The Center Square) – A government funding stopgap is on its way to President Joe Biden’s desk after the Senate voted 85-11 to pass a 118-page bill to keep the federal government open until March 14. The Continuing Resolution will allocate about $100 billion in disaster relief and extend the Farm Bill, key provisions demanded Read More…
(The Center Square) – Millions of residents in blue states have migrated to red states within the past 30 years, according to federal data. A policy group that analyzed the data says it’s a clear sign that many Americans find Democratic policies unlivable. From 1990 to 2021, a total of 13 million people left California, New Read More…
ABC News has agreed to pay $15 million to a “presidential foundation and museum” and $1 million in legal fees as part of a settlement with President-elect Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit, according to court documents filed Saturday. The lawsuit was sparked by comments made by anchor George Stephanopoulos during a March 2024 broadcast. Read More…
President Joe Biden faced bipartisan criticism this week after granting clemency to two disgraced officials convicted in high-profile corruption cases. The decision, part of a larger clemency package for 1,500 individuals, ended house arrest for former Pennsylvania Judge Michael Conahan and ex-Dixon, Illinois, comptroller Rita Crundwell, both of whom had previously been released from prison Read More…
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is flatly opposed to removing former President Donald Trump’s cap on what’s known as the SALT deduction on state and local taxes, saying lifting it would send a “terrible” message. In an interview with Axios, Sanders was asked about what’s been called the “a tax break for rich Read More…
WASHINGTON — Every spring the Supreme Court seems to find itself in the headlines with consequential rulings on the horizon. This spring is no different. Over the coming weeks, major cases impacting various aspects of American life are poised for rulings. READ FULL STORY
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell toughened their positions Monday over the tax increases for millionaires and corporations that Biden has proposed to fund his sweeping infrastructure and education plans. “We’re open to doing a roughly $600 billion package which deals with what all of us agree is ‘infrastructure,’” Read More…
In another instance of COVID panic undermining “the science,” President Biden insisted in a Friday interview that he still plans to wear masks outside — despite new CDC guidance this week that masks do not need to be worn by vaccinated people outdoors. Speaking to NBC News in a wide-ranging interview Friday, the commander-in-chief called mask wearing Read More…
Florida’s Legislature passed an election bill on Thursday that alters the way residents vote by mail. The Republican-controlled Legislature passed the bill in both chambers on a mostly party-line vote. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis already said he plans on signing it. The bill prevents state agencies from sending mail-in ballots to people who didn’t request one, disallows ballot harvesting, which Read More…
The Supreme Court announced Monday it will hear a major Second Amendment case out of New York concerning the right to carry a firearm for self-defense. At least four justices voted to hear the challenge over a state’s ability to deny applications for concealed-carry licenses. The lawsuit was brought by two men who had their concealed permit Read More…
Dash camera footage from Michigan State Police shows a state representative name-dropping Gov. Gretchen Whitmer while he was getting arrested after allegedly driving under the influence. Rep. Jewell Jones, 26, was arrested on April 6 for driving while drunk, resisting arrest, and possession of a firearm while intoxicated, though the video was only recently released. During the arrest footage, Read More…
The Biden administration on Tuesday formally threw its support behind a long-shot bid from Democrats to make Washington, D.C., the 51st state. Congress should “provide for a swift and orderly transition to statehood” for the more than 700,000 Washington residents who do not have full voting representation in the House and Senate, the Office of Read More…
The Texas Senate passed a bill Tuesday that would prevent local governments from cutting their law enforcement budgets without voter approval. It was the Legislature’s most substantial move yet in a political war over police funding in Texas that was sparked last summer. The in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and fatal police shooting of Mike Ramos in Austin prompted Read More…
President Joe Biden unveiled a $2.25 trillion jobs and infrastructure plan last month and has promised to seek input from Republican lawmakers on its ultimate design. That courtship begins Monday when Biden and Vice President Harris meet with a bipartisan group of House and Senate members to discuss the proposal. But his administration has already signaled its willingness to push a Read More…
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Thom Tillis announced Monday that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and he’ll undergo surgery in North Carolina this week to treat it. The Republican lawmaker said in a statement that his cancer was detected “relatively early” and his “prognosis is good.” Tillis, 60, says his doctors caught the cancer during his Read More…
