Thank you for the Monday editorial encouraging Congress to act and finalize tax rates for 2011 [“Settle on 2011 tax rates,” Opinion, Aug. 30]. Writing as a former IRS employee,...

• Unemployment is stuck at high levels even though some companies are hiring. The problem, government data show, is that too few jobs are being created for the growing number of people looking...

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 128 points Friday, its fourth straight day of gains. The strong start to September marked a turnaround from a dismal performance in...

Ski Utah is looking for someone to blog once or twice a week this winter about skiing and boarding, presumably describing places they’ve been that will make readers’ mouths...

U, MET COUNCIL AGREE "This was a very, very difficult and protracted negotiation; there were legitimate issues on both sides, including the U's concerns over protecting their research facilities...

• • • THE GOOGLE AND VERIZON STATEMENT, which was roundly criticized when it was released, is unlikely to be the only proposal we'll see from the big boys. A couple of weeks ago,...

I am embarrassed to be collecting unemployment. I am embarrassed about it because my husband has a good job. I am more embarrassed about it because I have a new car. I feel like Ronald Reagan's...

There was an interesting confluence of articles on Aug. 30, with Peter Bell writing about the achievement gap between white and black children ("An idea: Bring back the orphanage") and...

Regardless, at least the city of St. Cloud tried for some public accountability of a Waite Park man who violated a city ordinance when he put up posters last December that expressed his hatred of the...

Last week our biking group took a ride to check out the two recently installed artist-designed drinking fountains that adorn our city. I was inspired by the high quality of the artists' works and by...

Applaud his stand against dependency Much is being said of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's "no" on health care reform as crafted by the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress ("Pawlenty...

President Obama's military leadership is scandalous, writes columnist Charles Krauthammer. The president sees his wartime duties as a threat to his domestic agenda. These wars are a distraction,...

Welcome to The Seattle Times' online letters to the editor, a sampling of readers' opinions. Join the conversation by commenting on these letters or send your own letter of up to 200...

It comes as no surprise to me that scores for math and science are especially weak for public school students as based on the MSP and HSPE tests administered statewide last year [“Mixed results...

It is quite disturbing to hear that 140 banks failed in 2009 and that, to date, the total of 118 is on track for 177 in 2010 [“Problem banks on the rise, but bank profits rising, too,”...

This is a satirical response to “Carver ‘struggled with a lot of things’,” [NWThursday, Sept. 2]. “Special to The Times: Street whittling declared illegal” ...

I’d have to heartily disagree with the editorial regarding the proposal to ban smoking in private multiunit housing in Pierce County [“A whiff of Big Brother,” Opinion, Sept. 1]. ...

Welcome to The Seattle Times' online letters to the editor, a sampling of readers' opinions. Join the conversation by commenting on these letters or send your own letter of up to 200...

Thomas Friedman, who has sold out his shallow soul to the devil few times and on discount, compares incantations of a rabbi, in which the rabbi called for the God’s wrath on Arabs, with actual...

Mexican drug lords exist to feed the US drug market. And they get their guns through the US weapons market. We give the bad guys their money by buying their drugs; we sell them the guns that enable...

A buzz of fresh interest in SkyWest Inc. erupted this week after a top airline analyst praised the carrier’s clever use of its cash to produce growth in a shrinking regional airline...

A: Crash worthiness B: Fuel economy and emissions C: Overall comfort D: Amount of parts made in the U.S. 2 Cuba may loosen the rules to lure what kind of...

(Jim Urquhart | The Salt Lake Tribune) file A scanner is seen at Ruth's Chris Steak House in Salt Lake City. Bars failing to scan licences could be slapped with a fine ranging from $500 to $3,000....

Current news director Steve Hertzke will be stepping down next week and be replaced by Jen Dahl, who at one time was KUTV’s assistant news director, said KUTV General Manager Steve Carlston. She...

