William Simon

William Simon, 70, a sociologist, academic and author who championed a more expansive and tolerant view of human sexuality. Born in New York to Russian immigrants, Simon spent his first 10 years in the Bronx. The family then moved to Detroit, where young William gained a reputation in the city's schools for questioning authority. He dropped out in the eighth grade and, using false identity papers, got a job as an assembly line worker.

How do we manage to live in proverbially dreaded "interesting times"? Do we fashion a system of moral precepts for ourselves and follow them down the line, or do we look to Great Men and Great Women and somehow try to model ourselves and our actions after them? In the wake of the Napoleonic wars and the gigantic European convulsions caused by one man on horseback, first Thomas Carlyle and then Ralph Waldo Emerson opted for the Great Man theory.

William Edward Simon, secretary of the treasury in the Nixon and Ford administrations and the energy czar credited with easing public fears during the 1970s oil crisis, died Saturday in Santa Barbara. He was 72. Simon died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease, one of his daughters, Mary Streep, told Associated Press. A member of the U.S. Olympic Committee for more than 30 years, Simon oversaw the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles as president of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Perhaps no single test, not even a surprise campaign to be governor of California, surpassed the challenge that Bill Simon Jr. faced during childhood: learning to handle Dad. His father was not just the shaper of staunch Catholic values and a tough-minded work ethic. He was a mercurial force who often terrorized the seven Simon children. His rages came on like lightning.

Perhaps no single test, not even a surprise campaign to be governor of California, surpassed the challenge that Bill Simon Jr. faced during childhood: learning to handle Dad. His father was not just the shaper of staunch Catholic values and a tough-minded work ethic. He was a mercurial force who often terrorized the seven Simon children. His rages came on like lightning.

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill Simon Jr. charged Friday that Gov. Gray Davis failed to anticipate the state's fiscal troubles because he was too busy raising money for his reelection campaign. Simon attacked his Democratic opponent's ethics at a luncheon of agricultural leaders. By ignoring the state's energy and fiscal problems, Simon told them, Davis left the budget 'totally out of control' with a $17-billion shortfall.

With seven months to go until California voters cast their ballots, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis reported Tuesday that he has amassed a $30.5-million treasury--10 times more than his closest Republican rival. Davis raised $5.8 million during the first six months of 2001 even as he and the state grappled with an extraordinary energy crisis, the most difficult conflict during his time in office. That meant that Davis maintained nearly a million-dollar-a-month pace.

Mater Dei forward Marmet Williams and guard Miles Simon have been invited to participate in the Nike basketball camp, July 3-9 in Princeton, N.J. The camp, one of the most prestigious in the nation, attracts the nation's top returning prep players. Williams, a 6-foot-5 junior, averaged 12.5 points for Mater Dei, which advanced to the State Division I championship game and finished 34-2.

As part of its expansion in Southern California, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is opening a hiring center for its Neighborhood Market under construction in Chinatown. The temporary hiring office, opening Thursday on Hill Street in Chinatown, will ultimately hire 65 mostly full-time cashiers, stockers and supervisors at the grocery store, store manager Kenney Tran said. "We're going to provide good jobs and bring accessible groceries and affordable options to the community," he said. The new market, set to open early next year at Cesar Chavez and Grand avenues, is one of 21 new Wal-Mart grocery stores announced in California.

William G. Simon, 84, former head of the Los Angeles FBI office and contemporary of J. Edgar Hoover. Born in Douglas, Ariz., Simon was educated at St. Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., and UC Berkeley's Boalt Hall Law School. As an FBI agent for 24 years, Simon headed major investigations into espionage, kidnapping and other key crimes. He ended his service as special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office, retiring in 1964 to practice law as senior partner in the firm Simon & Sheridan.

William Cobbett, a great English radical, dryly observed more than a century ago that there was something absurd in a system that referred to "the national debt" and "the Royal Mint." Thomas Paine, one of our less-acknowledged Founding Fathers, pointed out that a hereditary head of state made no more sense than a hereditary mathematician.

Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill Simon Jr. charged Friday that Gov. Gray Davis failed to anticipate the state's fiscal troubles because he was too busy raising money for his reelection campaign. Simon attacked his Democratic opponent's ethics at a luncheon of agricultural leaders. By ignoring the state's energy and fiscal problems, Simon told them, Davis left the budget 'totally out of control' with a $17-billion shortfall.

With seven months to go until California voters cast their ballots, Democratic Gov. Gray Davis reported Tuesday that he has amassed a $30.5-million treasury--10 times more than his closest Republican rival. Davis raised $5.8 million during the first six months of 2001 even as he and the state grappled with an extraordinary energy crisis, the most difficult conflict during his time in office. That meant that Davis maintained nearly a million-dollar-a-month pace.

Republican William E. Simon Jr., a Los Angeles investment banker and political unknown, has launched an exploratory campaign for governor as the state GOP casts about for a credible candidate to face incumbent Gray Davis. Simon, 49, the son of the late U.S. treasury secretary, is assembling a campaign team and has committed a six-figure sum to his preliminary effort. He is expected to formally announce his candidacy within a few months.

William Simon, 70, a sociologist, academic and author who championed a more expansive and tolerant view of human sexuality. Born in New York to Russian immigrants, Simon spent his first 10 years in the Bronx. The family then moved to Detroit, where young William gained a reputation in the city's schools for questioning authority. He dropped out in the eighth grade and, using false identity papers, got a job as an assembly line worker.

William Edward Simon, secretary of the treasury in the Nixon and Ford administrations and the energy czar credited with easing public fears during the 1970s oil crisis, died Saturday in Santa Barbara. He was 72. Simon died of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease, one of his daughters, Mary Streep, told Associated Press. A member of the U.S. Olympic Committee for more than 30 years, Simon oversaw the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles as president of the U.S. Olympic Committee.

A group of investors led by the former secretary of the Treasury has agreed to buy controlling interest in World Trade Bancorp of Beverly Hills. The purchase, if approved, could pump more than $7 million in new capital into the 3-year-old financial institution, which has assets of about $75 million. A similar Simon-led investor group announced plans earlier this month to take over Honolulu Federal Savings & Loan, Hawaii's largest thrift.

Though there are many sordid similarities between William Safire's new novel and illicit recent events in the White House, the trials of William Jefferson Clinton are only the most obvious target of this fact-based drama.

What is the moral usefulness of fiction? What are its moral limits? When a writer creates incest and murder, what is he or she asking of us? That we judge and forgive him? That we watch him forgive himself? That we look at our own lives and play our actions out on a mental stage so hypothetical it may as well be fiction? In "The Blue Bedspread," sister and brother find solace in each other, find escape from their violent father. As they grow older, escape becomes sex.

Globalization has frayed edges. The job of peacekeepers is to knit some of the roughest loose ends together, not only to save the lives of unfortunate residents of strife-torn countries but also to prevent the global order from being riven more deeply. A noble mission, it perhaps can snatch remedies beyond the reach of law and diplomacy. But idealists and realists alike make a poor defense of military intervention, of both the consensual and the forced-entry versions.