It’s probably a stretch to call pizza dancing an art form, though at least one national chain holds a competition to recognize the company’s best at twirling the board.
It’s also a stretch to call people …

Good news for conspiracy theorists: The government might not need its fleet of black helicopters for much longer. Isn’t it nice to see possibilities for economizing in this budget climate?
If a study under way at …

She’s been banned from giving a speech at graduation, banished from grad night at Disney, suspended for two days and lost a summer tutoring job she was counting on to help pay for college.
Aurora Ponce …

Credit reports, criminal history, references and past employment: All valid information for a potential employer, though credit reports aren’t relevant in all instances.
Anything the employer can turn up online about an applicant: Fair game. It’s …

The images from Iran caught Big Guy’s eye as I caught up on the news this evening.
“What are the people doing, Mommy,” he asked, partly out of a desire to delay sleep but mostly due …

It’s a situation so outrageous that even those who don’t like the American Civil Liberties Union are singing its praises.
A federal prosecutor in Nevada wants a judge to force the Las Vegas Review-Journal to turn …

It seems there are two development paces for digital textbooks in California:
There’s doomed-to-fail-fast for public schools that wants to kick off by this fall, and there’s pokey procrastination for colleges that wants to wait until …

Isn’t this just what we need in this economy: Legislation that would put a common over-the-counter medication back behind the counter to keep it out of the hands of those who abuse it.
Technically speaking pseudoephedrine …

Is this what you really wanted, Californians, when you stayed home in droves two weeks ago from a special election?
Did you really intend to send the message that massive and debilitating budget cuts are the …

You just gotta love California, though I suspect the state’s predicament is more amusing to residents of the other 49 than it is to those of us who live here.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature …

New York Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has been ahead of the curve on a number of issues, sponsoring legislation that probably drew chuckles when he introduced it.
Seven years ago, he was responsible for the nation’s first …

Until Boots moved in and sent all my beautiful high school treasures to the Salvation Army, I still had a souvenir from my prom. It was a wine glass - for red, not white, though …

How on earth does it become right in anyone’s mind to indict a 60-year-old with a spotless professional reputation on possession of child pornography simply for doing his job?
Who can justify an employer abandoning a …

Here’s a move that makes so much sense it’s stunning that more agencies aren’t considering it.
According to the Arizona Republic, health care professionals in that state are expanding their system of asthma alerts to include …

News flash: Little boys tend to look up to their fathers. And little boys whose fathers are in the military tend to find everything about the armed forces fascinating. The uniforms, the rituals, the gear,the …

There’s no denying that Nevada Northern Railway’s Engine No. 40 is a beauty.
Built in 1910, it pulled passenger cars 150 miles or so between Ely and Cobre, Nevada - in the central part of the …

Anyone who’s spent longer than 3.6 seconds on the Internet has heard the horror stories:

America is no longer the great nation it once was because of all those illegals taking jobs and sucking up benefits.
If …

From the state that could not resist wading into the evolution debate again comes a plan headed straight for the Legislative Micromanagement Hall of Fame.
Texas State Sen. Juan Hinojosa, concerned about reports of problems with …

The obvious punch line to Sen. Benjamin Cardin’s bill that would make it easier for newspapers to become nonprofit organizations is that many companies have mastered the “nonprofit” part.
The reasons are partly economic, partly corporate.
The …

Once in a great while an idea comes along that’s so deliciously foolish that you’re eager to see it put to a vote of the people. With all the serious issues on the ballot, a …

You’ve just embarrassed yourself with months of childish stubbornness and inability to agree on how to solve a $42 billion budget problem. Only 18 percent of the state thinks you’re doing a good job.
What are …

You’d think a part of the country facing police layoffs while battling a mammoth methamphetamine problem plus the distinction of being the auto theft capital of the country would have more to worry about than …

You really have to wonder what George W. Bush was thinking (pausing for uproarious laughter to end in 3 … 2 … 1 …) when he enacted the Provider Refusal Rule during his final hours …

There is no denying the impact of methamphetamine, from the shattered shells of human beings ghost-walking through towns to the toxic crap clandestine labs generate to the lives of children raised by people who have …

My congressman is against “partisan, pet projects.” He told me so in a screed last month about the stimulus bill that didn’t answer what I’d written him about.
My congressman is so worried about the government …

Aren’t Republicans the ones who believe in less business regulation? Who are convinced America would be a much more prosperous place if those nanny-state liberals would get off Mom and Pop’s back?
Ay, but all bets …

Attention, Billy Mays: I’d rub two sticks together and flame-broil a burger before I’d ever buy a Big City Slider “station.” With two small children, I  hear enough  yelling every day without you screaming at …

I have never rooted so hard for anyone to win the lottery - or to get a $2 million interview deal - as I am for Nadya Suleman.
Face it, this struggling mother of 14 is …

There is no denying that overseas service, whether diplomatic or military, can be a cultural challenge.
Many assignments are in time zones when the World Series and Super Bowl are played at hours more often associated …

Did you hear the one about the lawyer who wants to make government documents more understandable?
No, really, it’s true. From a man who practices the art of parsing what the definition of what “is” is …

Trying to define what is and isn’t economic stimulus is beginning to look like that classic judicial struggle to nail down pornography: “I know it when I see it.”
The problem is, too many are seeing …

Someone alert Tipper Gore: We’re on a labeling kick again.
This time, U.S. Rep. Joe Baca wants stickers on video games rated teen or higher: “WARNING: Excessive exposure to violent video games and other violent media …

What  Congress and the White House did in August, two Consumer Product Safety commissions undid Friday when they agreed to wait a year to enforce testing standards for lead and phthalates in children’s products.
Part of …

Postal service, I take back every nasty thing I’ve said about you over the years.
I apologize for questioning your efficiency in instances when I known full well the check was in the mail but someone …

Perhaps New York Rep. Peter T. King was on “Go, Diego, Go” overload and went to the Capitol one day with “say click, take a pic” running through his head.
“Oh my gosh! Camera phones don’t …

Hey, didn’t the Bowl Championship Series end two weeks ago when Florida beat Oklahoma in Miami?
Then why was it being played again for 40 minutes Thursday in the U.S. House of Representatives?
Because a representative from …

Dear Washington,
This is going to sound strange coming from someone five months into unemployment, whose entire professional career has been in an industry on the verge of imploding and who’s looking for work in a …

Gary Johnson and Rebecca Witt are making it, but barely, on his $8-an-hour job while she uses grants to pay for college in between raising three children.
But because they aren’t married, the state of Michigan …