When an obscure nonprofit group attacked one of California’s signature green-energy projects this summer — warning a congressional panel that the embrace of solar energy would lead to crippling hikes in electricity bills — officials in the state shrugged off the testimony as noise from the fringe....
Ski season is underway in Hawaii. The island’s two highest peaks — Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa — are getting hit with a cold, wet storm that has dumped about 2 feet of snow, and an additional foot of snow is possible when another storm hits the islands later this weekend. National Weather Service...
The Obama administration said Friday it was banning offshore oil drilling in the Arctic through 2022, a move that prompted widespread praise from conservation groups but raised questions over how long the decision will stand just two months before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. A new...
Conservatives absolutely love to mock political correctness and namby-pamby, safe-space liberalism. But there is one line of offensive humor they may now consider beyond the pale: blonde jokes. Given the growing posse of blondes who have become prominent advocates for the conservative cause, right-wingers...
Janeth Calderon flipped on the kitchen light and the windows burned bright in the pre-dawn blackness. Next she slayed the quiet, turning on a radio that filled the room with traditional Mexican music. A few pots and pans clattered as she began making breakfast for her four children. Mario was up...
President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters went to court Friday to prevent or halt election recounts in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, less than two weeks before the states would have to complete the tasks to meet a federal deadline to certify their election results. The legal actions...
The jury in the murder trial of Michael Slager, a white former North Charleston police officer who fatally shot an unarmed black man, Walter Scott, informed a judge Friday it was unable to reach a unanimous decision. One juror is refusing to consider a conviction, according to the jury foreman....
Former Sen. Scott Brown won a surprising ally this week in his quest to become President-elect Donald Trump’s Veterans Affairs secretary: Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Warren, a leader of the Democratic left and one of Trump’s sharpest-tongued critics, has been a longtime nemesis of Brown....
Baffled at times and often bitter, more than two dozen of the country’s top political operatives grappled with questions that have dominated American politics for 18 months: What explains Donald Trump’s astonishing political success and what, if anything, could they have done to stop it? Campaign...
The Republican-led House on Friday overwhelmingly backed a $611 billion defense policy bill that rejects a number of President Barack Obama's key proposals for managing the nation's vast military enterprise. Lawmakers passed the legislative package, 375-34. The bill now goes to the Senate, where...
The election had been over for more than three weeks when President-elect Donald Trump took the stage Thursday night in Cincinnati, but inside the arena it was like the campaign had never ended. Supporters chanted familiar slogans about Hillary Clinton — “Lock her up” — and illegal immigration:...
President-elect Donald Trump has chosen James N. Mattis, a highly respected retired Marine four-star general, to head the Defense Department, filling in a critical national security position in the emerging Cabinet. Mattis served 44 years in the Marine Corps before he retired in 2013. He headed...
Donald Trump’s trip to Indiana on Thursday showcased him as the president he promised he’d be, a benevolent billionaire working successfully to salvage almost 1,000 American jobs that had been destined to move to Mexico before he interceded. Trump has honed that image daily with his effervescent...
In a year of relentless violence, Chicago this week hit another gruesome milestone, exceeding 700 homicides for the first time in nearly two decades, according to Police Department records. The 700-mark was reached when a 25-year-old man was fatally shot about 6:20 a.m. Wednesday in the Burnside...
Donald Trump is about to become the biggest alligator in Washington, so it should be no surprise that he has lost interest in draining the swamp. Thanks to constant repetition by the candidate, one of the campaign applause lines that Trump fans learned by heart and loudly repeated whenever their...
The House overwhelmingly backed broad legislation Tuesday to increase federal support for medical research, advancing a long-anticipated bill that is expected to clear the Senate soon and get President Obama’s signature. The $6.3-billion bill — known as the 21st Century Cures Act — attracted strong...
Facing the likelihood of dramatically stepped-up deportations under a President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court justices sounded closely split Wednesday over whether the government can indefinitely jail immigrants with criminal convictions while they fight legal efforts to remove them from the...
At long last, rain fell on the scorched Appalachian town of Gatlinburg, Tenn., on Wednesday after savage wildfires blazed across eastern Tennessee, killing seven people, forcing thousands to evacuate and burning hundreds of homes to the ground. Yet even as rainstorms helped firefighters douse the...
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has done it again, fending off a rival to win another term as minority leader and confirming her staying power as the party prepares to confront President-elect Donald Trump. The San Francisco Democrat has beaten back ouster attempts before. But this year’s...
President-elect Donald Trump’s newly announced agreement to save more than 1,000 jobs in Indiana gave him the kind of trophy he covets: a tangible victory that matches his campaign promise to serve as deal maker in chief. But its long-term value will depend on what Trump gave up to keep those factory...
President-elect Donald Trump reassured voters during his insurgent political campaign that he would protect Medicare, Social Security and other popular federal assistance programs. But in tapping Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to be his Health and Human Services secretary, he has elevated one of the most...
A slew of letters sent to at least five mosques in California is the latest in a surge of Islamophobia that’s hit the nation since Donald Trump was declared the president-elect. The letters, addressed to the “Children of Satan” and signed by a group that calls itself “Americans for a Better Way,”...
A Supreme Court dispute over the government’s power to indefinitely jail immigrants facing deportation has taken on added significance with the election of Donald Trump, who has vowed to remove millions of foreigners in the country illegally. The case, to be argued Wednesday, pits civil libertarians...
Wildfires fueled by high winds roared through parts of the Great Smoky Mountains, burning the doorstep of the Dollywood theme park, destroying a resort and chasing thousands of people from their homes. National Guard troops arrived Tuesday to help overwhelmed firefighters, and Mother Nature provided...
Republicans became known as the “party of no” during the Obama years because of their frequent efforts to block the president’s initiatives. As congressional Democrats prepare to deal with a Republican White House, they appear ready to take the opposite approach, effectively challenging President-elect...
President-elect Donald Trump plans to select House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.) to be his Health and Human Services secretary, two people familiar with the decision said late Monday. In picking Price, Trump tapped an arch-conservative lawmaker and leading critic of the Affordable...
The man who drove a car into a crowd of students at Ohio State University on Monday and then attacked bystanders with a butcher knife, injuring at least 11, has been identified as a student at the university, and officials are investigating whether terrorism was a motive. The attacker, Abdul Razak...
President-elect Donald Trump’s postelection victory party has veered into a dizzying paradox. Rather than celebrating, he is amplifying far-right conspiracies to undermine the credibility of an election he won. At the same time, he is finding some common cause in the quixotic effort by the fringe...
"This is certainly not Bush v. Gore," a Wisconsin elections official said Monday. Well, what is it? The state is initiating the first significant candidate-driven recount in a presidential election since the 2000 ordeal in Florida between then-Vice President Al Gore and eventual President George...
Passengers erupted into applause as the first commercial flight from the United States to Havana in more than 50 years landed in Cuba, arriving as the island begins weeklong memorial services for revolutionary leader Fidel Castro. Cubans saluted the packed American Airlines flight by spraying water...
A white man accused of fatally shooting nine black parishioners at a Charleston, S.C., church last year was allowed to act as his own attorney in his federal death penalty trial Monday. Dylann Roof's request came against his lawyers' advice, and U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said he would...
Nearly three weeks into his presidential transition, Donald Trump has hewn closely to the habits that won him the presidency. He continues to brush aside fine points of policy and freely contradict earlier positions, with some of the shifts seemingly based simply on the latest advice he’s received...