Some reaction in today's Los Angeles Times editorial pages to the coming deeper cuts to the state's higher education system, and to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's assertions about welfare cheats.

Start with the University of California. UC Berkeley professors Robert Cooter and Aaron Edlin say it makes more sense to fire people (presumably their colleagues, not them) than to impose across-the-board salary cuts. Why?

Growth has led to bloat at UC. The bloat and bureaucracy stifle creativity and productivity. The bloat is in unproductive workers and unproductive jobs.Many jobs have little to do with our core missions of teaching and research.

Next, the Cal State system. CSU Long Beach geography professor and department chairman Vincent J. Del Casino Jr. says cuts to his schools are necessary, too, but beware the consequences:

So what is the cost of gutting the Cal State system? Fewer nurses. Fewer teachers. Fewer engineers. Fewer poets and artists. Fewer film and electronic arts experts. Fewer MBAs. Fewer people to drive the future of California, including fewer geographers trained in my department. These reductions in educated human capital will hit California at a time when the state needs 2 million additional college graduates by the year 2020.

Also on op-ed, Douglas MacKinnon shows why he's one of those conservatives that liberals love, when it's convenient, and that conservatives love to hate. He takes on the GOP for hypocrisy and calls on the party to shed the "morally bankrupt leaders who have violated the trust of their families and constituents" (think Appalachians and Argentina) and to embrace a wider base. Read more about MacKinnon here and here, and more from him here.

You've noticed those billboards about your right to have a pet? So has columnist Meghan Daum.

On the virtual pages, like this one, check out a response from Los Angeles County welfare chief Philip L. Browning to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attack, a couple weeks ago in the Times, on the CalWorks welfare-to-work program.

On the editorial page, the Times continues its Rehabilitating Healthcare series with a thumbs-down on the portion of the House bill that would fund reform with tax increases on the rich. Better, the page says, to roll back the tax exemption on health benefits.

The exemption is worth $3.5 trillion over 10 years, so even a modest reduction could raise a significant amount. Trimming the exemption would also discourage gold-plated insurance plans that promote excessive consumption of healthcare services. Such a move would face stiff resistance from unions and President Obama, who promised not to raise taxes on the middle class. But it would send the valuable message that everyone pays for this reform because everyone benefits.

The editorial page also remembers the Apollo 11 moonshot and offers that clean and efficient energy is just as far away, and ultimately just as achievable. And we observe President Obama's brave willingness to acknowledge that he is a White Sox fan.

 Photo: Alex Gallardo / LAT

An international accord on global warming? The editorial board celebrates, even though the agreement falls far short of what's needed to make a real difference. Still, it represents a new willingness by industrialized nations to tackle the issue in a serious way. The board finds something else to celebrate in the new get-tough stance by L.A. schools chief Ramon C. Cortines, who sent out letters saying that teachers who don't perform basic job duties -- like giving required tests -- will be written up. A week later, the union suspended its boycott of the tests. Coincidence? The board thinks not. One final thing to kvell about: LAPD did a great job on security for the Michael Jackson memorial, the board cheers -- but what was going on with the rest of city government? Ordering sandwiches in from Wrightwood and posting a humiliating plea for pennies to cover the costs of the memorial? The posting didn't even work; the website went down.

It's not like the city is incapable of doing anything right. By all accounts, the Police Department and traffic officers handled their end of Tuesday's event flawlessly. But in so many other ways, City Hall bumbling makes Los Angeles look laughably low-tech, shamefully disorganized, simultaneously an easy mark and a swindler, and cheap and pathetic besides.

On the other side of the fold, former longtime legislator John Vasconcellos analyzes the ingredients that went into making the state budget crisis so bad (Hint: Proposition 13 gets dragged in by its tax-restricting toes), and offers his personal recipe for climbing out of the hole. And Miguel A. Estrada, a native of Honduras and member of the U.S. delegation to President Manuel Zelaya's 2006 inauguration, explains why Zelaya's ouster isn't the millitary coup people think. To understand that, he writes, you need to know a couple of quick things about the Hunduran constitution:

Article 239 specifically states that any president who so much as proposes the permissibility of reelection "shall cease forthwith" in his duties, and Article 4 provides that any "infraction" of the succession rules constitutes treason. The rules are so tight because these are terribly serious issues for Honduras, which lived under decades of military rule.

As detailed in the attorney general's complaint, Zelaya is the type of leader who could cause a country to wish for a Richard Nixon. Earlier this year, with only a few months left in his term, he ordered a referendum on whether a new constitutional convention should convene to write a wholly new constitution. Because the only conceivable motive for such a convention would be to amend the un-amendable parts of the existing constitution, it was easy to conclude -- as virtually everyone in Honduras did -- that this was nothing but a backdoor effort to change the rules governing presidential succession.

