FLASHPOINT

The Los Angeles Times has returned. The national newspaper has written about Sen. Harry Reid and lobbying and alleged corruption in the state's judicial system. This week the paper detailed horrific conditions at the Ely prison, with reports of prisoners denied medical care. It "amounts to the grossest possible medical malpractice and the most shocking and callous disregard for human life and human suffering that I have ever encountered," the author of a report told state officials. Rather than worry about whether someone in L.A. doesn't like us, maybe, with budget cuts looming that could gut human services and with prisoners being denied medical care, we should be concerned we live in the equivalent of a Third World country.

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