Suddenly, the man who’s been mentioned as a 2004 presidential contender could see his own prospects dimming faster than the office lights in Palo Alto. Last week polls showed that the once popular governor was paying a price for what he has called California’s deregulation “nightmare”– which Davis points out he inherited from his Republican predecessor. More than 60 percent of voters say they disapprove of Davis’s handling of the crisis, and his overall approval rating is slipping....

With his New York accent and even more pronounced New York attitude, Scheck assaulted Fung for five days. Fung seemed halting and his testimony contradictory. Scheck confronted Fung with his statements before a grand jury last summer in which he said he, and not rookie criminalist Andrea Mazzola, had collected most of the blood evidence. Then Scheck displayed videotape of Mazzola, a key defense target who is expected to testify this week, collecting the glove found at 875 South Bundy (Nicole Brown Simpson’s condo), and other critical pieces of evidence....

Forest fires: The scientists studied an area in northwestern Ontario. There, either because of natural climate variation or the greenhouse effect, average annual temperatures rose 4 degrees Fahrenheit from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Droughts became more frequent and, as a result, so did forest fires. With less rainfall, runoff from the watershed was so reduced that it took lakes about 20 years to replenish their water instead of five....

Lewis will turn 35 just before the Games begin July 19. To compete in one more Olympics required a whole new source of motivation. It was not enough that this would be his fifth Olympic team (including the 1980 team that boycotted Moscow). Not enough that he might join a handful of American Olympians to win medals at four Games. Not even enough that two more Olympic golds would run his total to 10, topping distance runner Paavo Nurmi (The Flying Finn) on track and field’s all-time list....

Years ago the Dutch-born Verhoeven made a splashy Hollywood entrance with two thrilling, inventive sci-fi pictures, ““RoboCop’’ and ““Total Recall.’’ Then he formed an unholy alliance with Joe Eszterhas and unleashed ““Basic Instinct’’ and ““Showgirls.’’ ““Troopers’’ is a welcome U-turn, but though Verhoeven rehashes ““RoboCop’’ gimmicks –parodying newscasts, splashing cybertext across the screen–there’s no soul in this machine. The dewy cast of unknowns has nothing to do but wait to get their brains sucked out by bugs....

Security officials at Los Angeles International Airport now have a new weapon in their fight against terrorism: complete, baffling randomness. Anxious to thwart future terror attacks in the early stages while plotters are casing the airport, LAX security patrols have begun using a new software program called ARMOR, NEWSWEEK has learned, to make the placement of security checkpoints completely unpredictable. Now all airport security officials have to do is press a button labeled “Randomize,” and they can throw a sort of digital cloak of invisibility over where they place the cops’ antiterror checkpoints on any given day....

The newspaper reviewed a 15-page synopsis of A-Rod’s interview at a Drug Enforcement Administration conference room on Jan. 29. He was talking to federal agents and prosecutors who granted him immunity in their on-going probe of the now-shuttered clinic. “Yes, he bought performance-enhancing drugs from Biogenesis of America, paying roughly $12,000 a month to Anthony Bosch, the fake doctor who owned the clinic,” the newspaper reports in its summary of Rodriguez’s interview....

Consider Ed Rollins, the Republican consultant who had bragged about–and then denied–doling out money to hold down the black vote in the recent gubernatorial election in New Jersey. When he showed up in Newark last week to talk to federal officials, he was engulfed by a media horde worthy of a Buttafuoco photo op. He escaped afterward in star style, by sneaking through a loading dock. Then there’s James Carville, the Democratic consultant whom Rollins had bested in the New Jersey race....

Major League Baseball is aware of the incident that began when the club’s strength and conditioning coach, Michael Henriques, installed the camera on July 24. League and MLB Players’ Association sources told Yahoo that Henriques wanted to observe players working out and rehabilitating injuries while the team traveled. MORE: MLB trade deadline 2016: Winners easier to spot than losers “This was the misguided action of one employee,” A’s vice president Billy Beane said....

The core of this contention rests on the idea that Trump was a strong leader who Russian President Vladimir Putin would have never dared crossed. The notion that Trump would have shown so much strength as to have deterred Russian aggression requires that we forget both who Trump is and what he did as president. Even a cursory look at these two things will yield ample evidence which suggests that the former president would have been neither capable nor willing to do anything to stop Ukraine’s invasion....

So now, in an effort to attract big brains from abroad, the European Commission wants to create an express line for the EU labor market. The plan would create a “blue card,” inspired by the U.S. “green card,” a renewable permit that would allow highly skilled workers and their families to move easily between member states and jobs. In time, cardholders would also qualify for permanent-resident status. “With the European blue card, we send a clear signal,” European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said last year....

Trump and Wallace have had a heated past and have criticized one another publicly. In an April 12 tweet, the president said that Wallace would never be his father Mike Wallace, a journalist and one of the original correspondents for CBS’ 60 Minutes. He died in 2012. “Somebody please explain to Chris Wallace of FOX, who will never be his father (and my friend), Mike Wallace, that the phone conversation I had with the president of Ukraine was a congenial and good one....

Just this summer, our school, Princeton University, succumbed to a pressure campaign that called on the administration to scrub Woodrow Wilson’s name from campus. This campaign also demanded mandatory “anti-racist” training and the introduction of ideology-driven curricular changes. Not to be outdone, faculty members quickly released their own demands, which included weighing professors’ academic contributions differently on account of their race and the institution of a faculty board to “investigat[e] racist…research and publication....

I thought of this often, with many a shudder, while reading Bernard Schlink’s “Homecoming,” his first novel since “The Reader” (Oprah pick, best seller, book-club favorite). Schlink doesn’t fool around. He speaks of Homer and Odysseus throughout his book, which concerns the obsession of a son for his father in much the same way that Telemachus yearns for Odysseus. The trick for the reader is to divine just how Schlink uses Homer’s story....

Thereby hangs a tail. Advertisers have watched with envy since 1989 as the pink bunny developed by ad agency TBWA Chiat/Day drummed its way into American culture. Not that man-made ad mascots are a new genre; the Jolly Green Giant debuted in 1926. But the relentless rabbit has become not only a potent spokescreature but a kind of cultural icon, popping up in cartoons, conversations and political campaigns to evoke endurance in everything from Ross Perot to the marriage of writer Joan Didion....

The first time we played each other, around 1960-61, I think he must have got close to 30 points, 20-something rebounds. I think I might have outrebounded him, but he outscored me. But we won the game, which was the important element. We had three more games that week, and I did not make a contribution to my team. It wore me out so I had to make a decision that I couldn’t throw myself into it so, battling Wilt so much that I couldn’t funtion the rest of the time....

Time, as they say in the Senate, to ““call the question.’’ And it is this: in our age of tabloid politics and hyperventilating 24-hour political talk, when good will is gone and Larry Flynt shares air time with the Founding Fathers, can the Senate bring a dignified end to the trial (and trials) of Bill Clinton? The country, for the most part, would just as soon forget, if not forgive....

Over four decades with HNIC, Cherry had become known for his flashy, abstract suits, outlandish opinions and controversial comments, surrounding topics from European players to on-ice celebrations to immigrants. Here’s a brief history of just some of his controversial comments over his time on the CBC program. MORE: Why was Don Cherry fired from Sportsnet? Calling out European players The longtime TV personality was known for controversial comments surrounding Russian players over the course of his broadcast career....