A$522 million city deficit has turned the unthinkable into reality. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has ordered - not just suggested - that 17,424 unionized workers be laid off and then rehired with...

There is a thick blend of sadness and outrage in state Sen. Roy Ashburn's abrupt acknowledgement that he is gay. The sadness is that the Bakersfield Republican, a divorced father of four and...

"Jobs, jobs, jobs" was the call from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in his State of the State message. No one heckled. Jobs are a bipartisan...

I look forward to reading this article Gerry.I still remember when Darnley was being built when the direct labour department was controlled by Pat Lally.A private contractor had quoted one million...

among the skeptics, arguing in its report that there are too many uncertainties involved in such modeling for accurate predictions. Despite those uncertainties, and without citing much in the way of...

When sea-urchin gonads become boring, jaded palates yearn for something more exotic -- such as the $60 morsels of endangered whale allegedly served up at a pricey Santa Monica sushi joint last week....

You know the conventional wisdom that says if you think you're crazy, you're probably not? Surely a similar adage applies to happiness: If you say you're happy, you're probably miserable. I don't...

Abraham Lincoln once asked an audience how many legs a dog has, if you called the tail a leg? When the audience said "five," Lincoln corrected them, saying that the answer was four. "The fact that...

In a couple of months, the doors to most Utah schools will open and spill out their contents — thousands of kids — for the summer. In the current economy, it's quite likely that it's...

Why have Utahns changed from people who earn what they get to people who think other people should pay for whatever they want? We want a $3,500 subsidy for a new car and $8,500 for the new home. We...

As we approached the entrance way of a local business, we noted the distinct odor of secondhand smoke. We observed the front-seat passenger of a small car parked in front smoking a cigarette. The...

Our country is trillions of dollars in the red, yet today many people in the Salt Lake area received a letter saying they would receive a census form next week! The media have talked about the...

Is there no Utah legislator who has the guts to stand up against Gayle Ruzicka and her Eagle Forum? I can't believe she has that much power. We need some leaders on the hill, not a bunch of weak...

As underfunded and understaffed as the Utah public education system is, it is still good enough to compete with private schools in many ways. But there is an element in our state that doesn't like...

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's decision not to list the sage grouse as an endangered species, but to keep a close eye on it, is a classic Salazar move. It doesn't fully satisfy environmentalists...

At a time when it's all the rage to question government spending, a new website created by Colorado Treasurer Cary Kennedy seeks to empower taxpayers by breaking down exactly how their tax dollars...

Joe Glenton , the first British soldier to be charged with refusing to return to the battlefield and campaigning against a war now costing £4bn a year, was jailed last week.But the political class...

Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. used rare and decidedly undiplomatic language on Tuesday to upbraid Israel after it announced plans to build 1,600 new housing units in a Jewish neighborhood of East...

Robert Morris gaurd Mezie Nwigwe shoots against Quinnipiac during first half of the Northeast Conference college championship basketball game in Hamden, Conn.,...

Americans should rejoice at the promised resumption of talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians toward peace in the Middle East. The danger inherent in the situation, for the region and the...

It's been six months since world leaders assembled in Pittsburgh for the G-20 summit and protests led to the arrests of dozens of people. Since then, the Citizen Police Review Board has been stymied...

The appropriate response to how the Iraqis made it through Sunday's elections is "so far, so good." Scattered violence occurred and some voters were deterred from voting. Even so, the turnout was a...

At this time of high unemployment, one group of professionals has no shortage of job security: bad teachers. Few public school principals in the country are able to dismiss an incompetent teacher...

Applauding the mass firings at Central Falls High School — despite the real progress underway — is the latest clarion call by the blame-the-teacher crowd. Rather than sharing responsibility,...

letters@usatoday.com . Letters for print consideration are edited for accuracy, clarity and length, and comments of 250 words or fewer have the best chance of being published. Letters that include...

Millions of unemployed Americans want one. And a restless country has told Washington — loud and clear — that the issue is Job No. 1. So what’s a country to do? Help thy...

letters@usatoday.com . Letters for print consideration are edited for accuracy, clarity and length, and comments of 250 words or fewer have the best chance of being published. Letters that include...

letters@usatoday.com . Letters for print consideration are edited for accuracy, clarity and length, and comments of 250 words or fewer have the best chance of being published. Letters that include...

letters@usatoday.com . Letters for print consideration are edited for accuracy, clarity and length, and comments of 250 words or fewer have the best chance of being published. Letters that include...

letters@usatoday.com . Letters for print consideration are edited for accuracy, clarity and length, and comments of 250 words or fewer have the best chance of being published. Letters that include...

AFTER years of false starts and broken promises, we have reached a defining moment in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center. By Friday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the...

to install “smart pedals” on all new cars . This kind of system — already used in BMWs, Chryslers, Volkswagens and some of the newest Toyotas — deactivates the car’s...

But first, a message from the sponsor — that’s me. A generation ago, the most thrilling program for young people was the Peace Corps. Today, it’s Teach for America, which this year...

Kindergarten student Sami Garbowsky learns to use a walker at the Gill Hall Elementary School as their class learns about disabilities and how people live with them from Easter Seals of Western...

Republican John Perzel of Philadelphia, then the House majority leader, and his Democratic counterpart, then-Minority Leader DeWeese, had been grabbing money with both hands. They each averaged a...