In today's pages

Columnist Joel Stein grabs his spork and digs into lunch at Garfield High School's redesigned cafeteria with its healthier offerings:

Student Eduardo Escalante Jr. sat next to me and told me he doesn't eat all day until he gets home. "It tastes like cheap microwave food," he said. When pressed about the improvements, he said that "it used to taste like cheaper microwave food." When [School Board President Marlene] Canter asked me what Escalante said, I kind of lied. She's working so hard to do the impossible — serve an edible $2.40 lunch to fast-food-savvy kids from different cultures in a place that doesn't have a real kitchen — that I had to let her dream.

Stein's in-depth work aside, investigative reporting may be a dying breed, according to Greg Palast. But at least the whole country isn't on the verge of extinction, says columnist Rosa Brooks, chiding politicians for assuming Americans live in dire fear of terrorist attacks. Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Roger Snoble argues that 86 cents a ride won't hurt anyone, either.

The editorial board calls Sacramento's prison reform package a cop-out, chides the federal government for trying to regulate violence on television, and asks the Supreme Court to reconcile free speech with the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.

On the letters page, Steve Paskay of Marina del Rey is upset that The Times ruined his breakfast: "Are you telling me there's not enough news in the world, both good and bad, that The Times has to fill the front page with a breakfastkilling photo of Phil Spector?"