• Letter The real death panel Republican votes to end the Affordable Care Act

  In this March 23, 2010 file photo, Marcelas Owens of Seattle, left, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., right, and others, look on as President Barack Obama signs the health care bill in the East Room of the White House in ...

• Diplomas should mean something

  just approved a change that could require a certain test score for high school graduation.Of course, the standards on the table would include other ways for kids to show competency and escape the K-12 system, and nothing is going to take effect for quite a long time.The bottom line is that Colorado is on track for developing standards that large numbers of kids may not meet. And that would cause ...

• Editorial Quick Hits Bail out of booze business

  Hopefully, Michigan has taken a small step toward getting out of the booze business with the Senate's passing of three bills that expand the list of places where residents can buy bottles of wine or jugs of beer. The bills, now in the House, should be approved. Getting Gov. Rick Snyder's signature won't be a problem because the legislation is part of his efforts to foster ...

• Editorial Quick Hits Other views

  Editorial Quick Hits: Bail out of booze business Hopefully, Michigan has taken a small step toward getting out of the booze business with the ...

• Paul W. Smith The best of times are coming in Detroit

  "Outta' My Mind on a Saturday Moanin'" "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …" Or so it goes in Detroit. It's official. The year 2012 marked Detroit's high point in lows, recording the worst homicide rate in almost 20 years. 386. It could be worse. In fact, it was. There were 686 killings in 1987. Two years after Forbes magazine ...

• Letters Readers discuss Detroit

  The Detroit News aims to provide a forum that fosters smart, civil discussions on the news and events that we cover. The News will not condone personal attacks, off topic posts or brutish language on our site. If you find a comment that you believe violates these standards, please click the "X" in the upper right corner of the post to report ...

• Syria not Benghazi is Obama soft spot

  Polls during the 2012 campaign consistently showed President Barack Obama with a significant advantage on foreign policy, thanks largely to the killing of Osama bin Laden and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. But in recent weeks, Obama's approval on foreign affairs has dropped, reflecting his difficulties in dealing with the Syrian civil war and the concerted ...

• Obama’s goals on thin ice

  It’s impossible to predict the lasting impact of the controversies now besetting the Obama administration, but the risks to the president’s agenda are sizable.On the legislative front, they could doom the already cloudy prospects for comprehensive immigration reform. The implementation of President Obama’s health care law is also likely to be a bit more challenging. It’s ...

• Minimum wage hikes hurt teens

  Massachusetts parents, prepare yourselves: With a 19.6 percent teen unemployment rate heading into the summer of 2013, your jobless kids might be making frequent withdrawals from the Bank of Mom & Dad for their vacation spending cash.There are a number of factors at work: More competition from older job-seekers, for instance, has put young and inexperienced applicants at a competitive ...

• A scandal 
du jour hits the capital

  It hasn’t been a great week for the Obama folks, as the scandal du jour tour has firmly taken hold. Every day it seems another federal agency is exposed as having intimidated, snooped, covered up or gone to Vegas on the taxpayer dime. Zimbabwe is even making fun of us.On Jan. 21, 2009, in remarks welcoming his new presidential staff, Barack Obama said: "Let me say it as simply as I ...

• IRS breaks the rules

  It eventually comes down to who - who at the IRS was responsible for targeting conservative and Tea Party groups for special scrutiny.Because, after all, you can’t put a "system" in jail. You can’t put a report in prison. You can’t indict a department for corruption. At the end of the day it’s people who are responsible for using the enormous powers of the ...

• Rebuild roads — and economy

  The Boston Marathon bombing showed American courage and spirit as exemplified by the runners, spectators and first responders who, rather than running away from the bombing scene, ran directly into it.Contrast that crisis response with the political effort to solve our chronic economic malaise. For the past five years, President Obama and congressional leaders from both political parties have ...

• 50000 Trumps $600 million

  Tonight thousands of New Yorkers will try their luck at the $600 million Powerball jackpot. Most won’t win a dime, but it’ll be OK. Life will go on as normal tomorrow.Not so for the New Yorkers who lost out on a more vital lottery: the 50,000 kids whose dreams of attending a charter school have been crushed.Charter-school organizers this week said 69,000 kids applied for seats in the ...

• The making of a Mayor

  William F. Buckley Jr. Williamson was then removed from the theater after the phone-tossing. In so doing, he stayed true to the first principle of civil disobedience: Commit an infraction - no matter how justified - and accept the consequence. Now, we generally don’t advise people to take the law into their own hands. But we sure do understand how a defiant breakdown in social manners ...

• DUI bill passes Senate

  DUI bill clears a Senate hurdle; U.S. panel pushes tougher rule ," NWWednesday, May 15]. Because of the harm it can and often does cause, drunken driving is an unforgivable offense. We need more tangible, immediate penalties. I agree with Republican state Sen. Pam Roach that making drunken driving a felony after four convictions is an underwhelming change. In some countries, individuals ...

