Threats and intimidation enliven the Op-Ed page, courtesy of two former Los Angeles Times scribes who've gone on to pen books.

Miriam Pawel details how the United Farm Workers switched from backing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to increase Central Valley water supplies to opposing it. Backed by the Change to Win union coalition, Pawel writes, the UFW established a $1 million fund to campaign against Schwarzenegger's water bonds in a "clumsy attempt at political blackmail." And Michael Krikorian recounts how five LAPD officers came to train four handguns and a shotgun at him and his girlfriend's son on a recent night in Hancock Park.

The Opinion Manufacturing Division also offers two takes on President Obama's speech Tuesday to students. Columnist Tim Rutten gushes about the speech and the president's Q&A session with a group of Virginia high-schoolers, then urges Obama to take the same approach and tone -- speaking plainly and personally but without condescension -- tonight in his speech to Congress about healthcare. The editorial board, meanwhile, frames the controversy that led up to the speech in the context of "what historian Richard Hofstadter called the 'paranoid style in American politics,' an ancient, exasperating form of discourse."

The board also urges the state Fair Political Practices Commission to adopt a proposed set of rules limiting how public agencies may use taxpayer funds in support of ballot measures, bond issues and other Election Day causes. And it urges the Los Angeles City Council to settle the dispute over the city controller's power to audit functions within the city attorney's office:

City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Atty. Carmen Trutanich have accomplished something remarkable. They have given new life to a dispute between their predecessors that should have expired when the new term started July 1. Each made a campaign issue of cooperating to resolve the case of City of Los Angeles vs. Laura Chick, but each now claims the other is not cooperating. It's as if the contentious ghosts of termed-out politicians refused to leave and now possess the bodies of the new officeholders.

Credit: William Brown, TMS

-- Jon Healey

The Times doesn't buy arguments that Jaycee Lee Dugard's 18-year ordeal as a kidnapping and rape victim is a reason to oppose coming reforms to California's parole system. The Assembly passed a bill Monday that would reduce the case rolls of parole officers by mandating less supervision for low-risk, non-violent ex-convicts, while increasing supervision for more dangerous criminals. That doesn't mean Dugard's alleged abductor, Phillip Garrido, and his ilk would be off the hook -- in fact, it means they would get more attention in the future, the editorial page argues.

What's the upside to the Station fire, which has killed two firefighters, burned dozens of homes, fouled L.A.'s air and destroyed thousands of acres of scrubland? It's that fire is a natural part of Southern California's ecosystem that will clear wild areas for new growth and deposit fertilizer. The real problem, The Times points out, is that the frequency of such fires is rising, and continued sprawl into wilderness areas is increasing the costs and the environmental woes.

And Japan's dramatic changeover Sunday, when the party that has ruled the country almost continuously for half a century was booted from power, gets a thumbs up from The Times. Though the Liberal Democratic Party has helped turn Japan into an economic powerhouse, a one-party state seldom makes for good governance; "competition is as important in politics as it is in business," The Times asserts.

On the Op-Ed page, global warming skeptic Jonah Goldberg wonders whether the media are giving short shrift to sunspots. Evidence is mounting not only that we're living through a period of highly unusual sunspot activity, but that such events can have a dramatic impact on Earth's climate -- meaning the current warming we're experiencing might have more to do with solar activity than the greenhouse gases Congress aims to reduce. "I don't know what [this evidence] tells you, but it tells me that maybe we should study a bit more before we spend billions to 'solve' a problem we don't understand so well," Goldberg concludes.

Rivka Carmi, president of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, sounds off against one of his faculty members -- Neve Gordon, who published an opinion piece in The Times last month arguing for an economic boycott of Israel. Carmi says he can't fire Gordon for his controversial views under Israeli law, but his explosive anti-Israel rhetoric could seriously harm both the nation and the university.

Finally, Leo Hindery Jr., Leo W. Gerard and Donald Riegle argue that the "buy American" provisions of Washington's economic stimulus package level the playing field with our trading partners and boost U.S. manufacturing jobs. They back legislation that would expand them to cover all national government procurement. "'Buy American' is neither un-American nor anti-globalization. It is simply good, necessary, balanced and reciprocal economic policy."

