WASHINGTON — It's deadline day for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on COVID-19 relief, with the contours of a potential deal taking shape behind the scenes even as President Donald Trump's GOP allies are recoiling at the administration's tolerance for a $2 trillion package. Pelosi negotiated...
PG&E Clears Another Bankruptcy Hurdle With Debt Refinancing
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge on Tuesday approved a settlement that moves Pacific Gas & Electric closer to getting out of bankruptcy, but the troubled utility still must navigate nettlesome obstacles being put up by the state of California. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Dennis Montali signed off on a deal...
Early Voting Means 2020 Primary Is Already Here for Millions
SACRAMENTO — The Iowa caucuses are more than a week away, but millions of Americans are already free to vote. Early voting in the crush of Super Tuesday states that hold primaries on March 3 amounts to a parallel campaign for the Democratic nomination. While much of the focus is...
EU Envoys Agree That Brexit Extension Is Needed, No Date Set
LONDON — Less than a week before Britain is scheduled to leave the European Union, ambassadors from the bloc's 27 other nations agreed Friday to grant the U.K.'s request for another extension to the Brexit deadline — but they did not settle on how long that delay should be. As...
UK, Irish Leaders See 'Pathway' to Brexit Deal as Hopes Wane
LONDON — The leaders of Britain and Ireland said they spotted a "pathway" to an elusive Brexit deal Thursday, as hopes for a breakthrough dimmed just three weeks before the U.K.'s deadline to leave the European Union. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Irish leader Leo Varadkar provided a status...
Democrats to Prepare Subpoenas for Full Mueller Report
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee will prepare subpoenas this week seeking special counsel Robert Mueller's full Russia report as the Justice Department appears likely to miss an April 2 deadline set by Democrats for the report's release. The Judiciary panel plans to vote on subpoenas Wednesday, a day after...
Trump: Shutdown Could Last 'for a Very Long Time’
WASHINGTON — Facing a midnight deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump said Friday a closure could drag on "for a very long time" and he tried to lay blame on congressional Democrats if there's no deal over his demand for U.S.-Mexico border wall money. Trump's tweet...
Bullet Train Sets Speed Record . . . For Burning Through Cash
Long before it's done, California's bullet train project is setting speed records. Not land speed records, mind you. Spending records. Ralph Vartabedian, the high-speed rail watchdog for the Los Angeles Times, reports that the project has cost state taxpayers an average $3.1 million a day over the last year. Spending...
US Says Half of Youngest Children and Families Reunited
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration says all eligible small children separated from their families as a result of its zero-tolerance immigration policy have been reunited with their parents. But nearly half of the children under 5 remain separated from their families because of safety concerns, the deportation of their parents...
Judge: Separated Families Must Be Reunited Within 30 Days
MCALLEN, Texas — A judge in California on Tuesday ordered U.S. border authorities to reunite separated families within 30 days, setting a hard deadline in a process that has so far yielded uncertainty about when children might again see their parents. If children are younger than 5, they must be...