Today's memorial service for Michael Jackson at the privately owned Staples Center reminds The Times editorial board of a sad fact of life in Los Angeles: It's a city without a public square. Though the backers of LA Live once promised that the downtown entertainment mall would become L.A.'s version of Times Square, the fact remains that it's a private space whose owners can bar the public anytime they choose.

We also weigh in on President Obama's trip to Russia, which isn't expected to accomplish much -- but even a small thaw in relations between the two countries, and the modest improvement represented by the nuclear weapons pact concluded Monday, is better than the chilly status quo.

And we ponder the lessons to be learned from the example of former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who died Monday at 93. Though many see parallels between the mistakes made in Iraq and the mistakes made by McNamara in Vietnam, we think the larger lesson is that using yesterday's solutions to today's problems is often the pathway to failure.

Over on the opposite page, columnist Jonah Goldberg thinks all the sturm und drang over the canceled "salons" by the Washington Post, in which lobbyists were invited to pay heavily to attend get-togethers with the newspaper's journalists and top politicians, amounts to little more than posing. After all, many publications offer similar meet-and-greet opportunities, Goldberg says.

The hand-wringing over genetically modified foods, meanwhile, reminds author Tom Standage of another food-related hysteria from a few centuries ago -- over the potato. When the tubers were first discovered in the New World, Europeans feared they were a dangerous, unholy poison. They got over it, just as they'll probably eventually get over their irrational fears about improved crops.

And psychiatry professor Sander L. Gilman cautions against jumping to conclusions about Michael Jackson's cosmetic surgery. True, the King of Pop clearly was fond of surgical reshaping, but that doesn't necessarily indicate self-loathing.

* Illustration by Bob Daly / For the Times

President Obama travels to Russia today to give a speech (of course!) and meet with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The topics likely to be covered include the START treaty (which expires in December), human rights, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, nonproliferation, the environment and even reserve currencies.

Both administrations seem willing to negotiate. "Pressing the reset button" has been a phrase used within the Obama administration to describe how the president wants to approach U.S.-Russian relations. Medvedev said in a video blog that Russia is "ready to play our part" in strengthening the relationship:

Now is not the time to say who is suffering more and who is stronger. Now is the time to unite our efforts. We simply must improve our relations in order to put our joint efforts into resolving the numerous problems facing the world today.

Although both administrations appear eager to be more amiable than in the recent past, there are still many issues where they disagree. NATO expansion in Eastern Europe and U.S. missile defense installations there are two of the sticking points. In a press briefing, Michael McFaul, Obama's Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs, responded to these two most divisive topics in a decidely non-amiable way:

We're definitely not going to use the word "reassure" in the way that we talk about these things. We're not going to reassure or give or trade anything with the Russians regarding NATO expansion or missile defense.... We're going to talk about them very frankly as we did in April when we first met with President Medvedev. And then we're going to see if there are ways that we can have Russia cooperate on those things that we define as our national interests. So we don't need the Russians, we don't want to trade with them.

Newsweek's Holly Bailey said one area the U.S. does need Russia is in Iran. The Russians can aid in pressuring the Iranians to end their development of Nuclear weapons. Interestingly, the Russians were the first to recognize the controversial re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, while the rest of the world eyeballed the election skeptically.

With the next two days shaping to be crucial in U.S.-Russian diplomacy, we want to know what you think of Obama's trip. Will it produce anything of substance? Do you fear Obama will concede too much? Could relations be strained further? Take our poll, leave a comment below, or do both!

Photo: Dmitry Astakhov / AFP/Getty Images

Today's editorial page leads off with a plea to the Los Angeles City Council to stop dawdling on a water conservation plan that would raise rates for water guzzlers. The need for conservation is dire, with a dwindling Sierra snowpack and supply reductions intended to reverse environmental damage, but a sensible rate plan will be jeopardized if the council doesn't act soon.

The Times also celebrates the remarkable rescue by Navy personnel of container-ship Capt. Richard Phillips after a five-day standoff with pirates off the coast of Somalia, but warns that the aggressive U.S. response could endanger the lives of more ships' crews. And we give thumbs-up to last week's U.S. Supreme Court decision restricting law-enforcement agents from giving the "third degree" to criminal suspects -- the court has clearly signaled that confessions will only be considered voluntary if they are made within six hours of arrest.

