At Lake Tahoe, Obama links conservation to climate change

Standing beneath the forest-green peaks of the Sierra Nevada, President Barack Obama drew a connection Wednesday between conservation efforts and stopping global warming, describing the two environmental challenges as inseparably linked. Obama used the first stop on a two-day conservation tour to try to showcase how federal and local governments can effectively team up to address a local environmental concern like iconic Lake Tahoe, which straddles California and Nevada.

Sen. Feinstein officially opposes pot legalization in California

Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Tuesday formally opposed an initiative on California's fall ballot to legalize recreational marijuana for adults. Feinstein said the measure, Proposition 64, lacked protections for children and motorists and would clash with medical marijuana guidelines signed last fall by Gov. Jerry Brown.

8 things to know about Senate candidate Kamala Harris’ career gold stars and demerits

The bedrock of Kamala Harris's U.S. Senate campaign has been her record as California attorney general and as San Francisco district attorney. She has said her experience in those posts provides ample proof that she is the best and most qualified candidate to represent California in Washington.

Supreme Court deadlock on immigration will have far-reaching implications

A deadlocked Supreme Court decision that blocks President Barack Obama from granting amnesty to the parents of legal U.S. residents who are in the country illegally will deprive many of those people of the right to sign up for health insurance in California, analysts of the decision said Thursday. Most immigrants who are in the country illegally already are barred from signing up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, the federal health care law widely known as Obamacare.

Dana Milbank: Congress on guns: doing nothing faster than ever

On May 24, the House Appropriations Committee took up a proposal "to deny transfers of firearms to persons known or suspected to be engaged in conduct related to terrorism." In a party-line vote, Republicans defeated the plan 29 to 17. Nineteen days later, a man whom the FBI had investigated as a possible terrorist went into an Orlando nightclub and, claiming solidarity with the Islamic State, shot 49 people to death with weapons he bought legally.

Senate Votes Down 4 Gun Control Measures After Fiery Debate

Four gun policy measures failed to pass the 60-vote threshold to move forward in the Senate on Monday, following impassioned debate from both sides of the aisle. The votes came just over a week after a deadly shooting spree in a gay nightclub in Orlando - the nation's worst mass shooting in modern history - and a subsequent 15-hour filibuster by Senate Democrats who demanded action on gun control.

4 Senate gun measures fail after Orlando shooting

The Senate voted down four gun control measures Monday evening, with Republicans and Democrats largely divided along party lines over how best to respond to the Orlando nightclub shooting more than one week ago. The last time a mass shooting spurred senators to action was in December 2015, after the San Bernardino, California, shooting, when they voted on two measures intended to prevent terrorists from being able to buy guns.

Senate rejects gun legislation, hands Democrats issue for fall

Gun measures failed in the U.S. Senate on Monday. less AR-15, semi-automatic, magazine-fed rifle: The AR-15 has become the preferred instruments of mass killing in the United States, notably at San Barnardino, California, last December, and Orlando, Florida, ... more The Republican-run U.S. Senate on Monday rejected a pair of gun violence proposals, refusing to bar sales of firearms to persons who have been on a terrorist watch list, or tightening criminal background checks.

The Gun Control Proposal Congress Could Agree On

While the Senate is not expected to pass any of the four gun safety measures coming to the floor for votes Monday evening, lawmakers continue to work on a more narrow proposal that could receive enough bipartisan support to advance. Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is working on a measure that would block people on the Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" list from buying firearms.

Collins hopes for compromise in new gun control bill

Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins is working with a bipartisan group of senators on an alternative bill that she hopes will break the partisan gridlock in Congress over gun control. Her proposal, coming in the wake of the horrific massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando by a gunman pledging allegiance to ISIS, would bar gun sales to those on the government's no-fly list.