Politics

FILE - Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., left, speaks with Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., right, during a S...

California senators demand Trump immigration officials stop using Medicaid data

WASHINGTON (AP) — California’s two U.S. senators demanded on Wednesday that the Trump administration stop using personal data of millions of Medicaid enrollees — including their immigration status — as part of its sweeping deportation campaign. In a letter to top administration officials, Democratic Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla expressed alarm over an Associated […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the W...

Trump says supporters are ‘more in love’ with him than ever, as involvement in Iran roils MAGA world

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday downplayed any notion that his supporters are cooling on him amid uncertainty over whether he will order a U.S. strike on Iran, addressing a rift between some of his most vocal MAGA backers and national security conservatives. “My supporters are more in love with me today, and […]
1 year ago

US sanctions leadership of Mexico’s Jalisco cartel

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed economic sanctions on five high-ranking members of Mexico’s powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel for their drug trafficking, while also citing their involvement in killings. Previous administrations have also sanctioned the cartel – one of Mexico’s most powerful — as the Trump administration also did in […]
1 year ago
FILE - People gather in support of transgender youth during a rally at the Utah State Capitol Tuesd...

What to know about the impacts of the Supreme Court’s ruling on transgender care for youth

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming surgery for transgender youth in a ruling that’s likely to reverberate across the country. Most Republican-controlled states already have similar bans. In his majority opinion Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that Tennessee’s ban does not violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause, which requires the […]
1 year ago
FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott A...

Supreme Court work goes on with 16 cases to decide, including birthright citizenship

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is in the homestretch of a term that has lately been dominated by the Trump administration’s emergency appeals of lower court orders seeking to slow President Donald Trump’s efforts to remake the federal government. But the justices also have 16 cases to resolve that were argued between December and […]
1 year ago
FILE - A Social Security card is displayed on Oct. 12, 2021, in Tigard, Ore. The go-broke dates for...

Medicare and Social Security go-broke dates pushed up due to rising health care costs, new SSA law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The go-broke dates for Medicare and Social Security ‘s trust funds have moved up as rising health care costs and new legislation affecting Social Security benefits have contributed to earlier projected depletion dates, according to an annual report released Wednesday. The go-broke date — or the date at which the programs will […]
1 year ago
FILE - Josh Weil talks to a group of supporters during a Get Out the Vote event in Ocala, Fla., Mon...

Josh Weil announces 2026 Senate run to challenge Ashley Moody in Florida

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Democrat Josh Weil, who raised millions of dollars for an unsuccessful U.S. House campaign in Florida, said Wednesday that he will run for the U.S. Senate in 2026. If he were to become the Democratic nominee, Weil would challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Ashley Moody. She is a former state attorney general […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks as a flag pole is installed on the South Lawn of the White House, Wed...

‘Nobody knows:’ Trump won’t say whether he will move forward with US strikes on Iran

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump would not say Wednesday whether he has decided to order a U.S. strike on Iran, a move that Tehran warned anew would be greeted with stiff retaliation if it happens. “I may do it, I may not do it,” Trump said in an exchange with reporters at the White […]
1 year ago
FILE - Virginia State Sen-elect, Ghazala Hashmi speaks to supporters at a Democratic victory party ...

Ghazala Hashmi wins Democratic nomination for Virginia lieutenant governor

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The candidates for Virginia’s lieutenant governor are set to make history after Sen. Ghazala Hashmi won the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor on Wednesday. Hashmi is the first Muslim and the first Indian-American to be nominated to appear on the ballot for a Virginia statewide office. She defeated five other candidates, […]
1 year ago
FILE - President Donald Trump talks to workers as he tours U.S. Steel Corporation's Mon Valley Work...

Nippon Steel finalizes $15B takeover of US Steel after sealing national security agreement

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel said Wednesday they have finalized their “historic partnership,” a deal that gives the U.S. government a say in some matters and comes a year-and-a-half after the Japanese company first proposed its nearly $15 billion buyout of the iconic American steelmaker. The pursuit by Nippon Steel for […]
1 year ago
FILE - President Joe Biden speaks at the Memorial Amphitheater after laying a wreath at The Tomb of...

Joe Biden to attend Juneteenth celebration at historic AME church in Texas

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Joe Biden will be attending a Juneteenth celebration at a historic African Methodist Episcopal church in Galveston, Texas. The former Democratic president’s plans were confirmed by a person with knowledge of them but not authorized to discuss logistics publicly. In 2021, Biden signed legislation that established Juneteenth as a federal […]
1 year ago
FILE - The Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott A...

Supreme Court OKs Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors, big loss for transgender rights

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors, a stunning setback to transgender rights. The justices’ 6-3 decision in a case from Tennessee effectively protects from legal challenges many efforts by President Donald Trump’s Republican administration and state governments to roll back protections for transgender people. […]
1 year ago
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testifies during a Senate Committee on Appropriations subcommitte...

