Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has long advocated for the National Football League to return to the city, warned Wednesday that the NFL is “not serious” about expanding or relocating to the area. “They’re having a good time feigning
One possibly redeeming (or exacerbating) feature of the shocking story that aborted fetuses have been burned at an Oregon facility that converts biomedical waste into municipal energy is that the babies may have helped combat climate change. According to the
Why do so many statewide politicians come from Northern California, when there are more people in Southern California? The answer is simple, writes Anthony York of Capitol Weekly: Democrats from the Bay Area vote. “While the people may be in
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has fashioned herself as the next hope of the liberal grassroots, argues in her new memoir, A Fighting Chance, that California gubernatorial hopeful Neel Kashkari lied to her during his tenure at the U.S. Treasury,
California Secretary of State Debra Bowen was the common target of four candidates for her office in the 2014 elections as they debated Wednesday at the Sacramento Press Club, the Sacramento Bee reports. Bowen pushed back, the Bee notes, in
In February, Robin Abcarian of the Los Angeles Times mocked the Kansas state legislature for considering a Democrat’s proposal to protect parents who spank their children from investigations for child abuse. Placing the proposal alongside a measure designed to protect business
California State Assemblyman has apparently pulled his list of endorsements off his campaign website, after a Breitbart News article by Kurt Bardella earlier this week highlighted Cooley’s continued use of an endorsement by State Sen. Ron Calderon. Calderon, for whom Cooley
Conservative San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra Saunders could not get much of an answer from Mayor Ed Lee when she asked him about the city’s housing shortage, though he introduced a seven-point plan in January. She does, however, have something of
Despite quitting the race for California Secretary of State, indicted State Sen. Leland Yee (D) will remain on the June 3 primary ballot–in the top position–because the state does not permit withdrawals. That, plus the strong poll numbers shown by
Azusa Pacific University, an evangelical Christian university near Los Angeles, has disinvited American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray from a forthcoming appearance, saying that it needed more time to ascertain whether, according to Murray, his visit would involve “hurting our
President Barack Obama has skipped the funeral of his aunt, Zeituni Onyango, to play golf–even though the 61-year-old was critical to his trip to Kenya as a young man, and featured prominently in the first of his two memoirs, Dreams
California is one of many states that do not require photo identification for voters at polling places. The state government believes, as do many Democrats and the Obama administration, that requiring photo ID for voting is a subtle form of
For 40 years, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has ensured that the Democratic Party owned West Los Angeles. But after a tough re-election fight in 2012 and the likely prospect of remaining in the minority in the Republican-controlled House for the
California is one of many states that do not require photo identification for voters at polling places. The state government believes, as do many Democrats and the Obama administration, that requiring photo ID for voting is a subtle form of
The New York Times reports that Dr. Adrianne Wadewitz, a prolific Wikipedia editor and scholar of 18th-century British literature, died tragically earlier this month after injuries sustained in a rock climbing accident in California’s Joshua Tree National Park: The bulk of
An Israeli man is suing the Obama administration after Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx denied his complaint against Kuwait Airways for refusing to allow him to purchase a New York-London air ticket. The suit, filed Mar. 31 at the D.C. Circuit
The attorney representing alleged Chinatown gang boss Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow says that the FBI entrapped his client, and “wined and dined” him using “millions of dollars, liquor and cigarettes seized in other cases,” the Associated Press reports. Chow was indicted
More than two-thirds of the 63 pardons issued by California Gov. Jerry Brown on Friday were for drug-related crimes, including “selling, transporting or manufacturing” marijuana, the Sacramento Bee reports. The pardons came on Apr. 18, just two days ahead of
On the heels of one of the worst droughts the state has ever experienced, California is bracing for another big challenge as summer approaches: wildfires. Thus far in 2014, the Wall Street Journal reports, fires have been breaking out in California
Easter Sunday 2014 coincides with the 20th of April–otherwise known as 4/20 Day, for 420, a number that has come to symbolize marijuana smoking for the pot subculture. Legends abound as to the origins of the symbol, but Ryan Grim
