News & Opinion

Psst: Wanna buy Barack Obama’s email address? By Peter Scheer What would you pay to have President Obama’s new private (and secure) email address? Two weeks ago I wrote in this space about efforts by Barack Obama’s aides to get him to surrender his Blackberry, on which Obama had relied to escape the bubble that descends on leading presidential contenders, not to mention elected presidents. I argued that the aides’ concerns about legal and security

By Tom Blanton NPR, All Things Considered—Wednesday, in his first set of presidential orders, President Obama instructed federal agencies to be more responsive to Freedom of Information requests. It’s part of his promise to increase transparency in government. Every military veteran, every senior citizen, every private business ought to be cheering the president on because those are the folks who really use the Freedom of Information Act. I know what you’re thinking — the Freedom

AG Jerry Brown’s decision to oppose Prop 8 in the Supreme Court will, ironically, only help the pro-Prop 8 forces By Peter Scheer The California Supreme Court, in one of its most important cases, is weighing a challenge to Prop 8, the constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. If the Court upholds Prop 8, one of the people you can blame is Attorney General Jerry Brown. But wait a minute. Didn’t Brown make headlines recently by