* Photo: The Station fire as seen from a hill overlooking Tujunga. Credit: Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times

An extraordinary lawsuit--one that could change the balance of power between multinationals and the indigenous people in the countries where they pull resources from the ground--is nearing verdict in Ecuador, where extensive damage was caused by years of oil extraction: In the first of a two-part series, the editorial board reflects on the damage and the changes in corporate behavior that might come about as a result:

Today, a swath of the Ecuadorean Amazon the size of Rhode Island remains contaminated beyond imagining. At one site after another, oil hangs in the air, slideson the water's surface and saturates the land. Pipelines and waste pits left behind years ago still drip and ooze. Advocates for the plaintiffs have called the former Texaco concession area the "Amazon Chernobyl." Were it in the United States, it would easily qualify as a Superfund site. Neither side in the case disputes the devastation, only who should pay for it. Chevron says it is the state-owned oil company's responsibility; the plaintiffs say it is Chevron's.

On the other side of the fold, the op-ed page offers a trio of tributes to people of accomplishment who have contributed to modern society:

A former aide of the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy reveals another side of the Senate powerhouse. He describes the personal, empathetic man who understood what it was like to lose loved ones and regularly called people who were mourning terrible deaths--such as the victims of the World Trade Center attack-- spending expansive amounts of time sympathizing and even crying with them.

Jim Newton, editor of the editorial pages, pulls from his years of experience covering City Hall to pay tribute to Robin Kramer, chief aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (and previously, Richard Riordan), who resigned from the mayor's office. Calling her L.A.'s leading grown-up, Newton praises the focus and level head she has brought to Villaraigosa's operation and wonders, with a measure of nervousness, what the mayor's operation will be like without her.

And two academics who have co-authored a book honor the iconic African American civil-rights figure T.R.M. Hunter--flamboyant big-game hunter, plantation owner, and surgeon to the poor. What, never heard of him? That's exactly the point. Now you will have.

--Karin Klein

Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

My guess is no. I, admittedly, am guilty of texting while driving. And about five years ago this habit of mine resulted in the totaling of my car. Yes, my fault. And yes, stupid, I know. I was 17 years old, a brand new driver stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic less than a mile from my house. I was texting and not paying any attention (the two go together) and pressed the gas instead of the brake, ramming my bright teal land yacht (a 1996 Chrysler LHS) underneath the big pickup truck in front of me.

You would think that with that accident I learned my lesson. Au contraire. I still text while driving because it's convenient. Perhaps this reflects the social culture of a generation founded upon the notion that none of us can be out of touch for more than a few minutes. Texting, for many of us, is our main tool of communication. It's a little sad that we prefer typing to talking, but it's often fastest way to get across a quick message, let someone know when you'll meet them or give directions (since now on most phones you can copy and paste an address into a GPS program).

If texting while driving becomes a federal offense, as the editorial board hopes it will, I'm not sure that would stop me any more than the current state ban on texting does. Enforcement would be difficult, as most perpetrators keep their phones on their laps anyway. I'm surprised that hand-held cell phone usage has dropped so dramatically since the ban went into affect last summer, because I don't know anyone who has been given a ticket for it.

If the laws are not enforced, simply being "illegal" is not enough of a deterrent to stop talking or texting while driving. It's become too much of a way of life for me and my peers. Sure, there are hands-free devices that would keep me out of trouble in one respect, but ironically I've noticed myself texting in the car even more now that talking is banned. And texting, I believe, is far more dangerous. Trust me from experience.

I agree with the board that the best way to change this potentially dangerous behavior is through a high-profile campaign of public service announcements. The United Kingdom has started disseminating gory videos that simulate the nightmarish consequences of texting and driving ... (insert doomsday soundtrack here). Jesting aside, tactics like this are far more effective than once-in-a-blue-moon enforcement and puny fines. You could use me as a poster child: "Look what could happen to your car if you text while driving."

Credit: AP Photo / The Detroit News, John T. Greilick

--Catherine Lyons

L.A.’s new city attorney Carmen Trutanich stopped by The Times on Thursday to speak with the editorial board about his first few months in office. Trutanich received the editorial board’s endorsement in the March election, in which he defeated then-Los Angeles City Councilmember Jack Weiss.

The meeting lasted for about an hour. Below is a link to a recording of the conversation; as always, feel free to leave a comment.

