A poll has found that even New York City sadly harbors a robust disapproval of the proposal to build a mosque near ground zero.

The glimmer of hope in this week’s housing data — a rise in pending home sales — is not likely to be sustainable.

Employers have passed the increased costs of health insurance to their hapless workers.

Trying not to be blinded by the familiar but coming up against the limits of what a human can see.

Readers respond to an article about how immigrants feel less of need to Anglicize their surnames.

A reader responds to an article about the dredging of the Hudson River.

DECLARATIONS Democrats are running out of time to find an answer.

How Nancy Pelosi might save her majority.

The president's plan to raise top marginal rates is holding back the very people who should be leading the economic recovery.

Britain's former prime minister understands better than most the origins of the financial crisis.

The Oregon Democrat breaks ranks with the White House.

Israeli-Palestinian talks are good, but Tehran's nuclear drive continues.

Negotiations with Palestinians are back on, but the issues separating the two sides appear insoluble. But the common threat of Hamas terrorism may provide the impetus for an interim agreement."The peace process is back," my friend said with bitter sarcasm, after four Israelis were killed in a terror attack just before Palestinian-Israeli negotiations got underway this week. The irony may have been lost on outsiders but not on Israelis. The Oslo peace process of the 1990s was accompanied by waves of attacks by Hamas jihadists, which Israelis believe were tacitly orchestrated by their negotiating partner at the time, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. Then, in September 2000, just as Israel accepted a Palestinian state and the re-division of Jerusalem, Arafat responded by launching a four-year terror war.

The Israeli leader is not entering the Mideast peace talks in good faith. If he can derail the talks, he will. It is unfortunate that the direct Palestinian-Israeli peace talks that got underway this week are saddled with an Israeli prime minister who has made clear his unwillingness to reach an equitable two-state solution.

The U.S. risks a slow economy, fraud and a disenfranchised underclass, among other problems, if it renounces birthright citizenship. Countries that have done so have had to reconsider.We can already see the future of our nation if it renounces birthright citizenship for the children of undocumented immigrants, and it isn't pretty. Dragging economies, new forms of fraud, a disenfranchised underclass, children deported to places they have never even visited — countries that do not have birthright citizenship have experienced these problems and more, and have been forced to reconsider their practices. Germany, Israel and Japan are just three of those countries, and their experiences have much to teach us.

President Obama's speech on the end of formal combat in Iraq made a case for subjecting future decisions — about war, or troop strength in Afghanistan, or the size of the Defense budget — to more stringent economic analysis.President Obama declared an end to the U.S. combat role in Iraq this week, but his speech didn't include the word victory. One reason is that the U.S. combat role isn't entirely over; 50,000 American troops are still in Iraq, and some of them probably will be drawn into battle again. Another is that Iraq isn't at peace and doesn't have a stable government yet.

It must be bad if what-you-see-is-what-you-get photos are accompanying housing listings. Greasy countertops, anyone?We knew the housing market news was grim when the National Assn. of Realtors released numbers last week showing that existing home sales dropped 27.2% from June to July, a 15-year low. We knew things were even grimmer when Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said recently that despite low interest rates and lower prices, the glut of foreclosed properties and difficulties getting mortgages were "likely to continue to weigh on the pace of residential investment for some time yet." Oh, and then there's the figure of "25% of mortgages are underwater" that's been floating around. As far as stats go, that's almost as scary as nearly 20% of Americans thinking the president is Muslim.

Some of the 6,000 L.A. Unified teachers whose rankings were made public by The Times air their thoughts on value-added ratings.On Sunday, The Times made public a database that assigned "value added" ratings to some 6,000 Los Angeles Unified School District teachers. Rankings from "least effective" to "most effective" were assigned to teachers based on an analysis of whether they consistently raised or lowered their students' scores on standardized tests. Teachers were allowed to review their scores in advance and post comments if they wished to. Some were outraged at the idea of publicly releasing the data. Others welcomed the feedback. And still others questioned how a single measure could provide accurate information about a teacher's competency, and worried that teachers would become much more test-focused in their teaching. We have excerpted some teachers' comments below. Their full comments and those of other teachers can be found on our searchable database at projects.latimes.com/value-added

Editorial: : Chicago is ablaze with commentary this week on a meeting about which most of us know next to nothing.

Depressingly familiar bit of theater offers usual answers: NoneI pulled through Columbus Park in the rain on Thursday, looking for a place to park and cover what had been billed as the big gang-leader news conference.

MGT Push was a disaster, but does Bill Brady have a better idea to save Illinois some money?The fiasco known as MGT Push has finally cost the state's prisons chief his job, and it may yet do the same to Gov. Pat Quinn. It's tough to counter the damning sound bite, delivered by a panel appointed by the governor himself: The misguided early release program put public safety at risk for $3.4 million in savings.

Should Police Supt. Jody Weis have met with Chicago kingpins? The Chicago Tribune reported that 303 people were shot in Chicago, not in a year, but in July's 31 days. Gang members pulled the vast majority of those triggers. And that was not a record month. Sadly, it was an average July for the city.

I remember the spot where I discovered Vance Bourjaily's books. It was in a cramped, low-ceiling room in a rabbit-warren of a used bookstore on North Clark Street near Diversey Parkway. This must have been around 1977 or so.

WASHINGTON — You have to wonder exactly what you're supposed to say in a week like this one, as President Barack Obama officially declared the end to the U.S. war in Iraq and most Americans breathed a tempered sigh of relief.

Staggering asymmetries between Palestinians and Israelis could seriously imperil peace talks.

Whether they're ready or not, Pennsylvania's gubernatorial candidates have reached the national stage.

We've spent so much blood in Iraq that it would be wrong to walk away completely.

Here's why Ken Buck's looking like a promising candidate for Senate.

Can he use the end of combat operations in Iraq to rekindle aspirations for change?

Invading Iraq was a bad decision, but we have to learn to live with the consequences.

We've moved USA TODAY's opinion section has moved to a new, more user-friendly platform. Join us to see the editorials, columns, letters and ...

Our view on the Middle East: Israeli settlement push hurts U.S. interests, peace process Support for Israel doesn't mean accepting its misguided ...

Opposing view: Don't embarrass Israel Palestinians won't say yes to peace, so U.S. helps itself by helping Israel. By David Harris In the wake ...

Jobs crisis: Talk to Cal and Bob In their March 11 column "Get a job," Cal and Bob asked communities to help those languishing without jobs. ...

How much taxation is enough? 'Tea Partiers' understand the link between taxes and freedom. Somehow, liberals just don't get it.By Jonah Goldberg ...

Obama ignores black joblessness at his own perilBy DeWayne Wickham On the day the Labor Department reported that March saw the biggest jump in ...