NATIONAL
September 14, 2008 | Dan Morain and Erika Hayasaki, Times Staff Writers
Seeking to win this swing state's five electoral votes, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin made her first solo campaign stop in the lower 48 states Saturday, promising ethics reform, lower taxes and energy self-sufficiency. Palin, greeted by chants of "Sarah, Sarah," spoke to about 3,500 people for about 20 minutes. She was interrupted frequently by cheers and applause. And she led the audience in the now-familiar refrain: "Drill, baby, drill." "In a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to expand opportunity for new energy development," the Alaska governor said, promising she and John McCain would push to "drill now to make this nation energy-self-sufficient."
OPINION
July 16, 2007
HOUSE SPEAKER Nancy Pelosi's promise that this Congress would be "the most honest, the most open and the most ethical Congress in history" remains unredeemed because the House and Senate, both of which passed ethics reforms, haven't reconciled their differing approaches. If a conference committee isn't impaneled soon, objectionable practices -- including the "bundling" of campaign contributions by lobbyists -- will go on.
OPINION
January 7, 2007
Re "Pelosi takes the helm in triumph," Jan. 5 Republicans who underestimate the new speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), do so at their own peril. Pelosi is a lot sharper than your average Democrat and is only in politics for one reason -- to make America a better place. She is independently wealthy and doesn't have any favors that she has to repay to get reelected. She is a true public servant. MARC PERKEL San Bruno, Calif. This current noise about Pelosi's determination to bring ethics reform to the House is, when you poke beneath the surface, totally laughable.
OPINION
September 2, 2006 | Richard L. Hasen, RICHARD L. HASEN specializes in election law at Loyola Law School. He writes the Election Law Blog (electionlawblog.org).
WOULD YOU like fries with those term limits? The Los Angeles City Council has placed Measure R on the November ballot, which, if passed, would ease the current limit of two terms for City Council members, allowing them to run for a third four-year term. In addition, the measure would impose new restrictions on lobbyist campaign contributions and enact a host of other "good government" provisions.
NATIONAL
February 3, 2006 | Mary Curtius and Richard Simon, Times Staff Writers
In choosing Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio as the new House majority leader Thursday, Republicans sought to put a new face on a party reeling from scandals and worried about maintaining its congressional majority. In an upset, Boehner won a tense closed-door vote that went to a second ballot. Rep. Roy Blunt of Missouri, the acting majority leader, had been favored to win the election.
BUSINESS
January 25, 2006 | Lisa Girion, Times Staff Writer
Issuing a sweeping call for ethical reform in medicine, a group of leading physicians and scholars said doctors shouldn't accept drug samples, junkets or even ballpoint pens from drug or medical-device companies. In today's Journal of the American Medical Assn., or JAMA, 11 experts warned that the financial ties between physicians and drug and device vendors are undermining scientific integrity and patient care.