Click here to listen

--Kevin Patra

Bet you thought that the business of your publicly elected California Legislature was, well, public, since your public dollars pay these public servants to make public decisions in the public's Capitol building. Is there a theme in that sentence? There ought to be, especially with the editorial board today bemoaning the Assembly's decision to expunge the record of the individual votes of its members on whether or not to allow drilling off the Santa Barbara coast. In other words, you can't find out how your own Assembly member voted.

Assembly members sometimes complain, privately, that their constituents just don't understand how difficult it is to make laws and balance a budget. But making the very public process of lawmaking into a secret ritual doesn't help matters. On the contrary, it makes Californians feel like they are part of the stuff being fed into the meat grinder.

The board also weighs in on the latest maneuvers to stop a worthy bill that would extend hate-crime laws to cover crimes against gays and lesbians. Since conservative lawmakers in Washington D.C. weren't getting anywhere with the specious argument that halting hate crimes against people because of their sexual orientation would somehow impinge on the perpetrators' freedom of speech and religion, they've come up with a new tactic: making certain hate crimes a capital offense, thus changing the congressional conversation from one about equal rights to one about the death penalty.

And though the people of Afghanistan have a million good reasons to mistrust the election process, the editorial board notes the importance of holding new presidential elections and giving voters hope that they can, at least eventually, have an impact on changing the government that has turned out a disappointment to many of them.

On the other side of the fold, Tim Rutten reprimands Police Chief William Bratton for the timing of his departure from Los Angeles and some of the dealings that took place beforehand:

...The manner and timing of Bratton's departure is almost breathtakingly irresponsible. It also raises troubling questions about his relationship with Michael Cherkasky, the court-appointed monitor who evaluated the LAPD's compliance with the federal consent decree, and about Cherkasky's role in convincing the federal judge to terminate oversight of the department.

And a professor in Mexico calls on President Obama to do more than praise Mexican President Felipe Calderon for his courage in the war on drugs; he must also remind Calderon that the human-rights abuses that his army is accused of in that war are unacceptable.

Photo: Philip Scott Andrews / AP

One last thought on the Henry Louis Gates Jr. case: If Gates had been equally eminent but a professor at somewhere other than Harvard, would the media have regarded his ordeal as such a "teachable moment"?

Maybe it's sour grapes because they rejected me, but take Harvard out of the equation and the story might not have become an iconic example of strained race relations. Sure, Harvard's location added to the plot line: Tension between Harvard and the Irish working class of Cambridge (and Boston) has been grist for a lot of pop-sociology journalism and some excellent fiction. (Check out "The Governor" by Edward R.F. Sheehan if you can find it in a second-hand bookshop.)

Google "Harvard" and "New York Times" and you get 8 million results. Replace "Harvard" with "Cornell" (which is in New York State) and you'll get a measly 1.82 million results, and Dartmouth must content itself with 425,000. Other indices of Harvard's disproportionate valuation are its over-representation on the Supreme Court (though Justice David H. Souter's retirement reduced the Harvard-educated cohort to six) and the national press corps.

If Gates, who used to teach at Duke, had been nabbed by the Durham, N.C., police, would Obama have had to bring out the beer?

With state officials discussing the early release of 27,000 inmates, the editorial board takes a closer look at California's broken prison system in the wake of the abduction and slaying of Lily Burk. The board traces much of the mess in the current prison system to Jessica's Law, Megan's Law and other emotion-driven pieces of legislature that trap criminals so they can't ever escape the vicious cycle or recidivism.

The board also weighs in again on the Employee Free Choice Act, this time on the elimination of the contentious card check provision. The card check would have tipped the balance of power in favor of unions and away from employers, who hold the advantage today. Neither should have the upper hand, the board says. Instead, workers should be able to decide whether to unionize with as little pressure from either side as possible:

Meanwhile, the op-ed page discusses healthcare from a Canadian perspective, sex bans in nursing homes, and beer in the White House.

First, physician and health policy analyst Michael M. Rachlis gives his Canadian perspective on the U.S. healthcare reform debate, arguing that his country's system hasn't been studied enough by U.S. policymakers. His comparisons are not pretty: All Canadians have health insurance, 46 million Americans do not. Canadians pay no co-pays, health problems bankrupt more than 1 million Americans each year.