Today's Op-Edsters include columnist Jonah Goldberg, whose take on the pirate hostage drama is that it should mark the beginning of a tougher stance against pirates, one that has been delayed for too long by a "pro-pirate" culture, misplaced sympathy for criminals and, above all, lawyers.

Also opining today is Juan Carlos Zarate, former deputy national security advisor for combating terrorism, who says the best way to coerce North Korea's rogue regime to stop pursuing nuclear arms is to apply smart financial pressure. Even without support from the United Nations, the tools are in place for the U.S. to cut banks that do business with the regime off from the U.S. financial system, a strategy that the Obama administration should pursue.

Finally, writer and parent Lorenza Munoz recounts the tale of a PTA effort to put on a show by controversial comedian Carlos Mencia as a benefit for a low-income school, and the firestorm that erupted.

* Editorial cartoon by Joel Pett / USA Today

During the week ending April 11, The Times received a rather sparse 430 usable letters -- perhaps spring break is slowing writers down -- just 134 of which were in our Top Five Topics.

• Limbaugh challenge: 39 letters, reacting to four essays from prominent local liberals accepting Andrew Klavan's Limbaugh Challenge;
• Obama's trip: 31 letters, about President Obama's swing through Europe and the Near East;
• Binghamton shootings: 26 letters, reacting to a tragic shooting spree in an upstate New York immigrant center;
• Ana's story: 20 letters, responding to Times reporter Thomas Curwen's two-part series about neurofibromatosis sufferer Ana Rodarte; and
• North Korean rocket: 18 letters, focusing on North Korea's rocket launch and what it means for the world.

How the Top Five is tabulated: Each week, your letters maven receives thousands of e-mails, dozens of letters through the good old U.S. postal service, and even a few faxes here and there.

After she cuts out spam, obscene mail, letters addressed to more than one recipient, letters that seem to be the fruit of letter-writing campaigns and letters with attachments (which gum up our computer systems), she is usually left with several hundred eligible items, represented in the Letters Top Five tally. From these, she selects the somewhere around 100 that get published in the newspaper. Faxes and snail mail are not reflected in the chart.

In Wednesday's letters, reaction to North Korea's diplomatically-if-not-technically-effective rocket launch.

Cynthia Yeung, of Chino Hills, worries that

Once again, the United Nations Security Council fails to come to a hasty agreement when countries need it most.

When a threat such as North Korea's missile launch becomes evident, shouldn't we put aside our differences and try to craft a response that might quickly put a stop to the danger?

It is fortunate that this rocket failed to send a satellite to orbit. But the next time an issue similar to this threatens our peace, how are we supposed to quickly solve the problem if no country is willing to sacrifice a little to benefit everyone?

While San Diego's Randall Smith sees some irony in U.S. reaction to the test:

So the U.S. is shocked to find that a country has developed nuclear weapons as well as the ability to launch payloads into space and hit far-flung targets, all at the whim of a dangerously fanatical leader!

Who would want to perpetrate such a threat to peace, nay, to life itself? God forbid the day will come when someone will drop one of these heinous weapons, or perhaps two, on major cities, killing untold numbers of innocent people and leaving a poisonous radioactive legacy for generations to come.

Wait a minute! The U.S. already did all those things. Never mind.

Chris Ungar, of Los Osos, sees a different dark humor in the situation:

Kim Jong Il to starving North Koreans: "Let them eat rockets!"

Reactions to stories about college admissions and tuition, a controversial professor, investigating the Bush Administration's war on terror and the Binghamton massacre, too.

Photo: Image believed to be rocket and exhaust trail launched from Korean Peninsula on Sunday.  Credit: AP Photo/DigitalGlobe.

Long Beach Democrat Laura Richardson and a few other members of the U.S. House scored some private face time today with ex-Cuban President Fidel Castro -- a feat that, as Sergio Muñoz pointed out a few weeks ago in a Times Op-Ed article, many Latin American presidents have tried but failed to achieve. Reuters reports:

The meeting took place at a time of possible change in long hostile U.S.-Cuba relations, spurred by U.S. President Barack Obama's promises to take steps toward normalizing ties with the communist-ruled island, 90 miles from Florida.