• Saints ballpark estimates Just a bit high

  St. Paul from Illinois to be near our children, who like countless others were drawn here for the metropolitan area’s quality of life. We chose to live in the Lowertown neighborhood of downtown. Clearly, downtown St. Paul has a charm few deny, but it also has growing economic problems. Recently, I studied how the city came to the point of breaking ground for a $54 million minor-league ...

• Up north a sea to explore

  The Arctic, which is melting and thereby creating new shipping routes and access to minerals, poses a foreign policy challenge for the United States and other nations - particularly in the warmer months when once-impassable seas become open. But it’s easy to put off dealing with it. The process is like the annual scramble for summer camp: The need for planning begins around February, when ...

• Minnesota vets unfairly targeted by benefit change

  John Kriesel 's young son was hit in the face with a baseball two years ago, the disabled Iraq veteran and former Minnesota legislator brought his boy to the doctor and then in for an MRI scan to rule out a serious brain injury. Thanks to the Pentagon health insurance program for military retirees that Kriesel is currently enrolled in, his out-of-pocket expenses were about $20. But if the ...

• Americans your patriotic duty is to ask for a raise

  The downturn we call the Great Recession officially started in 2007. But after spending the last two years talking to people who lost jobs, homes or savings during the official recession, I'd argue that the trouble actually started decades earlier. Almost all those I spoke to had already slogged through many years of stagnant or declining hourly wages by the time the recession kicked in. ...

• Do more to get impaired drivers off U.S. roads

  It is surprising how few drinks can impair a driver’s judgment. A report from the National Transportation Safety Board estimates that alcohol-impaired driving contributes to thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of serious injuries each year. It is right to urge states to reduce that toll by lowering the allowable blood alcohol concentration for drivers from 0.08 percent to 0.05 ...

• Letter of the Day Child-care union

  Don't buy the spin coming from the Star Tribune Editorial Board ("DFL's day care overreach," May 16). Child-care providers across Minnesota want a union and have delivered 874 handwritten letters to their legislators in support of it. The idea that we are merely on a wish list for the union is demeaning to every provider who has fought so hard for this. The editorial writers ...

• As the world spins faster bigger louder

  HAVE you ever watched a computer geek whip through assorted levels of code and programming, fixing, adjusting, creating technological miracles at the keyboard? When I see this, I sometimes think, what would these guys be doing if there were no computers? It’s fascinating. Dormant superpowers were buried within their minds, just waiting for opportunities to unfold. Then I look at the ...

• The real scandal of Benghazi

  Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and some Republican colleagues are dishonoring the memory of those killed in Benghazi by making a political circus out of their deaths, writes Trudy ...

• What Did I Do Last Summer Oh I Discovered How To Make Babies Without Sex. And You

  Ah, if only all summers could be like June, July and August 1740 -- when three young guys (and a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old) did a science experiment that startled the world. In those days, you could do biology without a fancy diploma. More people could play. That spring, the hot book -- the one everyone was reading -- was a gorgeously illustrated volume about insects by the French naturalist ...

• Pop Culture Happy Hour Cancellation Blues And Cultural Etiquette

  network upfronts week , we talk in this episode about the cancellation of shows, including the ones that came and went that we honestly can hardly remember as well as the ones -- like ABC's delightful, ...

• Herald Poll Attorney general appointed or elected

  On Wednesday, legislators discussed whether Utah's attorney general position should be appointed or elected.The issue was brought to members of the Legislature's government operations and interim committee by Sen. Todd Weiler, R-Woods Cross, mostly in response to the current federal investigation of Attorney General John Swallow.Weiler argues that appointment into the position would ...

• Week In Politics IRS Benghazi Emails AP Phone Logs

  . They discuss controversial IRS audits, the release of White House emails on Benghazi talking points and the Justice Department's seizure of AP phone ...

• Essay Common Core standards better than what Utah has now

  Residents discuss Common Core concerns at meeting LEHI -- For all that has been discussed about Common Core standards and assessments in education, Lisa Simons was still scratching her head ...

• Essay Common Core poses real threat of loss of privacy

  LEHI -- For all that has been discussed about Common Core standards and assessments in education, Lisa Simons was still scratching her head ...

• What others say Assault on core values

  The following editorial appeared recently in the Philadelphia Inquirer: Obama administration is starting to make extraordinary abuses of power look ordinary. Hard on the heels of the revelation of an IRS crackdown on conservative groups comes news that federal prosecutors orchestrated a roundup of journalists' telephone records, leaving yet another set of federal boot prints on the First ...

• UW prof builds sundial in home

  Woody Sullivan shows off the sundial on the ceiling of his garage. An artist drew the ceiling lines after Sullivan calculated the angles. To reflect sunlight onto the dial, he mounted a mirror on the windowsill. Sullivan had a hand in creating half of the 26 or so public sundials in this area. (Greg Gilbert / The Seattle Times) At a time when most of the news items express all the negative sides ...

