President Donald Trump likes to say that no one understands the Make America Great Again movement like him, its founder and undisputed champion. But as he weighs which candidate to endorse in the U.S. Senate runoff in Texas, some of the state’s Republicans fear he may be out of step with what his base wants. […]
The Trump administration is using a 20-year-old report to misrepresent former President Jimmy Carter’s views on mail-in and absentee ballots as it pushes for federal legislation that would impose strict new proof-of-citizenship and photo ID requirements for voting ahead of the midterm elections. On two successive days this week, President Donald Trump and White House […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Social Security Administration’s internal watchdog is investigating a whistleblower complaint into what it describes as a former Department of Government Efficiency worker’s potential misuse of data obtained from the Social Security Administration. According to a document the Associated Press obtained Wednesday, the SSA’s inspector general informed the leadership of four congressional […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — House lawmakers were digging into Jeffrey Epstein’s sprawling financial portfolio Wednesday as a committee deposed his former accountant and tried to understand his connections to some of the world’s wealthiest men. Richard Kahn, who worked closely with Epstein for years and now serves as an executor of his estate, appeared for the […]
BOSTON (AP) — A coalition of 17 Democratic state attorneys general filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging a Trump administration policy that requires higher education institutions to collect data showing they aren’t considering race in admissions. President Donald Trump ordered the new policy in August after he raised concerns that colleges and universities were using personal […]
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas town known for its prisons is allowing a shuttered private prison to reopen and house immigrants detained for living in the U.S. illegally after a nearly yearlong legal fight amid a massive national push for new detention centers. The City Commission in Leavenworth on Tuesday approved a permit to […]
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuador is preparing a “major offensive” against criminal organizations set to begin this weekend with logistical support from the United States, the interior minister said Wednesday. Speaking to a local radio station, Interior Minister John Reimberg also urged citizens to observe a curfew from March 15-30 in the provinces of Guayas, […]
NEW YORK (AP) — The Pentagon has not permitted photographers to cover Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s last two briefings on the war in Iran, and hasn’t explained the change in longstanding policy. A Pentagon spokesman, Joel Valdez, declined to comment for this story. The Defense Department under Hegseth has had a contentious relationship with the […]
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A new Iowa law bans local nondiscrimination protections on the basis of gender identity after the state became the first in the U.S. to rollback its civil rights code last year. The preemption law took effect Tuesday, as soon as Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds signed it. It prevents cities and […]
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Democratic-led states alarmed by the prospect of federal immigration officers patrolling the polls during this year’s midterm elections are taking steps to counter what they see as a potential tactic to intimidate voters. New Mexico this week became the first state to bar armed agents from polling locations in response […]
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The new U.S. ambassador to South Africa was summoned to explain his criticism of the country’s policies, the South African foreign minister said Wednesday, as a diplomatic rift continues. Ambassador Leo Brent Bozell III made the comments at a meeting of business leaders on Tuesday. He challenged the South African government over […]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Microsoft is throwing its weight behind Anthropic in asking a federal court to block the Trump administration’s designation of the artificial intelligence company as a supply chain risk. Microsoft, in a legal filing, is challenging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s action last week to shut Anthropic out of military work by labeling […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man was taken into custody on Wednesday after driving his van into a security barrier outside the White House, authorities said. The Secret Service said the man crashed into the temporary security barrier just before 6:30 a.m. He was immediately arrested by officers from the Secret Service’s uniformed division, the agency […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden is breaking her silence about Joe Biden’s decision to abruptly end his 2024 presidential reelection bid under pressure from Democrats concerned about his age, health and viability against Republican Donald Trump in a rematch of their 2020 campaign. A political spouse for nearly 50 years, Jill Biden said she has […]
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Nearly two decades ago, Virginia gave tech companies a tax break on equipment and software, and they began to build. The state became a data center hub, and they kept building. Residents bemoaned the noise while they built some more. Artificial intelligence boomed, and the power grid strained — still, more […]
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Jon Husted is scheduled to testify remotely Wednesday in Akron in the high-profile corruption trial of two former FirstEnergy Corp. executives. As a defense witness for former CEO Chuck Jones and former lobbyist Michael Dowling, Husted is likely to be asked to corroborate details of the many meetings, […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing jittery global markets and drooping poll numbers since launching a war on Iran, President Donald Trump has cycled from calls for “unconditional surrender” to sounding amenable to an end state in which Iran trades one hard-line ayatollah for another. Shifting comments from the Republican president and his top aides are adding […]
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — There could be another McAuliffe representing Virginia soon. Dorothy McAuliffe — the former first lady, onetime state department official and wife of then-Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe — said Wednesday that she will run for Congress, putting a prominent name into the mix for a newly drawn district. “We need a leader […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to visit Ohio and Kentucky on Wednesday to argue that his policies can steady an economy facing shock waves from the war on Iran and to try and defeat one of the few congressional Republicans who has dared to defy him. In Cincinnati, the president is touring Thermo […]
DORAL, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump insisted he had the answer for Republicans anxious about losing their congressional majority this year: build on an already strict national voter identification law to ban mail ballots and restrict transgender rights. “It’ll guarantee the midterms,” he told Republicans gathered in the ballroom of his golf course just […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Majority Leader John Thune said Tuesday that the Senate will consider a bill to impose strict new proof-of-citizenship requirements in elections, but says “the votes aren’t there” to pass it through a marathon talking filibuster sought by President Donald Trump. Trump has said he won’t sign any other legislation until the bill […]
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state lawmakers were within their rights when they declined to issue press passes to three conservative media figures, a federal judge ruled Tuesday in a case that echoes a national discussion over who qualifies as a journalist. The Democratic-controlled Washington House of Representatives early this year declined to issue press credentials […]
ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguay’s Chamber of Deputies on Tuesday approved a defense agreement allowing the temporary presence of U.S. military and civilian personnel inside its borders, widely seen as a victory for the Trump administration, which has sought to strengthen its presence in Latin America. The Status of Forces Agreement, or SOFA, was approved […]
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday granted clemency to a man on death row who was scheduled to be executed Thursday even though he did not personally kill anyone. Ivey commuted Charles “Sonny” Burton’s death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Burton, 75, was convicted of capital […]