Next, psychologist and author Ira Rosofsky ponders whether sex should be banned in nursing homes (is that even legal?). He concludes that one's sex life should never be restricted, but frequently are in nursing homes because of a lack of privacy. He calls for that policy to change.

Finally, columnist Gregory Rodriguez analyzes last Thursday's "beer summit" at the White House and thinks the idea of resolving intra-national conflict -- even something as big as race -- over a few beers just might be the way to go. We'll drink to that.

Photo: Vice President Joe Biden, Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley and President Barack Obama share a brewski (or in Biden's case, a pseudo-brewski) at the White House on July 30. Credit: Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images

Today's Times editorial page tells FINA to get a grip. Or, rather, loosen its grip. FINA -- that's Fédération Internationale de Natation Amateur to you -- is the body that governs competitive swimming, and it recently said non to the high-tech, full-body polyurethane suits that have helped swimmers set new world records. Don't fear the modern world and its innovations, the editorial says:

But short of a swimsuit fitted with motorized propellers, or high-jump shoes soled with rocket boosters, there's little reason to reject improved design and materials based on skittishness about the records set and broken in seemingly less time than the 20 minutes it takes to don one of the new swimsuits. Fans like to compare performances of the past with those of the present. Who's the greater golfer, Tiger Woods or Arnold Palmer? Sporting events should be a contest among athletes, not between current athletes and the ghosts of athletes past.

The editorial page also says it's high time for Los Angeles to weed out the medical marijuana joints ... sorry ... dispensaries ... that can't or won't abide by reasonable restrictions. Like not being next door to a school. Or a bong supplier: "If the city doesn't regulate its dispensaries, there's a chance the Drug Enforcement Administration will, with results many Californians would rather avoid."

The page also raises a glass to President Obama, Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and the guy who arrested him, Cambridge police Sgt. James Crowley. See, they're having a beer in the White House today to talk over old times ("Dude, remember that time you came to my house, and I yelled at you, and you arrested me, and the president took my side, and then he backed down? That was cool."). We don't deal with the fact that the president's beer of choice, Bud Light, is now foreign-owned.

OK, turn the page. Op-Ed leads off with Israeli blogger Yisrael Medad and his observation of a Jewish day of lamentation -- and his assertion that the U.S. stance toward the status of Jerusalem has created "another lamentable situation between the two nations."

UCLA law professor Gary Blasi, a persistent thorn in the side of cities trying to "clean up" homelessness rather than help the homeless, takes on Santa Monica for its aggressive enforcement:

The city's budget documents praise "the rigid enforcement of laws and ordinances to discourage" what it calls "encampments." The budget included $250,000 for "homeless intervention" but also $240,000 for a panhandling education campaign, presumably to reduce giving to people perceived to be homeless. And last winter, Santa Monica closed pickup locations from which homeless people could get to cold-weather shelters in adjacent cities.

Read previous Blasi Op-Ed articles in the Times here.

And Jersey girl Meghan Daum compares her state of birth with her new home. Is L.A. New Jersey West?

And yet it's also the way both places are blessed with a commendable lack of smugness about themselves. Just as New Jersey lives in the shadow of New York and Philly, Southern California is forever contending with the sanctimonious posturing of Northern California. We are perpetually being told our coastline isn't as dramatic and our populace not as literate. San Franciscans refer to their town as The City and do a lot of chest-thumping about how the taxi drivers quote Rilke and the sourdough starter dates back to the Gold Rush.

You know, Meghan, the West Coast has the sunshine.

But, I guess, down on the shore everything's all right.

Photo: Martin Bureau / AFP / Getty Images

The pseudonymous Los Angeles police officer apparently thinks very little of the Angelenos he's paid to "protect and serve." I say this having read Dunphy's dig at The National Review on the Obama administration's flubbed response to the Henry Louis Gates affair. An excerpt (emphasis mine):

Note the italics -- and consider that an armed officer of the law grotesquely warns any innocent civilian who cites his Constitutional protection against unreasonable searches that he runs the risk of being killed. I hope that a cop who pulls me over simply because another guy driving a blue VW Jetta committed a crime would exercise more restraint should I point out that the law is on my side.

In all seriousness, Dunphy is completely out of line here; any officer who considers citizens belligerent for asserting their Constitutional rights is a danger to the public and his department. Chief Bratton take note.

Hat tip to Brian Doherty at Reason magazine's Hit & Run.