Politics

Early in the 1992 campaign, Garry Trudeau drew a series of “Doonesbury” cartoon strips ridiculing the media’s seeming fondness for Bill Clinton. For most of the campaign, the New Republic regularly featured a “Clinton Suck-Up Watch” that highlighted particularly egregious examples of media fawning over the Democratic candidate. It is probably no wonder then that … Read more

Fierce battles are being waged in California that could determine which party controls the U.S. House in the next Congress. (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press) 1 Over 2,000 miles west of the nation’s Capitol, the battle for control of the House of Representatives in 2025 is being waged in farmland along Highway 99, fast-growing commuter … Read more

Former President Trump at Manhattan criminal court in New York on Thursday. (Bloomberg via Getty Images) Former President Trump’s tough week showed as well as any to date why he is facing a new and unprecedented reality as a presidential candidate — as he ping-ponged among a dizzying array of court appearances, judicial rulings, competing … Read more

Assemblyman Wayne Grisham, a 17-year political veteran, was taught a lesson Tuesday by a new kid on the block–Democratic upstart Cecil N. Green, who nearly pulled off a major upset in the special 33rd state Senate election. The Norwalk Republican, a man not accustomed to finishing second, did just that Tuesday night and in the … Read more

Dominated by anti-crime measures passed by the 1994 Legislature, hundreds of new state laws took effect Sunday. In all, 1,349 laws were signed by Gov. Pete Wilson during the year. The standout in the crime category, the “three strikes and you’re out” provision, took effect months ago, but now other new laws join the anti-crime … Read more

Ralph C. Dills, a Texas sharecropper’s son who became the longest serving California legislator, died Thursday in a nursing home in the Northern California community of Rocklin. He was 92. His son, Gregory Dills, said the cause of death was old age. “My father simply stopped breathing while sleeping, at 5:30a.m.,” he said. A Democrat, … Read more

“Hi, I’m Roy Whiteaker, your candidate for the state Senate,” the hefty fellow in brown Western boots tells voters as he tramps from house to house with an armload of campaign brochures declaring him to be “A great lawman. A great lawmaker.” On this day and most others as he knocks on doors, nobody recognizes … Read more

Sexual misconduct allegations against Arnold Schwarzenegger roiled California’s gubernatorial recall race Thursday as the Republican apologized for having “behaved badly” toward women while insisting he would champion their cause. Responding to a Los Angeles Times story on accusations by six women that he touched them in a sexual manner without their consent, Schwarzenegger dismissed the … Read more

Breathe in. Breathe out. It seems so simple. And yet, when the intake is particularly deep and the outgo unusually sharp, the resulting sigh can reveal far more than words convey. During last week’s televised presidential debate, candidate Al Gore’s sighs, loud and noticeably theatrical, set off a round of speculation. Vicki Marsh Kabat, a … Read more

Two of the three coal smokestacks at Navajo Generating Station outside Page, Ariz., come tumbling down in 2020. (Michael McNamara / Salt River Project) Over the last two decades, 21 coal-fired power plants have shut down across the Western U.S. Twenty-one down, 32 to go. Those numbers are based on a Sierra Club tracker and … Read more