Three members of the seven-member visiting U.S. delegation met Fidel Castro at the end of a trip in which they also met with President Raul Castro, who took over from his ailing brother last year.

[Rep. Barbara] Lee [D-Oakland], who led the U.S. group, and the other delegates said in Washington that Fidel Castro appeared eager to do his part to improve links between the countries.

"He was very well aware of what was going on," said Representative Laura Richardson. "As he leaned in, he looked directly into our eyes, quite aware of what was happening, and said to us 'how can we help President Obama?'"

Funny, I was under the impression that Castro's reluctant abdication of the Cuban presidency to his brother in 2006 because of illness was the best thing the former dictator could do to improve his nation's relations with the U.S. I can't imagine that having Castro -- the man who established a Communist Party-run state 90 miles from the Florida Keys in 1959 and allowed Soviets to park nuclear-tipped missiles there in 1962 -- play a role in improving U.S.-Cuba relations would help at all. (Of course, the U.S. is arguably just as culpable in getting the two countries to where they are now, having attempted to assassinate Castro many times, among other things.)

But I digress. As the Reuters article notes, the meeting is worth noting because the Obama administration is considering loosening the 47-year-old travel ban that bars nearly all Americans from going to Cuba. As this recent South Florida Sun-Sentinel article notes, a growing number of lawmakers want to go further by completely doing away with the travel ban.

As potential American tourists to Cuba, what do you think about easing restrictions on commerce and travel between Cuba and the U.S.? Take our unscientific poll.

Photo: Raul Castro grips and grins with Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland). Credit: Juvenal Balan Neyra / AFP / Getty Images

The Times editorial page sums up President Obama's tour of Europe and Turkey as an impressive show that won the president accolades, but very little else; Obama's hopes for more stimulus spending by the G-20, more troops for Afghanistan and more condemnation of North Korea's nuclear ambitions went largely unrealized. We also find much to like in Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates' military budget proposal, which aims to shift the emphasis from fighting big conventional wars to taking on insurgencies like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gates and Obama hardly aim to disarm America, but there's no question that they intend to buy less ammo. Given that the United States spends nearly as much on defense as every other country on Earth combined, that's not a bad plan.

Finally, The Times praises Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's efforts to wrest sacrifices from city employees, who must accept pay cuts in this tough economy if they want to avoid widescale layoffs that would only worsen local unemployment.

Over on the Op-Ed page, American Prospect associate editor Ezra Klein compares "nationalized" healthcare systems in Britain and Canada to the private health system in the U.S., and finds that both systems find ways to ration care. The choice comes down to occasional waiting times for elective surgery, or excluding many people from getting care at all:

So although Britain and Canada have decided that no one will go without, even if some must occasionally wait, the U.S. has decided that most of those who can't afford care simply won't get it.

Columnist Jonah Goldberg assails the Obama administration for opening its arms to the discredited United Nations Human Rights Council, a pack of nations that ignores rampant human rights abuses in places like Sudan and Cuba while taking every opportunity to condemn Israel. Rather than trying to change this reprehensible group from the inside, Obama should cut all ties and delegitimize it by ignoring it. And novelist Susan Straight finds that her husband's simple advice to the girls' basketball team he coaches applies as much to everyday life as it does to the court.

Editorial cartoon by Lisa Benson / Washington Post Writers Group

The Times' new Mapping Project has received thousands of comments from readers online (and is still accepting input here).  Letters to the editor also received mail about the paper's attempt to draw borders for its 87 neighborhoods. 

LAAlamanac.com's Gary Thornton, who lives in Montebello, had this to say:

I was both delighted and disappointed by your article on mapping out Los Angeles neighborhoods.

In 2002, we posted the first online neighborhood map of Los Angeles, which has since been viewed close to 2 million times. A year ago, we further revised and detailed our map and published it as a poster-sized wall map. As far as I can determine, it is the first-ever privately published wall map detailing the neighborhoods of L.A.

