There has been much gnashing of teeth, and not only in the gay community, over the selection of the Rev. Rick Warren to deliver the premier prayer at tomorrow's Inauguration. Understandably so -after all, the televangelist had famously likened same-sex marriage to incest, polygamy, and "an older guy marrying a child." It would be a mistake, though, to read the choice as signaling that the Obama administration will leave gays out in the cold. The decision to…

There's nothing controversial-sounding about Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's campaign pledge to make a $10 billion federal investment in high-quality early education. After all, 38 states and the District of Columbia now underwrite pre-kindergarten. With GOP stalwarts such as Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds on board, and support coming from the likes of Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, as well as a host of big-city police chiefs, you'…

Heredity versus environment, nature versus nurture: the argument over what best explains intelligence has been going strong for more than a century. It's been a nasty fight, with each side questioning the other's bona fides, and it's not just an academic squabble. What's at stake isn't simply the definition of good science but the meaning of the just society. Neuroscientists have been witness to how the architecture of the brain is transformed by experience, especially…

Legislation that is now on the governor's desk is a long-overdue attempt to reform the state's disastrous juvenile justice system is broken beyond repair. The measure, Senate Bill 81, turns over responsibility for all but the most violent juvenile offenders to their home counties. While that's a wise move, the counties will have to rethink the ways they handle teen offenders. In the juvenile correctional facilities run by the California Youth Authority, gangs run the show, violence…

Should free, high-quality preschool be available to every 4-year-old in the state? That's what Proposition 82, which appears on the June 6 ballot, guarantees. If the research matters, the answer is a no-brainer: pre-kindergarten is a smart investment to make in our children's futures. A library-shelf's worth of studies confirm what every parent already knows -- that the early years of a child's life make an enormous difference. That's why the waiting lists for decent…

That the Federal Emergency Management Agency mismanaged the Hurricane Katrina relief effort is old news. But there's more to FEMA's failure than simple bungling. The Bush administration's core belief that faith-based organizations can do the job better than the government or experienced nonprofits has compounded the problem. Immediately after the hurricane, there were only two secular organizations to which FEMA's Web site urged that contributions be made; all the others were faith-based. What's…

Partisans in the Social Security wars have advanced a host of proposals to trim benefits, raise taxes or encourage investing in the stock market to bankroll retirement. But no one seems to be talking about how to increase productivity -- an odd omission, since productivity is the engine that sustains this intergenerational compact. While patches in the Social Security formula will likely be needed, the best way to keep the system solvent is to soup up that engine…

It was page-one news across California when a confidential report on UC Berkeley admissions, prepared for UC Regent John Moores, concluded that the university had admitted nearly 400 students with subpar SAT scores. Though the report included no racial data, a Chronicle article posed the question -- was the university doing an end-run around Proposition 209 and engaging in affirmative action? Confronted with this seeming bombshell, as well as a similar story about UCLA admissions, the new president of…

The war in Iraq was initially billed as a cakewalk, the aftermath a triumphal celebration, but the Bush administration badly underestimated the difficulties of both war and peace. From Baghdad to Basra, in the past week Iraq's cities have less resembled Paris in 1944 than mayhem, "Lord of the Flies" style. While Iraq smolders, a retired three-star general and defense contractor named Jay Garner waits at his seaside villa in Kuwait City; on Tuesday he zipped across the…