OPINION
April 26, 2013 | By The Times editorial board
California finds itself in an unaccustomed place these days: behind the curve. Another state, Rhode Island, and two more countries, France and New Zealand, were just added to the steadily growing list of places where same-sex marriage will receive full recognition and status. The roster now encompasses 14 nations and 10 states - as soon as the Rhode Island legislation is signed - as well as Washington, D.C. Missing from it is California. How could California, with its frontier live-and-let-live sensibility and a reputation for social progressiveness that verges on downright weirdness, have ended up in this situation?
WORLD
April 23, 2013 | By Kim Willsher, Los Angeles Times
PARIS - The French Parliament on Tuesday approved a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry and adopt, voting after months of often angry debate and sometimes violent protests in the streets. Members of the Socialist government chanted "Equality, equality" and stood up to applaud the results of the 331-225 vote in the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. The center-right opposition party immediately announced its intention to appeal the law. Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, a strong supporter of the bill, said she was "overcome with emotion.
HOME & GARDEN
April 20, 2013 | By Neal Broverman
From the well-lighted Argentine restaurant - my suggestion via Yelp - to the 70-degree night, all is well on this second date. As Dylan tactfully yanks shrimp from their shells, he tells me about his Japanese father, who strictly regulated all behavior in his mixed-race Kentucky home, from television viewing to bowel movements. How disturbing and interesting. Go on, I tell him with nods and eye contact. "We couldn't swear - ever," he says. "Not even d-a-m-n. " He still tries not to curse.
WORLD
April 17, 2013 | By Emily Alpert
New Zealand became the latest country to legalize gay marriage on Wednesday, spurring cheers and applause inside and outside Parliament. Smiling couples and their supporters in the House of Commons broke into a Maori love song after the 77-44 vote was tallied. “Nothing could make me more proud to be a New Zealander than passing this bill,” Louisa Wall, the lawmaker who sponsored the marriage law, said Wednesday after thanking her partner. “I thank my colleagues, for simply doing what is fair, just and right.” With the Wednesday vote, New Zealand has become the first country in the Asia-Pacific region where gay marriage is legal.
ENTERTAINMENT
April 17, 2013 | By Christie DZurilla
Jada Pinkett Smith, wife of Will Smith, is addressing those open-marriage rumors again - less than two weeks after chatting about it on HuffPost Live. Now, the Ministry heard a "no" the first time around when Pinkett Smith was asked flat-out, "Is it true?" but we appear to have been in the minority. So much so that Jada took to Facebook over the weekend to try to explain herself, framing her comments as a discussion of trust and love. Or, as she put it, TRUST and LOVE. Can you hear her now?
ENTERTAINMENT
April 15, 2013 | By Meredith Blake
It seems to me things in Vietnam might have turned out differently for the United States if only we'd had Trudy Campbell fighting on our side. Because, as I've long suspected and as Pete discovered in Sunday's “Mad Men,” hell truly hath no fury like a Trudy scorned. Though she doesn't get much screen time, Trudy has long been one of my favorite characters on this show. Her unique ability to be perky, gracious and utterly ruthless all at once, and to get alpha males like Don Draper to bend to her will without so much as mussing a hair is, in a word, inspiring.