EDITORIAL: Persisting in tough times

When John Adams wrote to his wife in 1776 regarding the celebratory day of America’s independence, he told her that it “ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance . . . to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more.”

EDITORIAL: Taking one for our youth

At a time when local governments are closing ranks around their municipal budgets like herds of elephants around their threatened calves, it was a pleasant surprise to see the City Council last week put up $275,000 of its own general fund money to support school youth counseling programs — often among the first to be lopped off by the budget ax.

EDITORIAL:
Full disclosure is a fact of political life

In the latest chapter of the ongoing Police Commission saga, City Council members voted to require applicants for the Police Commission to disclose any criminal background. Fine. But then they had to go and direct the city attorney’s office to keep those disclosures confidential, even though those answers will be factored into the public appointment process.

EDITORIAL:
Supplying demand for transportation

Burbank’s political appetite for all things green is pretty well-established. So when the City Council voted Tuesday to discontinue the BurbankBus’ downtown loop, you know there had to be reason.

EDITORIAL:
Odds were already against him

The City Council, in voting to remove newly installed Police Commissioner John Brady on Tuesday, only made a bad situation worse. Now we not only have a Police Department in turmoil over a discrimination lawsuit, but a Police Commission that has apparently become the latest political thorn in the side of City Hall.

EDITORIAL:
Patience with a pressing matter

Chromium 6 contamination is a scary prospect, but in the absence of any official retort, it’s easy to let imagination take hold. Until the allegations of contamination levied in a recent spate of lawsuits against the Walt Disney Co. are vetted in a courtroom, it’s best to leave the “imagineering” to the studios.

EDITORIAL:
Progress requires some give and take

Given all the headlines coming out of other cities regarding layoffs, tapping reserves and forced work furloughs, the City Council’s adoption of a balanced $774-million budget Tuesday was a relatively painless experience.

EDITORIAL:
Time to learn some lessons

The lawsuit filed this week against the Burbank Police Department on behalf of five officers purports to expose racial discrimination and sexual harassment.

EDITORIAL:
Roll with it

We know, roller hockey is way cool, or at least, it was in the ’90s. Then came skateboarding, but at the risk of sounding prudish, even that appears to be waning. Now it appears BMX bikes have taken over the youth activity landscape, right before street parasailing takes hold, or extreme hand-walking.

EDITORIAL:
Pushed around by the simple majority

On Tuesday, 18,000 same-sex married couples in California, including dozens in Glendale and Burbank, found themselves in an awkward position. Their marriages, performed before voters approved Proposition 8 last year, would be upheld, but all other gays would have to settle for domestic partnerships.

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