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Cartoons: U.S. government spying

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TalkBack: Crime rates
Have you seen an increase in crime in your area?
 Yes
 No

(Please explain.)

 
 
 
 

Syndicated Columnists

Dan Walters: Evidence why some cities recover, some flounder
California's monthly report on jobs and unemployment includes a county-by-county breakdown, providing graphic evidence of the state's bifurcated recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression.  
 
Dana Milbank: The left turns compliant on violating civil liberties
Where have all the liberals gone? President Barack Obama, who as a Democratic senator accused the Bush administration of violating civil liberties in the name of security, now vigorously defends his own administration's collection of Americans' phone records and Internet activities.  
 
George Skelton: California needs to regulate bullets
From what I've been reading, the Santa Monica killer was packing an illegal assault rifle and 40 high-capacity ammunition magazines. He sprayed 100 bullets and had access to 1,300.  
 
Leonard Pitts Jr.: Redskins is a curse word, not a team name
See if this makes sense to you: For years, I've argued with certain African-American people about their insistence upon using the so-called N-word which, to my ears, is, inalterably, a statement of self-loathing.  
 
Charles Krauthammer: Pushing the envelope, NSA-style
Thirty-five years ago in United States v. Choate, the courts ruled that the Postal Service may record "mail cover," i.e., what's written on the outside of an envelope -- the addresses of sender and receiver.  
 
 

Editorial

Reaction: Gutting Public Records Act
[View the story "Editorial: Restore Public Records Act" on Storify]  
 
Contra Costa Times editorial: State lawmakers must restore California Public Records Act
Legislature and Gov. Jerry Brown made unconscionable changes to the disclosure law last week by slipping language into one of 15 state budget bills.  
 
Silicon Valley companies vs. NSA opens a credibility gap
Tech companies want the National Security Agency to disclose how it's using online information, but they won't do the same with the consumer information they cull and sell for profit.  
 
 

Letters from our Readers

 

How to write us


Letters for the Contra Costa Times print edition must be 175 words or fewer and include your first and last name, address and daytime telephone number.
Submissions for Readers' Forum pieces can be no longer than 550 words and Your Turn pieces can be no longer than 400 words.
All letters are subject to verification and editing. For the Contra Costa Times and the East County Times, email to ccnletters@bayareanewsgroup.com. For the West County Times, email to wcletters@bayareanewsgroup.com. For the Valley Times and the Tri-Valley Herald, email vtletters@bayareanewsgroup.com. Please do not include attachments.

Your Turn

Need an environmental justice movement on tobacco
Do we need an environmental justice campaign for tobacco?Environmental justice is a social movement based on the belief that everyone, no matter their race, income, gender, religion has the right to a clean and healthy environment no matter where they live, work, study, play and pray.  
 
Obama administration faces a serious challenge in Syria
The sufferings of the Syrian people resulting from exercising their inalienable right to peacefully challenge their government have reached unprecedented scale in comparison with other countries of the Arab Spring.  
 
Nancy Skinner: State must increase its capacity to inspect refineries
Recent headlines about the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas, that killed 15 people and injured 200 was a tragic reminder of what could have happened to Richmond and other East Bay communities during last August's Chevron refinery fire.  
 
Now is the moment to support early education
If you are able to read this, stop now. How remarkable is it that I can write these words and you can read them? What if you couldn't read well? The ability to read is so fundamental we take it for granted.  
 
Reaction: Crime in your city
[View the story "Talk Back: Bay Area crime rate" on Storify]  
 
 

Video Perspective

How our children react to terrorist attacks
University of California Berkeley Professor Dacher Keltner, an expert in social psychology and well-known author, discusses how kids could react to the recent Boston Marathon bombings.  
 
Coping with the Boston Marathon bombings
University of California Berkeley Professor Dacher Keltner, director of the Greater Good Science Center and author of "Born to be Good" and other related books, talks to the Bay Area News Group about how people cope in the post-9/11 era.  
 
 

Video Forum

Bay Bridge project likely under "production pressure"
Center for Catastrophic Risk Management Founder Karlene Roberts has studied how errors have led to some of the largest disasters among major projects. She expresses her concerns about the Bay Bridge eastern span project, which is targeting Labor Day 2013 for completion despite the presence of  
 
Medical marijuana ruling "doesn't make any sense"
Medical cannabis advocate and Harborside Health Center (Oakland, Calif.) Director Steve DeAngelo believes the California Supreme Court's vote to allow cities and counties to ban dispensaries forces patients into the black market for marijuana.  
 
Why marijuana should be legal
Harborside Health Center (Oakland, Calif.) cannabis dispensary director Steve DeAngelo sees "no good reason" why marijuana should continue to be illegal to possess.  
 
 
Submit your video op-ed and say what you think
We invite our viewers to submit video op-eds on topics you want to talk about. They must not exceed 2 minutes in length. We reserve the right to accept or decline all submissions. Click on here for details.  
 
 


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