ArcaMax

The most unusual thing about the decision of a Quincy, Illinois, judge to throw out the conviction of an 18-year-old man who raped an unconscious 16-year-old girl is that it made its way to The New York Times. Otherwise, it would be easy to conclude that nothing has changed.

The case involved a graduation party where teenagers were drinking ...Read more

Remember when the president's answer to the new variant was going to be 500 million home tests so we wouldn't have a repeat of those long lines for tests that were a fixture of the early days of the pandemic?

Drive down Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles and about the only foot traffic you see is outside the urgent care places and pop-up shops...Read more

Banned from social media, impeached for a second time, former President Donald Trump might have disappeared in the sunset. And there are days when it almost seems as if he has, at least for those of us who aren't looking and listening.

But make no mistake. He is still there. He may be the Democrats' best hope going into the midterms. And that...Read more

The year began with such great optimism when it came to COVID-19. Science had produced a miracle or, rather, multiple miracles named Pfizer and Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, and while there was much talk about freezers and distribution and dosing, there was even more hope that the ANSWER was at hand.

And it was, sort of. If the question was,...Read more

For too much of my life, New Year's resolutions were all about diets. One year, after I had half-tamed the monster, I managed to monetize my obsession by writing and, most importantly, personally marketing a diet book. It was a guarantee, of sorts: unlike Oprah, I figured I'd be too embarrassed to show my face or figure if I gained it all back. ...Read more

"What should I do?"

It is a rare moment that my adult son asks.

It is an even rarer moment that I don't have a laundry list of mostly useless advice.

But I'm stumped.

Should he cancel his planned trip to the Consumer Electronics Show -- the mega-convention for his industry, where he has dozens of meetings planned, not to mention a mega-...Read more

"A supervisor will just write down your complaint and send a message. I just sent a message. There's no one you can talk to. There's no one anyone can talk to. The supervisors can't talk to them."

"Them" is the processing center.

No, I'm not talking to a call center in the Philippines, where operators claim to be from Detroit and couldn't name...Read more

If you've ever done a home pregnancy test, you know what it's like to look for a line that's not there.

My problem with my first three home COVID-19 tests was just the opposite: I was looking at a line, it was my favorite color, and I felt absolutely fine, or as fine as I ever felt.

Which, as it turned out, was right. I took four home COVID-...Read more

I still remember those forced marches. Run, the PE teacher would yell, as I tried desperately to put one foot in front of the other. And I wasn't fat (even though I thought otherwise); I marched in parades and did splits in the mud while tossing a baton in the air. Even so, those runs were murder.

Today's teens are in worse shape than I was. ...Read more

On Thanksgiving weekend, a rash of smash-and-grab robberies at some of the most expensive malls (Century City and the Beverly Center), department stores (Nordstrom) and shopping strips (Melrose) in Los Angeles left the city and its retailers terrorized. Then there was the murder of one of the most prominent philanthropists in the city, ...Read more

Americans over 65 and those with underlying risk factors are not supposed to travel. Luckily, I have no plans to travel this week. Because I traveled last week. Who knew?

No one. No one and nothing. That is who knows what.

About the variant.

"What is President Joe Biden saying?" I asked one of my news-following friends.

He yawned. It took ...Read more

The worst was the Home Depot store on Friday night. A swarm of robbers ran in and grabbed sledgehammers -- presumably to use to rob additional department stores and high-end boutiques. Later that night, four suspects in the sledgehammer theft were arrested by Beverly Hills police after an "alert" citizen noticed cars driving around Beverly ...Read more

In the last 40 years, I have counseled, represented, supported and cried with thousands of women, many of them students in those criminal law classes, many of them telling their stories for the first time.

And that is why I believe that when a group comes together to abuse the power we have fought so long and paid so dearly for, the most ...Read more

In 1974, when I walked out of an alley in Boston's Back Bay, it was pretty much "just me." Of course, millions of women were raped (we didn't have a word for sexual harassment then), but it wasn't something you talked about or reported. The stigma was sufficiently bad that when I told my mother, she insisted that I tell no one because no ...Read more

The most famous person from my hometown of Marblehead, Massachusetts, is a former vice president of the United States by the name of Elbridge Gerry. Gerry is, fairly or unfairly, not remembered because of any major policies or programs or speeches or the like. His legacy is far more political than that.

His legacy is a salamander.

Drawing ...Read more

It is my first time traveling since the pandemic -- my first plane ride, my first trip in from the airport, my first hotel stay. It feels like a big deal. I -- who flew across the country every week for years -- am scared. Of what, I don't know.

There is a lesson here, and this is it: The world has changed. But what has changed even more is ...Read more

Some people say heaven is the place where you are reunited with all the dogs you have lost. It is as good a description as any I have heard.

My mother never bought it. She didn't want pets in the house because, she said, it would be too sad when we had to put them down. No "better to have loved and lost than never loved at all" for her.

So, ...Read more

I missed the national moment that was Brandon. Blame it on work. If your head has been similarly buried in the sand, the Brandon moment involved a NASCAR audience yelling, "F--- Joe Biden," which the anchor clumsily translated as, "Let's go, Brandon" as she was interviewing the race winner, named Brandon. The moment inspired a rap song called "...Read more

He is President Joe Biden. The answer, at a minimum, is that more of the same just won't do. Biden's presidency, to date, has been a failure.

The real question is whether it is too late.

For cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving (they say the price will be 50% higher if you buy your cranberries in preciously scarce cans).

For sleds for Christmas...Read more

"I have not seen any evidence that whether I am doing well or poorly, whether I have got my agenda passed or not, is going to have any real impact on winning or losing."

So said President Joe Biden on the Monday before the Tuesday that proved how wrong he was. Even on Monday, was there anyone other than him who really believed that? Did he?

...Read more