Politics

Pedestrians walk below an image of César Chavez on a mural in San Francisco, Wednesday, March 18, ...

César Chavez Day events renamed, postponed or canceled after sexual abuse allegations

Many of the celebrations and holidays honoring the late farmworker labor leader César Chavez are being renamed, postponed or completely canceled in the wake of allegations that he sexually abused women and girls while at the helm of the United Farm Workers Union. Labor rights activist Dolores Huerta revealed last week that she was among […]
5 months ago
U.N peacekeepers guard a house hit by a drone strike in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, Wednesd...

Conflict in eastern Congo is escalating with use of heavy weapons and drones, UN warns

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations’ acting top envoy for Congo warned the U.N. Security Council on Thursday that the conflict in mineral-rich eastern Congo is escalating and expanding, with increasing use of heavy weapons and offensive drones posing serious risks to civilians. Vivian van de Perre said that despite the withdrawal of Rwanda-backed […]
5 months ago
FILE - The U.S. Department of Education building is seen in Washington, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jos...

Education Department headquarters will relocate as part of Trump’s dismantling

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department will relocate from its headquarters to a smaller Washington office as part of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the agency, officials said Thursday. The agency has seen its ranks thinned by mass layoffs since President Donald Trump took office and its headquarters building has been 70% vacant, the Education […]
5 months ago

Treasury plans to put Trump’s signature on US bills in first for sitting president, AP source says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S Treasury Department is working on plans to put President Donald Trump’s signature on all new US paper currency, a Treasury official who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it ahead of the announcement told the Associated Press on Thursday. The move would be a […]
5 months ago
FILE - The entrance to SeaWorld Orlando is seen, March 13, 2020. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel via ...

DOJ sues SeaWorld’s parent company over ban on wheeled walkers at their parks

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Department of Justice on Thursday sued the parent company of the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens theme parks, claiming that a ban on wheeled walkers with seats at its parks violates civil rights law by discriminating against people with disabilities. The department’s civil rights division asked for a jury trial in […]
5 months ago
Democratic candidate for Congress, Kat Abughazaleh, center, casts her vote in a primary election fo...

FACT FOCUS: Only some driver’s licenses usable for voter registration under the SAVE America Act

As the Senate debates the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE America Act, misleading claims about the bill’s impact on voter registration are spreading on social media, with elected officials on both sides of the aisle putting their own spin on it. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a Democrat from Illinois, wrote in an X post: […]
5 months ago

North Carolina’s photo voter ID mandate can continue as a judge upholds the law

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina’s photo voter identification law was upheld on Thursday, as a federal judge rejected arguments by civil rights groups that Republicans enacted the requirement with discriminatory intent against Black and Latino voters. The decision by U.S. District Judge Loretta Biggs, who presided in spring 2024 over a non-jury trial in […]
5 months ago
A banner of President Donald Trump hangs outside the U.S. Department of Justice on Saturday, March ...

Trump administration opens investigations into race in admissions at 3 medical schools

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has opened investigations into how race is considered in admissions at three medical schools, ratcheting up its pressure campaign against colleges and universities. The Justice Department opened the investigations Wednesday into possible discrimination at the medical schools of Stanford University, Ohio State and the University of California, San Diego. […]
5 months ago

Video shows Minnesota dad and boy were flown on Delta to ICE detention in Texas

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Airport security video shows another way federal agents are taking immigrants to detention centers — in some cases they’re using commercial flights, with escorts dressed like any other passenger. Video obtained through a public records request shows the 5-year-old boy, who became a face of the immigration crackdown in Minneapolis when he […]
5 months ago
President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House, Thursday, March 26, 2026...

Trump interrupts a Cabinet meeting dealing with the Iran war and rising prices to talk Sharpies

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump may believe the adage that the pen is mightier than the sword — as long as it’s a Sharpie. During a Cabinet meeting Thursday that discussed the war in Iran, record-long security lines at many of the nation’s top airports, rising oil prices and skittish stock markets, the president […]
5 months ago

Appeals court pauses orders restricting federal officers’ use of tear gas at Portland ICE building

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An appeals court has paused lower court rulings in Oregon that restricted federal officers’ use of tear gas during protests at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland. A three-judge panel at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Trump administration’s request for temporary administrative stays in […]
5 months ago
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem delivers remarks at a working lunch at the Shield of the...

Costa Rica to accept 25 ‘third country’ deportees from US every week

SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica (AP) — Costa Rica said Thursday that it would accept 25 migrants deported from the United States per week as part of an agreement to help the Trump administration’s latest policy of deporting immigrants to “third countries.” The Central American nation joins a growing number of countries across Africa and the […]
5 months ago

The latest: Pressure to fund DHS mounts in Congress ahead of spring recess

WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest proposal, made by Republican senators, would fund most of DHS but not the immigration enforcement and removal operations. The offer added some new restraints on immigration officers, including the use of body cameras, but excluded Democrat demands such as requirements that federal agents wear identification and refrain from conducting raids […]
5 months ago
FILE - The air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is seen, Feb. 1, ...

