latimes.com - Editorials

Oysters, or not

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The FDA's attempt to regulate raw Gulf Coast oysters didn't sit well in the South, but something needs to be done because people are dying.

Every year, about 15 people die after eating raw oysters tainted with a bacterium that has no effect on healthy diners but can be deadly to those with HIV, cancer, liver disease or otherwise compromised immune systems. The deaths are easily preventable. Only a small percentage of oysters have high levels of the bacterium Vibrio vulnificus -- those harvested from the Gulf Coast during the summer months. And processing them with pressure, refrigeration or heat significantly lowers the amount of bacteria, making them safer for consumption. To that end, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week announced that it would require summer harvests of Gulf Coast oysters to be processed before sale beginning in 2011.

The AMA's reversal on marijuana

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The physicians' group wants more research into the drug's medicinal uses, but it's being cautious in its approach.

For all the debate over whether marijuana has medicinal value, arguments that the drug has significant palliative properties or that it has none suffer from the same flaw: There's little scientific proof either way.

UC on the brink

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Another increase in 'fees' hits students hard, but the system itself may now be at risk.

Sorry to say, the University of California Board of Regents took the easiest route possible out of its crushing financial dilemma Thursday by placing the burden squarely on the shoulders of students. We can't help wondering whether the regents understand that the nearly one-third increase in undergraduate tuition -- it's time to dispense with the euphemism of "fees" for UC students -- could prove the tipping point for the nation's greatest public university system, including its star campus, UC Berkeley, the top-ranked public university in the world.

New view of mammograms

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

A federal task force has ignited a debate with its recommendations on screening tests.

Everyone who knows the prevailing medical wisdom on hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women, please stand up.

Fixing the music royalties system

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Songwriters get royalties but not recording artists. Bills now being considered should pay performers fairly, protect against abuses by powerful industry players and promote the availability of music.

The founders gave Congress the power to bestow on authors and inventors exclusive rights to the use of their work, and those rights have been expanding ever since. Among other things, lawmakers have stretched copyrights to cover not only the reproduction of original works but their performance in public. But that expansion has benefited some creators and not others. When it comes to music, songwriters have broad performance rights, but recording artists do not.

Toward a federal 'shield law' for journalists

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 16:49:00 -0800

A Senate bill is flawed but it's better than the status quo.

After some unsettling equivocation, the Obama administration has embraced a Senate bill that would offer limited protections to reporters who have promised confidentiality to their sources. The compromise reached by the administration and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee is imperfect, but it brings a federal "shield law" closer to enactment than at any time in recent history.

Jerry Brown's 'secrets' cases

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Two cases -- one involving ACORN tapes, another of recordings by a former aide -- put the attorney general in a tight spot.

California's attorney general and prospective Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Jerry Brown, is trapped in a political cage from which there will be no easy escape. When it comes to secretly recorded conversations, and a national scandal involving the housing advocacy group ACORN, Brown is going to find himself in trouble no matter what he does.

Church, state and gay marriage

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

The Council of the District of Columbia is right to stand firm against the Catholic Church on the issue of same-sex marriage.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Washington is warning the District of Columbia Council that the church will stop contracting to provide social services if the city approves same-sex marriage as planned. To which the only valid response is, "OK."

The 'bling ring' and the Constitution

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Internet-savvy thieves cased celebrities' homes. Do we need a law? Not yet.

Aman's home may be his castle, but few of us -- even celebrities -- have moats these days to protect our privacy. That was true long before the "bling ring" allegedly used the Internet to case the cribs of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. Nor did thieves have to wait for the invention of Google maps to reconnoiter neighborhoods in search of easily accessible homes.

Time for a ruling on judge

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

David F. Hamilton, nominated to the 7th Circuit Court, has been held up by partisan politics. But such delays also interfere with the administration of justice.

Eight months after President Obama nominated him to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, a jurist from Indiana may finally have a chance at confirmation from the Senate. But a floor vote on U.S. District Judge David F. Hamilton still can't be guaranteed, because Senate Republicans have been engaging in partisan payback for the past obstruction of Republican judicial nominees by Democrats.