Politics

Meg Whitman will “root out fraud” and “cut wasteful spending.” Carly Fiorina wants to eliminate “the billions of dollars of waste and bloat that sits in our federal budget.” Ho-hum. Is it campaign time again? As the crocus heralds the coming of spring, the sure sign that we’re working up to a major election is … Read more

Ethics violation lodged against former CalRecycle director For lawmakers and lobbyists who worked on ensuring the passage of California’s landmark plastic waste law, Rachel Wagoner’s abrupt career shift was nothing short of jaw dropping. The former director of CalRecycle — who oversaw, wrote and promoted the single-use plastic legislation known as SB 54 — is … Read more

Three variations of the AR-15 assault rifle are displayed at the California Department of Justice in Sacramento. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) President Trump blames Mexico for fentanyl and other dangerous drugs that come across the southern border. But Mexico blames the United States and its gunmakers for arming the drug cartels with high-powered, military-style … Read more

“Dreamers” and their advocates fear the Supreme Court’s conservative majority will soon declare DACA illegal. (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images) Congressional leaders who wanted to strike a deal on immigration reform before the end of the year saw their hopes dashed Thursday. Democrats saw the lame-duck session between the November election and the start of … Read more

President Trump speaks at Tuesday’s White House coronavirus briefing. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump has declared himself a “wartime president,” and he’s waging his reelection campaign the way any wartime president would: He’s using the advantages of incumbency to show himself in command of the coronavirus crisis. He stages daily briefings on television … Read more

President Clinton on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would outlaw a controversial late-term abortion procedure, taking pains to minimize the political cost of a potentially unpopular decision. Appearing with a group of women who have had the procedure to end pregnancies that went tragically awry, Clinton called the so-called “partial birth abortion” bill a dangerous … Read more

Defense Secretary Dick Cheney on Monday fired Air Force Chief of Staff Michael J. Dugan, saying that the four-star general displayed “poor judgment at a very sensitive time” by revealing possible targets of air strikes in Iraq in the event of war. President Bush and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of … Read more

Many came here stalking a stereotype. The BBC. Paris match. An Italian magazine and Japanese television. They led an insistent trickle of overseas media searching for a man they presumed to be a noble savage tamed by the white eyes–and now poised to become the nation’s first Native American governor. “I’m probably a disappointment to … Read more

The Senate, capping a heated and for many of its male members a deeply uncomfortable debate over sexual harassment, voted Tuesday to allow the Navy’s top admiral to retire without a demotion despite allegations of a role in the Tailhook scandal. For the first time since the still-overwhelmingly male Senate agonized over Justice Clarence Thomas’ … Read more

Tractor trailers entering the U.S. from Canada at the Pacific Highway Border Crossing in Blaine, Wash. (David Ryder / Bloomberg / Getty Images) President Trump’s long-threatened tariffs against Canada and Mexico went into effect Tuesday, putting global markets on edge and setting up costly retaliations by the United States’ North American allies. Starting just past … Read more