Robert Silverman

Last week's mass shooting in El Paso has been particularly painful for Angelenos, because so many have close ties to that city.

KCRW speaks with members of LA's Jewish community, plus Israeli and Palestinian expats about Tuesday's Israeli election.

President Trump says negative economic forecasts are fake news, but he’s also making nervous calls to his friends in the business world to ask if they’re true.

In Redding, California, firefighters are still battling the large Mountain Fire that broke out late Thursday morning.

The mysterious arrest of a Swedish data privacy activist with links to the WikiLeaks founder raises important questions about government surveillance.

A state bill called AB 5 would require businesses that rely on independent contractors to reclassify them as employees and offer benefits such as health insurance and sick pay. There’s…

Accused child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein apparently killed himself over the weekend. He was in the secure housing unit in a Manhattan jail.

California’s relentless clean-air enforcer, Mary Nichols, has divided the automobile industry. After weeks of secret negotiations, the Chair of the State’s Air Resources Board has announced that Ford, Honda VW and BMW of America won’t go along with President Trump’s rollback of Barack Obama’s fuel-economy standards. Nichols claims it’s an “olive branch,” giving car makers the “flexibility” to clean up the air at the same time they continue to market vehicles that make the most money. Brady Dennis of the Washington Post calls it a “big deal,” even if Toyota, GM and 11 other companies revert to Trump’s new federal standards--at least for the moment. Alan Baum is a consultant for both the industry and environmental organizations. He says the four who made the deal with California have a slight lead on their competitors in developing the technology of the future, with China currently far ahead of them all. He says the western car makers are doing a poor job of educating consumers about the benefits of hybrids and electrics. Nichols’s history with the Air Resources Board goes back to the 1970’s. She was named Chair by Republican Governor Arnold Schwartenegger and reappointed by Democrats Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom. She made an international name for herself for years ago when she blew the whistle on Volkswagen for faking emissions tests on the diesel cars it sold for decades all over the world.

The race for the presidential nomination poses another stress test for the Democratic Party.