JERUSALEM — Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot has come to the rescue of a fellow Israeli celebrity in a spat with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Gadot, who typically shies away from politics, is rallying behind Rotem Sela, one of Israel's top models and TV hosts, who drew fire from Netanyahu...
Walters: 'Ballot Harvesting' Just Latest Power Move by Politicians
Anyone who harbors the quaint notion that high-stakes politics are rational, much less ethical, should be disabused by two terms: “gerrymandering” and “ballot harvesting.” When Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in 2010 and maintained it for three subsequent election cycles, Democrats complained loudly that it was the...
Round 2 of Teacher Strikes Looks Beyond Pay and Funding
Teachers in Oakland, California, hit the picket lines just as West Virginia teachers went back to class in a kind of coast-to-coast tag-team display of the national teacher unrest that in many places has moved beyond pay to politics, tackling issues like charter schools and vouchers. Call it round two...
Sen. Bernie Sanders Says He’s Running for President in 2020
WASHINGTON — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose insurgent 2016 presidential campaign reshaped Democratic politics, announced Tuesday that he is running for president in 2020. "Our campaign is not only about defeating Donald Trump," the 77-year-old self-described democratic socialist said in an email to supporters. "Our campaign is about transforming our...
Political Shifts, Sales Slump Cast Shadow Over Gun Industry
When gunmakers and dealers gather this week in Las Vegas for the industry's largest annual conference, they will be grappling with slumping sales and a shift in politics that many didn't envision two years ago when gun-friendly Donald Trump and a GOP-controlled Congress took office. Some of the top priorities...
Walters: 'Dr. Newsom' Wants to Cure State's Tech Disease
One of the great mysteries of California politics is why, in a state that boasts of its digital innovation, its government has such a miserable record on using technology. We’ve seen an endless litany of technology projects that run up enormous costs but fail to deliver promised efficiencies, or in...
A Journey Through 2018’s Top Pop Culture Moments
And the top pop culture moments of 2018 are ... Wait. WAS there any pop culture this year? Of course there was, but you could be forgiven for forgetting, because more than ever it was politics, politics, and more politics occupying the zeitgeist and sucking the proverbial air out of...
2019 Shapes up as Another Big Political Year
While 2018 has been a pivotal year in California’s political history – particularly the Republican Party’s losing half of its congressional seats – 2019 may be even more significant. The state’s politics will likely be dominated by two rolling events: the beginning of Gavin Newsom’s governorship and California’s bid to...
Newsom May Not Be So Lucky on the Economy
Outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown offered a pithy observation about the nature of politics during a wide-ranging interview before the Sacramento Press Club this month, to wit: “A lot of politics is timing, circumstances and luck.” While predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger contended with the state’s worst recession since the Great Depression, which...
Walters: Brown's Symbiotic Relationship With the Media
During his half-century-long career in California politics, Jerry Brown has had a complex relationship with journalists, particularly those who covered him on a day-to-day basis. He once referred to “the journalistic weather” – sometimes sunny and helpful to his career, sometimes dark and critical. That said, he was fairly open...