LETTERS: “The past several years … do not justify a great loosening …

Thank you for the recent coverage the flurry of Volusia County Council late-year activity regarding county employee pay increases and "wish list" expenditures that may burden taxpayers this year, and potentially for years to come if the local economy sours. Raises exceeding the cost of living adjustment and proposed multi-million-dollar expenditures for upgrades and new government facilities suggest County Manager Jim Dinneen and the County Council expect growth and revenue to continue to "flood" into Volusia County in 2018 and for years to come.

Geo-positioning gear can help stop crashes

It became clear almost immediately after an Amtrak train crashed in Washington earlier this month that excessive speed was to blame. The train was traveling at 80 mph on tracks rated for 30 mph when it derailed, killing three people and injuring many others.

Improving state’s image is a worthwhile goal

Alabamians are hopeful the ringing in of a new year brings a measure of sanity to politics in the Heart of Dixie. The waning hours of 2017 offered a touch of closure to another year of embarrassing shenanigans that kept the state under the glare of the national limelight.

The top 10 undercovered news stories of 2017, from the left and right

There were so many gigantic news events in 2017 that the merely huge, or yooge, got the dog-bites-man treatment. What happened while we were focused on the president's tweets; the attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act; the hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico; the tax bill; and #MeToo? Los Angeles Times Opinion asked two close observers of the media environment, Adam H. Johnson and Sean Davis , to list the top 10 under-covered stories of the year.

Smearing Mueller shows the depths of Republican fear | Editorial

The campaign to discredit Special Counsel Robert Mueller has reached a shrill and desperate phase, as some believe it is more important to protect Donald Trump's interests than to establish how and why an adversarial government influenced a presidential election. The goal is to dismiss any findings damaging to the president as political bias; to invent corruption in the highest echelons of law enforcement, notably in the FBI; and to preempt any discovery of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia with distractions.

The big problem with Trumpa s strategy to attack Michael Flynna s credibility: His own mouth

The White House has fired a warning shot in Michael Flynn's direction, with The Post's Carol D. Leonnig reporting that it plans to label him a liar who can't be trusted if he makes claims against it. The strategy isn't that shocking - President Donald Trump seemed to preview it with that fateful tweet, and his lawyers have hinted in this direction too - though it makes it crystal-clear that Trump's loyalty to his former national security adviser is far from absolute.