Listening

My colleague Alexandra LeTellier gave two thumbs down earlier today to a new, Republican National Committee-bankrolled study  on how to improve the party's appeal to, umm, everyone who isn't an older white guy. She's clearly in the RNC's target, being a) female, and b) not yet ossified. But she's not buying what the party leadership is selling. Here's the GOP's problem in a nutshell: It sees a messaging problem, but its critics see a positioning problem. When the economy is slow, people want their policymakers to do something to help the country.

WASHINGTON - President Obama heads to Israel this week with quiet hopes, but little real expectation, that by smoothing rough relations he can help restart the Middle East peace effort that went nowhere in his first term. Obama will not carry with him a detailed proposal for how Israelis and Palestinians might resume talks, such as the one he offered in 2010. He instead plans a listening tour in Jerusalem and in Ramallah, West Bank, to solicit views on what the two sides want and to explore what may be possible.

It's a victory for the consumers who worry about genetically engineered foods -- also called GMO or genetically modified -- that Whole Foods will label all such foods in its markets. Well, at least it's a long-term victory; the organic-foods chain will require the labels on all the foods it sells by 2018. But in truth, this is also a victory for the forces that opposed Proposition 37, the failed initiative on the November ballot that would have required such labeling for almost all foods in all grocery stores: the companies that create the foods, such as Monsanto; the supermarkets that would have borne the legal liability; and the people who simply think there's too much fear and suspicion of foods they consider to be safe.

We all have those timeless songs that have provided the soundtrack to our lives. Those albums that are worn out and ragged that we've carried over into the digital world. But like everything the human spirit loves and cherishes, one day it'll be physically left behind when we join the great unknown. There's one Swedish company, however, that is ensuring we can take those prized tunes with us through eternity (the Swedes really do think of everything). PHOTOS: Iconic rock guitars and their owners Pause, a Swedish-based retailer of sleek stereo equipment, has rolled out a new product that audiophiles will just want to die for: the CataCombo sound system.

In spite of its name, How to Destroy Angels is Trent Reznor taking the violence out of his music, then examining in painstaking detail what remains. The Nine Inch Nails frontman, who last month announced the upcoming return of that groundbreaking industrial-rock outfit after a four-year break, is still obsessed with control and how it functions. But in this project he's no longer dramatizing the struggle against it. The songs - cool and collected even when they carry titles such as "And the Sky Began to Scream" - suggest submission more than resistance.

Money well spent? Former Lakers great Magic Johnson, on his efforts to boost the intrigue surrounding the NBA's dunk contest: "Please, LeBron, get in the dunk contest. I'm going to put up a million dollars. A million dollars from Magic to LeBron. Please get in the dunk contest. I go every year. I want to see you out there. A million to the winner. " That answers that Minnesota Coach Rick Adelman, when asked whether there was a point when he gained more trust in Timberwolves forward Derrick Williams: "Well, Kevin Love's broken his hand twice.

Re “ What makes a good mayor? ,” Opinion, Feb. 26 Michael Woo's piece could have been headlined “What makes a good politician?”I believe that an essential factor is responsiveness to communication from the people who are served. Most officeholders have a website that includes an opportunity to make contact by email or phone. However, usually the calls are answered by assistants who don't have a clue about how the officeholder would respond, and connection to the boss is impossible.

It's time to batten the hatches, cover our ears, shut off the radio, toss out half the mail. In other words, it's campaign-ad season, a time to protect yourself from a barrage of lies, damn lies and, worse, misleading half-truths. But I needed the traffic report the other day, and in an unguarded moment switched on the radio. And before I could find out why it would be faster to walk to work than drive (have you noticed they almost never tell you anyway?), there was a strange ad spot by the supremely well-funded Coalition for School Reform -- the group that received $1 million from New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg alone to back candidates who, to put it simplistically, oppose the teachers union in the three races for the Los Angeles Unified School Board.

The man who made a fortune bringing the Super Bowl, Bill O'Reilly and Grateful Dead concerts to listeners nationwide via their local radio stations has returned to programming. But now he's bypassing conventional radio. Norman J. Pattiz, who created and turned Westwood One into one of the biggest and most recognizable radio networks in the country, is this week launching PodcastOne.com, a one-stop site that offers shows from hundreds of online broadcasters for listeners to browse and download.

Radio listeners who had flocked to the all-holiday music format on KOST-FM (103.5) during the Christmas season just as quickly retreated to their regular stations once the last "Jingle Bells" and "Little Drummer Boy" had been played. That meant a return to the ratings pinnacle in January for pop station KIIS-FM (102.7), according to figures released by the Arbitron ratings service. KIIS, mirroring the Top-40 hits on its playlist, was the most popular station in the Los Angeles-Orange County market for most of 2012, until KOST began its annual holiday music festival in mid-November.