As reported by the Associated Press, Germany has charged John Demjanjuk in 29,000 counts of accessory to murder for the time he served at the Sobibor extermination camp in then Nazi-occupied Poland between March and September 1943.

Last Summer, the US rejected Demjanjuk's final appeals of his deportation from the...

Watching wasted genius, a life gone wrong, is compelling and poignant, but with "Doc", airing December 9, at 10PM on PBS' Independent Lens, we feel much more like guests doing a post-mortem on a private party where the drinks may have been dosed.

"Doc" is a documentary by...

It looks as though Seth Lipsky's "New York Sun" will fold on Monday -- barring a last minute cash infusion. Lipsky founded the daily in the shadow of 9-11 with the grand ambition of being a niche paper -- a non-tabloid high end New York daily.

Prior...

Stepping outside my home this morning to gather the morning newspapers, I noticed something that perhaps I had not been paying attention to: the Wall Street Journal, which used to be delivered in a clear wrapper, now comes in a red wrapper.

It then struck me that the...

John Demjanjuk's last appeal to avoid deportation was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on May 19. The 88-year-old accused Nazi concentration camp guard was stripped of his citizenship and ordered sent to Ukraine, his birthplace; Poland, the locus of the crimes; or Germany, the heir to the Nazi regime...

I've been hearing that Obama wants to put an end to all the rumor mongering and internet chatter suggesting that he will not be an advocate for Israel's security.

My reaction to this info was that Obama should stop pussyfooting around -- no more nuanced conversation and put himself...

Dutton's Brentwood Books, among the best-known and best-loved of Los Angeles' independent bookstores, will close on April 30.

It is hard not to take this as a sign of the times.

Over the past few years many local independent bookstores have gone the way of the local movie theater, the...

News that the current managing editor of the Wall Street Journal is leaving and that new owner Rupert Murdoch will shortly put his own person in situ, combined with a recent study of the WSJ in the weeks since Murdoch's purchase all point to the same conclusion: Murdoch's got his...

One of the most unsettling aspects of the Pellicano trial is the way in which Anita Busch, the reporter who is at the center of the case, has suffered professionally.

As detailed in March 24 New York Times article and as repeated in court yesterday, Busch had her phones bugged,...

News that Czech President Vaclav Klaus has confessed to an affair with a flight attendant less than half his age has garnered little attention. But it did make me wonder: where do all these politicians find the time?

At every level of government, from mayors to governors to heads of...

"The King of popular comedy is dead," proclaimed Le Figaro after Gerard Oury, one of France's most successful directors (if not its most successful) died on Thursday, July 20, at his home in St. Tropez.

I know Oury's work because as a teenager I went with...

For the 20th anniversary issue of The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, it was suggested that I write a column about Jewish journalism. Herewith the result:

Jewish journalism is a much-maligned enterprise -- it cries out like the late Rodney Dangerfield for respect.

No one really admits to reading a...

On April 7, 1944, Rudolf Vrba escaped from Auschwitz, one of very few to do so; he died recently at age 81, a professor of pharmacology at the University of Vancouver, British Columbia. Vrba once said that he spent 95 percent of his life on science and 5 percent on...

Before me sat a poet, flanked on each side by his muses. Was this Orpheus himself? His lyre was missing, and he looked off in the distance. Were the muses there to inspire him, or perhaps, to inspire me?

No, this was not just another late night of hanging out...

While I enjoyed "Nanny McPhee" as a movie (Emma Thompson can do no wrong), I was disappointed to see that it followed the tried and true message of movies about nannies - i.e., that parents don't really need nannies; they are just too busy with their own lives and own...

Here's my rave: "Les Yeux Noirs," a Paris-based world music band who have a new recording, "Tchorba" on the World Village label and who performed last Thursday night at UCLA's Royce Hall as part of UCLA LIVE.

"Les Yeux Noir" are a six person band led by brothers Olivier...

With the fate of journalist Jill Carroll still in limbo, it was upsetting to see the juxtaposition offered in today's national print edition of the New York Times. On page A8 there was an article, "Abduction of U.S. Reporter Underscores Risks in Iraq," by Sabrina Tavernise, that detailed the...

Although Martin Luther King Day is a recent addition to our national roster of days off -- it has already devolved into uncertainty: Should we work or shouldn't we? Are banks open or not? (It's optional.) How about the post office? (Closed.) Unions? (Depends.) And on a personal level: Should...

Brokeback Mountain was hailed this week as a "breakthrough film" by the LA Times. I don't get it. Where's the breakthrough in a story about "the love that cannot speak its name" between two men, based on a short story by a woman (Annie Proulx), adapted into a screenplay by...