In the News

Opposition leader-in-exile Maria Corina Machado has hired veteran Republican lobbyists in Washington, D.C., in what experts say is an effort to gain the support of the Trump administration as she continues to seek the Venezuelan presidency.

Prof. Sara Sadhwani moderated a discussion between four Valley City Council members on the city’s business climate, budget, homelessness and preparations for the 2028 Olympics.

Federal employees, especially in the West, have long faced threats from citizens angry at their government—and at times attuned to conspiracy theories and heated political rhetoric—who choose to act out against its individual representatives.

In The New Yorker, Prof. Amanda Hollis-Brusky says she thinks that the unitary-executive theory has roots in Cold War anxieties—“the idea that we need to empower a strong Presidency to protect free markets and counter godless Communism.”

Mayor Karen Bass’ summer has been beset by a string of negative news. Prof. Sara Sadhwani discusses the political fallout from the blaze that ignited at the Lineage cold-storage food warehouse in Boyle Heights.

“The Forest Service was established under the principle that no political appointees would enter that agency,” Prof. Char Miller told E&E News by Politico.

Prof. Ellie Anderson joins the Rethinking Wellness podcast to discuss the realities of living in a “post-truth” era—where conspiracy theories, fake news, and anti-science rhetoric are everywhere.

Democrats have long contended that America’s central tension is the question of who belongs and have organized their politics accordingly. But the California primary offered a striking lesson in how much has changed, Prof. Sara Sadhwani writes.

Borderline Personality Disorder is one of the most misunderstood diagnoses in mental health—often confused with bipolar disorder, dismissed as a character flaw, or thought of as untreatable, TIME writes.

“Voters want change,” Prof. Sara Sadhwani told the Times, “but it doesn’t appear right now that there has been an appetite for a major shift in the ideology of the city or the state.”