Category: Washington Post

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Signs of progress emerge as Sacramento protests over Stephon Clark’s killing remain tense

By Rob Kuznia and Sawsan Morrar

April 1, 2018

 The 20 shots that police fired at Stephon Clark, killing the unarmed black father of two last month, have ignited protests that shut down major roadways, blocked entry to an NBA game and created a seemingly ever-present tension in the streets of California’s capital.

That conflict came to a head Saturday night when a sheriff’s department cruiser struck a protester, causing the demonstration to erupt into pandemonium that threatened to boil over.

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Related: Sacramento sheriff’s vehicle hits woman during Stephon Clark protest and drives away, video shows

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Accountability Featured Washington Post

Stormy Daniels friend describes listening in on her phone calls with Trump

By Beth Reinhard and Rob Kuznia

March 13, 2018

A close friend of Stormy Daniels is confirming her affair with Donald Trump more than a decade ago — saying he listened in on their phone conversations — and defending her efforts to get out of the $130,000 hush agreement she made shortly before the 2016 election.

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Featured Washington Post

In Oregon, pushing to give patients with degenerative diseases the right to die

March 11, 2018

Shortly after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at age 56, Nora Harris moved to Oregon from California with her husband, thinking it would be a place where she could die on her own terms.

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Featured Washington Post

What Trump’s State of the Union address sounded like in eight American living rooms

By Jenna Johnson (with eight contributing writers)

Jan. 31, 2018

Throughout the speech, Trump repeatedly called for unity and declared that “there has never been a better time to start living the American Dream.” But his message was delivered to a nation with many different — and often opposing — perspectives on what that dream is. Here’s what happened in eight American living rooms as Trump spoke.

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Featured Washington Post

At national parks, the confusing reality of the government shutdown’s first day

At national parks, the confusing reality of the government shutdown’s first day

By Rob Kuznia, Deby Dixon and Diana Crandall

Jan. 20, 2018

JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. — Jay Brown and Michelle Tukel picked a surreal weekend to visit sprawling Joshua Tree National Park. They arrived from Detroit to find the Southern California desert covered with a morning dusting of snow, and it was — briefly — colder than Michigan.

Stranger yet, the popular park was open but eerily devoid of staff.

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Featured Washington Post

Convicted of a marijuana crime in California? It might go away, thanks to legal pot.

By Rob Kuznia and Katie Zezima

Yirtuamlak Hailu Derege came to California a decade ago with dreams of making it big in the entertainment business. But shortly after arriving, he was arrested and convicted of selling marijuana, a felony that has made it difficult for him to find any job at all.

But now, with California on the verge of legal recreational marijuana sales starting Jan. 1, Derege and hundreds of thousands of others could have their drug convictions wiped away.

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Featured Washington Post

California fires, moving north, force Santa Barbara evacuations

VENTURA, Calif. — Monster fires in Southern California raged for a seventh day on Sunday, edging into Santa Barbara County while leaving residents of neighboring Ventura County to deal with the aftermath of a historic inferno.

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Featured Shifting Paradigms Washington Post

Her fiance gave her heroin. She overdosed. Does that make him a murderer?

Her fiance gave her heroin. She overdosed. Does that make him a murderer?

May 8, 2016

When Jarret McCasland and his fiancee decided to celebrate her 19th birthday with heroin, it meant the end of her life and the end of his freedom.

Flavia Cardenas, who worked in a nightclub, died of an overdose the next morning in Baton Rouge. After a prosecutor convinced a jury that McCasland administered the fatal dose, the 27-year-old pipe fabrication shop worker was found guilty of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to life in prison in February with no chance for parole.

With deaths from heroin and opioids at their highest level in U.S. history, prosecutors have begun charging those who supplied the final dose with murder, even when that person is the deceased’s friend, lover, sibling or spouse.

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Accountability Featured Washington Post

Is the presidency good for Trump’s business? Not necessarily at this golf course

Is the presidency good for Trump’s business? Not necessarily at this golf course.

By David A. Fahrenthold and Rob Kuznia

At President Trump’s golf club in Southern California, there is a driving range on a cliff, with a stunning view of the blue Pacific. There’s room for 24 golfers.

But, on a recent afternoon, there was only one.

And he was playing with a guilty conscience.

“I feel like I’m cheating on my wife,” said Richard Sullivan, a 59-year-old doctor.

 

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Featured Washington Post

Pro-charter majority to take power on Los Angeles school board

Pro-charter majority to take power on Los Angeles school board

June 8, 2017

LOS ANGELES — A revolution is coming to the nation’s second-biggest school system, with a pro-charter majority set to take over the governing board of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Backed by billionaire charter interests and fiercely opposed by teachers unions, the two winners of last month’s bruising election — said to be the most expensive school board race in U.S. history — will take office in July.

Nick Melvoin, 31, and Kelly Gonez, 28, will join two other charter-friendly members on a seven-member board that oversees a system with 1,300 schools, 735,000 students and major academic and fiscal challenges.

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