A Section

Two wildfires driven by strong Santa Ana winds threatened neighborhoods near Los Angeles on Monday, killing a man, destroying several dozen mobile homes and forcing frantic evacuations.

From Charlottean Mark Erwin, a former ambassador under President Clinton:

Barack

Q. Has the campaign for president become too mean-spirited and uncivil? Have things gotten out of hand? Is this just the way politics works? Are people taking this too seriously?

In response to “Region's options: Sprawl or expand transit” (Oct. 12 Big Picture):

Experience is overrated. Banking has plenty but lacks independent thinkers who balk at business as usual.

I wasn't surprised when I learned Friday that Finland's former President Martti Ahtisaari had won the Nobel Peace Prize. Not because I knew who he was – in truth, I didn't – but because one of the things that impressed me during my recent trip to Helsinki is how deeply ingrained peacemaking is in Finnish culture.

If you're a Democrat who needs help getting the votes of rural white folks, the go-to guy is David “Mudcat” Saunders, a central-casting political consultant recently made famous by a parade of magazine writers led by The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash.

During the Great Depression, the number of people who committed suicide rose more than 20 percent. Some experts have suggested there might be a similar spike with the current stock market crisis.

Canada's Conservative prime minister and his Liberal rival crisscrossed the country Monday in a final day of campaigning, with voters concerned the ruling party is out of touch but also that the opposition's leader has trouble communicating in English.