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The federal government needs to end its antitrust crusades.The first case that should end is United States v. Google LLC. The case was brought by the United States Department of Justice on Oct. 20, 2020 in the final months of Trump’s first term and has been carried on aggressively by the outgoing Biden administration.On Aug. 5 last year, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta found Google violated the Sherman Antitrust Act. “Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly” with its search engine, he wrote in his decision. On Nov. 20, the Justice Department asked…

There is a recurring debate in California about the effectiveness of regional governments when compared to the existing local government structure. While the traditional political subdivisions of the state consisting of cities and counties are easily identifiable and have defined boundaries, not so with “regions” per se. Depending on the purpose, there may be as few as four but as many as fifty designated “regions” in California.Some progressives have opined that cities and counties should be abolished altogether. Joe Matthews proposed just that a few years ago in a column entitled, “Save Local Government By Eliminating Local Governments.”  While recognizing…

The arrival of a new presidential administration invokes new beginnings and a break from the past. Still, realities from previous administrations remain, such as a fiscal challenge that demands immediate attention. It may weigh on the newcomers even more than they realize today. We can only hope they take it more seriously than their predecessors have done. The longstanding notion that debt accumulation is benign, based largely on interest rates that for a time fell below growth rates, has proven dangerously misleading. This flawed thinking ignored both human nature and economic reality: Politicians rarely limit borrowing to one-time emergencies (as…

After President-elect Donald Trump leaned on dissident Republican U.S House members and strong-armed the reelection of Speaker Mike Johnson, congressional Democrats — and Republicans — marveled at Trump’s power and influence.When the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that Colorado could not prevent Trump from appearing on that state’s primary, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), a member of the House Jan. 6 Committee, remained defiant. On CNN, Raskin said: “I disagree with that interpretation, just because the other parts of the Fourteenth Amendment are self-executing. … I am working with a number of my colleagues … to set up a process by…

By DARLENE SUPERVILLEWASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, in a new interview days before he leaves office, cast doubt on his fitness to serve another four years even as he maintained that he could have won election to a second term.The outgoing Democratic president also told USA Today in the interview published Wednesday that he tried during his Oval Office meeting with President-elect Donald Trump to discourage the Republican from going after his political opponents, as he has said he would. And Biden said he had not decided whether to issue sweeping pardons to preemptively protect those individuals from any possible retribution by Trump or…

The trauma begins with an evacuation order.After rounding up your medications, personal documents, laptop, family photos and making your escape, you then spend endless, helpless hours worrying about whether your home will survive.Then, comes the unspeakable horror of learning your home has burned down. And that’s just the beginning of what can be a years-long process of recovering from a wildfire.Insurance officials say the claims process goes through a succession of stages, from the initial dislocation to debris removal, a bidding process and, ultimately, reconstruction.“There are decisions you need to make right now, and things that need to happen in…

Unsafe water alerts have been issued for areas near the Eaton and Palisades fires on Wednesday, Jan. 9 as the firefighting efforts have resulted in low water pressure and debris in the supply.An unsafe water alert was sent out Wednesday evening for those in the Eaton fire evacuated areas of Pasadena, stating that the water is unsafe until further notice due to potential impact from the Eaton fire.The Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) drinking water system potentially has debris and elevated turbidity, which is a measure of how cloudy water is.No one in the evacuated area should drink tap water…

By MEGAN JANETSKYMEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum responded sarcastically on Wednesday to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.Standing before a global map in her daily press briefing, Sheinbaum proposed dryly that North America should be renamed “América Mexicana,” or “Mexican America,” because a founding document dating from 1814 that preceded Mexico’s constitution referred to it that way.“That sounds nice, no?” she added with a sarcastic tone. She also noted that the Gulf of Mexico had been named that way since 1607.The exchange has started to answer…

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Oumar Ballo was always going to present a challenge for a USC team that doesn’t feature a lot of size.The 7-foot former Arizona standout powered his way to 23 points and Indiana erased an early double-digit deficit to hand USC an 82-69 loss on Wednesday night.Playing for the first time at Bloomington, USC built a quick 10-point lead on a layup by Wesley Yates III eight minutes into the game, 19-9. The Trojans (9-6 overall, 1-3 Big Ten) used sound defensive rotations to limit Ballo’s impact early and moved the ball well on offense, but the Hoosiers…

Another brush fire broke out Wednesday afternoon, Jan. 8, in Acton, to the northeast of Santa Clarita, prompting evacuations in the area.Firefighters responded to the Lidia fire around 1 p.m. to the 5700 block of Soledad Canyon Road, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.By 4:11 p.m., the fire had grown to 80 acres. Officials earlier estimated the fire was burning between five and seven acres around 2 p.m.Around 6:30 p.m., Cal Fire reported the fire was measured at 348 acres.The Angeles National Forest said the fire was 40% contained, meaning that a control line has been established to…