The Times' article makes it appear as though yours is the first serious effort to map out L.A. neighborhoods. The Times has always ignored our efforts, except for an occasional citation.

And Yolanda Lopez-Head, of Glendale, offered this response to Patt Morrison's column about the project:

Way to go, Patt Morrison! Keep East L.A. where it has always been: east of the Los Angeles River.

As a seventh-generation Angeleno, born in East L.A ., raised in Boyle Heights (yes, there is a distinction) and a South L.A. Fremont High School grad, I plead with our city not to erase our geographic and cultural history so readily, so illogically, so unnecessarily.

Iran's nukes, more on the California budget deal, lowered standards for sheriff's deputies in L.A. County and nursing home deaths, too.

Image: Map of Los Angeles from Times Mapping Project.  Credit: Los Angeles Times

Today's Op-Ed page presents a critique by former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's approach to North Korea. Guess what? He's not a fan:

Clinton accurately called North Korea's nuclear program "the most acute challenge to stability in northeast Asia," and she established the objective that the North "completely and verifiably eliminate" its nuclear weapons activities. This familiar formulation implicitly -- and very unfortunately -- accepts that North Korea can keep a nuclear program as long as it is "peaceful." Whatever else it may be, this deal is not "smart." Leaving Pyongyang with any nuclear capability simply invites future abuse and a recurrence of the very problem we need to "eliminate."

Columnist Tim Rutten urges President Obama to lift his predecessor's ban on news coverage of military coffins returning to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Wrapping up the page, Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign, and former LA Times scribe James Gerstenzang tell Detroit automakers to change their approach to a federal bailout:

What the automakers don't get is this: What's good for America is good for GM (and Chrysler), and not the other way around. With billions of dollars of taxpayer cash in their bank accounts and billions more coming, GM and Chrysler work for us now. And they have to start thinking about how to serve the country.

Americans need cars that go farther on a gallon of gasoline, pollute less and save money at the pump.

On the editorial page, the Times board lays into state Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) for demanding good-government reforms in exhange for the vote that would end the state's budget crisis. It ridicules the "Buy America" provision of the newly passed federal stimulus package. And demonstrating impeccable timing, it levels a broadside at Facebook, calling on it to drop new terms of service that claimed the right to use members' material even after they remove it or delete their accounts. Ahem. Turns out that late last night, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company had dropped the controversial change and was working on new language. I console myself with the thought that the editorial ran on the Times website for at least half an hour last night before becoming outdated.

Credit: Matt Wuerker, Politico

Columnist Jonah Goldberg gangs up on the Gang of Three today, blasting the "centrist" Republicans led by Sen. Arlen Specter who are approving President Obama's stimulus plan after cutting $100 million from the package. This paragraph pretty much sums up Goldberg's feelings on the matter:

Now, to be honest, I think President Obama's stimulus bill is a monstrosity, a bloated behemoth unleashed on America with staggering dishonesty. The centrist "improvements" are like throwing a new coat of paint on a condemned building.

"The architect" Karl Rove, meanwhile, defends government secrecy and the need for presidential administrations to control media leaks, in excerpts from a speech he delivered last week at Loyola Marymount University. And Nina Hachigian, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, gives Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a checklist of things to discuss with Chinese leaders when she visits Beijing next week: the economy, nuclear proliferation, climate change and pandemic disease.

Over on the Editorial Page, the board bemoans Israel's shift to the right, which is likely to signal a retreat from peacemaking efforts. The increasing hostility and retrenchment by both sides only make peace more elusive and decrease the chances that Israel ever will be secure.

We also take note of Friday's accidental disclosure of the names and badge numbers of hundreds of Los Angeles Police Department officers accused of racial profiling over the last year. The police union has for years been bullying politicians to prevent the release of such information, claiming it would lead to irresponsible actions by the media and put officers' lives in danger -- yet no such problems have emerged. It's time to publicly disclose police misconduct proceedings as a matter of course, not accident. And we argue that cutting back mail service to five days a week instead of six, as the U.S. Postal Service is proposing, wouldn't be such a bad thing if it saves snail mail from extinction.

* Photo of Karl Rove by Gerald Herbert / AP