Viewpoints

In the beginning, it was hard to tell which of the lovebirds was more passionate.

The twin revelations of the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative political organizations and, now, that the U.S. Justice Department was spying on the Associated Press – all in a few days – mean this: It is time to air the dirty laundry of this administration's intelligence and surveillance programs – and it is way past time for heads to roll in Washington.

With the main provisions of the Affordable Care Act set to take effect Jan. 1, we are about to transform the way people buy health insurance. At the heart of the reforms is a new social contract: healthy or not, everyone has the right to buy coverage and pay the same rate for it. With a strong majority of the public and political leaders in both parties supporting this concept, we have broad agreement that it is the right thing to do.

Allowing noncitizens who are legal immigrants to serve on juries is a desirable reform in a society devoted to judgment by one's peers and juries that represent a cross-section of the community. Assembly Bill 1401, passed overwhelmingly by the California Assembly, would do just this, permitting legal immigrants, as well as U.S. citizens, to serve on juries.

We're all aware of how the incredible rescue of three Cleveland women quickly became a story dominated by next-door neighbor Charles Ramsey, less for his efforts and more for his lively persona, tailor-made for melodrama-addicted television news and the viral forces of the Internet.

What does a strong economy look like? We all know the typical measures: low unemployment, robust job growth, higher earnings.

Suppose that the Environmental Protection Agency were to admit offhandedly that the fluoridation of water had only modest communist mind-control effects.

What do the re-establishment of California's tule elk, conservation of salmon and the protection and maintenance of more than 285,000 acres of wildlife habitat have to do with Assemblyman Anthony Rendon's bill, AB 711 that would ban traditional lead ammunition? Sadly, one of the unintended consequences of Rendon's bill will likely be a huge reduction in California's share of federal conservation and wildlife restoration funding.

California has long been a hotbed of innovation, where individuals came with a dream and the opportunity to make the unthinkable into reality. Our state is leading the way in an exciting new industry – private commercial spaceflight, with the potential to create new jobs and new technological advancements.

The risks are sinking in. For months, discussions about fracking in California have focused mostly on public disclosure. Should people living near fracked oil and gas wells, for example, be notified about this controversial procedure, which involves blasting huge volumes of water mixed with toxic chemicals underground?

Mistakes were made.

Great leaders do and say great things. The difference between greatness and mediocrity can become evident at odd and critical moments.

Bubbles can be bad for your financial health – and bad for the health of the economy, too. The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s left behind many vacant buildings and many more failed dreams. When the housing bubble of the next decade burst, the result was the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s – a crisis from which we have yet to emerge.

In a matter of days the question so many have agonized over for years will be answered. Will the Kings remain a part of our city and our area well into the future?

A year ago, Nathan Fletcher caused an uproar in the world of San Diego politics. Faced with a dwindling chance of surviving the city's mayoral primary, the Republican assemblyman walked away from the GOP, declaring himself a born-again independent.

Under the new federal health care law, California has an unprecedented opportunity to use enhanced federal funding to provide Medi-Cal coverage to 1.4 million uninsured eligible Californians, drastically reducing the number of uninsured.

Those who are trying to make the Benghazi tragedy into a scandal for the Obama administration really ought to decide what story line they want to sell.

Dan Morain got it wrong on the oil severance tax ("Calculating the profits, pitfalls of an oil tax, May 1). Like other Capitol insiders, he is laboring under the notion that an oil severance tax is a free lunch. It's not. It's a huge tax increase on energy production and it will result in a decline in oil production here and an increase in the oil we import from foreign countries. It will result in the loss of thousands of California jobs and put upward pressure on the prices we pay for gasoline and diesel.

With news that California has left half a billion dollars in safe-water funding unspent, there is one solution the state can offer.

Right now, one out of every four children in California lives in poverty. If grouped together, these 2.2 million children would live in a city larger than San Diego and San Francisco combined. They are far hungrier, undernourished and less secure than the rest of us. Their playtime and daydreams, hallmarks of childhood, are interrupted by basic needs that go unmet every day.

Along with a boosted Buick LeSabre, another incident listed on a crime report Sunday in Arlington County, Va., was a creepy attack by a man on a woman.

The Bee recently featured articles on the problem of prescription drug abuse and the need to talk with teens. While still a public menace, illicit substances like heroin and cocaine have taken a back seat to the abuse of legal prescription medications.

The opponents of immigration reform have many small complaints, but they really have one core concern. It's about control. America doesn't control its borders. Past reform efforts have not established control. Current proposals wouldn't establish effective control.

A Utah soccer referee is dead after being punched by a teenage player over a call during a game.

For all the armchair generals advocating U.S. military intervention in Syria, I have a few questions:

With the U.S. Senate finally poised to discuss immigration reform, it is important that those of us in California stay focused on what this might mean in the state and what is needed in a bill – and after – to help the state prosper.

Across California, teachers, parents and school administrators are working to make the transition to the new Common Core State Standards. They are asking an understandable question: Are schools ready?

An unlikely government agency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, may help to stem the tide of undisclosed money pumping through our political system in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC.

A few columns ago, I asked readers to give me their feedback about questions having to do with self-confidence: Are women still less self-confident than men? Do we have more to fear from overconfidence or underconfidence?

There is broad agreement across America that "bad guys shouldn't have guns." How the two should be separated is another matter – and recent legislation has triggered a debate between some of the "good guys."