Photo: The closing moments of the Michael Jackson memorial event at Staples Center. Credit: Mark Terrill-Pool / Getty Images

The climate-change bill has, under the hands of various Congress members, become a weak cousin of what it could have been, the editorial board complains. Sections have been reshaped to benefit the farm industry, while other important sections have simply been gutted. Still, it represents the first real effort by the United States to grapple with global warming, and should pass, as the board concludes:

The House should pass the Waxman-Markey bill, and the Senate should speedily follow suit. Even congressional Republicans can't generate as much hot air as the billions of metric tons of carbon dioxide it would eliminate.

The board also bemoans a court ruling that badly weakens the powers of the Los Angeles controller's office. Under Laura Chick, the office produced important watchdog reports on the operations of city government; now it is in danger of becoming weaker than it was even in the days before Chick. The board calls on the City Council to restore these powers legislatively but doubts, considering that council members also could find themselves the butt of the controller's investigations, that it will.

On the other side of the page, thoughts on Iran dominate the page. Renowned former Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky advises the West to listen more closely to the dissenters in oppressive regimes such as Iran. They might lack money, power and sophistication, Sharansky writes, but they know more about the evolution of the national mindset.

People in free societies watching massive military parades or vociferous displays of love for the leaders of totalitarian regimes often conclude, "Well, that's their mentality; there's nothing we can do about it." Thus they and their leaders miss what is readily grasped by local dissidents attuned to what is happening on the ground: the spectacle of a nation of double-thinkers slowly or rapidly approaching a condition of open dissent.

And John R. Bolton, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, criticizes President Obama for soft-pedaling his response to Iran. The president will never succeed in persuading Iran to forgo its nuclear initiative, Bolton argues, so there's no point in playing nice.

Photo by Giuseppe Cacace/ AFP/Getty Images

The Times editorial page today comes to the end of the first year at Los Angeles Unified School District's troubled Locke High School under charter school operator Green Dot Public Schools and finds progress, disappointment and hope. And change:

What makes Locke different under Green Dot...isn't that the charter operator has the magic formula for successful schools. It's that the people in charge don't spend years obfuscating, defending and delaying when things don't work. They do something to fix it.

The Times has been following the Locke Green Dot experiment closely. See reporter Howard Blume's articles from earlier this week here, here and here, and the editorial page's year-long series, A Year at Locke, here, and its earlier editorials like this one at the birth of the Green Dot experiment here. And don't miss editorial writer Karin Klein's many blog posts, including yesterday's post from the graduation, with its chilling quote:

 "It's happy, but it's also sad," [a parent said]. I waited for the predictable next words - happy because his child had grown up, sad because...well, his child had grown up. Instead, he continued, "Because you know after today some of these kids are going to die. Some will go down a bad path and get taken out too young."

In Op-Ed, this just in from calbuzz.com's Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine: California government is hard to handle. The two bloggers probed and have discovered that the problems include Proposition 13, voter initiatives, gerrymandering, term limits, a volatile tax structure, and the two-thirds rule for adopting budgets and taxes. Who knew? And guess what? It turns out some people are calling for a constitutional convention.

They made me look up the word bibulous, and now I'm embarrassed I didn't know it before, so I deny it.

Roberts, by the way, is the former political editor, editorial page editor and managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, and was the embattled editor and publisher of the Santa Barbara News-Press before his well-chronicled battle with owner Wendy McCaw. He wrote about one episode here.

He and Trounstine last wrote for the Times Opinion page here in March on whether Dianne Feinstein would run for governor.

Trounstine is former political editor of the San Jose Mercury News, communications director for California Gov. Gray Davis and founder and director of the Survey and Policy Research Institute at San Jose State University.

Elsewhere in the page, filmmaker Todd Darling writes in favorof the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act, but says it's not enough. By the way, catch the trailer from his film, "A Snow Mobile for George," on YouTube here.

And columnist Meghan Daum wonderswhat the deal is with J.D. Salinger, who went to court to block publication of a book in Sweden about his Catcher in the Rye character Holden Caulfield. Say what you will about Salinger, who Daum points out has dabbled in (gasp) Zen Buddhism. But even at 90, he's no phony.

Photo: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

The Times editorial board gives a qualified "no" today to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to sell some of the state's real estate. The idea might be worth considering, the editorial board concludes, but it's not going to help with the state's current financial crisis. It would take years to complete Schwarzenegger's proposed sales of such iconic properties as San Quentin and the Memorial Coliseum, which would have to go for bargain prices in today's market, anyway.

The board applauds Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Christine Varney's pledge to hold big business to a tougher antitrust standard than the previous administration did, and points to the European Commission's fine on Intel as an example of how such standards might play out. As for former Vice President Dick Cheney and former Cuban President Fidel Castro, both of whom have been busily talking up the policies of yesterday while trying to forestall the progress of new administrations, the advice goes more like: You worked hard, now take a break. Spend more time with your family. And for heaven's sake, quiet, already.

