Republicans are finally denouncing Donald Trump. Here’s why that’s still depressing

Skip to navigation Skip to content Skip to footer View text version of this page Help using this website - Accessibility statement Join today and you can easily save your favourite articles, join in the conversation and comment, plus select which news your want direct to your inbox. The most shocking thing about the recording of US Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump boasting about infidelity and his ability to grab women "by the pussy" because he's famous, is that it took something so graphic and unspinnable for senior establishment Republicans to withdraw support for Trump.

Senate’s odd couple forge unlikely alliance on environment

In this May 19, 2016, file photo, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., embraces the committee's ranking member Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington. One is a Brooklyn-born, northern California liberal who carved out time in a two-decade Senate career to write a politics-sex-and-power thriller or two.

Calif. asks to let undocumented adults buy insurance

In a move that is sure to draw the ire of Republicans, California officials are asking the Obama administration this week to approve a plan that would allow undocumented immigrants to buy health insurance on the state's public exchange. Officials say up to 30 percent of the state's 2 million undocumented adults could be eligible for the program, and about 17,000 people are expected to participate in the first year, if the plan is approved.

Republican State Party Power and 2016

In the 22 years since the 1994 Republican midterm landslide, the landscape of partisan power in state governments has changed dramatically. The Republican Party was the minority party in state government for almost seventy straight years before the Gingrich Contract with America transformed not only control of Congress but vitally control of state legislatures, long the hardest bastion of Democrat power in politics and quietly the key to Democrat dominance of American politics.

California lawmakers deliver for liberals on climate, wages

California delivered on its reputation as a testing ground for liberal ideas as state lawmakers wrapped up a legislative session that extended the nation's most ambitious climate change programs, raised the minimum wage to $15 and toughened gun laws. While they failed to address some of the maddening challenges afflicting Californians' daily lives - most notably, skyrocketing housing costs and crumbling roads - lawmakers advanced top priorities for the labor, environmental, gun-control and anti-tobacco movements.

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.

California legislature may ditch plan to radically reduce emissions

Gov. Jerry Brown has taken the national stage to tout California's fight against global warming, telling cheering throngs at the Democratic National Convention that the state has “the toughest climate laws in the country.” Yet inside the state Capitol, the fate of the policy's centerpiece - legislation to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions - is in peril. One ominous sign: Brown on Thursday opened a fundraising committee, taking the first step toward putting an environmental initiative on the 2018 ballot in case the bill fails in the Legislature.

[Shawn Hubler] Competence isn’t sexy, but it’s needed in the White House

In 2003, the year Californians swept Arnold Schwarzenegger into the governor's office, a Democratic friend shared a theory on why poor Gov. Gray Davis had been recalled. "Some years, people want a plumber," he shrugged, "and some years, they want glamour.

Why should taxpayers foot the bill for closed primaries? Thomas Elias

California's June presidential primary election is now just a memory, long ago subsumed in the news by vice presidential derbies, political conventions, politicians' gaffes and violence at home and abroad. But one question lingers on: Why did taxpayers have to cover the primary election costs for those political parties that did not let any voter who liked cast a ballot in their contests? In June, Democrats and Greens allowed anyone registered as either a Democrat or without party preference to vote in their primaries, although there were a few hoops for non-Democrats to jump through.

Beware the energy shell game

Scorching July weather may have many in the Ohio Valley deciding between cranking up the air conditioning and keeping electricity bills within reason, but it turns out consumers in West Virginia and Ohio are running at about the middle of the pack, in terms of nationwide energy costs. Financial research firm WalletHub analyzed monthly energy bills in all 50 states, and Washington, D.C., using a formula that considered electricity, natural gas, motor fuel and home heating oil.

California Millennials could cast decisive votes

As they come of age and register to vote, Millennials - that enormous generation born since 1981-are surging so fast they're on the verge of overtaking the Baby Boomer behemoth as a share of the California electorate. And new evidence confirms that, so far at least, the GOP is losing them.

Court Decision Leaves Undocumented Immigrants’ Health Care Options In Limbo

Erica Torres is one of the estimated 1.4 million Californians who live without health insurance largely because they are undocumented. She was hopeful when President Barack Obama expanded deportation-relief programs for undocumented immigrants - a controversial move that would have put government-subsidized health care within her reach.

Democratic National Convention – Day 4

Gallery: California delegates hold up signs as they cheer for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Thursday, July 28, 2016. Gallery: The Democratic women of the US Senate waves to delegates during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia , Thursday, July 28, 2016.

Californiaa s drought may be easing, but fight over water persists

California Republicans are spreading out their bets in their annual effort to steer more water to the state's farmers. Framed by a hearing Tuesday, the GOP-controlled House of Representatives will vote this week on whether to retain farmer-friendly California water provisions in an Interior Department funding bill for the fiscal year that begins in October.

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.

Governor Brown Announces Appointments

Amilia Glikman, 39, of Sacramento, has been appointed chief counsel at the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, where she has been assistant chief counsel since 2015 and served as an attorney from 2012 to 2015. She served as an attorney at the Sacramento County Superior Court from 2010 to 2012 and was an associate at Downey Brand LLP from 2002 to 2010.