OPINION
March 27, 2014 | By The Times editorial board
Fifteen months ago, as the nation recoiled in horror from the massacre of 20 children and six adults by a mentally ill man armed with three semiautomatic weapons, there were firm proclamations that this time would be different. The violence at that Newtown, Conn., elementary school, it was said, would finally lead the nation to come together and embrace some reasonable gun control laws. Well, that didn't last long. If anything, the national gun frenzy, fueled by the irresponsible lobbyists at the National Rifle Assn., has intensified.
NATIONAL
March 21, 2014 | By Daniel Rothberg
WASHINGTON - In recent years, the National Rifle Assn. has stepped into fights over judicial nominees it views as weak on 2nd Amendment rights, but its decision to oppose a surgeon general nominee takes the powerful lobby into new territory, expanding its campaign to a post that has no direct power to regulate guns. President Obama's nominee, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, a Massachusetts internist and former emergency room doctor, has called for more stringent gun laws. But he also testified at his Senate confirmation hearing last month that he would not use the surgeon general's office as a bully pulpit to push for them.
OPINION
March 5, 2014 | By The Times editorial board
Clostridium difficile is a dangerous infection that, as its name implies, is not always easy to treat successfully with antibiotics. In many cases, the infection is actually triggered by antibiotic use during hospitalization; the medications kill beneficial bacteria that keep C. difficile in check. Now, some doctors are treating the infection with a procedure called fecal transplant, an unappealing but extremely effective approach that involves transferring filtered stool from a healthy donor to a patient afflicted with the disease, to reintroduce the helpful gut bacteria.
BUSINESS
March 2, 2014 | By E. Scott Reckard
Southern California home building is stuck at historic lows, one of many factors conspiring against middle-class buyers in a recovery marked by high prices and low supply. Despite explosive price gains last year, builders and their Wall Street financiers remain hesitant to make big bets on the rebound. The slow construction is among many hurdles facing buyers seeking affordable homes. Cash-rich investors - many of them buying homes to rent out, rather than resell - have eaten into supply, especially at the lower end of the market.
NATIONAL
February 25, 2014 | By Paresh Dave
The number of far-right militias, extremist patriot groups and hate organizations in the U.S. dropped last year for the first time since 1999, but the organizations are becoming "leaner and meaner," the Southern Poverty Law Center reported Tuesday. The center attributed the drop to, among other factors, an improving economy and a gridlocked Congress that made little progress on flash point issues like gun control and immigration. The absorption of some radical-right ideas into mainstream legislative proposals also helped cut down on the number of far-right groups operating in the U.S. to about 2,035 in 2013, the civil-rights advocacy group said . That's down 14% from 2,367 in 2012.
SPORTS
February 23, 2014 | By Lisa Dillman
SOCHI, Russia - What will be the secret to future Olympic success for the extreme-sports crowd? That's easy. Just keep adding new events and the medal count for U.S. snowboarders and freestyle skiers will probably stay at a high level. Setbacks in Sochi were offset by the new kids on the slopestyle rail and freeski halfpipe. There were opportunities for eight more gold medals that were not there in Vancouver in 2010. FRAMEWORK: Best images from Sochi And the United States took terrific advantage of the expanded program.