Author name: Dana William

California and Los Angeles County are getting tougher on crime. The stiffer penalties on some drug and theft crimes that voters recently approved with Proposition 36 took effect this month. Weeks earlier, in L.A. County, former federal prosecutor Nathan Hochman was sworn in as the new district attorney and kicked off his administration by reversing […]

Forty years ago this November, Cesar Chavez gave a speech at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club that was as much of a promise as a warning. The main topic of the 25-minute talk was the lessons he learned from a career organizing campesinos in California and beyond, in the face of fierce opposition. “All my life,

WASHINGTON —  Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration has drafted a conceptual plan to help undocumented immigrants under threat of deportation after President-elect Donald Trump takes office. But some advocates worry the proposal doesn’t do enough to protect those who are detained amid immigration proceedings. “Trump’s promise to use militarized raids against our state will have devastating consequences

WASHINGTON —  I spent much of 2024 warning readers that a second Trump presidency would do serious damage to American institutions, beginning with democracy and the rule of law. “The former president neither understands nor respects the Constitution,” I wrote. “He would use the powers of the federal government as an instrument of his whims, prosecuting

Jimmy Carter, who died Sunday, is the first presidential candidate I remember publicly expressing an opinion of. As it turned out, Carter would also be the first (and only) president to publicly express an opinion of me. During Carter’s presidency he was criticized and lampooned, but during his life he was more often hailed for

Jimmy Carter wore a button-down shirt in Khartoum. It was a sweltering morning and the sun shone on the Nile as the clamorous city was rousing to life. Carter was in the Sudanese capital to monitor the 2010 election that was certain to extend the rule of autocrat Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, who had been