Marc Cooper

WHERE I LIVE, ON THE EDGE of Topanga Canyon, our cars are dusted with ash and our nostrils tickled with the scent of charred wood. We’ve got one eye on a darkened skyline and the other on the tube, lest we be warned to get out, and get out now......

It’s one thing that the national calendarof presidential primaries leapfrogs forward with every passing day. It’s quite another that the leading Democratic contender, Hillary Clinton, now wants to hopscotch over the whole mess. To heck with actually getting elected to be the nominee — Hillary simply wants to be appointed......

TUNE THE RADIO DIAL ANYTIME this week somewhere between KUSC and KCRW, and you’re going to inevitably bump smack into a fund-raising pitch on Pacifica’s KPFK. Lucky you, it’s one more extended pledge drive for “radio powered by the people.” So, people, you know the drill: Rush to your phones!......

IT WAS Wonderful to see O.J. in handcuffs, getting hauled off to the cooler by the rough-and-tumble boys of Vegas Metro. Not so much because a lying, conniving double slash-murderer was finally behind bars again. Hardly. It was just plain thrilling to watch the Juice once again charge right to......

General David Petraeus’ long-awaited report back to Congress has confirmed the worst fears of the Bush administration. Six years after 9/11 and nearly five years into the occupation of Iraq, we have been unable to prevent the creation of a failed state. I’m not talking about the one with its......

Buckle up your hazmat suits and adjust your air mask, as we’re going to take a late summer plunge into the bubbling cesspool of our local “people-powered” radio station, KPFK. Last week, its long-reviled manager, Eva Georgia, announced she’s finally stepping down. It’s a little bit like Nero calling 911......

I JOINED THE RANKS of, say, something like 299 million other Americans and skipped last weekend’s Democratic presidential debate from Iowa. By my rough count, there have been at least 27 such candidate debates or special-interest forums since the first was held in late February. That’s actually a mind-blowing number......

Des Moines, Iowa — When you start reporting on presidential campaigns, you notice occasional pivotal moments, veritable epiphanies, when everything suddenly snaps into place. I remember, for example, attending the 1992 Republican Convention in Houston, fireworks booming over the press bleachers, while Pat Buchanan thunderously delivered his now infamous culture-war......

LOOKS LIKE WHEN CALIFORNIA’S top Democrats, including Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, rolled over to wealthy tribes and the governor a few weeks ago by approving an unprecedented expansion in gambling, they may have indirectly voted themselves right out of office. Last Friday, a not-so-crazy coalition of the hotel workers union......

FIRST, MY DISCLAIMERS. I have a home network of six computers, as well as broadband wireless cards in both of my laptops. My first e-mail account dates back to 1984. I got onto the Web before anyone I know and would feel nude walking out of the house without my......