Politics

A member of the Seattle Fire Department inspects a burned Tesla Cybertruck at a Tesla lot in Seattle this month. (Lindsey Wasson / Associated Press) There were broad expectations that the widening political divides in America following Donald Trump’s second presidential victory would explode. But few could have predicted the flash point would be electric … Read more

Freddy Escobar, 55, visits Station 26, where he once worked. The head of the L.A. firefighters union has seen his name recognition increase after the Palisades fire. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) With piercing brown eyes, a biker mustache, a gravelly voice and the build of an NFL defensive end, Freddy Escobar has long … Read more

When Republican senators investigated a little-known San Francisco nonprofit steering as much as $50 million a year to climate change activists, the right-wing media outlet Breitbart News pounced on the report. Breitbart branded the organization, the Sea Change Foundation, as a vehicle for “rich liberals who are secretly funding the green movement’s war on Western … Read more

At a shop in Columbia, S.C., an early voting state in the presidential primaries, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for 2020, tries on a sequined jacket that some reporters had pointed out to her. The moment prompted a sexist backlash. (Melanie Mason / Los Angeles Times) Every four years, aspiring … Read more

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) speaks during a news conference Tuesday at the Capitol in Washington. (Associated Press) Still spinning their wheels on COVID-19 relief, lawmakers approved a one-week government funding extension Wednesday that buys time for more talks — though there is considerable disagreement over who is supposed to be taking the lead … Read more

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, (R-Bakersfield) and Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) congratulate each other last week on passing a tax bill that cuts taxes on the rich at the expense of the middle- and working-class. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) The devastating effects that many provisions of the Republican Senate and House tax bills would … Read more

Gov. George Deukmejian used the first State of the State address of his second term to declare unequivocally Wednesday that “in the name of fairness” he will not give up trying to build a prison on Los Angeles’ Eastside. In a speech to a joint session of the Democratic-controlled Legislature, televised live throughout California, the … Read more

It’s a claim that has been central to Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign: that he “balanced the budget for four straight years” when he was speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990s. Now former President Clinton is calling Gingrich out, saying it’s “not really” accurate for Gingrich to take the credit for all … Read more

Democratic presidential hopeful Eric Swalwell has become a familiar face in the early-voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. (Elise Amendola / Associated Press) In October 2016, shortly before the presidential election, Eric Swalwell was meeting with staffers to discuss his upcoming term in Congress when he suggested, half-joking, that if Donald Trump won he … Read more

Mary Dent Crisp is an unlikely hell raiser. A 68-year-old grandmother, she wears pearls, gold earrings and a red, white and blue suit. She entered politics in Phoenix, 30 years ago, as a volunteer and supporter of Barry M. Goldwater. She worked her way up through the ranks of the party to become co-chair of … Read more