Revised House aviation safety bill wins NTSB support, but victims’ families demand tougher timelines

A revised version of the House’s aviation safety bill now has the backing of the NTSB, but most of the families of the 67 victims of last year’s midair collision near Washington, D.C., still want to see tougher requirements to ensure the reforms are completed. The National Transportation Safety Board said the Alert Act now […]
5 months ago
FILE - Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., listens during a rally on Jan. 28, 2026, in support...

Florida congresswoman faces a rare public hearing on ethics charges. Threat of expulsion vote looms

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics Committee is holding a rare public hearing Thursday into alleged ethics violations committed by Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick of Florida, pushing into the open a yearslong investigation into how she funded her political rise. The two-term congresswoman is facing numerous ethics charges, including failing to follow campaign finance laws, […]
5 months ago
FILE - President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen talk after rea...

EU lawmakers approve trade deal with US but add safeguards

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Parliament voted Thursday to approve a trade deal between Washington and Brussels but with amendments added to protect European interests should the United States fail to hold up its end of the bargain. The deal was negotiated last July in Turnberry, Scotland, by U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission […]
5 months ago
Bill Maher arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Los Angeles Cou...

Bill Maher will win the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain humor prize following White House denial

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bill Maher will win the prestigious Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the Kennedy Center said Thursday, less than a week after the White House forcefully denied that the comedian, who has had a hot-and-cold relationship with President Donald Trump, would win it. “For nearly three decades, the Mark Twain Prize has […]
5 months ago
President Donald Trump waves after speaking at the National Republican Congressional Committee's (N...

Most Republicans love Trump. A prolonged war in Iran could test that, an AP-NORC poll shows

It’s costing more and more to gas up the hot rods that Donnie Beson has spent a lifetime tinkering with. He’s not questioning his support for President Donald Trump, but he feels as though the war in Iran has distracted the Republican president from the issues that got him elected. “Come on, Trump. Worry about […]
5 months ago

Missed paychecks and airport delays: Pressure mounts on Congress to end the funding shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — Pressure is mounting on Congress to end the funding shutdown that’s resulted in travel disruptions, missed paychecks and even warnings of airport closures, but lawmakers have yet to resolve the underlying issue of reining in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operations. Senators are expected to vote Thursday on a Republican proposal that […]
5 months ago

US appeals court sides with Trump administration on detaining immigrants without bond

The U.S. can continue to detain immigrants without bond, an appeals court ruled on Wednesday, handing a victory to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration. The opinion from a panel of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis overturned a lower court ruling that required that a native of Mexico arrested for lacking […]
5 months ago
FILE - Traffic moves along Interstate 10 near downtown Houston, April 30, 2020. (AP Photo/David J. ...

Growth rate slowed in US metro areas in 2025, with steepest drops along the southern border

Growth rates in U.S. metro areas dropped the steepest in communities along the U.S.-Mexico border last year because of declines in immigrants while counties along Florida’s Gulf Coast lost residents due to a series of hurricanes, according to new population estimates released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. The estimates showed that a majority of […]
5 months ago
Allison Posner, an organizer for an upcoming "No Kings" protest poses for a photo on the steps of t...

‘This is our fight’: Suburbanites embrace anti-Trump resistance ahead of No Kings protests

MONTCLAIR, N.J. (AP) — A few years ago, Allison Posner was barely involved in politics. Now the 42-year-old mother of two from Maplewood, New Jersey, hands out food and diapers to immigrant families outside a nearby detention facility. She waves signs on a highway overpass in between school pickups and orthodontist appointments. And this weekend, […]
5 months ago
FILE - The Idaho Statehouse is seen at sunrise on April 20, 2021, in Boise, Idaho. (AP Photo/Keith ...

A sweeping Idaho bill would criminalize transgender bathroom use in private businesses

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Idaho lawmakers are considering a bill that would make it a crime for transgender people to use the bathroom that matches their gender identity — even inside privately owned businesses. At least 19 states, including Idaho, already have laws barring transgender people from using bathrooms and changing rooms that align with […]
5 months ago
Juan Antonio harvests crawfish traps in a crawfish pond in Crowley, La., Thursday, March 19, 2026. ...

Louisiana’s crawfish industry feels the pinch of limits on foreign workers

CROWLEY, La. (AP) — Spring is peak season in Louisiana for crawfish, the hard-shelled star of outdoor parties. But a shortage of foreign workers is dampening the mood. Deep in Louisiana’s bayous, where crawfish production is a $300 million industry that is a key ingredient for backyard boils and buttery etouffees served in New Orleans’ […]
5 months ago