Debate

washington -- Mitt Romney twice emphasized his unique business background when he and eight other Republican presidential candidates faced off in a debate last week in Iowa. "I've spent the last, as I've told you, 25 years in the private sector," former Massachusetts Gov. Romney declared at one point. "I understand why jobs come and why jobs go. I've done business in 20 countries."

Last year's tussle over increasing the federal debt limit showed Congress at its worst, paralyzed by dueling ideologies and incapable of striking a grand bargain. The eventual compromise by lawmakers and the White House raised the debt ceiling enough to last until the end of 2012 or early 2013, giving voters a chance to shuffle the deck in Washington before the next round of negotiations. House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), however, has been calling on Congress to take up the issue before the election, saying Congress shouldn't wait He's got a point, but the debt ceiling bill is the wrong place for that debate.

Los Angeles police will not pursue through the courts scores of motorists with unpaid tickets from the city's defunct red-light camera program. The city Police Commission voted this week to end its contract with the company that operated L.A.'s cameras until they were shut off last summer. And authorities are now planning to reassign a small group of officers who regularly appeared in court to testify in contested photo enforcement cases. With the cancellation of the contract, officers will no longer have easy access to the photo and video evidence that courts require.

The current debate over Mitt Romney's tenure at Bain Capital is shaping up to be a centerpiece of the presidential campaign. The Romney campaign should have seen this coming. If Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry were willing to rip Romney for being too capitalistic in a Republican primary, it doesn't take a lot of imagination to expect that Barack Obama and Joe Biden would happily do the same in the general election. Moreover, if you are going to campaign on the idea that you were a private-sector job creator, it's certainly fair game for your opponents to investigate the claim.

Bob Brickman spent months fighting a ticket he got last fall from a red-light traffic camera at Wilshire and Sepulveda boulevards in West Los Angeles. The 61-year-old from Playa Vista eventually decided to give up the fight and fork over the $476 fine. Now he's regretting paying every penny. City officials this week spotlighted a surprising revelation involving red-light camera tickets: Authorities cannot force violators who simply don't respond to pay them. For a variety of reasons, including the way the law was written, Los Angeles officials say the fines for ticketed motorists are essentially "voluntary" and there are virtually no tangible consequences for those who refuse to pay. The disclosure comes as the city is considering whether to drop the controversial photo enforcement program, with the City Council scheduled to vote on the matter Wednesday.

Which is better for weight loss -- a high-protein diet or a high-carb diet? That endless debate got a new twist on Monday. In a year-long study, Australian researchers found that both diets worked equally well when it came to shedding pounds but those on the low-carb diet were in considerably worse moods. The report, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, assigned 106 overweight and obese men and women to either a low-carb diet high in fat and protein or a high-carb diet low in fat and protein.

BRISTOL, Conn. - In the bid to build the perfect sports talk show, competition abounds - from the Web, talk radio and, most important, from established ESPN shows such as "Pardon the Interruption. " And yet within this crowded field, ESPN2's sports-debate show "First Take" - a daily two-hour program that alternates between rancor and depth - has flourished. Featuring the commentator Skip Bayless and a rotation of guests that includes pundit Stephen A. Smith, the show with a mix of hectoring and (sometimes)

Planned Parenthood is yet again at the center of a political maelstrom. Republican lawmakers want to cut funding to the organization, or else they will not agree to a budget that has spending cuts of more than $30 billion. Defenders of Planned Parenthood say the cuts are dangerous for women’s health.  Huffington Post  frames the current conflict this way: “The United States government is on the verge of shutting down over a dispute...

Glenn Beck's Fox News finale was a jaunt down memory lane of Beck's big issues -- from ACORN to what he referred to as "the caliphate" -- and filled with self-congratulation. But, to paraphrase a Washington Post reference to a Time profile on the radio-host-turned-TV showman, was Glenn Beck bad for America? Studies show that when it comes to politics, that brand of angry TV talk show host popularized by the likes of Rush Limbaugh doesn't do democracy or political discourse any favors.

Mitt Romney will join his three remaining GOP rivals in a televised debate from Tampa, Fla., on Monday night, the sponsoring network, NBC, announced Saturday. The announcement about the front-runner's participation ends growing uncertainty about Romney's participation, which was quickly becoming an issue in Florida, the next primary state.  His campaign had refused to say whether or not he would appear. A front-page story in Saturday's Tampa Bay Times questioned whether Romney would show for  debate after all. The article echoed the persistent hints from the Romney camp that their man might not want to be in both Florida debates this week (a second encounter, sponsored by the state Republican Party, is set for Thursday in Jacksonville)

NEW YORK - Dharun Ravi had appeared stoic for three hours, but he broke down in tears as his mother sobbed beside him while pleading with the judge to spare her son from prison. She got what she wanted, up to a point: Judge Glenn Berman on Monday ordered Ravi to spend 30 days in jail for spying with a webcam on his gay Rutgers University roommate, Tyler Clementi, who killed himself days later. Ravi could have received a 10-year term for a crime jurors concluded was motivated by anti-gay bias.