The Latest: Hegseth taking questions as Trump demands Iran’s surrender to Israel

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is returning to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for another potentially combative hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee as airstrikes between Iran and Israel threaten a potentially devastating wider war. President Donald Trump has demanded Iran’s “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER,” and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that joining the Israeli strikes […]
1 year ago
In this courtroom sketch, Vance Boelter, right, who is charged with killing one Minnesota lawmaker ...

Man charged with killing prominent lawmaker could face a rarity for Minnesota: the death penalty

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The man charged with killing a prominent Minnesota lawmaker and wounding another could face something that is a rarity for Minnesota but could become more common under the Trump administration: the death penalty. Minnesota abolished capital punishment in 1911, and the state’s last execution was a botched hanging in 1906. But federal […]
1 year ago
FILE - Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth fields questions on the Pentagon budget from the House Arm...

Hegseth faces more grilling from Congress as Iran-Israel conflict escalates

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is returning to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for the last in a series of often combative hearings before lawmakers, who have pressed him on everything from a ban on transgender troops to his use of a Signal chat to share sensitive military plans. The questions — which also […]
1 year ago
FILE - Republican state senator Blake Miguez converses before the swearing in of the Louisiana stat...

Conservative Louisiana state Sen. Blake Miguez announces bid to run for US Sen. Bill Cassidy’s seat

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana state Sen. Blake Miguez officially launched his bid on Tuesday to unseat fellow Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy in 2026. Miguez is the latest GOP challenger to Cassidy, who has been chastised by his party for being one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict President Donald Trump […]
1 year ago
FILE - A border wall section stands on July 14, 2021, near La Grulla, Texas, in Starr County. (Delc...

Texas stops providing new funding for border wall construction

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas has stopped putting new money toward building a U.S.-Mexico border wall, shifting course after installing only a fraction of the hundreds of miles of potential barrier that Republican Gov. Greg Abbott set out to construct four years ago. State lawmakers this month approved a new Texas budget that does not […]
1 year ago

Childhood friend says Minnesota suspect had ‘darkness inside of him’

Hours after the shootings of two Minnesota lawmakers over the weekend, authorities asked David Carlson to identify his lifelong friend in a harrowing photograph. Carlson says he had known and trusted Vance Boelter from the time the two played together as children. But he barely recognized the 57-year-old in the surveillance image police showed him […]
1 year ago
FILE - Cuban doctors arrive at the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Cuba, June 8, 2020, ...

Cuban diplomat defends foreign medical missions under pressure from US

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A senior Cuban diplomat has accused the Trump administration of trying to discredit the thousands of Cuban doctors working around the world and deprive the country of an important source of income. Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio, who was at U.N. headquarters this week for a debate on sanctions, […]
1 year ago
Michael Beach protests President Donald Trump's proposed cuts to health services outside the Center...

Trump administration blocked from cutting local health funding for four municipalities

A federal court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from clawing back millions in public health funding from four Democrat-led municipalities in GOP-governed states. It’s the second such federal ruling to reinstate public health funding for several states. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in Washington, D.C., issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday sought by district attorneys […]
1 year ago

Judge says government can’t limit passport sex markers for many transgender, nonbinary people

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge expanded a ruling Tuesday that blocked the Trump administration from enacting policy changes to sex markers on passports for many transgender and nonbinary Americans. In an executive order signed in January, the president used a narrow definition of the sexes instead of a broader conception of gender. The order […]
1 year ago

Jury finds leading proponent of ‘The Big Lie’ defamed former voting equipment employee

DENVER (AP) — A jury found Monday that MyPillow founder Mike Lindell defamed a former employee of a prominent voting equipment company by calling him a traitor, telling Lindell and his online media platform to pay $2.3 million in damages. The decision came after a two-week trial involving one of the biggest proponents of the […]
1 year ago
FILE - Former Rep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., President-elect Donald Trump's pick to head the Environmenta...

EPA will revisit Biden-era ban on the last type of asbestos used in US

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency told a federal appeals court it will reconsider the Biden administration’s ban on the last type of asbestos used in the United States to determine whether it went “beyond what is necessary.” Asbestos is linked to tens of thousands of deaths annually and causes mesothelioma as well as […]
1 year ago
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem holds a news conference regarding the recent protests in Lo...

Kristi Noem is ‘alert and recovering’ after trip to hospital over allergic reaction, official says

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem was taken to the hospital on Tuesday after experiencing an allergic reaction, her spokeswoman said. “She is alert and recovering,” said the statement from department spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, who said the hospital treatment was out of an “abundance of caution.” Noem, 53, heads a sprawling […]
1 year ago