• Straining to keep a promise—Charles M. Sennott of The Boston Globe jumps into the scrum in the unfolding scandal of inadequate medical services for returning veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and makes a compelling case for the “basic failure to plan and to respond at the VA.”

• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell—A short documentary produced by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network that persuasively argues for a repeal of the military’s don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy that prevents “gays, lesbians, and bisexuals from serving openly and honestly in the military.”

• Laws on open government often fall short—Writing for the Associated Press, Robert Tanner examines how well states comply with “sunshine” laws and disturbingly finds that “laws are sporadically enforced, penalties for failure to comply are mild and violators almost always walk away with nothing more than a reprimand.”

• The new American witch hunt—A thoughtful and thought-provoking op-ed piece by Dr. Richard B. Krueger in the Los Angeles Times that questions why “legislation dealing with sex offenders is being passed that is punitive, untested, expensive and, in many cases, counterproductive” and why there cannot be a more rational approach to this admittedly controversial issue.