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

Which is better: A world at peace but where there is injustice in every country or a world in which justice reigns in every country but which is in constant economic, political, and military conflict? What a terrible choice! Neither world has ever existed or ever will, but it is instructive to think about both possible worlds to think about the ...Read more

How we elect our presidents has never been more broken — and that’s saying something for an Electoral College system subject to more proposed constitutional amendments than any other topic. We urgently need popular vote elections that treat every voter equally — and can do so by 2028.

When Congress recently certified the presidential ...Read more

Jan. 6 this year marked not just the anniversary of the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol four years ago, but the actual counting of the electoral votes in Congress (by the loser of the presidential race, Vice President Kamala Harris).

Last month, three Senate Democrats presented a bill to abolish the Electoral College. It’s a pity they ...Read more

The Framers of the U.S. Constitution designed a unique system to choose our president in 1787: the Electoral College. More than two centuries later, it remains an invaluable institution that helps safeguard us against the tyranny of the majority and vote fraud.

Back then, it was experimental. The notion of an elected chief executive was novel �...Read more

For the first time in memory, everyone around here either knows someone or is someone who has lost a home or been dislocated by the fires that have scarred so much of our beloved Los Angeles.

And everyone wonders: What happens now? Will people rebuild? When will things get back to normal?

Those of us who have been paying attention over the ...Read more

Joe Biden leaves the Oval Office the same way he entered it: in a foggy state of delusion.

On Monday, Biden defended his foreign policy legacy during a speech at the State Department, arguing the United States is stronger on the international stage and its enemies are weaker.

“I come here to the State Department to report to the American ...Read more

Donald Trump got the sentence he deserved.

An embittered Judge Juan Merchan, sitting in a Manhattan courtroom, handed the president-elect an unconditional discharge on his 34 felony convictions related to hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels.

No jail time. No probation. No fines.

The penalty was befitting the crime ginned up by ...Read more

With President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration days away, much attention is focused on the rhetoric and reality surrounding his first day back in office. Per one count, Trump has made 41 day-one promises, with mass deportation topping the list. We should be more worried about micro-deportations.

The mass deportation rhetoric is loud and ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump reportedly is considering declaring a national economic emergency to give him legal cover to impose tariffs. Wait, you say. There is no national economic emergency. Surely, Trump would be breaking the law if he declared a nonexistent emergency to give himself more power.

If only it were so simple. Under the ...Read more

January is that time of year when we pause to examine our health habits, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory with an important data point to consider: the strong link between alcohol consumption and cancer.

Murthy’s warning is a needed and long overdue step toward helping Americans better understand the effects of even ...Read more

Shocking news recently broke that former Texas GOP Rep. Kay Granger, a 14-term veteran of Congress, was living in a senior facility while still a sworn member of the U.S. House.

The revelation reignited the decades-old debate over congressional term limits, this time supercharged by tech billionaire Elon Musk. Taking to X, the social platform ...Read more

Pity the poor delta smelt.

The tiny fish, which seldom grows to more than four inches or lives longer than a year, was once abundant in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It was an important link in the delta food chain, and valued as a food fish by local residents at least through the 1920s.

By the mid-1980s, however, the delta smelt was on ...Read more

Donald Trump has refused to rule out using force to acquire Greenland from Denmark or the Panama Canal from Panama. Don’t rule out that he might just mean it.

The mere thought that America would extort or go to war with a close NATO ally to illegally change their sovereign borders seems ridiculous. Presumably, it is. Yet the threats also ...Read more