Flags

When Roberta Medford retired after 38 years as a UCLA librarian, she decided to devote much of her time to ending the Iraq war. She'd fought against Vietnam too -- another senseless and costly war, in her opinion. Never again, she said, did she think she would see a White House use war as a first resort, as an instrument of foreign policy, and sell it to the public with lies. "How could everyone forget so soon?" she asked.

No one could raise a flag -- or a controversy -- quite like white-bearded Thomas "Ski" Demski. His Long Beach neighbors once took him to court, alleging to no avail that he violated a noise ordinance by flying a 30- by 60-foot U.S. flag at night in his frontyard. A gadfly at City Council meetings, Demski regularly ran for the council or for mayor, campaigning on a motorcycle with a macaw, Peppy, on his shoulder.

Thousands cheered Sunday as the blue-and-white Star of David flag was raised for the first time in front of the Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Boulevard. "As we mark 60 years of Israeli independence, as we paint Wilshire Boulevard blue and white, we must reaffirm in one voice our support for the Jewish state," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told those gathered for the flag-raising ceremony.

Democratic presidential hopeful Joseph R. Biden Jr. said he thinks the Confederate flag should be removed from the Statehouse grounds in Columbia, where its presence remains an issue more than six years after the flag was taken down from the Capitol dome. "As people become more and more aware of what it means to African Americans here, this is only a matter of time," the Delaware senator said at a National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People rally at the Statehouse.

A fire hydrant painted as an American flag has been removed from a dog park in Hillsboro after complaints that it was disrespectful to let dogs use it for what dogs do. The new leash-free park was named for Hondo, a police dog killed 10 years ago chasing a suspect, and the flag-painted hydrant was intended as a tribute to him. "We put a lot of effort into it," artist Jason Ross said.

The latest controversy over the separation of church and state began innocently enough. In August, 17-year-old Andrew Larochelle wrote to his congressman requesting that a flag be flown over the U.S. Capitol to honor his grandfather and his "love of God, country and family." But the acting architect of the Capitol, whose employees run the Stars and Stripes up and down three flagpoles hundreds of times each day, balked at the religious dedication.

The acting architect of the Capitol cleared the way Thursday for the certificates that accompany flags flown over the building to include the word "God," reversing policy on an issue that was becoming the latest touchstone in the nation's culture wars. "When one of our services or policies doesn't effectively serve members of Congress or the American public, it needs to be changed immediately," architect Stephen Ayers said in a statement.

WASHINGTON -- Inspired by the American flag flying after the 1814 British attack on Baltimore's Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key wrote "O! say can you see" and penned the words that would become the national anthem. But at America's most popular history museum, the presentation of the famous flag -- the Star-Spangled Banner -- hasn't exactly taken the breath away.

As high school senior Saul Corona protested proposed immigration reforms in front of Los Angeles City Hall on Monday, he did so with a Mexican flag on his head. "It's my pride. It's my roots," Corona, 18, said in an interview Tuesday. "I want to express it and show to other people where I come from, what Mexico has done for the United States." That image -- protesters waving and wearing Mexican flags -- has angered anti-illegal immigration activists.

Inside California's stately old Capitol, the call comes crackling over a state-issued radio. Maintenance man Dustin Peard drops what he's doing and climbs a steep, narrow ladder to the roof. There, in the shadow of the grand rotunda, the 35-year-old former Marine slowly lowers the building's three flapping flags -- the Stars and Stripes, the California bear and a black POW banner -- exactly halfway down the pole. He is acting on orders from Gov.