On the other side of the fold, author Lisa Sweetingham, a Manny Ramirez fan brought up short by his suspension for violating baseball's drug rules, reviews the reasons why so many athletes -- and so many others -- have taken hormones and "accessory" medications. And environmental activist Bill McKibben writes that the combined might of environment groups is still too small to push faster government action on global warming. That, he says, will take grassroots action of the type his 350.org group is promoting.

Illustration by Patrick O'Connor for the Times

In anticipation of the upcoming Senate Judiciary Committee endurance test to be faced by President Obama's Supreme Court pick, the editorial board has some advice. To spare everyone involved the Bork-era partisanship, "inane" questions such as whether "the opposite of being dead is being alive?"  (which was posed to John Roberts) and flat-out unbelievable answers  -- Clarence Thomas saying he'd never though much about Roe v. Wade-- the Times editotial board offers some guidelines. It starts by deferring to the president (but not acquiescing).  The board, however,  is far from siding with the president on his recent decision to withhold photos of detainees being tortured.

Over in Op-Ed, contributing editor D.J. Waldie warns that neighborhods will suffer if Sacramento forces already struggling cities and counties to loan the state 8% of their property tax revenue. Meghan Daum ruminates on children's author Judy Blume and how her message urging donations to Planned Parenthood for Mother's Day kicked off a controversy with abortion foes. Rounding out the page, Lori Pottinger of the environmental group International Rivers says U.S. efforts to help Ethiopia would be better spent on climate change adaptation and anti-drought measures than a poorly planned dam.

With today's visit to Jerusalem by Pope Benedict XVI, Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center leads off the Op-Ed page with a look at past papal visits, with a smattering of missteps and snipes. Things are better today, Hier says:

On the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, Jews around the world need to acknowledge that the Catholic Church of 2009 is no longer the same institution it was under Pius XII. Jews and Catholics may have their differences, but Benedict XVI's pilgrimage to Jerusalem confirms that the Catholic Church, once a main source of anti-Semitism, is today an important voice in validating the Jewish people's right to fulfill a historic and spiritual destiny.

Author Arthur Allen walks through some of the known unknowns about the flu, swine and otherwise. And columnist Gregory Rodriguez ponders the role of Latinos as President Obama considers his Supreme Court choice.

On the editorial page, the ed board compares California to a gas-guzzler nearly out of fuel, and the May 19 ballot measures to a gas station:

California must get on a different road, change its political dynamic and perhaps its political structure, but it can do that only if it can move. And to move, voters must pass the ballot measures. There is little point in arguing over the next turn if the discussion takes place in the back seat of a rusted-out hulk.

The board also calls on the Long Beach City Council to ignore the false environmental objections and give the go-ahead to the Middle Harbor project, the port's first major construction effort since 2002:

The piers would have clean cargo-handling equipment and would allow container ships to plug in to shore-based power while docked, so they wouldn't have to keep their engines running during loading and unloading. That would cut a tremendous amount of diesel pollution, as would rules imposed on ships using the new terminals -- they would have to switch to low-sulfur diesel fuel when within 40 miles of the port, and slow down to about half their normal speed.

And the board calls for the confirmation of Indian University law professor Dawn Johnsen to head President Obama's Office of Legal Counsel.

Credit: Jonathan Twingley For The Times

Paging Laura Chick.

I know, she's already got her hands full as the inspector general for the $50 billion or so in federal stimulus money coming to California.

But as she quoted someone to me in my Q and A column earlier, ''If you're not indignant, you're not paying attention.''

So pay attention, and see what you think:

My Sacramento colleague Evan Halper writes that every time any of us buys a gallon of gas, we pay nearly a penny and a half into an environmental fund intended to help small companies clean up their messy energy footprint. The mess is from service stations' underground storage tanks leaking fuel into the groundwater,

Rather than let these small businesses go broke cleaning it up, the state set up a fund 20 years ago to help the little gas-station guys and gals clean up after themselves.  

So how has that been working? Well, of the nearly $2.5 billion collected over two decades, nearly a half-billion has gone to homey little businesses such as ... Exxon. And Shell. And 7-Eleven, which has more gas pumps than, to use my great-grandfather's phrase, Carter has liver pills. It seems from Evan Halper's story that the big guys have shoved into line with their big mitts outstretched, and they've gotten the big checks.

That made me think of something I heard last year, when I was writing about DNA and the one-drop rule during Barack Obama's run for the White House. A DNA specialist told me offhandedly about a multi-millionaire businessman, a successful Caucasian guy who decided for fun to have his DNA tested. He found something he hadn't known -- that he had a fraction of native American blood. Not much, but it was the minimum amount required to claim native American status and glom onto a chunk of money set aside to encourage struggling young native American-owned businesses, not thriving businesses run by white guys who had gone most of their lives without a clue as to their small piece of aboriginal American heritage. And glom onto it he did.

