BEIJING — President Trump’s first visit to China in nine years is a high-stakes trip reflecting the rivalry and mutual dependence of two superpowers hoping to avoid a collision course — even if Trump cast it more as a meeting between close friends and business partners. Speaking to reporters before departing Washington on Tuesday, Trump downplayed tensions…
WASHINGTON — In Napa and surrounding counties, Rep. Mike Thompson’s once-easy reelection contest is turning into something of a race. In the Sacramento area, Rep. Doris Matsui is facing one of her most serious challengers in two decades. In Los Angeles, a former White House climate official wants to unseat Rep. Brad Sherman. In these districts and…
Digital entertainment company BuzzFeed Inc. is selling its majority stake to Los Angeles entertainment mogul Byron Allen for $120 million. BuzzFeed announced the sale late Monday, saying Allen Family Digital had agreed to pay $3 apiece for 40 million shares, representing a 52% stake in the company. Allen will pay $20 million in cash up…
WASHINGTON — The chair of the House Oversight Committee has sent a letter to OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman requesting information about potential conflicts of interest between Altman’s personal investments and his operation of the company. The letter, sent Friday, comes amid a high-stakes legal battle currently playing out in an Oakland federal courtroom between onetime partners…
WASHINGTON — In a blow to the electoral hopes of Democrats in this year’s midterm elections, the Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a redistricting plan that voters in the state had approved last month. The plan was expected to help Democrats win as many as four additional congressional seats amid an escalating, nationwide battle for…
WASHINGTON — When the U.S. Supreme Court sharply curtailed a key provision of the Voting Rights Act last week, Democrats in Washington had a message: The rules of redistricting have changed, and California — the nation’s biggest blue bastion — may have a further role to play. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said Democrats should “play by the…
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in New York unsealed a suicide note Wednesday purportedly written by Jeffrey Epstein in July, 2019, before a failed suicide attempt soon after he had been taken into federal custody on sex trafficking charges. The disgraced financier would ultimately die weeks later in the same New York facility in what was ruled…
Tom Steyer is trying to sell himself to voters as an agent of change. He has vowed to take on entrenched political and economic forces to create affordable housing, make the wealthy pay more in taxes, lower energy bills and protect the environment. But perhaps the biggest change he is selling is his own. The…
WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court often resembles a feuding family where the same heated arguments go on for years. The justices disagree over race, religion, abortion, guns and the environment, and more recently, presidential power and LGBTQ+ rights. And while they try to maintain a cordial working relationship, they don’t claim to be good friends. “We…
The ninth in an occasional series of profiles on Southern California athletes who have flourished in their post-playing careers. When the Dodgers drafted David Lesch in January 1980, they had visions of his fastball lighting up radar guns at Dodger Stadium. He never made it that far. Lesch never climbed above the lowest rung on…