Politics

A judge has halted CoreCivic, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, from housing immigrants facing possible d...

Takeaways from AP’s reporting on shuttered prisons, mass deportation push and no-bid contracts

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Private prison operators are marketing their shuttered lockups to federal immigration officials as President Donald Trump pushes for mass deportations, with some facilities nabbing lucrative no-bid contracts. When Trump, a Republican, took office, politically connected private-prison giants CoreCivic Inc. and The Geo Group Inc. had around 20 idle facilities, partially the […]
1 year ago
Norman Harris, executive director of JMF Corporation that puts on a Juneteenth celebration in Denve...

Juneteenth celebrations adapt after corporate sponsors pull support

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Juneteenth celebrations have been scaled back this year due to funding shortfalls as companies and municipalities across the country reconsider their support for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. Canceled federal grants and businesses moving away from so-called brand activism have hit the bottom line of parades and other events heading into […]
1 year ago
FILE - U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR) Volker Türk speaks during a press conferenc...

UN rights chief decries ‘horrifying’ suffering in Gaza and urges leaders to pressure Israel, Hamas

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N. human rights chief said Israel’s warfare in Gaza is inflicting “horrifying, unconscionable suffering” on Palestinians and urged government leaders on Monday to exert pressure on Israel’s government and the militant group Hamas to end it. Volker Türk made the comments at the opening of the latest Human Rights Council session […]
1 year ago
FILE - Children's Defense Fund Program Director Graciela Camarena assists Lucia Salazar with fillin...

As GOP pushes spending cuts, many say Medicaid and food stamps are underfunded: AP-NORC poll

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Republican senators consider President Donald Trump’s big bill that could slash federal spending and extend tax cuts, a new survey shows most U.S. adults don’t think the government is overspending on the programs the GOP has focused on cutting, like Medicaid and food stamps. Americans broadly support increasing or maintaining existing […]
1 year ago
A judge has halted CoreCivic, on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, from housing immigrants facing possible d...

ICE is using no-bid contracts, boosting big firms, to get more detention beds

LEAVENWORTH, Kan. (AP) — Leavenworth, Kansas, occupies a mythic space in American crime, its name alone evoking a short hand for serving hard time. The federal penitentiary housed gangsters Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly — in a building so storied that it inspired the term “the big house.” Now Kansas’ oldest city could soon […]
1 year ago
FILE - The North Carolina Senate reviews copies of a map proposal for the state's congressional dis...

North Carolina redistricting trial begins, with racial gerrymandering allegations the focus

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina congressional and legislative districts drawn by Republicans that helped them retain majorities in Raleigh and Washington are in court, as federal lawsuits accuse mapmakers of illegally eroding Black voting power in the process. A trial scheduled by a three-judge panel will start Monday in Winston-Salem over allegations that GOP […]
1 year ago
A view of a section of the 1865 Juneteenth General Order No. 3 that is displayed by the Dallas Hist...

A guide to what the Juneteenth holiday is and how to celebrate it

It was 160 years ago that enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, learned they had been freed — after the Civil War’s end and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The resulting Juneteenth holiday — it’s name combining “June” and “nineteenth” — has only grown in one-and-a-half centuries. In 2021, President Joe Biden designated […]
1 year ago
FILE - A staff member walks past a message to students that hangs on the wall at Place Bridge Acade...

Coming to America? In 2025, the US to some looks less like a dream and more like a place to avoid

LONDON (AP) — The world may be rethinking the American dream. For centuries, people in other countries saw the United States as place of welcome and opportunity. Now, President Donald Trump’s drive for mass deportations of migrants is riling the streets of Los Angeles, college campuses, even churches — and fueling a global rethinking about […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump arrives to speak at U.S. Steel Corporation's Mon Valley Works-Irvin plant, F...

Trump administration offers some details of how it would control US Steel, but union raises concerns

CALGARY, Alberta (AP) — President Donald Trump would have unique influence over the operations of U.S. Steel under the terms of the investment being made by Nippon Steel. Administration officials over the past few days provided additional insight into the “golden share” arrangement that the federal government made as a condition for supporting the partnership. […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump, left, escorted by Air Force Col. Angela F. Ochoa, Commander, 89th Airlift W...

Trump directs ICE to expand deportations in Democratic-run cities, undeterred by protests

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday directed federal immigration officials to prioritize deportations from Democratic-run cities after large protests have erupted in Los Angeles and other major cities against the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Trump in a social media posting called on ICE officials “to do all in their power to achieve the […]
1 year ago
A law enforcement officer trains his rifle towards a house as the officers search for shooting susp...

Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative

NEW YORK (AP) — The man accused of assassinating the top Democrat in the Minnesota House held deeply religious and politically conservative views, telling a congregation in Africa two years ago that the U.S. was in a “bad place” where most churches didn’t oppose abortion. Vance Luther Boelter, 57, was at the center of a […]
1 year ago

2 detainees recaptured after escape from New Jersey immigration detention center, 2 still at large

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two detainees who escaped from a federal immigration detention center in New Jersey last week have been recaptured, while another two remain at large, FBI officials said Sunday. The four men busted out of the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark during reports of disorder there by breaking through an interior […]
1 year ago
In this photo from 2022, provided by Helping Paws of Eden Prairie, Minn., state Rep. Melissa Hortma...

