Opinion

Trial judges are, on the books, elected officials, and even the vast majority of those whose names never appear on a ballot are subject to election challenge every six years. Should voters not call them to account for their performance, as they do with any other politician, on election day? Should they not encourage opponents to challenge incumbent judges? Or are judges different from members of Congress or city councils? Judges are most definitely different. The last thing we want or need in California is trial judges who sit on the bench with one eye on justice and the other on how any particular ruling is going to play with the public.

Re "Why Jolie's surgery? It's for the kids," Column One, May 15 My story is similar to Angelina Jolie's, though there are some differences. Ten years ago, at the age of 43, I had a prophylactic double mastectomy because I was the single mother of two sons, one of whom has autism. The thought of dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis while raising them was inconceivable. Although I do not have the BRCA mutation that prompted Jolie to undergo surgery, I had a history of mantle radiation to my chest for the treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma in my early 20s. The long-term side effects of the intense, prolonged radiation treatments of the 1980s became apparent many years later.

A worrisome abdominal pain drove Jalal Afshar to seek treatment last year at healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente. The Pasadena resident and Kaiser member had lived for years with a rare condition known as Castleman's disease, which affects the lymph nodes and the body's immune system. But this was the first time he experienced such severe symptoms. Kaiser granted his request to see a specialist in Arkansas. But it ultimately declined to pay for his treatment there. By June, Afshar said, Kaiser was arranging for hospice care so that he could die at home.

Responding to Seth Rosenfeld's May 10 Op-Ed article linking then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan's harsh condemnation of student protests in the 1960s to the eventual decline of the University of California system, reader Bruce Bates wrote in a letter published Tuesday that Rosenfeld "overlooks that this very radicalization has diminished the value of a UC education. " Bates continued: "In the 1950s, when the UC system was at its peak, students were 'well groomed and complacent' (to use Rosenfeld's words)

When Susan had breast cancer, we heard a lot of lame remarks, but our favorite came from one of Susan's colleagues. She wanted, she needed, to visit Susan after the surgery, but Susan didn't feel like having visitors, and she said so. Her colleague's response? "This isn't just about you. " "It's not?" Susan wondered. "My breast cancer is not about me? It's about you?" The same theme came up again when our friend Katie had a brain aneurysm. She was in intensive care for a long time and finally got out and into a step-down unit.

Many hard-working people need access to short-term credit in a pinch to cover the cost of an emergency room visit or replacing a busted stove or carburetor. Yet apart from asking friends and relatives for assistance, a wellspring that comes with its own costs and often runs dry, many families turn to alternative, "predatory" lenders to finance unexpected expenses. Although the products offered by these alternative lenders — such as payday or car-title loans — can help families weather a financial emergency, the eye-popping interest rates can be devastating.

Whether perusing the beauty and personal care products at Target or Whole Foods or shopping online at Sephora, consumers are increasingly encountering the phrase "paraben-free. " What exactly does paraben-free mean, and why might it matter? We take a closer look — including sussing out pretty makeup products that are paraben-free. What are parabens? Parabens are the most widely used preservatives in cosmetics and personal care products such as soap, moisturizers, shaving cream and underarm deodorant, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Today, a century and a half after Charles Darwin published "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection," the overwhelming majority of scientists in the United States accept Darwinian evolution as the basis for understanding how life on Earth developed. But although evolutionary theory is often portrayed as antithetical to religion, it has not destroyed the religious faith of the scientific community. According to a survey of members of the American Assn. for the Advancement of Science, conducted by the Pew Research Center in May and June this year, a majority of scientists (51%)

Accusing Wells Fargo & Co. of reneging on a sweeping mortgage-modification deal, a lawyer for troubled homeowners is trying to reopen a case involving risky "pick-a-pay" loans written during the housing bubble. Legal filings last week claimed Wells Fargo failed to provide wide-ranging reductions of loan balances to delinquent borrowers as it had promised two years ago when it settled a combined national class-action suit. A bank spokeswoman strongly disputed the claim, saying it was riddled with errors.

Supporters of a measure that would have expanded background checks for firearm purchases decried the bill's death in the Senate last month. But was the defeat really such a bad thing? Had it passed, the new law would have been hailed as a historic breakthrough by "anti-gun" forces and a historic mistake by "pro-gun" forces. But on the ground, where American citizens are being shot and killed every day, nothing much would have changed. That's the way things have gone for decades in the grinding American culture war over guns.

