Trump tries to reset; Elon Musk looks to the stars
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Our take
Editorials
Trump tries to reset his presidency with dash of optimism: The agenda and spending priorities he outlined still reflected a fearful nation facing dire threats at home and abroad – not the hopeful and compassionate country we aspire to be at our best.
Dear SpaceX and NASA: Fly us back to the moon: Perhaps it’s a sign of these nationalistic times that talk of sending people to the moon and deep space is once again in vogue. Donald Trump and Elon Musk are the latest to chime in.
Columns
Dan Walters: As California’s Democratic politicians offer “resistance” to Donald Trump, they use the same states’ rights rhetoric that segregationists employed a half-century ago, and they also show a willingness to violate the rights of Californians who don’t agree with their vision of the state.
Marcos Breton: He’s an undocumented immigrant who became a college graduate and pro soccer player. But will he be deported anyway?
Op-eds
Dr. Edward Machtinger: Senate Bill 239 incorporates the current scientific understanding of HIV, addresses HIV in the same manner as other serious communicable diseases, and eliminates extra punishment for people living with HIV who engage in consensual sexual activity.
Deborah Gordon and David Livingston: The new frontier of California’s climate policy innovation is focused on reducing oil refinery emissions 20 percent by 2030. By creating targeted incentives to extract the cleanest oils, refine them in the cleanest way and send them to the highest-value uses, California can go a long way in reducing its own petroleum-sector emissions.
Their take
Chicago Tribune: A baby girl named A’Miracle Jones died a few days ago, having never left the hospital.
San Francisco Chronicle: Recent ridership declines amid a regional boom constitute a damning assessment of BART’s service. The slump could also force the agency to seek more funding from lawmakers and the public, who won’t be eager to comply if BART appears to be misspending the resources it has.
East Bay Times: It’s long past time for state lawmakers to require that doctors reveal their probationary status to patients. These are not physicians who have committed minor transgressions; they’re generally one step away from losing their California licenses to practice medicine after egregious behavior.
San Diego Union-Tribune: It takes a lot to change a status quo that’s been accepted with few questions for generations, especially one that affects tens of thousands of California teachers, millions of public school students and so many parents. But it’s time to revisit the tradition of starting school days as early as Americans do.
L.A. Times: The argument by Trump and his acolytes that immigration somehow threatens the very essence of America is spurious. The American public would be well-served to look beyond the smokescreen sent up by the flames of fear to see what this administration really has in mind for the future of our country, a place that is both historically and at heart a nation of immigrants.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Some immigrants are so afraid that they are keeping their children home from school. School board members must do what they can to reassure them that their kids will not be snatched from class in a federal immigration raid.
Syndicates’ take
Thomas L. Friedman: The Brexiters and Trumpsters want to return us to a globe of everyone-for-themselves nationalisms that helped to foster two world wars. It’s dangerous nonsense.
Kathleen Parker: While Donald Trump was self-evaluating, a former Republican president offered his own observations about the current White House tenant’s dealings. George W. Bush revealed much with few words and earned himself a superlative for wisdom.
Frank Bruni: Donald Trump bad-mouths allies as he seeks more military spending.
Ruben Navarrette: The world of immigration enforcement is upside down. Liberals have rediscovered their outrage at the mistreatment of the undocumented – even though President Donald Trump is, for the most part, simply following Barack Obama’s deportation blueprint.
Dana Milbank: If Donald Trump were the sole source of information, never contradicted by lawmakers, bureaucrats, experts, documents or even Google searches, his speech to Congress would go something like this ...
Leonard Pitts Jr.: The two activists have started a campaign on LaunchGood.com, a crowdfunding website for Muslims, asking their brothers and sisters in Islam to help raise $20,000 to repair a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis.
David Brooks: When anti-Enlightenment movements arose in the past, Enlightenment heroes rose to combat them. I wonder if there is a group of leaders who will rise up and unabashedly defend this project called Enlightenment.
David Leonhardt: The politics of Obamacare have flipped. Many Americans have come to realize that the care part of the law matters much more than the Obama part. As a result, the Republicans no longer have a clear path to repeal.
Mailbag
Tax big trucks to pay for road repairs. – Martin Marovich, Rocklin
Tweet of the day
“Trump spotlights a rare disease patient while touting high-risk pools and other policies to undo coverage for those with such conditions.” Health Access CA @healthaccess
This story was originally published February 28, 2017 at 5:31 AM with the headline "Trump tries to reset; Elon Musk looks to the stars."