The most politically damaging video to emerge from the massive wildfires burning Los Angeles could have been of Mayor Karen Bass staring blankly into a camera like a deer in headlights as reporters asked her if she had anything to say to the thousands of people whose homes were incinerated. However, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) […]
“What does one think of when reading the words Italian American?” I asked a friend. Was she going to say tomato sauce (gravy) or delicious food? How about fictional characters, Michael Corleone or Tony Soprano? Does the phrase “fuhgeddaboudit” suddenly pop into your head? Or maybe the “Che vuoi?” (pinched fingers) hand gesture? All are […]
More than 6 million people live in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area, but only about 700,000 live in the actual District of Columbia. The rest live in the suburbs, Maryland, and Northern Virginia. Thanks to a federal government that spends $6 trillion per year — more than one-fifth of the entire economy — these suburbs […]
The Empire Strikes Back famously features a string of Imperial officers being summarily executed by Darth Vader as their horrified successors look on with concern. The lesson? Sometimes, one climbs the ladder only to fall from a greater height. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD), the man who has succeeded Mitch McConnell as the Republicans’ […]
Peter Hujar’s place in American photography was summed up aptly, and not a little harshly, deep within the biography of another photographer. Hujar’s career, Patricia Morrisroe wrote in Mapplethorpe, was “a shadow version” of her subject’s. “The two men might be compared,” she goes on, “to … Mozart and Salieri.” So let’s compare. Both men […]
The new year is off like a rocket. 2025 has dawned with more optimism than we’ve known for years. Inhaling that hopeful air, I asked my Army team leader and good friend, retired Army Master Sgt. Mike Preston, about his goals in the new year. “I don’t do New Year’s resolutions,” the party pooper said. […]
Los Angeles is burning again. Some combination of dry hillside, wind, and an as-yet unidentified spark has set the neighborhood of Pacific Palisades on fire. This happens from time to time, and people who don’t live in Los Angeles always ask the same question: Earthquakes, mudslides, wildfires? Why do you people live there? There’s no […]
President-elect Trump announced on Thursday his latest batch of presumptive nominees to serve in his forthcoming administration. Trump announced his pick of Christine Jack Toretti, Pennsylvania’s Republican National Committeewoman, to serve as his ambassador to Sweden. In his previous administration, Trump nominated Toretti to be ambassador to Malta, but she was never confirmed by the...
A North Carolina man who fired an assault rifle in a Washington, D.C. pizzeria in 2016 while acting on an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory died on Monday from a gunshot wound after a local traffic stop. Edgar Maddison Welch was shot by police during a traffic stop over the weekend and died from his injuries two...
Los Angeles County officials accidentally sent an evacuation text to all residents in error on Thursday evening as wildfires continue to spread rapidly throughout the area. The city’s emergency management department retracted the statement on X and in text messages to residents. “Recent @ReadyLACounty alert to evacuate was sent in ERROR. Evacuation orders have not...