Poll

Some friends and relatives of the victims of July's movie theater shooting spree in Aurora, Colo., in which 12 people were killed and dozens injured, are pleased that prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against alleged gunman James Holmes and have rebuffed his offer to plead guilty in exchange for life in prison. Should their opinions matter? My short, if politically unpopular answer, is no. It's natural that the victims' loved ones are talking in terms of an eye for an eye and a death for a death (actually many deaths)

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced plans for its new museum at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the organization that presents the Oscars is thinking big. Project highlights include a spaceship-like, 1,000-seat theater;  a two-story, 12,000-square-foot "making of" movie experience;   a "demonstration stage" with room for 150 people to watch academy members conduct clinics and master classes; and ...

WASHINGTON -- New polling shows older Americans overwhelmingly resisting President Obama's effort to pare back cost-of-living adjustments for seniors, veterans and the disabled as part of his budget overture to the GOP. Nearly 70% of those age 50 and older oppose lowering the annual inflation adjustment, including robust majorities of Republican, Democratic and independent voters, according to a survey by an independent firm released Monday...

Almost four years ago, long before the 2012 presidential campaign heated up, CNN took a poll to learn who Republicans might choose as their party's next nominee. There were two clear front-runners: former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. The former governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, limped in third. By the time the campaign arrived, of course, Palin and Huckabee were pursuing careers as television pundits and after-dinner speakers, not presidential candidates.

The state of California has several laws aimed at cracking down on drivers using cellphones, but it may all be for naught. Motorists seem to be ignoring these laws. A survey released Friday appears to back that up. Nationally, the number of people using cellphones or electronic devices while behind the wheel remained steady from 2010 to 2012, according to the poll released by the U.S. Department of Transportation. That means at any given time during the day, 660,000 people are using their cellphones in some way while driving.

Would Ronald Reagan have supported gay marriage? His daughter, Patti Davis, thinks so. She told the New York Times in an interview that, growing up in California her family had close relationships with and accepted gay couples. “I grew up in this era where your parents' friends were all called aunt and uncle,” Davis told the paper. “And then I had an aunt and an aunt. We saw them on holidays and other times.” She added, “We never talked about it, but I just understood that they were a couple.” According to the New York Times: Davis "offered several reasons her father, who would have been 102 this year, would have bucked his party on the issue: his distaste for government intrusion into private lives, his Hollywood acting career and close friendship with a lesbian couple who once cared for Ms. Davis and her younger brother Ron while their parents were on a Hawaiian vacation - and slept in the Reagans' king-size bed. " She also said that when Reagan once saw Rock Hudson kill a woman on screen, he told her the closeted gay star “would rather be kissing a man.” Davis' comments come as the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding the fate of Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage.

WASHINGTON - The last several years have seen huge shifts in polls on two intensely debated issues: marijuana legalization and same-sex marriage. On one, the change in opinion has prompted public officials to shift ground en masse; on the other, few have changed their stands. What accounts for the difference? The latest evidence of change in public opinion comes from a  survey released Thursday by the Pew Research Center, which shows a majority of adult Americans, 52% to 45%, now support legalizing marijuana . The finding marks the first time in more than four decades of Pew's polling that a majority has taken that position.

WASHINGTON -- A majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana, a new poll indicates, with the change driven largely by a huge shift in how the baby boom generation feels about the drug of their youth. By 52% to 45%, adult Americans back legalization, according to the survey released Thursday by the Pew Research Center . The finding marks the first time in more than four decades of Pew's polling that a majority has taken that position. As recently as a decade ago, only about one-third of American adults backed making marijuana legal.

WASHINGTON - An overwhelming majority of Americans is convinced that sea level rise resulting from climate change poses a significant threat to the United States and coastal communities should invest in preparing for the risks, according to a survey released Thursday by Stanford University. The study was conducted with memories still fresh of Hurricane Sandy's vast damage and protracted, expensive rebuilding, whose cost was picked up largely by taxpayers. Although past surveys have asked Americans if they accept climate change to be a global reality, the survey by Stanford's Woods Institute for the Environment focuses on attitudes about one of its effects - sea level rise - and the options to deal with it. The responses, taken together, indicated that most Americans were no longer willing to accept a hands-off approach to continued coastal development that will get battered repeatedly by rising seas.

SAN FRANCISCO - For Ohio Sen. Rob Portman, knowing that his son was gay helped change his mind. For President Obama, talking with gay White House staffers and learning that his daughters' friends had same-sex parents proved influential. On Tuesday, Jean Podrasky, a 48-year-old accountant from San Francisco, will be sitting in a courtroom, where her first cousin - Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. - and the rest of the U.S. Supreme Court are hearing a challenge to California's ban on gay marriage.