Editorials

With all the money that’s spent in our county on flood prevention and control, it’s reasonable to expect that there would be some good plans to prevent a Katrina-style urban flood. Judging by what occurred to residents in neighborhoods to the north—in a modern city of a million people—it’s safe to conclude that local communities are not well prepared for large-scale natural disasters.

When someone in our community is murdered, the pain reaches beyond the victim. It devastates families, close friends, neighbors and often the entire town. In the wake of such violence, our attention tends to focus on the police investigation or the court case. But...

In two decades as the county’s sheriff, Laurie Smith’s legacy includes both accomplishments and mistakes, and as she runs for a sixth four-year term, her challengers have sought to direct attention to the latter. Smith’s department’s investigation led to the successful prosecution of  Sierra LaMar’s...

Nobody likes a line-jumper, the snide person who forces their way through the crowd with constant utterances of “excuse me” while claiming their friend saved a spot for them at the very front. Get caught, and it’s grounds for ejection wherever they may be. But...