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Editorial: How do we keep coronavirus from ravaging L.A.'s homeless encampments?

Los Angeles wants to move thousands of homeless people inside. But is crowding indoors actually less dangerous than letting them stay on the streets?




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Editorial: Don't be fooled. The coronavirus pandemic is deadly serious, and it's everyone's problem

California's order might seem like a big deal. But what we don't know about this virus, which is a lot, means the risk of inaction is too high.




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Editorial: Caltrans is sitting on vacant houses during a pandemic? Put homeless families in them immediately

Amid a public health emergency, it's unconscionable for California to allow dozens of state-owned homes to stay empty.




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Editorial: Are California kids actually learning anything since coronavirus closed their schools?

With 40 million kids home from school, what's being done to make sure students are learning?




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Editorial: Climate change is just as real as COVID-19. Now's the last, best chance for our government to treat it that way

President Trump and Congress should keep climate change in mind as they prepare economic aid packages for businesses and industries.




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Editorial: No, seriously. Stay. Home

This past weekend was an epic fail for public health. Southern Californians crowded hiking trails and beaches, and otherwise ignored social distancing orders..




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Editorial: Defendants who can't tell right from wrong shouldn't be convicted

The Supreme Court makes it easier for states to convict mentally ill defendants.




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Editorial: It's no government takeover of PG&E, but it's still a possibility for the state's most dangerous utility

It's not the government takeover that many Californians wanted for the fire-starting utility, but the deal Gavin Newsom struck with PG&E should help.




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Editorial: Dr. Anthony Fauci is the coronavirus truth teller we need. Let him do his work

One Trump's smartest moves was to make Dr. Anthony Fauci a part of his coronavirus task force. Let's keep him there.




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Editorial: The wisdom and peril of closing courthouses to the public

Closing trial courts to the public and postponing non-essential proceedings during the covid19 emergency makes good sense as a public health measure but shuts the public out of proceedings that under normal circumstances are rightfully accessible. Constitutional rights of criminal defendants are protected not just by the right to counsel but also by public scrutiny of hearings, judges, prosecutors and other public officials. Many problems would have been avoided if only courts would embrace televised proceedings and modern communications technologies.




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Editorial: Congress has to immunize election day against fear of the coronavirus

A pandemic threatens participation in the ultimate act of citizenship.




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Editorial: The most important thing is to contain COVID-19. Then we can think about going back to work

It's legitimate to worry that the steps we're taking to contain the coronavirus are causing unnecessary damage to the U.S. economy. But the damage that the disease would cause if it isn't contained would be far worse.




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Editorial: Congress is moving fast on a coronavirus economic rescue — for better and worse

The stimulus plan passed the Senate. Now it's up to government to get the money flowing quickly and transparently.




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Editorial: A 'postponed' abortion? Yeah, that's called having the baby

Some states are using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to cut off abortion access. That's unacceptable.




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Editorial: Coronavirus isn't an excuse to rush through far-reaching laws that hurt L.A.'s businesses

The Los Angeles City Council is rushing a major law that would dictate how businesses rehire workers after layoffs.




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Editorial: Coronavirus whack-a-mole isn't working. It's time for a nationwide shutdown

With the U.S. now leading the world in COVID-19 infections, it's time for the nation to stay at home.




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Editorial: Beware of coronavirus-inspired attempts to lock you out of L.A.'s public debate

With officials meeting virtually amid the coronavirus, the government must ensure that the public still has sufficient opportunity to participate.




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Editorial: Conducting a census during the coronavirus pandemic won't be easy, but we have to get it right

There's never a good time for a pandemic, but it's hard to imagine a worse time than in the middle of the decennial census.




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Editorial: Migrant children shouldn't be detained, but especially not during a pandemic

A federal judge was right to order the Trump administration to move faster to release detained migrant children from conditions that put them at risk for COVID-19.




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Editorial: Hey, sheriff and supervisors, knock off your squabbling. People are dying out here

The last thing L.A. County needs during a coronavirus pandemic is a turf battle between the sheriff and the Board of Supervisors.




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Editorial: California's wildfires aren't going to stay quarantined for coronavirus

What's worse than power shutoffs during the coronavirus quarantine? An unplanned outage that sparks a wildfire.




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Editorial: Newsom opens the door to more doctors and nurses, but it needs to be opened wider

Doctors who've gone to medical school for nearly four years and nurses who are within two months of graduation are needed during the coronavirus crisis.




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Editorial: Enjoying the clean air? Trump weakens car emissions standards just when we need them the most

It's especially galling that the Trump Administration chooses this very moment, in a pandemic, to rollback car emission standards.




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Editorial: To wear a mask or not to wear a mask. It's no longer a question

Wait. Now maybe we should wear facemasks? The evolving, and sometimes puzzling, guidance for Americans to stop the spread of COVID-19 infections.




