A top Russian oligarch and ally of Vladimir Putin openly stated that his country has engaged in U.S. election meddling and would continue doing so in future elections. That’s not exactly news, even if it’s the first such admission by someone so close to Putin. But the methods of meddling are what merit more congressional scrutiny because a ...Read more

$104,848,887.43 — Rick Caruso spent at least that much on his unsuccessful campaign to become mayor of Los Angeles, according to the latest campaign finance records.

That's 11 times more than the $9 million spent by the victor, Karen Bass. It's the largest amount a mayoral candidate has spent in U.S. history, just ahead of the $102 million ...Read more

The abortion rights issue was a political lifesaver for Democrats this year. Whether it will be again in 2024 depends in part on efforts to put the question of reproductive rights on the ballot — not just through the candidates’ positions, but literally.

The issue helped to fend off a red wave by both motivating the base and persuading ...Read more

How do you stop hate crimes? How do you even know where to begin?

California is taking a nation-leading step to answer those questions with two new state-sponsored and -funded efforts. The Commission on the State of Hate seeks to understand why hate crimes are rising and how to combat them. The Governor's Council on Holocaust and Genocide ...Read more

In the 1960s and ‘70s, global population growth was a huge concern. Scientists and the popular press spoke of a population explosion that threatened to cause famine, poverty and depletion of the Earth’s natural resources. The world’s population had grown at an accelerating rate from just under 1 billion in 1800 to 2 billion in 1928 and 3 ...Read more

The student is a woman majoring in computer science at a private university in Afghanistan, but since the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan last year, the main thing that she seems to be studying is the regime’s manipulation of Islam.

The authorities mandated that she and her classmates take — and pay for — four religion classes each ...Read more

For much of the 20th century, regulators empowered by landmark legislation like the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 struck real trepidation into the hearts of corporate would-be consolidators who used their market position to crush competition and take advantage of consumers.

Even juggernauts like the monopolistic Bell System could not ...Read more

As the Supreme Court faces a crisis of credibility, another blow has landed in the form of former anti-abortion evangelical leader the Rev. Rob Schenck’s allegations about the leak of a pivotal decision eight years ago.

The detail that’s most captured the attention of lawmakers and the public is the allegation that, over dinner in 2014, ...Read more

If you've been yearning for a preview of the battle for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, the place to be last weekend was Las Vegas, where the Republican Jewish Coalition held what some attendees cheekily called a "kosher cattle call" for potential candidates.

Former Vice President Mike Pence was there. So were former New Jersey Gov...Read more

Whether the Trump Organization is guilty of criminal fraud will be for a jury to determine. Already, its longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, has pleaded guilty to 15 felonies. The question in a Manhattan courtroom is to what extent culpability extends to the company for which he worked (and is still on payroll, collecting $640,...Read more

Dear Millennials and Generation Zers: I’m sorry. I should have believed in you.

Ever since I started writing children’s books on civics more than 20 years ago, I’ve talked with you in schools, in libraries and at book fairs. I’ve taken your questions about government and tried to answer them. I’ve known that you want to learn how ...Read more

With Donald Trump’s announcement of his new presidential campaign comes a timely reminder of what kind of a man is asking Americans to put him in charge again: Trump’s former chief of staff, John Kelly, now confirms that Trump, while in office, routinely sought to use and abuse the powers of government agencies against perceived enemies in ...Read more

Presidential administrations never stay the same from beginning to end. Top personnel come and go for various reasons, and we seem to be seeing that now with the Joe Biden administration. Bloomberg News recently reported that the White House’s top economic adviser, Brian Deese, is expected to depart next year as director of the National ...Read more

To some frustrated Republicans, the main lesson from a disappointing 2022 election is clear: Donald Trump has become a drag on their party. They may well be right — but it will be a hard argument to make to their fellow Republicans, who tend not to place a high value on electability.

A growing number of party figures have blamed the former ...Read more

Something is altering the normal seasonal currents of cold and flu viruses. They slowed to a trickle during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic only to blast through human populations this year. Some public health experts have called it a “tripledemic,” but it might even be described as a quadrupledemic.

In the Northern Hemisphere, flu ...Read more

We can unearth the mass graves left in Ukraine by retreating Russian troops. We can talk to the Ukrainian survivors of rape and torture, the mothers of fallen soldiers, and the millions who live in constant fear of Russian bombing and terror. But we can’t contact the Ukrainian women and children whom the invaders have abducted and taken far ...Read more

Our news screens were erupting with breaking news of yet another mass shooting. But this time the news that began with a barrage of bullets also became something special — a tale of battlefield heroics on the homefront of a nightspot in Colorado Springs.

A brave military veteran, Richard Fierro, had rushed toward the first flashes of light as...Read more

Last month, as a new sex crimes trial began for Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles, defense attorney Mark Werksman insisted that Weinstein was falsely accused by women and was the victim of the #MeToo movement.

During opening arguments, Werksman attacked California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom as “just another bimbo who slept with Harvey...Read more

Ukraine’s capture of Kherson two weeks ago, coming after months of grueling combat, was perhaps the most humiliating setback for Russian forces since the war began nine months ago. The successful Ukrainian counteroffensive occurred five weeks after Putin declared Kherson, as well as Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia, a part of Russian ...Read more

Amid all the attention recently to "Trumpty Dumpty's" do-over presidential candidacy, the midterm elections and Speaker Nancy Pelosi's semi-farewell, one bit of Washington news was overshadowed but shouldn't be. As with Donald Trump, we must not become inured to this other newsmaker's travesties.

I'm talking about Supreme Court Justice Clarence...Read more