Re "The marijuana measures," Editorial, May 10 Your editorial supporting Measure D mentions medical marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma patients. In my 25 years as a glaucoma sufferer, I have never been prescribed marijuana. In fact, research suggests that the side-effects of smoking pot outweigh any therapeutic benefits. Medical marijuana should not be used as an excuse to pass Measure D. John Choy Torrance ALSO: Letters: Jolie's choice Letters: The next dog Letters: It's UC, not McDonald's

Re "Brown urges UC to speed graduations," May 16 Over the 15 years I have taught at UC Santa Barbara, I have seen repeated budget cuts and tuition increases. And yet most students are graduating in four years, not six. I am not sure what Gov. Jerry Brown is referring to when he wants to speed up graduations. A top-quality education takes time - the University of California is not McDonald's. "The outside world" that Brown mentions has greatly impacted UC; it has reduced the university to a shell of what it once was. Remarkably, students have been incredibly resilient and found a way to graduate.

Re "FBI probes death in Kern County," May 15 Why do we allow mad dogs like those accused of beating a Bakersfield man to death and tampering with evidence on our police forces? If guilty, they should be sent to jail. Richard Sparks Santa Monica ALSO: Letters: Pot's place in medicine Letters: It's UC, not McDonald's Letters: America's well-paid workers

Re "Go ahead, ask for a raise," Opinion, May 14 Barbara Garson's argument rests on the claim that from 1971 to 2007, worker productivity soared while inflation-adjusted worker well-being barely budged. This premise is faulty. Garson uses wages rather than total compensation (which has grown far faster), dramatically understating workers' real "pay" growth. Further, the index used to deflate wages substantially over-adjusts for inflation compared to productivity measures, creating a huge measurement bias.

Re "Benghazi's smoking guns," Opinion, May 14 Two questions came to mind reading Jonah Goldberg's column. First, who cut the security funding of diplomatic missions a year before the Benghazi attack? (The Republican-controlled House.) And second, why were there no similar allegations made when multiple attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions killed dozens of consulate workers during the George W. Bush administration? To use the deaths of four brave Americans as a way to undermine the president is below contempt.

Re "The gift of a great dog," Opinion, May 16 A year ago I too thought that I'd had that one great dog, that canine soul mate never to be found again. My 13-year-old shepherd had passed away, and I was heartbroken. I couldn't even consider getting another dog for months, as I knew it would not be fair to a new dog to constantly fall short in comparison. After six months, one day when I least expected it, a 6-year-old rescued shepherd came into my family's life. We love him passionately, and now he has become the best dog ever.

Before John Lennon imagined "living life in peace," he conjured "no heaven … / no hell below us …/ and no religion too. " No religion: What was Lennon summoning? For starters, a world without "divine" messengers, like Osama bin Laden, sparking violence. A world where mistakes, like the avoidable loss of life in Hurricane Katrina, would be rectified rather than chalked up to "God's will. " Where politicians no longer compete to prove who believes more strongly in the irrational and untenable.

Can a private company own rights to your DNA? The nine justices of the Supreme Court will consider that question Monday as lawyers for Myriad Genetics make their best case that the company should be able to keep its patent on two genes known to influence the risk of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Challenging that notion will be lawyers representing the Assn. for Molecular Pathology and other scientific organizations, which argue that allowing genes to be patented slows or shuts down scientific research involving those genes.

What is it about presidents' second terms that makes them seem so scandal-ridden? Simple: The iron law of longevity. All governments make mistakes, and all governments try to hide those mistakes. But the longer an administration is in office, the more errors it makes, and the harder they are to conceal. Just ask Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, all of whom spent much of their second terms playing defense. The longevity rule caught up with Barack Obama last week as he wrestled clumsily with not one controversy but three: the Internal Revenue Service's treatment of "tea party" groups, the Benghazi killings and the Justice Department's seizure of Associated Press telephone records.

If you don't believe in souls or an afterlife, then a corpse is just a body - potentially a teaching tool, a source of life-saving organs, but little more. In 1829, taking such thinking to the extreme, a radical British pamphleteer named Peter Baume specified that after his death, his skeleton was to be donated for medical education or, failing that, his bones made into knife handles and buttons; his skin was to be tanned to make a chair cover, and his soft body parts used as fertilizer for roses.