Country Comfortable By Robert Hilburn, Robert Hilburn is The Times' pop music critic
Shoot Yurbig Movie In Our Gr8state Pleeez By John Horn, John Horn, a Los Angeles-based entertainment reporter for the Associated Press, is a National Arts Journalism Program fellow at USC
Mayoral Candidates' Visions Miss the Big Picture By J. Eugene Grigsby Iii, J. EUGENE GRIGSBY III is director of UCLA8s Advaned Policy Institute of the School of Public Policy and Social Research
The Fat Cat Tax Cut By Kevin Phillips, Kevin Phillips, publisher of America Political Report, is author of "The Politics of Rich and Poor." His most recent Book is "Arrogant Capital: Washington, Wall Street and Frustrations of American Politics" (Little Brown)
How Do You Beat a Phantom? By Joe Domanick, Joe Domanick, author of "To Protect and to Serve: LAPD's Century of War in the City of Dreams" (Pocket Books), is working on a book about the "three strikes" law and the California criminal-justice system
A Nation of Cults: The Great American Tradition By Sean Wilentz, Sean Wilentz teaches history at Princeton and is the co-author of "The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th-Century America" (Oxford University Press)
Stocks Can't Make Up for Low Savings Rates By Walter Russell Mead, Walter Russell Mead, a contributing editor to Opinion, is a presidential fellow at the World Policy Institute. He is the author of "Mortal Splendor: The American Empire in Transition" (Houghton Mifflin) and is writing a book about U.S. foreign policy
New Focus on Military Might By Charles Wolf Jr., Charles Wolf Jr. is dean of the Rand Graduate School of Policy Studies and a corporate fellow in international economics at Rand. Research by K. C. Yeh contributed to this article
The Ever More Rocky Road to European Union By Robert A. Levine, Robert A. Levine, senior economist emeritus at Rand, served as deputy director of the Congressional Budget Office
Mohamed Sahnoun By Robin Wright, Robin Wright, who covers global issues for the Times, spent seven years in Africa. She traveled frequently to Zaire and covered the 1977 and 1978 wars in Shaba province
She Was Both Steel and Velvet By Adam Urbanski, Adam Urbanski is president of the Rochester (N.Y.) Teachers Assn. and a vice president of the American Federation of Teachers. He knew Helen Bernstein for 10 years
Charter Reform No Panacea for What Ails Los Angeles By Steven P. Erie and Edmund D. Edelman, Edmund D. Edelman, a former city councilman and county supervisor, is a member of the appointed Charter Reform Commission, a Rand senior fellow and arbitrator/mediator. Steven P. Erie, a UC San Diego political scientist, is completing "Global Los Angeles: Growth and Crisis of a Developmental City-State" (Stanford University Press)
Maintaining the Common Areas By Jan Hickenbottom, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES; Hickenbottom is a community association management consultant and a founding director of the California Assn. of Community Managers
Navigating Vows on the Bow By Harry Basch and Shirley Slater, Slater and Basch travel as guests of the cruise lines. Cruise Views appears the first and third week of every month
Old California, Missions and Murals By C. M. Mayo, Mayo is the author of "Sky Over El Nido" (University of Georgia Press), a short story collection set largely in Mexico, which won the Flannery O'Connor Prize
Canyon Country By Dan Leeth, Leeth is an Aurora, Colo.-based freelance writer