LAFAYETTE, La. - Visitors to this oil town might be forgiven for wondering whether the BP oil spill and subsequent drilling moratorium ever happened. "Now hiring" signs are plastered on billboards around town, and hotels such as the Crowne Plaza are chock full of seminars training students to work on offshore rigs. Many offshore companies can't find enough workers for the jobs they're listing. This parish has the lowest unemployment rate in Louisiana, 4.8%. Such is the opportunity on the offshore rigs that Sheila Clark, whose husband, Donald, died in the Deepwater Horizon explosion two years ago, said her 22-year-old son recently asked her how she'd feel if he went to work on a rig. "I can't stop him," said Clark, who moved to Baton Rouge after her husband's death.

Re "He sat by while wife died: assisted suicide - or love?," Column One, May 16 Alan Purdy committed a courageous act in an impossible situation. After having once saved his wife Margaret from a suicide attempt, he accepted her wishes to stop her unending suffering and allowed her to take her own life. The courage it took for Purdy to share the end with her is difficult to understand. But what should be understood is that all the justifications for taking legal action against him are wrong.

CAIRO — Egyptians gathered in living rooms and cafes Thursday night to mark another first in their troubled political odyssey toward a new democracy: a televised presidential debate that was as captivating as it was surreal. The two leading candidates, former Foreign Minister Amr Moussa and Islamist favorite Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, clashed in an exchange that would have been fiction during the 30-year rule of deposed President Hosni Mubarak. The spectacle was a rare moment in a region enthralled by Arab uprisings but largely dominated by autocrats and political uncertainty.

WASHINGTON-- Having graduated to the role of elder statesman -- his thick mane gone white,  the boom years now lauded by politicians of both parties -- it is clear the political transformation of William Jefferson Clinton has been among the most successful of recent past presidents. It is thus easy to forget the stumbles that marked his tenure long before Monica Lewinsky became a household name, which offer instruction for today's politicians. The 1994 Republican revolution, when the GOP seized control of the House for the first time in four decades, was the obvious low point of Clinton's first term (even if the overreach and foibles of one Speaker Newt Gingrich ultimately helped lift Clinton to easy reelection two years later.)

WASHINGTON - TheU.S. Postal Servicebacked off from a proposal to close thousands of rural post offices, opting instead to cut opening hours in a bid to stem devastating financial losses. The postal service estimates that the new plan will save $500 million a year once it is fully implemented in 2014. The previous proposal would have closed more than 3,000 rural post offices to save $200 million a year. Under the plan outlined Wednesday, 13,167 post offices will open for two to six hours a day. A spokeswoman for the postal service said that no community would be required to close its post office, although they could chose to do so and opt instead for home delivery.

As Congress prepares to vote on resolving the current year's budget compromise, Tribune Washington Bureau correspondent Lisa Mascaro on Thursday morning sorted out the conflicting positions after President Obama’s debt and deficit speech on Wednesday. In an interview on Chicago's WGN , Mascaro analyzes the reaction to the president's speech which set the table for Democrats and Republicans. The parties will likely battle for months on issues including raising the debt ceiling and the budget that begins with the new fiscal year on Oct. 1. "Let the debate begin," Mascaro said.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) said Friday that he would participate in the first scheduled presidential candidates debate next week, giving the South Carolina forum a needed boost. In announcing his participation Pawlenty targeted President Obama, saying his poliices "have seriously jeopardized our nation's future and it's time for Republicans to show leadership and engage in the battle of ideas. "We have to stand up for America every chance we get, and I for one look forward to doing that on Thursday in South Carolina," he said.

BRISTOL, Conn. - In the bid to build the perfect sports talk show, competition abounds - from the Web, talk radio and, most important, from established ESPN shows such as "Pardon the Interruption. " And yet within this crowded field, ESPN2's sports-debate show "First Take" - a daily two-hour program that alternates between rancor and depth - has flourished. Featuring the commentator Skip Bayless and a rotation of guests that includes pundit Stephen A. Smith, the show with a mix of hectoring and (sometimes)

PITTSBORO, N.C. - With voting already underway for Tuesday's primary in this moderate Southern state, the discourse has been dominated not by candidates, but by a bitterly contested measure known as Amendment 1. If approved, it would be among the most restrictive of the marriage amendments passed in 30 states. It would amend the state's constitution to specify: "Marriage between one man and one woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state.