Time For Your Check-Up, Mr. Mayor

Political Observers Analyze Eric Garcetti’s First Year in Office

You can say this about the first year of Eric Garcetti’s term as the mayor of Los Angeles: At least he has succeeded in taking New York down a peg by (good-naturedly) embarrassing the Big Apple’s mayor on national television. Poor Bill de Blasio performed a miserable rendition of “I Love L.A.” because he lost a bet with Garcetti over whether the L.A. Kings or New York Rangers were going to win the Stanley Cup. Of course, Garcetti was being judged during that victory lap, too—the F-bomb he dropped during …

Steve Ballmer’s Sweet Clipper Deal

L.A.’s Best Basketball Team May Turn Out to Be Worth Even More Than $2 Billion

As the powers that be of the world’s most popular sport gather in Brazil this week for the FIFA World Cup, they ought to offer a toast to Donald Sterling. …

Sorry, Polar Bears: There’s No Quick Fix for Those Melting Glaciers

We Can’t Engineer Our Way Out of Climate Change—But We Can Try to Minimize the Problem Faster Than We Create it

Even after researching the effects of climate change on ecosystems for 15 years, I had to put down my morning coffee and take a deep breath at the news earlier …

Don’t Call This Veteran a Hero

On Memorial Day, a Peacetime Soldier Explains Why ‘Hero’ Is a Four-Letter Word

“They think I’m some kind of damned hero,” the young veteran, a former airman, said in a hushed tone while ducking his head and quickly glancing behind him.

His voice and …

Meet the Philip Marlowe of 15th-Century Paris

At a Time When Detective Work Meant Putting Suspects on the Rack, a Meticulous Sleuth Untangled a Political Conspiracy and Changed the Course of History

On a chilly, moonless Parisian night, Jacquette Griffard was putting her baby to bed when she heard shouts in the street: “Kill him!”

This shoemaker’s wife looked down from her upper-story …