The U.S. war against marijuana has failed and actually threatens public safety and rests on false medical assumptions. Guest columnist John McKay, Seattle's former U.S. attorney, argues why the laws...

We need to take a time out on immigration reform so we can get it right, writes columnist Mary Sanchez. To do so, we need to police our borders but also address humanely the 10 million people here...

So very hard to imagine Sarah Palin as a presidential candidate, writes columnist Gail Collins. So very easy to imagine her on a reality TV show. "Sarah Palin's Alaska" is set to premiere in November...

The actual economic lessons of 2009-2010, writes columnist Paul Krugman, are that scare stories about stimulus are wrong, and that stimulus works when it is applied. But it wasn't applied on a...

The jobs outlook is not especially sizzlin' this Labor Day, as unemployment creeps up to 9.6 percent. But private-sector jobs are growing, and President Obama is wisely considering tax cuts for small...

Even before the Israeli-Palestinian talks began Sept. 2, an attack by Hamas and a death call by a prominent Jewish rabbi have signaled that extremists want to derail the negotiations. Benjamin...

September 3, 2010 Once when I was 9, my Mennonite mother busted me for reading during a spectacularly dull sermon that looped around and around like one of those Hindenburg bees. I had smuggled in...

Geoff Nunberg says that pop singers such as The Beatles and Elvis Costello may have visited wordplay from time to time -- but country music lives...

The danger in the debate about the mosque near Ground Zero is that Americans start believing every Muslim thinks alike, much less that they support the 9/11 terrorists. Would that kind of group think...

And Tim Scott is black.Even more surprising, Mr. Scott's platform is a repudiation of Barack Obama's agenda. He promises to support a repeal of the health-care law, simplify the tax code, and cut...

bleak report on the state of black male education. Only eight states graduate more than 70 percent of black non-Hispanic males from their high schools. Four states have a graduation rate between 60...

exploded Thursday morning. Fortunately, all thirteen members of the rig crew survived and were rescued successfully. But uncertainty remains over whether we're facing a second catastrophic oil spill...

A protester urges congress not to pass the March health care overhaul. Conservatives have touted health care as the issue that will hurt Democrats most in the midterm...

LA Weekly. Sharron Angle has no business being in the Senate, at least according to many of her fellow Nevada Republicans. The GOP mayor of Reno called Angle "wild" when he publicly endorsed her...

When the Puritans sailed from England in the 1630s to establish the Massachusetts Bay Colony, they imposed a ban on "games of chance." For a short time, the Pilgrims couldn't even possess...

The war that began on a false pretense ended in ambiguity. President Obama declared this week that it was time for the United States to "turn the page" in Iraq. The combat mission is officially...

Muni operators seem to have lost their sense of direction. Consider their union's latest move: asking the California Public Employment Relations Board to stop Muni from restoring 61 percent of the...

If we told you that a poorly regulated energy facility killed thousands of birds this year, you could assume we were talking about BP's Deepwater Horizon platform in the Gulf of Mexico. But we also...

President Obama's ambitious effort to lift the nation's schools draws heavily from the playbook employed in Chicago and New York City: Test kids more often, open more charter schools and tie teacher...

Though none envisions being a mere underling, the nine candidates hoping to be lieutenant governor all agree the job is likely to be defined more by the next governor's policies -- and his...

As the political season heads toward the primary election, a recognizable silliness is pervading the commentaries and news coverage. Nonsense from the right includes Maui News letter writers...

Welcome to the Crusades, version 2.0. It certainly was predicted that the white-hot emotional debate on whether gays should be accorded full civil rights would engage religious conservatives. But...

The Star-Advertiser welcomes letters that are crisp and to the point (~175 words). The Star-Advertiser reserves the right to edit letters for clarity and length. Please direct comments to the issues;...

September 3, 2010 Angelo Bruno, 60, spent more than 30 years as a sanitation worker in New York City. He and his partner, Eddie Nieves, cleared more than 14 tons of garbage from the city streets...