Americans are becoming more familiar with e-cigarettes, which are beginning to appear in restaurants, bars and coffeehouses where regular cigarettes have long been banned. An e-cigarette is, in effect, a battery-operated nicotine delivery system that works by heating a mixture of water, nicotine and other chemicals. The user inhales and exhales the resulting vapor rather than smoke.E-cigarettes look like regular cigarettes and, for many people, substitute for them. But enormous questions remain.

Viewpoints Oct. 8, 2013

Calvin Beale, a federal employee for more than 50 years, was an expert on the town of Fayette, Mississippi. He was also an excellent source of information if you happened to be traveling to Grand Forks, North Dakota; Estes Park, Colorado; or Ephrata, Washington.As the national correspondent for a chain of daily newspapers, I traveled all over the U.S. and each time I set off for a new destination I would call Beale, a senior demographer at the Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Servic

Viewpoints Oct. 8, 2013

The conflict in Syria is destroying not only the lives of the Syrian people but their heritage ― the world’s heritage ― as well.Syria is a treasure house of history. Damascus, Aleppo, Palmyra and almost 10,000 other archaeological sites there hold the remains of thousands of years of culture. Greeks, Romans, Persians, Christians and Muslims lived and fought in what is now Syria. As the U.N. special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, explained at a recent UNESCO meeting, “Few countries are as rich

Viewpoints Oct. 7, 2013

“I am not a member of any organized political party,” the humorist Will Rogers said. “I am a Democrat.”Even Will Rogers would be shocked at the disjointed and self-destructive congressional Republican Party of today. By forcing a government shutdown and possibly a credit default in a few weeks, a minority of rank-and-file Republican members have run roughshod over the leadership. They are pushing a futile effort to kill President Barack Obama’s health-care law, enacted in 2010, upheld by the Sup

Viewpoints Oct. 7, 2013

The recent collapse of Tong Yang Group has highlighted the insidious growth of corporate debt and the need to swiftly put vulnerable corporations under harsh restructuring programs. According to Chaebol.com, a research company that closely monitors the nation’s chaebol groups, the aggregate debt of Korea’s 30 largest family-controlled conglomerates has surged since the global financial crisis in 2008.Their debt totaled 575 trillion won last year, up 83 percent from 314 trillion won in 2007. The

Editorial Oct. 7, 2013

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has left many here puzzled by abruptly saying that Washington is ready to sign a non-aggression agreement with North Korea.Kerry made the statement during a news conference in Tokyo last week. Although it was attached with one condition ― the North should first decide to denuclearize and to engage in legitimate negotiations to achieve that end ― the overture came as a surprise to many.It is because Kerry was the first U.S. official to express in public Washingt

Editorial Oct. 7, 2013

This weekend, the Ladies Professional Golf Association demonstrated its willingness to sacrifice player safety for its own long-term financial health.The occasion was the conclusion of the Reignwood LPGA Classic ― the LPGA’s first tournament in China. The importance of this event for the association’s desired future in China’s rapidly expanding golf market cannot be underestimated. At the top of the leader board going into Sunday’s final round was Guangzhou-born Shanshan Feng. As the LPGA websit

Viewpoints Oct. 7, 2013

Only a few months have passed since President Obama last boasted that al-Qaida is on “the path to defeat.”But then, just a few days ago, his State Department issued what it called a “worldwide caution” on “the continuing threat of terrorist actions and violence against U.S. citizens and interests throughout the world.” State warned that al-Qaida is now threatening Americans in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, Africa and Central Asia ― practically the entire world.What happened?

Viewpoints Oct. 6, 2013

The high cost of ideological extremism was on full display in Washington this week, where a radical faction of the Republican Party forced a government shutdown. Mercifully, radicals in Congress, unlike, say, those in Syria, use parliamentary maneuvers rather than guns.But their antics distract U.S. attention from truly serious issues _ such as the growing threat posed by Islamist militants in Syria, where the rising strength of radical Islam could endanger Europe and the entire Mideast.Let me m

Viewpoints Oct. 6, 2013

PARIS ― Boy, was that ever painful, watching Russian President Vladimir Putin attempting to pry U.S. President Barack Obama’s fingers off the Tomahawk missile trigger and convince him not to go ahead with an attack that Obama most likely didn’t want to launch in the first place.America won, and so did Russia. I realize that sounds bizarre, but this isn’t a football game with a winner and a loser. It’s not like Obama is going to have to give his Nobel Peace Prize to Putin as if it were the Lombar

Viewpoints Oct. 6, 2013