May 2007 Archives

Jonathan Dobrer is a professor of comparative religion at the American Jewish University in Bel-Air.

Dobrer worked his way through USC, (International Relations) as a stand up comedian. After enjoying a year at the University of Vienna (Philosophy), he went into the Peace Corps in Tunisia. Returning to America in the late 60s he went to the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley.

He teaches at American Jewish University, does scholar in residence programs at temples around the country and speaks to local temples, churches and Hadassah groups.

He has written three books, two of which are collections of his past, yet ever-green, columns (Out of My Mind). The third is somewhere between an hilarious Job's Tale and an expensive spiritual journey, on the remodel of his house, Rubble with a Cause.

*As an act of solidarity against using Sen. Obama's middle name as an ethnic slur, I am taking it as my own till the end of the campaign

Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a political analyst, author and frequent contributor to the Daily News.

Bridget Johnson writes a weekly column on national and world news for dailynews.com. Her columns have run in dozens of publications in the U.S. and around the globe, including the Chicago Sun-Times, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle, the Montreal Gazette, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the San Diego Union-Tribune, The Australian, The St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, The Saudi Gazette, The Arizona Republic, The Sowetan (Johannesburg), El Diario (Mexico) and more. Bridget also is a weekly columnist for Pajamas Media and contributes opinion pieces to USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online and The Politico. Her television appearances as a commentator include Al-Jazeera; her radio appearances include The Laura Ingraham Show, The World Tonight (Canada), RighTalk, KNX News Radio and more. Bridget is also the World News expert on About.com. A press-freedom advocate, she participated in a panel at the United Nations for World Press Freedom Day 2007. Bridget also runs the blog GOP Vixen and contributes to Political Mavens. And on occasion, she finds time to sleep.

Patrick O'Connor is the Daily News' political cartoonist.

Mariel Garza is an editorial writer, columnist and resident Mexican-American for the Daily News' opinion section, as well its California geography savant. Ask her about any Cali community from Inverness to Banning and she not only knows where it is she's probably worked there.

Before joining the DN opinion section, Mariel was a L.A. City Hall reporter for the Daily News, and a reporter of many other beats for newspapers both large and unbelievably tiny across this great state. She began her professional journalism career while a freshman at San Francisco State University writing for a local neighborhood shopper called The Portalwood Press. She was paid in copies of the paper. Which was free.

After that, she smartened up and only took paying gigs, including one as a copy editor at the Alameda News Group and a reporter, photographer, layout person and newspaper delivery person for the Point Reyes Light. After college, Mariel moved to the "Inland Empire" to toil for various newspapers for low pay. These included the Fontana Herald News (now defunct), the Inland Valley Bulletin, the Los Angeles Times' San Gabriel Valley section (also now defunct), and the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

Then, Mariel went a little crazy, quit her career, moved to Boston and got a job at a Harvard square restaurant called Casablanca. It was a nice, if cold, seven months. But she got better.

Between Boston and the Daily News, Mariel spent a few years working at magazines and dot-coms until the tech bust of 2001 forced her to find a real job. She was lucky that the Daily News was hiring.

Mike Tetreault is the Daily News letters editor.

Chris Weinkopf is California's second-most famous Austrian-American and editorial-page editor of the Los Angeles Daily News. Write to him by e-mail at chris.weinkopf@dailynews.com.