Covering implementation of President Barack Obama’s health care bill, Lisa Girion reports in the April 5th Los Angeles Times:

One of the rationales for the healthcare overhaul was that it would ease pressure on emergency rooms like St. Joe’s. As more people acquire insurance, the idea goes, more will get regular medical care. But will it work?
The new law also will increase the number of people on Medi-Cal. Because the government health program for the poor pays less than private insurers, hospitals will be pressured to treat more people at lower cost per case, said St. Joe’s chief executive, Barry

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In the March 24th Los Angeles Times Don Lee and Jim Tankersley provide details on a report that warns the U.S. economy will suffer because we’re falling behind other countries when it comes to clean energy investment. The Times says:

China overtook the United States for the first time last year in the race to invest in wind, solar and other sources of so-called “clean energy”, according to a comprehensive new report that raises questions of American competitiveness in a booming global market. The report warned that the current U.S. approach, in which states make varied efforts and the

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The February 18th Los Angeles Times reports that U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer is seeking re-election. Under the bland title “U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer files papers to run for reelection,” Seema Mehta explains, “The Democrat faces a tough battle amid an anti-incumbent backlash.”

Is what Sen. Boxer really faces an “anti-incumbent” backlash? Hardly. The Politico describes the current political terrain as seen by the famed (and non-partisan) Charlie Cook. The Politico reports:

Highlighting the GOP’s continued momentum, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report made ratings changes in 25 House races Thursday, all of which favor Republican candidates….

The respected political publication now rates

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Writing in the February 17th Los Angeles Times, Jim Tankersley and Michael Muskal report:

Seeking common ground with Republicans on energy and climate issues, President Obama on Tuesday pledged $8 billion in loan guarantees needed to build the first U.S. nuclear reactors in nearly three decades.

Industry groups and Republican leaders praised the announcement, which has been expected for months, but some environmentalists and free-market think tanks protested.

It is welcome that Tankersley and Muskal note that free-market think tanks have reservations about the loan guarantees, but when detailing those objections this is all LAT readers get:

Free-market groups complained that the

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The September 28th Los Angeles Times’ has an article by David Savage on the Supreme Court’s upcoming hearing on two Florida juveniles who are challenging their juvenile life-without-parole sentences on Eighth Amendment grounds. Savage reports:

According to Amnesty International, “The United States is the only country in the world that does not comply with the norm against imposing life-without-parole sentences on juveniles.”

Nearly all of the estimated 2,500 U.S. prisoners serving life terms for juvenile crimes, the group said, were guilty either of murder or of participating in a crime that led to a homicide.

But as Heritage Foundation legal scholars Charles … Continue Reading

James Oliphant’s August 20th Los Angeles Times article Healthcare co-ops emerging as viable alternative reports:

One of the six — Democrat Kent Conrad of North Dakota — is the leading Senate proponent of co-ops. He and others point to cooperatives in Seattle and Minnesota that employ doctors and own their own healthcare facilities, giving them more control over costs and the quality of care. Conrad says that under his plan, the federal government would play no role in managing the co-ops, but would only provide seed money to help them get started.

There are two things wrong with this paragraph. First, … Continue Reading

In her August 3rd article entitled “Democrats walk a careful line on health care” LA Times reporter Janet Hook writes that the health care “reform” bill passed by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on July 31st “is designed to expand health coverage for the poor, cut costs, and improve coverage for people who already have insurance.”

A more accurate statement would have been that Democrats are claiming the bill is designed to do those things. The reality, however, is quite different.

Regarding expanded coverage for the poor, the National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation reported last year that one … Continue Reading

Reporting on Defense Secretary Roberts Gates’ decision to deploy the SBX sea-based radar system to Hawaii in anticipation of a new North Korean missile test, the Los Angeles Times‘ Julian Barnes writes on June 18th:

According to reports in Japanese media, the North Koreans appear to be preparing to conduct their next long-range test around July 4. Experts believe that because the last long-range missile test failed, Pyongyang has more to prove and may see another test as necessary.

But the April 5th North Korea missile test was far from a failure. Award winning journalist Craig Covault reports:

New details

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Big “news” this past Monday: President Obama has new plans to “save or create” 600,000 additional jobs this summer!

At least that’s what you’d think by scanning today’s headlines. Doug Palmer’s June 8th Reuters piece Obama speeds projects to create, save 600,000 jobs, takes the President’s bait hook, line and sinker: “President Barack Obama said on Monday that accelerated stimulus spending would create or save 600,000 jobs over the next 100 days,” Palmer wrote before parroting White House claims that the spending will quickly lead to new economic activity at national parks, veterans centers and Superfund sites from coast to … Continue Reading

The American Journal of Medicine released a study yesterday purporting to show that “62.1% of all bankruptcies in 2007 were medical.” This claim was then picked up by multiple reporters including the Los Angeles Times‘ Lisa Girion (”medical bills contributed to 62% of all bankruptcies”), Reuters‘ Maggie Fox (”medical bills are behind more than 60 percent of U.S. personal bankruptcies”) and the Sacramento Bee’s Bobby Caina Calvan (”the cost of health care continues to burden Americans in alarming numbers, with 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies in 2007 blamed on unaffordable medical bills”).

All of these stories … Continue Reading

LA Times reporter Tom Hamburger had a very good article in May 19th’s paper chronicling the business community’s largely behind-the scenes lobbying effort against the so-called “Employee Free Choice Act.”

To Hamburger’s credit, he provides a lot of details about the business community’s lobbying effort that were not reported contemporaneously by the national media, however, Hamburger leaves unchallenged a questionable claim from an unnamed union advisor that unions have been “outspent” by business groups this year, and he gives the impression that unions have been largely sitting on their hands during this year’s debate:

… once [Obama] was elected, labor leaders

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In a May 6th LA Times article entitled “Obama budget puts security first at the border”, President Obama perpetuates the myth that the primary source of Mexican gangs’ guns is the United States by saying “This war is being waged with guns purchased not here, but in the United States.” The LA Times themselves fed into the misinformation with their April 18th editorial, “Stemming the flow of guns to Mexico”, in which they repeat the untruth that “about 90% of the…military-style assault weapons captured from (Mexican drug) traffickers” came from the US.

But that 90% number is just … Continue Reading