Antonio Villaraigosa joins cryptocurrency firm Coinbase as paid adviser
Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa doesn’t own any cryptocurrency — at least, not yet. But he’s about to become a player in the industry’s…
Closing California prisons should be the easiest budget cut
California is facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit that will require lawmakers and the governor to make painful decisions. Nobody wants less funding for their child’s…
Will AI deepfakes and robocalls upset the 2024 election?
In the analog days of the 1970s, long before hackers, trolls and edgelords, an audiocassette company came up with an advertising slogan that posed a…
April 30 deadline looms for student loan forgiveness
Californians who obtained federally backed student loans from private banks can have some or all of their remaining debt forgiven by the Biden administration, but…
Trump, DeSantis meet to make peace, talk fundraising for Trump
NEW YORK — Former President Trump met privately with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the weekend, according to three people familiar with the discussion, marking a…
W. Virginia and North Carolina’s transgender care policies discriminate, judges rule
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia and North Carolina’s refusal to cover certain healthcare for transgender people with government-sponsored insurance is discriminatory, a federal appeals court ruled…
Biden, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador discuss migration
WASHINGTON — President Biden spoke with his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, about cooperating on migration policy as the U.S. leader continues to deliberate whether…
Column: Biden’s big campaign promises come with a warning label
WASHINGTON — For two weeks, former President Trump has been cooped up in a Manhattan courtroom on charges that he falsified records to conceal payments to…
California weighs regulations on herbal substance kratom
It comes in greenish powders, capsules and extracts, and is readily found in smoke shops and online. Some say they use it for an energy…
Column: We’re wiping out the Southern California steelhead trout. Time to fix that
SACRAMENTO — The state Fish and Game Commission recently declared the Southern California steelhead trout an endangered species. You think? These native beauties have been endangered…
Saying the stakes could not be higher, Newsom to speak at Vatican climate summit
SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking his climate change advocacy overseas next month to the epicenter of Catholicism, where he was invited to speak at…
California law that ended single-family zoning struck down for 5 cities
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ruled that a landmark law ending single-family-home-only zoning in California is unconstitutional, a decision that could lead…
University protests dominate media coverage, obscuring the true horror of Gaza war
The mention of mass graves is so deeply disturbing that it’s preferable to think of such wartime horrors as dark remnants of another era, chapters…
In Orange County, election skepticism could sway key Congress races
Alex Lopez doesn’t contest that Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. His concern lies with how those results came to be. “By the numbers?…
A new national monument would protect a swath of California’s desert
Thomas Tortez Jr. leads a group across a gravelly wash in Painted Canyon, at the spot where his Cahuilla tribal ancestors once lived in a…
Calmes: Who’s on trial in Manhattan, an ex-president or a mob boss?
Donald Trump has fussed about many things during his criminal trial in Manhattan: the judge, prosecutors, their relatives, witnesses, jurors and of course the media,…
Gaza protests shadow White House correspondents’ dinner
WASHINGTON — An election-year roast of President Biden before journalists, celebrities and politicians at the annual White House correspondents’ dinner Saturday butted up against growing public…
RFK Jr.’s third-party threat: Does it hurt Biden or Trump more?
WASHINGTON — Tempted to make a bet on the rematch between President Biden and former President Trump? There are a lot of reasons that would be…
Inside the head-spinning week of Trump’s legal drama
NEW YORK — Even by Donald Trump’s standards, it was a dizzying week. The first criminal prosecution of a former president began in earnest with opening…
Leaked DWP report offers a withering assessment of the utility
Good morning, and welcome to L.A. on the Record — our City Hall newsletter. It’s Dakota Smith at the helm, with help from David Zahniser.…