Editorial cartoons for April 15, 2018: Cohen is searched, Ryan quits, Zuckerberg testifies

The Federal Bureau of Investigation executed search warrants against the president's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, in an investigation triggered by a referral from Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, announced he would not run for re-election, throwing the campaign for control of the House in the midterm elections into uncertainty.

Political Horizons: The inescapable political element of criminal justice reform

Almost at the very beginning of a recent speech, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards reminded his Southern University audience that they were used as a backdrop "to scare people" in an ad attacking him during the 2015 gubernatorial campaign. Against the faces at the historically black university, Republican David Vitter's commercial - the first one out of the gate during the runoff - charged that the election of Edwards would lead directly to the release of "fifty-five hundred dangerous thugs, drug dealers, back into our neighborhoods."

Dennis Kucinich in the Democratic primary for Ohio governor: endorsement editorial

For Democrats in this year's race for Ohio governor, the choice should come down to passion, vision and an ability to grasp the bully pulpit to inspire Ohioans about the need for change. Ohio's next governor must be a fighter -- a fighter for greater equity, justice and common sense; a fighter for the state's urban centers; and a fighter against the moribund thinking on education, diversity, economic opportunity and home-rule rights that's held Ohio back for too long.

Burdett Loomis, Professor, Political Science, College of Liberal Arts and Science

Early this past Sunday morning, at the last minute, Kansas legislators passed a school funding bill of more than $500 million. The Supreme Court must still rule on its constitutionality, but the frantic maneuvering of last week allows Kansans to understand a lot about state politics as we head toward the end of the session and the 2018 elections.

Investigation into Trump evokes similarities

Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and Donald Trump's presidential campaign is starting to display similarities to Ken Starr's probe into Bill and Hillary Clinton. The latest twist in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation feels, as the great American philosopher Yogi Berra once put it, like deja vu all over again.

Searching and seizing

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." - Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution No one ever accused Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz of being a conservative, but Dershowitz is a rare breed these days; someone who applies the Constitution and the law to everyone, regardless of their political leanings.

John T. Dever od/ed: Meeting the demand for talent

Again and again, the urgent call goes out for educators and employers to work together to develop the talent supply pipeline needed for economic competitiveness and business growth in the Commonwealth. Blueprint Virginia 2025 - the business plan issued by the Virginia Chamber this past December - leads with the observation that "the availability of a well-trained and educated workforce remains the top concern for Virginia's business community, and with good reason."

Paul Ryan is just about as popular with L.A. Times readers as Preisdent Trump

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan greets President Trump at the National Republican Congressional Committee Dinner in Washington on March 20. Almost as low in our letter writers' esteem as President Trump - and mind you, we're talking about a readership concentrated in deep-blue Los Angeles, writing about one of the most consistently unpopular commanders in chief since the advent of tracking polls - is the politician many consider to have served as the president's most effective enabler, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan .

Red Lake man sentenced to 82 months for violent assault

United States Attorney Gregory G. Brooker Tuesday announced the sentencing of Richard J. Smith, 27, to 82 months in prison for a violent assault of a man on the Red Lake Indian Reservation. Smith, who pleaded guilty to one count of assault resulting in serious bodily injury, was sentenced earlier that day by Chief Judge John R. Tunheim in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis In reaching the final sentence of 82 months, Tunheim levied an upward departure from the federal sentencing guidelines to address the extreme physical and psychological injury Smith inflicted on the victim.

George Pyle Opinion

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg doesn't want his online empire slapped with a new regime of regulations, especially regulations written by people who think that deleting cookies is a euphemism for throwing up. So he was willing to sit there for two days, listening to old people who have no clue about what he has built and what parts of it might have escaped from his lab to wreak havoc among the ignorant villagers, promising to get back to them on technical questions and patiently explaining that just about all of the privacy bells and whistles the members of Congress suggested are already on there, somewhere, if you just keep clicking through.