Politics

President-elect Trump has nominated Russell Vought to head the Office of Management and Budget. They are shown in 2019 at the White House. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Russell Vought, one of the chief architects of Project 2025 — a conservative blueprint for the next presidency — is no fan of the federal government that … Read more

A weeklong “reduction in violence” could pave the way for peace talks in Afghanistan. Above, a U.S. soldier patrols in Kandahar in 2010. (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times) On Saturday, after 19 years of war, the United States and the Taliban began what both sides delicately called a seven-day “reduction of violence” in Afghanistan, … Read more

Sen. Max Baucus, (D-Mont.) is one of several Democratic lawmakers who will be targeted by Organizing for Action for their opposition to gun control legislation. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) WASHINGTON — The nonprofit advocacy group backing President Obama’s second-term agenda plans to mobilize constituents against the U.S. senators who on Wednesday helped defeat … Read more

A new IEA report warns of greenhouse gas emissions approaching dangerous levels by the end of the century. (David McNew / Getty Images) WASHINGTON — Emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases are growing at such a rate that the world will probably exceed a safe limit in average global temperatures by the end of the century … Read more

The late Rep. Sonny Bono nursed a secret dependence on prescription painkillers and was taking up to 20 pills a day about the time he skied into a tree on a South Lake Tahoe slope in January, according to Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs), his widow and successor in Congress. “I am 100% convinced that is … Read more

When Democrat Adam Schiff was elected to the House of Representatives from his Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena state Senate district last fall, he said, “Among those of us in the freshman class, there is a great deal of optimism that we are going to be able to work together in a bipartisan way.” It would be premature to … Read more

Gov. Pete Wilson on Saturday castigated the Legislature’s Democratic leaders for opposing his budget-balancing plan without offering an alternative of their own, and renewed his call for an initiative that would cut welfare benefits. Speaking before the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., named after the author of California’s Proposition 13, the governor also said he would … Read more

Presidential candidate Bill Clinton has rewarded the financial elite of Arkansas with lucrative state business and low-interest loans while soliciting them–in one instance urgently and personally–for millions of dollars in political contributions and campaign loans, The Times has found. He has done it through the Arkansas Development Finance Authority. As governor, Clinton established it to … Read more

For weeks, Monica M. Goodling fended off House investigators, pleading the 5th Amendment, refusing to testify or surrender requested documents. On Wednesday, having wrangled her into their hearing room with a subpoena and a grant of immunity, Democrats were loaded for bear. Here was their chance to confront the mystery woman in the Justice Department’s … Read more

Early voting ended Friday in Nevada, and election officials reported that the record numbers of early and absentee ballots should add up to half of the 800,000 people expected to vote by the time polls close Tuesday night. By Friday evening, more than 380,000 Nevadans had cast early or absentee ballots in Clark, Washoe, Carson … Read more