[George Freeman, the Times Co.'s assistant general counsel, met with the Washington bureau last week to address staff complaints.] There was so much rumor and untruth and speculation going around, ... I wouldn't characterize it as people being unhappy. People had a lot of questions and concerns. I hope to some degree I assuaged the concerns.

I have no complaints about the post office.

It is all symptomatic of the pursuit of the demands of the Washington consensus.

lies a distance even greater than the 8,000 miles from Washington to Baghdad.

That Monday after we lost to Washington, that's when everything hit the fan. But instead of succumbing to the environment at that particular time, it was more or less, 'What are we going to do to make this thing turn around?' We decided we had a lot more football to play, and what a story it would be if we turned it around and made the playoffs. And we did just that.

I was raised in the West. The West of texas. It's pretty close to California. In more ways than Washington, D.C., is close to California.