Today: Debating Trump. Medicare at 50.

I'm Davan Maharaj, editor of the Los Angeles Times. Lots of advice but little certainty on how to debate Donald Trump; and what the evolution of Medicare might tell us about Obamacare. Here are some story lines I don't want you to miss today.

TOP STORIES

Throw-Down in C-Town

How do you debate Donald Trump? With 10 Republican candidates facing off in Cleveland, each might get six or seven minutes. Ignore him and risk ridicule? Attack him and risk angering voters you might need later? Advice is all over the map.  A Trump-less candidate forum Monday in New Hampshire offered few clues on how the debate might go.

Looking Spry at 50

Socialized medicine. Cruel hoax. The end of freedom. No, those aren't criticisms of Obamacare. They were broadsides against Medicare and Medicaid as President Lyndon Johnson signed them into law 50 years ago. They now cover well over 100 million people and are far different from their early days. Their evolution may offer hints at the future of Obamacare.

The Job of a Lifetime

Demi Cruz found work quickly after fleeing to the U.S. from Honduras with her young son. She cleaned bathrooms for $3 a day -- at the for-profit Texas detention center where she was held (and where a bag of chips costs $4 at the commissary). Such arrangements are voluntary and legal, but immigration activists liken it to slave labor. Lawsuits are brewing.

Our Men in Syria

Now that the U.S. has trained a small rebel unit in Syria, the Pentagon aims to protect it. Airstrikes have been authorized to shield it  from other rebel groups, of which there are many. That could pit U.S. warplanes not just against Islamic State and Al Qaeda zealots, but also President Bashar Assad's forces -- risking deeper entanglement in an increasingly nasty war.

California Clean

President Obama's ambitious Clean Power Plan, if it survives a legal onslaught, would pose a daunting challenge for many states. Not California. The state has long since slashed reliance on coal and already has some of the toughest emissions laws anywhere. Gov. Jerry Brown was practically crowing -- and offering to help other states follow California's example. 

CALIFORNIA

-- Huntington Park enters uncharted territory by appointing to city boards two immigrants who are in the country illegally.

-- The Rocky fire in Northern California keeps defying all the models, leaving firefighters and evacuees in limbo. 

-- L.A. Unified's food services director, nationally acclaimed for improving school meals, resigns after an audit found mismanagement.

-- A massive search is launched for a murder suspect also accused of shooting and wounding two Kern County sheriff's deputies.

-- An oil sheen off Goleta Beach was from natural seepage, the Coast Guard says.

NATION-WORLD

-- A jury takes James Holmes one step closer to the death penalty for the Aurora, Colo., theater massacre.

-- The Texas attorney general is booked and pleads not guilty after indictment on securities fraud charges.

-- Greece's stock market reopens and promptly plummets.

-- Islamic State has to worry about Internet security too.

BUSINESS

-- CIT Group completes its $3.4-billion purchase of Pasadena-based OneWest Bank.

-- Orange County office boom: Irving Co. will construct six buildings in Irvine Spectrum.

-- A hitchhiking robot that made it across Canada, Germany and the Netherlands is vandalized beyond repair in Philadelphia.

SPORTS

-- In pursuit of Giovani dos Santos: The Galaxy's persistence paid off.

-- Fighter Ronda Rousey has a deal to star in her own biopic.

-- The latest scores, stats and schedules.

ENTERTAINMENT

--Deaths at Hard Summer prompt a new look at approaches to dealing with drug use at music festivals.

-- Review: Aretha Franklin, in top form, takes flight at the Microsoft Theater.

-- Bobbi Kristina Brown is buried next to her mother, Whitney Houston, in New Jersey.

WHAT OUR EDITORS ARE READING

-- The journey of the Western Flyer, made famous by John Steinbeck, parallels the collapse of the West Coast fishery (Alaska Dispatch News).

-- Popular Science: Why office temperatures are optimized for men of the "Mad Men" era.

ONLY IN L.A.

The Times is blessed with world-class photojournalists, but some of the most intriguing pictures on our website come from you. Our photo editors regularly showcase readers' best shots and the stories behind them: A day at the beach; skid row gentleman; Al's newsstand; Brentwood dragonfly. Here are the latest selections.

Please send comments and ideas to Davan Maharaj.