This week's number that President Barack Obama needs to worry about is not two, the number of governorships the Democrats lost on Tuesday. It is 10.2 percent, the unemployment rate for October announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

A batch of amendments to a massive water-bond bill was submitted to the state Senate's clerical desk Monday, and one, as it turned out, had nothing to do with water.

Later that evening, as the bond bill was being debated, Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, asked about the opaquely worded new provision and was given a misleading answer about its effect.

Warren Buffett has just closed the largest deal of his spectacular career with an agreement to purchase the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad for $26.3 billion. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway already owned 23 percent of the railroad, and paid a 31 percent premium over the stock price to secure the rest.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele and the New York Yankees can look back on a good week. Maybe Steele deserves extra credit.

No one was writing obituaries a year ago for the Yankees as was the case for the Republican Party.

For a look at the state of America's youth, there's probably no better resource than the U.S. military, which examines thousands of them every year to fill its recruitment goals.