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Editorial: More Angelenos are turning out to vote. We can thank L.A.'s new election schedule

City elections typically drew 15% turnout. In the March primary, the seven City Council races on the ballot drew, on average, more than 30% turnout.




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Editorial: Closing houses of worship during the pandemic is an act of faith and charity

Communing online is a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic.




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Editorial: School shutdowns threaten to worsen the achievement gap

It would be grossly unfair to allow disadvantaged students to languish during a long gap in schooling while students whose families have more resources forge ahead.




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Editorial: Can we still fight the coronavirus while holding the surveillance state at bay?

Some of the most effective strategies at containing the coronavirus are also the most intrusive. Can we adopt them without damaging our liberties?




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Editorial: Hey, Gov. Newsom, give California renters a real eviction moratorium

The governor's announcement made it sound like renters had true protections, meaning many tenants could unwittingly end up setting themselves up for eviction.




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Editorial: The absurdity of life without parole for juveniles

Judges aren't wizards who can see the future, so it's absurd to grant them legal power to brand any juveniles as incorrigible.




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Editorial: Social distancing worked against the deadly 1918 flu. It will work against the coronavirus

The 1918 pandemic has lessons for the 2020. Namely, we got through it. And social distancing works.




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Editorial: Trump's insistence on 'America First' is stunting the global fight against COVID-19

The president must drop his opposition to 'globalism' in the interests of public health




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Editorial: The U.S. Supreme Court just made it easier for police to pull you over

The justices give police the OK to stop drivers with nothing more than the barest fig leaf of a reason: that the car owner's license has been revoked.




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Editorial: This could be the first worst week of many worst weeks to come. Prepare yourselves

This may well be the nation's "hardest, saddest" week yet of the coronavirus pandemic. But it may not be the last "worst" week.




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Editorial: L.A. County's Board of Supervisors broke the law last week. Twice

Supervisors didn't permit public comment at their March 31 meeting, then failed to act publicly before admonishing the sheriff about his public statements.




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Editorial: Trump whacks at the inspectors general appointed to keep him honest

Trump's demotion of the inspector general who was going to monitor coronavirus spending marks his continued drive to put his own interests above the nation's.




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Editorial: COVID-19 is disproportionately killing minorities. That's not a coincidence

As COVID-19 spreads across the United States, only a few areas are breaking down the numbers of infections and deaths by racial and ethnic groups.




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Editorial: What every homeless person needs in this pandemic: a room of their own

Hotel rooms are what homeless people need now




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Editorial: Bernie Sanders changed the Democratic Party for the better. Now it's his job to help defeat Trump

Sanders leaves the presidential race with some major accomplishments.




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Editorial: States are on their own to fend off this pandemic. That may be a good thing

Who needs the federal government when you have the world's fifth-largest economy taking charge?




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Editorial: Fossil fuels and nativism: Trump is using coronavirus to push through his draconian agenda

Cutting off asylum-seekers isn't the only controversial policy issue President Trump has forged ahead with under the guise of fighting COVID-19.




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Editorial: NIMBYs stop a hotel from housing sick homeless people in Orange County

There's no place and precious little time for this kind of shameless obstructionism during a pandemic that is particularly ravaging older impoverished people already racked with medical problems — like the ones who would have been cared for at the Ayres Hotel.




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Editorial: We were caught flat-footed by COVID-19. How can we do better?

The coronavirus outbreak is exposing weaknesses in our planning for such disasters, and offers a chance to rethink how we do many things.




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Editorial: 'Bedlam' shows us what we've done to our mental health system

Psychiatrist Kenneth Rosenberg's film brings together many strands of American dysfunction: mental healthcare, incarceration, homelessness, policing, race. It provides few answers but helps us ask the right questions.




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Editorial: Coronavirus forced the Supreme Court into transparency. Finally

The Supreme Court allows livestreaming of oral arguments. The next step should be cameras.




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Editorial: No, Mr. Trump, you don't get to decide when the economy restarts

Trump is correct that the decision is a very tough call. But it will be made by mayors and governors, not federal officials.




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Editorial: Coronavirus outbreak gives colleges a chance to revive a system already breaking

The coronavirus epidemic has superheated the issues confronting colleges and their students in ways that will reverberate for years, if not forever.




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Editorial: It's not just renters. Landlords need help, too

Communities have a shared interest in keeping renters housed and keeping landlords in business. They provide an essential service: a roof over one's head.




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Editorial: Let's finally protect mountain lions from freeways, rat poison, and angry property owners

Mountain lions in southern California are endangered by rat poison and development. Time to protect them.




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Editorial: For all its faults, we need WHO now more than ever

Trump isn't wrong to question the World Health Organization's early responses to the coronavirus. But he is wrong to abandon funding in the middle of a pandemic.