Founded in 1881, the Los Angeles Times is the largest news-gathering organization west of the Mississippi. Now read by more than 50 million unique visitors monthly, The Times’ journalism has won forty-four Pulitzer Prizes, six of which were gold medals for public service. The editorials collected in this book are the work of The Times’ editorial board, which is responsible for determining the positions of the paper on the important issues of the day. Unlike articles written by the paper’s reporters in its news pages, editorials are works of opinion. They are unsigned because they represent the consensus of the board. The opinions expressed in these editorials were reached through a process of discussion and deliberation by editorial writers Kerry Cavanaugh, Mariel Garza, Robert Greene, Carla Hall, Karin Klein, Scott Martelle, and Michael McGough, working with editorial page editor Nicholas Goldberg and deputy editor Jon Healey.