WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump knows he has fierce Democratic adversaries in Congress. But there is also ample push-back from the Judiciary branch, where black-robed judges who sit in courtrooms just blocks from the Capitol and in New York City have repudiated his view of executive power. Federal judges in...
House Will Draft Trump Impeachment Articles, Pelosi Says
WASHINGTON — The U.S. House is pressing forward to draft articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday. ‘’Our democracy is what is at stake," Pelosi said somberly. “The president leaves us no choice but to act.” Pelosi delivered the historic announcement as Democrats push toward...
Home-State Skepticism of Kamala Harris Foretold Trouble
SACRAMENTO — When Sen. Kamala Harris entered the presidential race in January, her California roots were supposed to give her special access to the cash and delegates required to win the Democratic nomination. Instead, she faced headwinds in her home state that would become a microcosm for the trouble that ultimately forced her...
Records: Giuliani, Nunes, and White House in Frequent Contact
WASHINGTON — A new report from Democrats compiling evidence on impeachment has revealed extensive contact between President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, and California Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the Intelligence panel. The report released Tuesday includes phone records obtained from AT&T and Verizon that show Giuliani...
Impeachment a Political Judgment Call, Crime Not Required
WASHINGTON — The conditions for impeaching a president are set out in a passage of the Constitution that is short enough to be a tweet and puzzling enough to be argued over more than two centuries later. In 199 characters, the passage, it so happens, also resembles President Donald Trump’s...
Walters: Will Schools Get More State Aid?
To the denizens of the state Capitol, the onset of the holiday season also marks the beginning of the state budget cycle. Gov. Gavin Newsom and his budget staff will soon decide the hundreds of individual appropriations that will make up the 2020-21 budget he will propose in early January,...
Bloomberg: US Would Benefit From More, Not Fewer, Immigrants
PHOENIX — Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that the United States needs “an awful lot more immigrants rather than less.” On his second day campaigning for the Democratic nomination, the former New York City mayor contrasted his views on immigration with President Donald Trump’s restrictive policies and laid out...
Leading White Democrats Court Black Votes; Some Find Trouble
ATLANTA — Coming out of their debate in a key center of black America, the leading Democratic presidential contenders aimed for the party’s crucial black and minority vote, with the scramble putting internal party tensions on display. From black protesters disrupting Elizabeth Warren to the lone black woman in the race chiding...
Impeachment Hearing Takeaways: A ‘Fictional Narrative’
WASHINGTON — The final testimony of an extraordinary week of impeachment hearings came from a former White House national security adviser who wrote the book on Vladimir Putin — literally — and a political counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine who overheard a pivotal conversation between President Donald Trump and EU ambassador Gordon...
Judge Temporarily Stops 1st Federal Executions Since 2003
WASHINGTON — A judge has temporarily halted the first federal executions in 16 years as a lawsuit on how the government intends to carry them out continues. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan said in a Wednesday evening ruling that the public is not served by “short-circuiting” legitimate judicial process....