Ten years ago, Sue Latta fought to have her marriage recognized legally in Idaho.

It’s her name on the lawsuit, Latta v. Otter, that officially legalized same-sex marriage in Idaho in October 2014, months before the U.S. Supreme Court made same-sex marriage the law of the land in the landmark Obergefell case in June 2015.

But here we are, 10...Read more

For the second time this month, former first lady Michelle Obama is snubbing Donald Trump, yet another sign that sore loser Democrats can’t handle Trump’s election victory.

Mrs. Obama, who has been touted as a possible presidential contender in the future, is boycotting Trump’s Inauguration next week – the most prominent political ...Read more

On top of the human tragedy they’re still inflicting, the Los Angeles wildfires are exposing a gap between what people thought their homes were worth and what they’ll actually get from insurance companies when those houses have been reduced to ash. Potentially thousands of homeowners are learning it won’t be nearly enough.

But this isn�...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump intends to pursue a hard-line policy on undocumented workers, deporting millions in what he has billed as the “largest deportation” in the nation’s history.

The inspiration for this plan is the appallingly named Eisenhower-era program “Operation Wetback,” which relied on mass raids and roundups to deport ...Read more

Ten years ago, a radical spine cancer surgery simultaneously saved my life and disabled me.

I had been a very active person, but after surgery, my legs were partially paralyzed. Initially, I leaned on stories of fellow athletes who overcame significant physical handicaps to do their thing again; paralyzed mountain bikers, prosthesis-wearing ...Read more

As bad as the fires in the Los Angeles area have been — more than 12,000 structures burned, about 180,000 people evacuated, more than 35,000 acres scorched, and at least 25 deaths— they could have been even worse. Officials noted they didn’t “ have enough fire personnel … to handle this,” but in some ways we Angelenos got lucky.

...Read more

As the San Joaquin Valley now confronts widespread fear in its immigrant communities caused by recent sweeps by U.S. Border Patrol agents, one fact remains true as it has for years now:

If Donald Trump and congressional Republicans really wanted to solve the immigration and border crisis, they could do so.

But keeping the issue in the hot pot ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump demonstrated in his first term a willingness to withhold and otherwise weaponize relief funding to American communities stricken by disaster, providing help to states — or not — depending on his whims.

That inexcusable behavior is set to continue as Trump, amid a flurry of lies and conspiracy theories, and ...Read more

The Hollywood sign stands sentinel above Los Angeles, watching as embers dance through the January night like wayward stars. Glowing debris floats on warm winds past million-dollar mansions, while emergency crews battle a blaze that shouldn’t exist — not in winter, not here, not now.

Two thousand miles east, in the heartland of America, a ...Read more

It was perhaps his most outlandish claim on the campaign trail, yet one Donald Trump repeated as he was seeking to win back his old job as president of the United States: He can resolve the war in Ukraine in a single day.

“They’re dying, Russians and Ukrainians. I want them to stop dying. And I’ll have that done — I’ll have that done ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House sparks a pressing question: Can the guardrails of American democracy survive another four years of the only U.S. president who sought to undermine the peaceful transfer of power?

Many of us on the center-right are worried the answer will be “no.” After all, conservatism, at...Read more

For folks who have so harshly turned on the FBI for supposedly targeting Donald Trump over the years, Republicans sure are quick to turn to the bureau when they need a cover-up, er, background check to salvage a troubled Trump pick for high office.

In October 2018, the beneficiary was Brett M. Kavanaugh. Then-President Trump and a Senate ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump takes office next week, and his border czar, Tom Homan, has made it clear that Chicago tops his list for deportations.

With a clear target on our backs, does the City Council have an opportunity to mitigate the fallout?

Aldermen Raymond Lopez and Silvana Tabares have been working for months to update Chicago’s ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, desperate to appear as if he’s leading on the wildfire debacle, now tacitly admits that his state’s onerous regulatory apparatus represents an obstacle to blaze victims hoping to eventually reclaim their lives. Rather than a total overhaul, though, he prefers to nibble around the edges.

On Sunday, Newsom signed...Read more

SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Jeff Okrepkie wants to make one thing perfectly clear.

Yes, his home burned to the ground after he fled a galloping wall of flames with his wife, their toddler, two dogs and the few items they managed to cram into their cars. But no, Okrepkie insisted, he is not a fire victim.

"I'm a survivor," he said. "It seems kind ...Read more

There’s an old saying about what happens when the unstoppable force meets an immovable object, a situation where two equally powerful and contradictory forces are in opposition to each other.

Such a situation is rapidly unfolding between two powerful forces within the Republican Party on the all-important issue of immigration. This issue ...Read more

No one can be surprised that Republicans are hoping to exploit their Washington trifecta — the White House and majority control of the House and Senate — by implementing vast federal budget cuts in order to save their 2017 tax cuts from expiration.

Now we're beginning to see some meat on the bare bones of GOP policies, thanks to a "menu" of...Read more

With the public release of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s report to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the saga of Donald Trump’s federal prosecution for election interference has come to an end, less than a week before he’s sworn in to a second term. That it was short-circuited before trial is partly the fault of Garland, who waited ...Read more

Just how far President-elect Donald Trump will press his promises on trade and economic policy once he takes office is hard to say. One thing is already apparent: The harms won’t be limited to the direct consequences of his actual policies. Even if his commitments in the end amount to little, they’re already burdening companies, unsettling ...Read more

This week President Joe Biden invoked the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA) to prohibit oil and gas drilling in most of America’s offshore areas, in perpetuity — or so he thinks. President-elect Donald Trump called the order “ridiculous” and pledged to reverse it immediately.

That’s precisely what Trump should do, but it won�...Read more