Politics

TWO WEEKS AGO, the House of Representatives voted 422 to 2 to pass a bill called the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. It would authorize up to $13.5 million a year in new federal spending for investigations into “cold case” killings like that of Till, a black teenager who was murdered in Mississippi … Read more

President Obama speaks in the White House briefing room earlier this month. (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) More than 4 million Americans could get pay hikes under new federal regulations that will double the salary level under which workers must be paid overtime, the White House said Tuesday. The Labor Department’s final rule, to be … Read more

Each summer, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas invites his four new law clerks to his home to watch a movie. Not just any movie, but the 1949 film version of the classic of libertarian conservatism, Ayn Rand’s “The Fountainhead.” The movie’s hero, played by Gary Cooper, is an idealistic but stubborn architect, who, as Rand … Read more

Long Beach City Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez cruised to victory in the election for a Los Angeles County state Senate seat Tuesday night, while conservative Brian Dahle won the contentious Republican-versus-Republican contest to represent a Northern California district in that legislative house. The races attracted hundreds of thousands of dollars in outside spending from the California … Read more

A huge video screen hung from the ceiling, behind the ornate mahogany desks and oil portraits of elders that give the House International Relations Committee room an air of history. Peering down from the screen, three times the size of anyone else in the room, was the committee’s next witness, live from the U.S. Embassy … Read more

Gov. Cecil Andrus, confronted with calls, letters and petitions from thousands opposed to Idaho’s abortion bill, on Friday vetoed what would have been the nation’s most restrictive state abortion law. The veto ended the hopes of anti-abortion groups who wanted to use an Idaho law to challenge the U.S. Supreme Court’s commitment to legalized abortion, … Read more

(Michael Conroy / Associated Press) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hasn’t officially entered the presidential race. But his chances of overtaking former President Trump for the Republican nomination took another symbolic hit this week when the dominant video from his trip to Asia was of the governor looking like a bobblehead — his eyes and mouth … Read more

George Murphy, the actor-dancer who served one term as a U. S. senator from California, died Sunday night at his home in Palm Beach, Fla., it was learned Monday. His son, Dennis, said in Los Angeles that his father was 89 and died of leukemia. Murphy preceded a fellow Republican, Ronald Reagan, into public office … Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom delivers a briefing of his proposed 2025-26 state budget at Cal State Stanislaus, in Turlock on Monday. (Rich Pedroncelli / Associated Press) Gov. Gavin Newsom touted higher than expected tax revenues and a “modest surplus” in an unconventional preview of his $322.2 billion spending proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, but … Read more

The Supreme Court took up the question Wednesday of whether an evangelical Christian group has a constitutional right to meet for prayer and Bible study in a public elementary school at the end of the day. The answer appeared to be “yes,” as most of the justices sided with the Christian group and against school … Read more