In the summer of 2008, while the U.S. presidential election was in full swing, I took a break from the political fray to visit Prague, where my girlfriend (now wife) Julia was studying Czech. I intended to stay for a
The lawyer who defended California’s Proposition 8, the 2008 referendum defining marriage as being between a man and a woman, is now planning his daughter’s lesbian wedding, the Associated Press’s Julie Pace reports. “My daughter Ashley’s path in life has
The Associated Press reports that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has approved plans for “the nation’s first cross-border airport terminal.” The terminal, run by Otay Tijuana Venture, would include a pedestrian bridge connecting Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California. The company would
Two Democratic Party candidates in the primary race for California’s 33rd congressional district in West Los Angeles have accused local party officials of using an arbitrary fundraising minimum to favor established insiders–then raising that minimum at the last moment to
The Associated Press reports that a man robbed a bank in the East Bay city of Hayward, CA wearing a t-shirt that said, “I Have Issues.” According to the AP: Hayward Police Department Sgt. Eric Melendez said Thursday that the
Amidst the general gloom about Republican electoral fortunes in California, past and present, came some good news last week: Pete Peterson, director of the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership at Pepperdine University, is leading the race for Secretary
Gary Cohn, writing at the Huffington Post (and Capital & Main), takes on the “Corporate Democrats” of California–those Democrats who support moderate policies despite the overwhelming power their party enjoys in the state legislature. He advances two theories for their behavior:
California has become one of the most reliably “blue” states in the Union (the Democrats having convinced the rest of us, somehow, to assign to Republicans the “red” that used to mark both Democrats’ electoral victories on the map and
A new Field Poll yields a surprising result: by 54% to 35%, California voters “say they prefer lower taxes and fewer government services to higher taxes and more government services.” In addition, an astonishing 73% of California voters believe government
Californians may be rethinking widespread opposition to using recycled water for drinking, reports Brian Resnick of National Journal. In the past, the option of using treated wastewater to augment the state’s drinking supply has been rejected by voters. But in
The Wall Street Journal has published a scathing editorial in Thursday’s edition, castigating California Attorney General Kamala Harris and her proposed ballot initiative to raise damage caps on medical malpractice suits. Calling the state’s 1975 reform–under Jerry Brown, in his first
Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is leading a congressional delegation to Ukraine during the two-week April House recess, the Orange County Register reports. The delegation will also visit Azerbaijan to discuss regional security issues,
The Pacific Palisades Democratic Club set a standard for Democrats vying to replace retiring Rep. Henry Waxman (D) in the 33rd congressional district: You must have raised $200,000 by April 8 to qualify. The club used that standard to whittle down
David Crane, a lecturer at Stanford University’s Institute for Economic Policy Research, admits that he donated to Gov. Jerry Brown and voted for him in 2010. And yet, says Crane, Brown is guilty of many of the same tricks that
Since the 2010 midterm election, we’ve seen many Democrats and the mainstream media attempt to label mass shootings by deranged people as political “hate crimes” by conservatives and the Tea Party. The enthusiasm for such prejudice has declined somewhat recently,
Among the many dubious legacies of “moderate” Republicans is the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, also known as “New START,” which the Senate ratified in December 2010, just after the electorate had delivered a resounding condemnation of the Obama administration’s left-wing
In 1999, as I was preparing to leave my home town of Skokie, IL for six months of study in Israel, an antisemitic white supremacist fanatic went on a shooting spree in the area. He wounded several Jews, none of
A grandfather and grandson were among the victims in a shooting at the Jewish Community Center of Kansas City in Overland Park, Kansas, according to the Kansas City Star. The alleged shooter, a man in his 70s, opened fire at
Three people are dead and one is reportedly in critical condition, according to ABC News, after a shooting spree at a Jewish community center and retirement facility in Overland Park, Kansas. The Kansas City Star reports that police arrested one male
A rare “blood moon tetrad” will arrive with the start of a total lunar eclipse, beginning late on Monday evening–or, for most of the East Coast, early Tuesday. The eclipse, in which the full moon will be darkened by the
