Politics

The campaign finance chairman for Democratic state controller candidate Gray Davis has been forced from his post because of recent revelations that he was convicted in the mid-1970s on federal and state obscenity charges. Eugene La Pietra, a millionaire Hollywood discotheque owner and prominent gay activist and fund-raiser, notified Davis earlier this week that he … Read more

California is on the verge of creating a legal market for marijuana worth more than $5 billion that will help make the state a destination for pot-loving tourists, according to a new state-sponsored economic study. But about 29% of all cannabis consumers may stay in the illegal market at first to avoid the cost of … Read more

Lawyers for the NCAA have asked the Supreme Court to shield college sports from federal antitrust laws and overturn rulings that allow modest extra benefits for student-athletes. Several of the justices were skeptical. (Associated Press) Supreme Court justices said Wednesday they believed student-athletes were being exploited by the multibillion-dollar college sports industry, signaling they are … Read more

The Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a voting rights group that has registered more than a million voters in the Southwest, has opened a Los Angeles office as part of a stepped-up effort to politically organize the state’s Latinos. Over the next four years, the organization plans to spend $1 million to register up to … Read more

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo makes a statement in a prerecorded video released Tuesday after the release of the state attorney general’s report. (Office of the New York Governor ) A long-awaited report issued Tuesday by New York Atty. Gen. Letitia James into sexual harassment allegations against Gov. Andrew Cuomo detailed several accounts from accusers … Read more

In early December 1944, Gen. George S. Patton Jr., commander of the United States’ 3rd Army, stood with his troops at Germany’s doorstep. He’d pushed his men across France toward Germany with furious speed during summer and early fall, but in the last months, as he drove through France’s Lorraine region toward the Saar River, … Read more

Remember Rock the Vote, the get-out-the-vote effort with the trademark red check mark that had its heyday leading young America to the polls in 1992? And before that, “Schoolhouse Rock’s” rolled-up scroll that taught us in 1975 about lawmaking through song (“I’m just a bill . . . And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill”)? … Read more

Al Checchi gazes into his past, quickly calming the frenetic energy that has kept him squirming in a desk chair at his gubernatorial campaign headquarters. He lowers the chair, which he has been balancing on its hind legs like a suit-coated acrobat on a high wire. He is remembering a time when he was flying … Read more

A photo of former President Trump, taken as he entered the Oval Office on Jan. 6, 2021, is displayed during the House Select Committee’s hearing Thursday in Washington. (Patrick Semansky / Associated Press) The House Jan. 6 committee offered new details Thursday about the 187 minutes — from 1:10 pm to 4:17 pm — that … Read more

President Trump makes a statement before saying goodbye to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) Even for a president long known for flattering autocrats, President Trump’s open envy of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un — one of the world’s most brutally repressive dictators — stood out. “Hey, he’s the … Read more