A teenager with a job making burritos became a powerful Minnesota lawmaker who trained service dogs

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Melissa Hortman’ s influence at the Minnesota Capitol and her power as a Democratic leader to shape the course of a deeply divided Legislature were a far cry from her job as a teenager making chili-cheese burritos and overshadowed her volunteer work training service dogs for veterans. She was a lifelong Minneapolis-area […]
1 year ago
FILE - Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., speaks during a confirmation hearing at the Capitol in Washington,...

Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith contemplates increased security after shooting of Democratic lawmakers

Lawmakers on Sunday continued to reel from the shooting of two Democratic Minnesota state legislators in their homes that led to the death of one and her husband, contemplating a previously unthinkable world where democratically-elected representatives need full-time security details to protect them from the public. “I don’t want to think that I have to […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump speaks during an event to sign a bill blocking California's rule banning the...

Trump says Israel-Iran will come to deal ‘soon’ and warns Tehran against retaliating against US

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a stark warning to Iran against retaliating on U.S. targets in the Middle East while also predicting Israel and Iran would “soon” make a deal to end their escalating conflict. Trump in an early morning social media posting said the United States “had nothing to do […]
1 year ago
FILE - Election workers process ballots for the 2024 General Election, Nov. 5, 2024, in Milwaukee. ...

Justice Department’s early moves on voting and elections signal a shift from its traditional role

ATLANTA (AP) — In North Carolina, it was a lawsuit over the state’s voter registration records. In Arizona and Wisconsin, it was a letter to state election officials warning of potential administrative violations. And in Colorado, it was a demand for election records going back to 2020. Those actions in recent weeks by the U.S. […]
1 year ago
FILE - Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks during a confirmation hearing at the Capitol in Washington, ...

The GOP’s big bill would bring changes to Medicaid for millions

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Josh Hawley has been clear about his red line as the Senate takes up the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act: no Medicaid cuts. But what, exactly, would be a cut? Hawley and other Republicans acknowledge that the main cost-saving provision in the bill – new work requirements on able-bodied […]
1 year ago

Israel and Iran trade strikes for a third day as nuclear talks are called off

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day on Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses to strike buildings in the heart of the country. Planned talks on Iran’s nuclear program, which could provide an off-ramp, were called off. The region […]
1 year ago

Authorities still searching for suspect in shooting of 2 Minnesota state lawmakers

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (AP) — A massive search was stretching into its second day for a man who authorities say posed as a police officer and fatally shot a Democratic state lawmaker in her suburban Minneapolis home, an act Gov. Tim Walz called “a politically motivated assassination.” Authorities said the suspect also shot and wounded […]
1 year ago
FILE - A stand for Georgia Pathways is seen at a job fair in Atlanta, Ga., June 5, 2025. (AP Photo/...

Medicaid enrollees fear losing health coverage if Congress enacts work requirements

It took Crystal Strickland years to qualify for Medicaid, which she needs for a heart condition. Strickland, who’s unable to work due to her condition, chafed when she learned that the U.S. House has passed a bill that would impose a work requirement for many able-bodied people to get health insurance coverage through the low-cost, […]
1 year ago
A military parade commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary and coinciding with President Donald T...

The Army turns 250. Trump turns 79. Cue funnel cakes, festive bling, military might — and protest

WASHINGTON (AP) — There were funnel cakes, stands of festival bling and American flags aplenty. There were mighty machines of war, brought out to dazzle and impress. And there was the spray of tear gas against nonviolent marchers in Atlanta and rolling waves of anti-Trump resistance coast to coast. In scenes of celebration, protest and […]
1 year ago
Brooklyn Park Police Lieutenant Hjelm sets up a perimeter with police tape near the scene of a shoo...

Political violence is threaded through recent US history. The motives and justifications vary

The assassination of one Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and the shooting of another lawmaker and his wife at their homes, is just the latest addition to a long and unsettling roll call of political violence in the United States. The list, in the past two months alone: the killing of two Israeli […]
1 year ago
President Donald Trump arrives for a military parade commemorating the Army's 250th anniversary, co...

Photos of military parade marking Army’s 250th anniversary amid anti-Trump protests

WASHINGTON (AP) — A large military parade showcasing American power, requested by President Donald Trump to mark the Army’s 250th anniversary, took place in Washington, D.C., featuring tanks, troops and marching bands. Hours before the parade, anti-war protesters displayed signs reading “Homes not drones” near a military equipment exhibit on the National Mall celebrating the […]
1 year ago
FILE - House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, attends a press conference in St. Paul, Mi...

Minnesota’s slain Democratic leader saw liberal victories, then brokered a budget deal out of power

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota House’s top Democrat helped shepherd a package of liberal initiatives to passage when her party had a narrow majority two years ago. After Democrats lost their majority, she helped broker a deal to keep state government funded and provided a crucial vote to pass it, though her party hated it. […]
1 year ago