Kelly Tshibaka, an Alaska official who on Monday launched a challenge against Sen. Lisa Murkowski, is backed by former aides to President Donald Trump in a race that could prove a test of his appeal agaist the GOP establishment. Tim Murtaugh, the former communication director for Trump’s reelection campaign, Bill Stepien, Trump’s former campaign manager, Justin Clark, Trump’s former deputy Read More…
President Joe Biden announced his first slate of judicial nominees Tuesday, tapping a diverse pool of 11 candidates for the federal bench. Perhaps the most high-profile name on the White House’s list was Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia — a potential Supreme Court pick — whom Read More…
The prospect of a floor vote to overturn a contested congressional race in Iowa has suddenly become a real dilemma for House Democrats’ most vulnerable members. Moderate Democrats are privately squirming over the possibility that they could be forced to choose a winner in the race for Iowa’s 2nd district, where the GOP candidate, now-Rep. Read More…
With backing from Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Florida Senate committee on Wednesday approved a wide-ranging proposal to revamp vote-by-mail laws, including banning the use of drop boxes and taking aim at a practice known as “ballot harvesting.” The bill comes amid efforts in various parts of the country by Republicans to place new restrictions on Read More…
President Biden hasn’t held a solo press conference 54 days into office. The president addressed the nation last Thursday after signing the $1.9 trillion spending package and spoke about the country’s progress in defeating the coronavirus. However, he has gone more than seven weeks without holding a press conference, the longest for a president in nearly 100 years. Every president Read More…
Mayor Bill de Blasio called Monday for an investigation into phone calls that Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s vaccine czar made to county executives across the state — describing them as “the definition of corruption.” “If vaccine supply is being given out for political reasons, that, in many ways, is the single worst thing we’ve heard in all of Read More…
Leaders of the effort to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday they’ve collected 1.95 million signatures a little more than a week before the deadline, a number they believe will be more than enough to trigger a special recall election. County and state elections officials still need to verify that nearly 1.5 million are Read More…
JEFFERSON CITY — In an announcement that instantly shook Missouri’s political landscape, U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt said Monday morning he would not run for reelection in 2022. “After 14 general election victories — three to county office, seven to the United States House of Representatives and four statewide elections — I won’t be a candidate for Read More…
Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., announced Thursday that he and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., formed three screening conferences that will recommend candidates to fill federal judicial openings as well as vacant U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshal positions in their state. The panels, one for each of Florida‘s judicial districts, will interview and vet candidates and then report their Read More…
Just moments before the filing deadline Wednesday, a 6-foot-7-inch former pro wrestler from Las Vegas unexpectedly appeared at the Texas secretary of state’s office to file for a vacant congressional seat. He said Ted Cruz and the Trump family sent him. READ FULL STORY
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was fighting for his political life on Tuesday after a third woman accused him of sexual harassment. The Democrat has suffered a spectacular fall from grace since he became a national star last year for his handling of the state’s coronavirus pandemic. Many commentators had tipped him for a role Read More…
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has seen his star rise over the past year as Republicans look to him as a potential successor to former President Trump. DeSantis’s profile grew early on after he took his cue from Trump by not shutting down his state in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Though Florida has suffered heavy losses from Read More…
California Governor Gavin Newsom posted a video to his TikTok account with celebrity George Lopez on Saturday. The pair were shown inside a restaurant in an area of California that currently doesn’t allow indoor dining. In the video, Newsom and Lopez talk about where to find information about coronavirus vaccine eligibility in California. At the beginning of Read More…
ALBANY – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Sunday agreed to cede control of an investigation into sexual harassment allegations lodged against him by two former aides, granting Attorney General Letitia James the ability to select a lead investigator after previously resisting calls to do so. Cuomo, a Democrat, had faced increasing calls from elected officials of Read More…
The brutal winter storm that turned Texas roads to ice, burst pipes across the state and left millions of residents shivering and without power has also damaged the reputations of three of the state’s leading Republicans. Sen. Ted Cruz was discovered to have slipped off to Mexico on Wednesday night, only to announce his return when he was caught Read More…
