Politics

Letters purportedly written by at least two dead people landed on the desk of Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff earlier this year, imploring him to go easy on Microsoft Corp. for its conduct as a monopoly. The pleas, along with about 400 others from Utah citizens, are part of a carefully orchestrated nationwide campaign to … Read more

A legislative candidate was arrested Monday and charged with attempted murder in the shooting of his opponent’s wife. Police said her husband was the intended target. Eric Kaplan, 28, also was charged with aggravated battery and firing into an occupied home. He was jailed on $100,000 bail. Judith Starks, the 47-year-old wife of Republican state … Read more

Former State Senator Michael Rubio, D¿Bakersfield, stretches during a lull in the legislative action at the Capitol last August. (Rich Pedroncelli / AP) SACRAMENTO — Former state Sen. Michael Rubio (D-Shafter) has agreed to pay a $200 fine to the state ethics agency for failing to properly disclose that he sold his house in Bakersfield … Read more

In 1978, Gerald N. Felando, a 43-year-old newcomer, rode the winds of political change into office, defeating the dean of the California Assembly, Vincent Thomas. Last week, the tables turned. In Tuesday’s election, Felando, having aged into a grizzled veteran of Capitol infighting, suffered the same fate as Thomas. His bid to return to Sacramento … Read more

America was no longer a nation weighted down with racial regrets. By the Ronald Reagan years, two decades of self-reproach were merely part of a murky and curious past. More and more whites were troubled instead by the penances imposed on them–affirmative action and busing. Reagan tapped into this anger. In 1980, he opened his … Read more

Supporters hold up signs as Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks during a news conference April 4 in Hyattsville, Md. (Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press) It’s almost the end of Holy Week, the annual Christian commemoration of the betrayal, crucifixion and … Read more

Rosa Maria Juarez, center, participates in a stretching class at the Pico Rivera Senior Center. She worries that “the country is going down the tubes.” (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) Montebello resident Rosa Maria Juarez, 96, doesn’t like what’s happening to the country, and in these tumultuous times, she has a strategy for getting … Read more

Altadena suffered a ‘catastrophic failure.’ Did unincorporated status hurt fire response? In the first 24 hours of the Eaton fire, Pasadena’s communications director helped activate four different kinds of alerts to keep its residents apprised of evacuation orders, while also hopping on several news programsand doing interviews to share updates in real time. Further east, … Read more

Forty years ago–the last time Democrats met in Los Angeles to nominate a candidate for president–there was only a small possibility that front-runner John F. Kennedy would leave without his party’s nomination. This time there is not the slightest chance of uncertainty, let alone upset, in the official proceedings. The script has been written, the … Read more

Gov. Newsom is sticking to his campaign promises of scaling back the high-speed rail and water-tunnels projects. (JOHN G MABANGLO/EPA-EFE/REX / JOHN G MABANGLO/EPA-EFE/REX) If anyone thought that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration would merely be an extension of fellow Democrat Jerry Brown’s, that notion has been completely obliterated. Brown’s — and before him Arnold Schwarzenegger’s … Read more