News & Opinion

Obama should just say ‘No’ to aides who, worried about FOIA, say he must give up beloved Blackberry By Peter Scheer Barack Obama, so far as we know, has two addictions: cigarettes and his Blackberry cell phone. While his wife leans on him to give up the cigarettes, his staff aides have been insisting he retire the cell phone. Obama during the presidential campaign was visibly tethered to his Blackberry, its text and email functions

Prop 8’s victory, reinstating ban on same sex marriage, is big loss for California Supreme Court, but damage not irreparable By Peter Scheer Although its name did not even appear on the ballot, the California Supreme Court was perhaps the state’s biggest loser in Tuesday’s historic elections. The voters’ narrow approval of Proposition 8 effectively reverses the high Court’s controversial decision, earlier this year, extending the right to marry to same-sex couples. The Court knew

Disclosure–or the lack of it–is a major cause of the current financial crisis By Peter Scheer Economists and historians will be debating for years the causes of the financial crisis that, like a global array of dominoes, now threatens to take down the “real” economies of countries big and small, both “developed” and “emerging,” in a massive flight from investment risk unlike anything experienced since 1929. To the experts’ lists of causes, let me add

CFAC announces awards to FOES and friends of free speech, open government. “Darkness Awards” zap Orange County judge, Capistrano school board, San Bernardino assessor The California First Amendment Coalition has named the 2008 recipients of its “Darkness Award,” given in recognition of conduct that thwarts freedom of speech and the public’s right to know. The awards, to be presented Saturday, October 18 at UC Berkeley, are given to: — Orange County Superior Court Judge David