It sounds like something of the same is happening here. Money that the author of the law creating the fund says he meant especially for small businesses is being vacuumed up by big energy firms with the big lawyers and the big accountants and the big lobbying firms and the big campaign contributions to make the law and lawmakers serve them, and not the other way around. These are the same companies, Evan Halper writes, that fight gas taxes -- which are used primarily for the road projects that sustain demand for the companies' gasoline. The small companies don't have that kind of money; they're supposed to be able instead to look to lawmakers to even the playing field, in this and in other matters affecting small businesses.

So, in the face of behavior like this, is it any wonder people have so little faith in some of the lawmakers who seem to pay only lip service to the ''little guy'' who pays them?           

Today's Editorial Page weighs in on a Los Angeles billboard ordinance being considered today by a City Council committee, offering The Times' prescription for how the city could best fashion enforceable and effective sign restrictions. But we'd have more faith that the council could pull off such a feat if it hadn't failed so dismally in the past:

Before the city permits any new billboards or draws any new districts, it must demonstrate its ability and its will to enforce current law, cite and dismantle illegal signs and complete and publicly post its sign inventory. Absent that showing of good faith, over the course of a year or two, no Angeleno can be expected to see any new law as anything other than further concessions to the billboard industry.

We also discuss the Screen Actors Guild's tentative deal with the Hollywood studios, pointing out that SAG's efforts to negotiate a better deal in new media was undermined by the willingness of other unions to accept less. Next time around, the union might want to increase its leverage by negotiating jointly with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Writers Guild of America, whose contracts will expire at about the same time as SAG's.

Over on the Op-Ed page, columnist Jonah Goldberg says the Environmental Protection Agency's decision last week to regulate greenhouse gases should be disturbing to "people who believe in democratic, constitutional government." That's because the agency is taking on sweeping powers to regulate nearly every sphere of economic activity, powers that were never put before the voters.

Neal Bascomb, author of a recent book on the hunt for Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, points out that the fledgling nation of Israel's pursuit and prosecution of the notorious operational manager of the "Final Solution" exposed his crimes to the world and served justice against a man who might otherwise have gone free. That's worth noting as the world works on systems, like the International Criminal Court, for trying others who have committed crimes against humanity.

And Dean Florez, chairman of the state Senate Committee on Food and Agriculture, points out the folly of some California pistachio growers, who thought the nuts' thick shells and the methods used to process them would protect them from bacteria. That mistake was exposed when about 3 million pounds of pistachios from a Terra Bella plant had to be recalled because of salmonella contamination. Florez has introduced a bill that he says will reduce the risks.

All that, and Letters, too.

*Photo of Adolf Eichman by Associated Press

Readers react to the Obama administration's tough words for the auto industry in Tuesday's Letters to the editor.

Roger A. Wells, of Manhattan Beach, welcomes limits for Detroit:

It's sad watching our major automakers slip into history with a tin cup in their hands. Over time, these giant automakers built up costly executive hierarchies and frittered away their competitive advantage to foreign brands that ate their lunch in the U.S. marketplace.

Because we taxpayers are stuck in the default position as lenders of last resort, we should clamor to "cut 'em back or cut 'em off" and force reevaluation of such layered executive sweeteners as bonuses, hiring inducements and golden parachutes.

But Steven Siry, of Los Angeles, worries that the president is overreaching:

The last time I checked, personnel actions within a private corporation were governed by a board of directors and shareholders. As a General Motors shareholder, I do not appreciate the president dictating the dismissal of GM chief Rick Wagoner.

This is a private matter. Just as we have separation of church and state in this country, we also need to honor the tradition of the separation of public and private entities. This is just one more step toward nationalization.

Also, Standard & Poor's EVP Vickie Tillman takes George Skelton to task for his assessment of California's lowest-in-the-nation bond rating:

...[C]redit ratings are assessments of creditworthiness -- primarily, the likelihood of default. In general, Standard & Poor's ratings for municipal debt reflect the relatively strong credit quality of municipal issuers.

Although the likelihood that, for example, either Beverly Hills (rated AAA) or Stockton (A+) will default may be low, that does not mean that both municipalities deserve the same rating, nor that neither would ever default. Their credit profiles and economic fundamentals differ.

A rating system should reflect these differences to help investors make decisions. Even though the ultimate risk may be small, in our opinion, California is more at risk of default than higher-rated states.

Letters about solar panels in the desert, healthcare reform, and Los Angeles billboards, too.

Photo: Flags outside General Motors' Detroit headquarters, Monday.  Credit:  Jeffrey Sauger/Bloomberg News.