Politics

William Burns testifies during his Senate Intelligence Committee confirmation hearing on Feb. 24. (Tom Williams / Pool Photo) Without opposition, the Senate confirmed veteran diplomat William Burns as CIA director on Thursday, giving him control of the nation’s premier spy agency as the U.S. government confronts threats from China, Russia, Iran and elsewhere. The approval, … Read more

A residential development in San Jose. (Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press) Powerful opponents have emerged to fight Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to streamline affordable housing development — and their main reason isn’t about building homes. A coalition of labor and environmental organizations has come out against the proposal, arguing that the governor’s plan would … Read more

U S. trade officials on Friday empowered President Trump to impose tariffs that could cut off the solar energy industry from the cheap foreign-made panels that have driven its explosive growth and helped create tens of thousands of jobs in California. The tariffs under consideration are meant to protect a small number of American solar-panel … Read more

What is perhaps most remarkable about the changed America to which we woke this morning is how the president-elect’s race seems, in most ways, the least remarkable thing about him. In large part, that’s a tribute to the fact that Barack Obama declined every opportunity to make his race a campaign centerpiece. It’s also a … Read more

Protesters outside City Hall demand the resignations of Councilmembers Gil Cedillo, whose City Council term ends this year, and Kevin De León, who is set to serve through 2024, and major California political figures, including L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Sen. Alex Padilla, have joined the protesters’ cause. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times) Nury Martinez, the … Read more

James Carville, President Clinton’s senior campaign strategist in 1992, says it is “the whole ball of wax.” Mark Gersh, a leading Democratic expert on congressional elections, says it is “the reason why the Democratic Party is the minority party.” Stanley B. Greenberg, one of Clinton’s pollsters, wrote in a recent internal memo to the President … Read more

President Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Moon Township, Pa., on Saturday. (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) President Trump vowed earlier this year he’d stump for Republicans in competitive House races, saying he would spend “probably four or five days a week” helping GOP candidates get elected. As he made his first visit to … Read more

Reading Time: 3 minutes Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) is in hot water today thanks to recent comments about Texas governor Greg Abbott. Speaking at the Human Rights Campaign’s 2025 dinner in Los Angeles on Saturday, Crockett made what some believe to be an offensive reference to Abbott’s disability. “We in these hot-a– Texas streets, honey,” … Read more

The Signal app on a mobile device screen. (Kiichiro Sato / Associated Press) Senior government officials mistakenly invited the editor in chief of the Atlantic to a group chat on the messaging app Signal, where the focus of conversation was U.S. airstrikes against rebel groups in Yemen. The app’s use by high-ranking national security officials … Read more

Expressing a new optimism that the crisis in Bosnia-Herzegovina is easing, President Bush said Saturday that there can be no military quick fix for the complex conflict. In his third press conference in as many days devoted to the situation in the former Yugoslav republics, Bush emphasized the constraints that limit Western intervention and seemed … Read more