The Lincoln Project hired a legal team to investigate allegations of sexual abuse against co-founder John Weaver, the anti-Trump group announced on Monday as it struggles to manage inner turmoil, including high-profile resignations and finger-pointing, that has barreled into the public’s view. “The Lincoln Project has retained the law firm of Paul Hastings to investigate Read More…
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday blasted state lawmakers who have threatened to rescind his emergency powers and open investigations into his administration’s coverup of its mishandling of nursing home coronavirus deaths. “You can’t use a subpoena or the threat of investigation to leverage a person,” Cuomo said in a briefing on Monday. “That’s a crime, Read More…
The crown teachers once put on William Shakespeare now lies uneasy upon his head as the English playwright comes under assault from teachers who fault his unwoke attitudes regarding race, sexuality, gender and class. For the new breed of teachers, Shakespeare is seen less as an icon of literature and more as a tool of Read More…
Congressional Democrats and Joe Biden made the $15 minimum wage a key part of their 2020 platform. But it’s now at risk of exclusion or being watered down in Biden’s coronavirus package, a potential letdown for progressives who have fought for years to raise wages. Democrats’ first obstacle: The plan to include it in their Read More…
White House climate czar John Kerry traveled to Iceland by private jet in 2019 to accept an environmental award and defended his transportation choice to a reporter at the time by calling it, “the only choice for somebody like me.” Kerry flew to Iceland in October, 2019 to receive the Arctic Circle award, an iceberg sculpture, for Read More…
(Bloomberg) — Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez detailed the moment she feared for her life during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, disclosing that she’s the survivor of a past sexual assault to drive home her accusation that some Republicans have been dismissive of her trauma. The New York Democrat described on Monday her growing Read More…
Backers of an effort to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom are still collecting signatures, but rivals are already announcing their intention to run. Former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer plans to challenge the governor if the recall qualifies for the ballot this year, or in 2022 if it does not. In an interview with The Times, Read More…
Former Republican President George W. Bush waded into the escalating GOP civil war over Donald Trump‘s impeachment on Friday, after Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz rallied to defeat Congresswoman Liz Cheney in her home state of Wyoming. As the Republican party grapples with its future under President Joe Biden, the civil war has intensified after 10 House members voted in favor of Read More…
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took credit Wednesday for President Biden’s newly unveiled $2 trillion set of environmental policies, which include eliminating coal, oil and natural gas as electricity sources by 2035. “It’s almost as if we helped shape the platform,” Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) wrote in a tweet, followed by a winking face emoji. The tweet was in response to Read More…
White House chief of staff Ron Klain on Thursday defended the flurry of executive actions President Joe Biden has taken in his first week in office, pushing back against a New York Times editorial urging the administration to enact more policy through congressional legislation. In a tweet Thursday morning, Klain wrote that the White House was Read More…
The Biden administration has imposed a temporary freeze on U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia and is scrutinizing purchases by the United Arab Emirates as it reviews billions of dollars in weapons transactions approved by former President Donald Trump, according to U.S. officials. The review, the officials said, includes the sale of precision-guided munitions to Riyadh, as Read More…
There could soon be another Huckabee in the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former President Donald Trump’s second White House press secretary, is expected to announced on Monday that she will run for governor of Arkansas, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News. Her father, Mike Huckabee, served as Arkansas’ governor from 1996 to Read More…
Former President Donald Trump’s supporters are mobilizing to exact revenge on the 10 House Republicans who supported impeachment last week, thrusting the GOP into a civil war just as party leaders are trying to move on from the Trump era. Pro-Trump Republicans are racing to launch primary challenges. The former president’s donors are cutting off Read More…
Washington, D.C., was quiet and state capitals across the country reported a few small protests Sunday as cities beefed up security and locked down capitol buildings for fear of widespread and violent protests. Small groups of demonstrators, some holding guns and rifles, gathered at several of the state capitol buildings that had been fortified and surrounded by Read More…