• Could The Presidents Week Get Any Worse

  From scandals involving the IRS, to spirited Benghazi hearings, it's been a tough week for the Obama administration. But will this bad week really have further political fallout? Guest host Celeste Headlee checks in with the barbershop ...

• Inmate sentenced to death after murdering guard

  Lisa Hamm, center, sister of slain Monroe corrections officer Jayme Biendl, reacts after a Snohomish County jury decided to recommend the death penalty for Biendl’s killer, Byron Scherf. (Ken Lambert / The Seattle Times) I was in the Monroe prison when Byron Scherf murdered Jayme Biendl. I was released six months later, having served 30 years ...

• Senator fails to report rape

  Senator failed to report sex abuse ," NWThursday, May 9]. Our elected officials are supposed to stand up for what's fair and just in order to protect our community. When does protecting your own kin come before that of thy neighbor? I think Hatfield struggled with a moral dilemma in February when he discovered his son had raped a young girl in their family home. He was voted into ...

• As the ice melts the Arctic Council is very cool

  China, Japan, India, Italy, South Korea and Singapore hardly leap to mind when the Arctic is mentioned, but each country hotly pursued permanent observer status on the Arctic Council. The scramble to attach themselves to the council, where the senior leadership meets every two years, is an indication of the dramatic changes and perceived opportunities that climate change is bringing to the top ...

• Biologist creates $325000 burger

  While the $325,000 cultured-beef burgers may eventually benefit the environment in terms of water, land and energy use, they will not help feed the 2.5 million children who will die this year because of hunger, nor it will they help revive the hunger-induced stunted development of 200 million kids ["$325,000 burger, all beef, created in lab," News, May 14]. The immediate help could ...

• Punchlines Bad week for the White House

  This has been one of the most challenging weeks at the White House for the Obama administration. Could all of this hurt Hillary Clinton in 2016? One comedian has a response. Watch, vote for your favorite ...

• Re-Emerging In Nigeria A People Finds A Faith

  found his faith through the Internet. But his is no fly-by-night cult. His adopted community of practicing Jews numbers 30,000, with a fully functioning network of synagogues dotted around Nigeria. They claim an ancient Jewish heritage dating back centuries, when Jews were said to have made their way to the region via Ethiopia and Sudan. That claim, Lieberman shows, can't be definitively ...

• Pieta Suffering Toward ... Redemption

  Korean filmmaker Kim Ki-duk wastes little time establishing that Gang-do (Lee Jeong-jin) won't be pleasant company. We discover the protagonist of Kim's gritty, moody drama Pieta grunting his way through intimate relations with his pillow, falling asleep, then waking up and wandering to a bathroom covered in entrails left over from last night's fish dinner, which he brushes away ...

• Notes On A Scandal Fitz Is The Most Dumpable Man On Television

  , you know that there, Fitzgerald Grant is the President of the United States, and that he goes by "Fitz." Now "Fitz," let's face it, is already a pretty punchable name, given that combined with his personality, it makes him sound like somebody with a beanie and a lot of polo shirts grew up, got even richer, had a son, and taught him how to give swirlies to the math ...

• Facing Cancer With A Robot Surgeon By My Side

  Many arms, one robot: the business end of the da Vinci system is seen in this media handout image from the manufacturer. Eight days from now, I'll meet my robot surgeon for the first time. His name is da Vinci, and he'll be at work inside my body for about 4.5 hours. I can't wait. On May 6, I was diagnosed with a rare form ...

• A Farewell To The Office The 10 Best Episodes

  may or may not feature a cameo from Steve Carell. There have been denials of an appearance from him that could be read as emphatic or tiptoeing, depending on whether you focus on the obvious implications of those denials or the technicalities that might allow for wiggle room. But either way, it's over after tonight. The general trajectory is well known, but to recap: Ricky Gervais and ...

• Editorial Justice American style

  "When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims," Tsarnaev wrote, saying the bombings were in retribution for U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. Like most zealots he, of course, conveniently ignores the countless instances in which U.S. lives were put on the line to save Muslim lives. He must have missed those discussions at Cambridge Rindge & Latin.But it was his ...

• Graham Obama’s crew plays dumb and dumber

  "I do not know why that was or was not done," the attorney general told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. "I simply don’t have a factual basis to answer that question."Notice his answer isn’t just "I don’t know why we didn’t notify the AP as required by law." It’s "I don’t know whether we did or not."This ...

• A Gift Of Life And Friendship After A Familys Loss

  Dorothy wanted to meet the donor recipient. "I just wanted to see, did I help them? Did they get a chance at life?" she says during a visit to StoryCorps in Baltimore. So, the two met in May 2008. But, she wondered, why was it so important for Rick to meet his donor's family? "I was struggling with the fact that I was allowed to live and someone passed," Rick tells her. ...

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