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Columns/Opinion

They’re kids. This is America

Children are suffering in migrant camps along our southern border. They are living in cramped, filthy conditions. Many are sick. Six have died since last year. These are children. They have done nothing wrong. How they got here shouldn’t matter. Whose fault it is that they’re here shouldn’t matter. They are here, and one of the wealthiest and most powerful countries in the world is failing to care for them in even the most marginally humane way. Read these descriptions from recent news reports from the border. Don’t skim over them, and don’t look away, because they ...

Anti-Trump crafters face decade-long unraveling

I’ve been crocheting since I was 10, when my Tita Lisa taught me the magic of granny squares. Fellow yarn nerds will understand the bliss of spending hours at Hobby Lobby or Walmart immersed in a sea of alpaca, mohair, angora, super bulky and super saver skeins for blankets, baby clothes, hats, headbands, scarves, bookmarks and potholders. Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be. Creativity and crafting transcend political ideology — or so you might think. This week, Ravelry.com, one of the internet’s most popular sites for crocheters and with a reported 8.5 million ...

Mexico is not now and never was the enemy

On a daily basis, President Donald Trump hurls threats at Mexico — close the border, levy new tariffs, arrest millions. But history shows it’s smarter to recognize our neighbor as a natural ally. During World War II, Mexico joined the United States in declaring war on the Axis, even though Germany was well-ensconced in Latin American markets. Mexico then supplied U.S. industries with more strategic resources than any Latin American country. This included copper for ammunition, ships and aircraft; mercury for explosives; zinc, cadmium, graphite and lead for other uses; and, most ...

Gulag helped kill Egypt’s only elected leader

When Egypt’s first and only elected president, Mohamed Mursi, dropped dead in a courtroom last week, official Washington barely noticed. President Donald Trump was focused on the crisis in Iran. His administration has made clear that autocratic allies like Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi will not be shamed and cajoled for how they treat their dissidents. Besides, Mursi was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, which the Trump administration has considered designating as a terrorist organization. Mursi’s death, however, should be a wake-up call, particularly for ...

Family planning good investment

Malcolm Potts And Alisha Graves Los Angeles Times In the late 1960s, for a brief moment, population growth commanded the kind of political, popular and academic focus that climate change does now. But today, even as the population crisis grows more severe, it has largely fallen off the agenda. Paul Ehrlich’s seminal book on the subject, “The Population Bomb,” was published in 1968, when there were 3.5 billion people in the world and the population was growing by about 2% a year, with about 60 million more births than deaths annually. The United Nations Population ...

Lethal season finally over for horses at track

The grisly winter racing season at Santa Anita finally, mercifully, came to a close Sunday, with 30 horses dead from racing or training. The latest death was just two days ago. And, although racing has closed at the park until late September, training will continue until July 11. A good number of those 30 deaths occurred during training. It’s disconcerting to think that horses will continue even to be trained there. The number of unexplained equine deaths is big enough to justify the spotlight on Santa Anita. However, the disturbing number of deaths at other tracks justifies ...