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By LAURAN NEERGAARD and MATTHEW PERRONEWASHINGTON (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was pressed to clarify his views on vaccines, abortion and public health priorities in the first of two senate hearings as he tries to make the case to become President Donald Trump’s health secretary.Kennedy is seeking to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the $1.7 trillion agency that funds medical research, public health outreach, food and drug safety, hospital oversight, funding for community health care clinics as well as Medicare and Medicaid.Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee expressed hope Kennedy could help reduce chronic diseases and…

Esther Matarranz doubled the fun on the way to No. 700.Matarranz recorded her second double-double of the season as the UC Riverside women’s basketball team beat Cal State Bakersfield 60-48 on Saturday, Jan. 25 for the 700th victory in the history of the program, which began in the 1971-72 season.The 6-foot-2 senior forward had a key steal and a layup with 2 minutes remaining to finish off CSU Bakersfield and get the Highlanders back in the win column. Matarranz totaled 12 points, 10 rebounds, three steals, and one block.“(It) was a great win to protect our home court,” head coach…

Los Angeles is a Democrat-run city, with a Democrat mayor, not a single Republican on the City Council, and a dominant Democrat Party that decides which candidates get the official blessing and which ones get cast out to the wilderness.LA’s version of ideological diversity is a healthy mix of left-wingers, far-left nut jobs, and Nithya Raman.This lopsided political arrangement means that it doesn’t matter how incompetently the local officials responded to the fires that ravaged the city, because there are never any consequences for Democrats from city voters.No water in the reservoir?  That’s global warming.Forgot to tell the fire department…

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday confirmed Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, a key role to help President Donald Trump fulfill his pledge to roll back major environmental regulations, including those aimed at slowing climate change and encouraging use of electric vehicles. The vote was 56-42 in Zeldin’s favor. Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, is a longtime Trump ally and served on Trump’s defense team during his first impeachment. He voted against certifying Trump’s 2020 election loss to President Joe Biden. Zeldin, 44, said during his confirmation hearing that…

LOS ANGELES — For a brief moment, it existed. The transfers caught their first glimpse and the returners gained a reminder. A look into an unbounded Dylan Andrews.The UCLA men’s basketball team was down one point with 4.9 seconds remaining in its game at Oregon on Dec. 8. Andrews grabbed an inbounds pass and immediately slipped, derailing the Bruins’ intended play. But he maintained his dribble, got a favorable switch and stepped back for a game-winning 3-pointer.Forced to take matters into his own hands, Andrews didn’t flinch.Before that 73-71 win over the Ducks, he had been slumping, averaging 8.7 points…

The median price of a home in California of $863,000 is more than double the $417,000 median home price in the U.S. As a result, median family income of $96,000 in California is 38% below that necessary to qualify for the purchase of a median-priced home in the state. In sharp contrast, median income in the U.S. of $81,0000 is 9% above that needed to qualify for purchasing a median-priced home in the nation.During the 2020 to 2024 period, the most recent Bureau of the Census population report indicates that California lost 1.5 million people in net domestic migration (number…

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Jan. 28 unanimously approved lifting limitations on how long wildfire survivors can park their recreational vehicles at county-owned RV parks.The county owns two RV parks, one at the Bonelli Bluffs RV Resort and Campground in San Dimas, and the other at Dockweiler State Beach in Playa del Rey. The Dockweiler park closed in January for maintenance but is expected to reopen in February.Also see: ‘Wildfire refugees’ scramble to find housing as rental prices soarThe five-member board needed to lift the limitations because the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation imposes a three-week-long…

By TIFFANY STANLEY and PETER SMITH, Associated PressWASHINGTON (AP) — Tens of thousands of recently arrived refugees might lose support for basic necessities like food and rent after a Trump administration order suspended federal funding for resettlement agencies.There is widespread confusion as agency leaders seek greater clarity from the government. The most pressing question is how they will continue supporting refugees already under their care in the United States.The suspension of federal funding “paralyzes the program,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, the national Lutheran refugee resettlement agency.The federal refugee program — a form of legal…

Drew Doughty is back.The Kings activated Doughty, who broke his ankle in the preseason and has not played a shift since, from injured reserve Wednesday, just in time to face the defending champion Florida Panthers.That’s fitting, as Doughty has always strived to rise to the level of his competition, whether it was in the Stanley Cup Final or the gold-medal game of the Olympics.Already one of the most decorated defensemen in hockey history, Doughty has been eager to add to his burgeoning trophy case through three years of non-competitive hockey and three more seasons in which the Kings qualified for…

Three weeks ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a $322 billion state budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, emphasizing that it would be balanced without new taxes and have a “modest” $363 million surplus.The latter number is scarcely one-tenth of 1% of the overall budget, which makes one wonder how Newsom’s budget writers could calculate it so precisely. It may have been plucked from thin air so the first draft of the budget could be portrayed as balanced.In fact, its purported balance assumes that at least $11 billion in drawdowns from emergency reserves, bookkeeping gimmicks and off-the-books…