Wilbur Ross became rich investing in faltering businesses like steel mills and coal mines, finding a fortune in blue-collar industries that others dismissed as beyond saving. But before he was scooping up Rust Belt factories, the banker was sizing up another troubled asset: Donald Trump. More than two decades ago, Ross represented bondholders who were … Read more
The Irvine Co., the giant real estate developer that owns a sixth of the land in Orange County, was the top corporate contributor to California legislators and constitutional officers in 1985. Although it was a non-election year, the Newport Beach-based company gave Sacramento politicians $182,029, showering Democrats and Republicans from all across the state and … Read more
Vice President George Bush, in a decision that stunned Republican political strategists and some of his own supporters, Tuesday selected Dan Quayle, a relatively unknown 41-year-old junior senator from Indiana, as his vice presidential running mate. In naming the staunchly conservative Quayle, scion of a rich and powerful family in a traditionally Republican state, Bush … Read more
When George and Barbara Bush lived in Santa Fe Gardens, the sprawling apartment complex in Compton provided clean, affordable housing within minutes of downtown Los Angeles and the Long Beach Harbor. That was 1949, before the apartments became condominiums and before those were purchased by absentee slumlords. Now Santa Fe Gardens is a dull-brown maze … Read more
For a girl from Berkeley, about 5 years old, the setting must have been intoxicating: a bungalow surrounded by greenery in a newly independent African capital, where children ran outside to wave at the president’s car as he drove past. This was where a young Kamala Harris spent time in the late 1960s, at a … Read more
The full redacted Mueller report has been released by the Department of Justice. The L.A. Times is reading it and posting its findings. The report can be downloaded here. The special counsel’s report deals with one of the most salacious elements of the Russia case in a footnote that mentions that “unverified allegations that compromising … Read more
In August 2017, shortly after John F. Kelly became White House chief of staff, he convened crucial meetings on Afghanistan at President Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Top officials from the Pentagon and the CIA, the director of national intelligence, diplomats and lawmakers huddled with Trump as Kelly and others urged him not to … Read more
If George Bush’s reelection team were a rock group, it probably would be called Mary and the White Boys. Just look at the photographs. Although official Washington remains a town blanketed by white men in dark suits, that was rarely so striking as last December, when Bush announced the people in charge of his political … Read more
* Westminster’s militant Firefighters’ Union is intimidating this city’s 40,000 registered voters, deluging it with misleading mailings, including outright lies, violating even the sworn testimony of Westminster’s fire chief, in a way that would make professional propagandists proud. For example, the union has tried to blame budget cuts in their outrageous overtime for the death … Read more
Marcus Scott is looking for a Democratic presidential candidate who will be rude to Donald Trump. Kara LaMarche wants an upbeat, positive approach. Ben Dion wants a nominee with experience and gravitas. Linds Jakows has had it with older white men in power. Those voters, like fellow Democrats across the country, seek very different things … Read more