Politics

The battle over Indian tribal sovereignty has entered a hot new arena in California: workers’ compensation insurance. State regulators are questioning the legality of tribes’ setting up unlicensed, unregulated workers’ comp insurance operations on reservations and selling cut-rate coverage to businesses hundreds of miles away. The California Department of Insurance investigation focuses on the 74-member … Read more

THE DISPUTE OVER the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys poses a fundamental question: To what degree may the president exercise authority over the direction of law enforcement? In the aftermath of Watergate, President Carter directed Atty. Gen. Griffin Bell to prepare legislation that would make the attorney general an appointed post for a definite term, … Read more

Four years after riding a wave of optimism into the White House, Barack Obama offered a sobering message about the future as he asked Americans for another term to help complete the country’s recovery from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Accepting the 2012 Democratic nomination Thursday night, Obama offered an updated version … Read more

In a gesture of his determination to put the partisan wars of the last four years behind him, President Clinton bestowed the nation’s highest civilian honor on erstwhile political nemesis and presidential rival Bob Dole. But no sooner did Clinton drape the Presidential Medal of Freedom around Dole’s neck than the flinty Kansas Republican infused … Read more

As the Democratic National Convention nears, Michael S. Dukakis is leading Vice President George Bush by 11 percentage points nationwide, largely because American voters want to change direction from the Reagan Administration and they reject the charge that the Massachusetts governor is too liberal, the Los Angeles Times Poll has found. “Reagan Democrats”–those Democrats who … Read more

On most issues, Maureen Sprunger, a San Marino mother of three, classifies herself as a conservative, one who faithfully voted for Ronald Reagan and George Bush in the last four presidential elections. But ask her about Proposition 174–the controversial ballot initiative that would give parents tax-supported vouchers to send their children to private and parochial … Read more

Talk about contrasts: One of the hottest congressional contests in Southern California next year could pit a pony-tailed guitar god against a balding tax lawyer. Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, the colorful former lead guitarist of 1970s arena rockers the Doobie Brothers, has retained a campaign consultant and is contemplating a GOP challenge next year for the … Read more

As a bodybuilder and actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a record of 30 years of statements, in his own writing and in interviews, about women and sexuality. Now, as a candidate for governor, his words have returned as an issue in the campaign. Political rivals have seized on some statements to call Schwarzenegger sexist, a misogynist … Read more

Gov. Rick Perry leaves office Tuesday after a record 14-plus years as Texas’ chief executive. (Eric Gay / Associated Press) There is something every man and woman holding appointive office in Texas shares, whether sitting on the Supreme Court or serving on the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. Each and every one of them … Read more

A former executive of the Bank of Credit & Commerce International told Senate investigators Thursday that indicted Washington lawyer Robert A. Altman directed a cover-up of former Panama strongman Manuel A. Noriega’s secret $20-million bank account. Amjad Awan, who was Noriega’s banker in Panama from 1982 to 1988 and is now serving a federal prison … Read more