Stupidity

Los Angeles teachers agreed to shortening the school year by 10 days to 175 days, and to accept a commensurate pay cut. This is the fourth year in the row that the school year has been shortened. Is it only a matter of time before this editorial cartoon becomes a reality? ALSO: A soda ban, L.A.-style Photo gallery: Ted Rall cartoons Marijuana dispensaries: Hands off, City Hall Follow Ted Rall on Twitter @TedRall . Follow Opinion L.A. on Twitter and Facebook .  

Click here to download TV listings for the week of June 10 - 16 in PDF format TV listings for the week of June 10 - 16 in PDF format are also available here This week's TV Movies SUNDAY Given Broadway's penchant for turning just about anything into a musical, here's an idea: Take “The 66th Annual Tony Awards,” hosted once again by Neil Patrick Harris, and make it into an actual Broadway...

Sugar creates addicts out of us. It tempts us, wears down our willpower and keeps us coming back for more. Yup, just like cigarettes, which, you know, come with warning labels. And just like a pack of smokes, processed sugar has absolutely no nutritional value . In fact, our not-so-harmless guilty pleasure is fattening us up like helpless livestock and then killing us off . "Your child will live a life 10 years younger than you because of the landscape of food that we've built around them," warned chef and activist Jamie Oliver in a 2010 "TedTalks" presentation . And yet there's still no stigma around consuming sweets and carbs, which is contributing to our country's obesity epidemic.

WASHINGTON - JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon acknowledged Sunday that his company's $2-billion trading loss could empower government regulators seeking to place tighter controls on risky trades by large banks. "This is a very unfortunate and inopportune time to have had this kind of mistake," Dimon said in an interview on NBC's "Meet the Press" with David Gregory. But the head of America's largest bank brushed aside the suggestion that the loss underscored the persistent risk posed by mismanagement at large banks more than three years after a financial crisis that forced billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts.

The woman at the heart of the scandal that has tarnished the image of the Secret Service worldwide called the agents she ran into “stupid brutes” in an interview with NBC's “Today.” Dania Londono Suarez, speaking through a translator, had nothing but contempt for the agents and their behavior in Cartagena, Colombia prior to President Obama's arrival for the Summit of the Americas. “They were full of themselves,” she said. “I'm not to blame for being attractive,” she said after being asked if she has culpability for tempting the agents.

WASHINGTON -- As votes continued to roll in for Mitt Romney after five Northeastern states weighed in on the Republican presidential campaign, Romney declared Tuesday “the start of a new campaign” in a victory speech focused exclusively on President Obama. “The last few years have been the best that Obama can do, but it's not the best America can do,” Romney told a crowd of supporters in Manchester, N.H. “Tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the Obama years.

Players are always searching for that extra tool, an extra edge, and Sharks forward Ryane Clowe might have flicked on the light bulb in the league by reaching over the bench with his stick to illegally play the puck against the Kings. Not only did he disrupt the Kings' rush late in regulation, but also Clowe got away with it, unseen by the referees Thursday night at Staples Center. "It was pretty effective. I'm thinking about using it myself," said Kings defenseman Rob Scuderi , joking in his usual dry manner.

As Mitt Romney stepped up his attacks on Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker slapped back on Wednesday, calling Romney Web ads that accuse him of being a chaotic leader and helping to reelect President Clinton "stupid. " "Where do they get the gall to run this kind of ad?" Gingrich asked reporters after holding a town hall here. He listed his electoral accomplishments, notably engineering the GOP takeover of Congress in 1994, the first Republican majority in the House in four decades.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who has been campaigning furiously in South Carolina in an effort to revive his sputtering presidential campaign, said Sunday that the Obama administration had gone "over the top" in criticizing Marines videotaped urinating on Afghan corpses. "Obviously, 18-, 19-year-olds make stupid mistakes all too often, and that's what's occurred here," Perry said in an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union. " He likened the incident to Gen. George S. Patton urinating in the Rhine River and Winston Churchill supposedly doing the same on the Siegfried Line.

Jon Huntsman on Friday condemned an Internet video that appears to be from supporters of Ron Paul that uses his time in China - and even his adopted daughters - to question his values. The video, posted to YouTube by the account "NHLiberty4Paul," first calls Huntsman the "Manchurian Candidate," asking: "What's he hiding?" It then shows footage of Huntsman speaking Mandarin, and photos and video of him and adopted daughter Gracie Mei. It goes on to ask if Huntsman "share[s]