In The News

WASHINGTON - The House voted Tuesday to pass a $1.4 trillion government-wide spending package, despite a disagreement over $1.4 billion for President Donald Trump's wall along the U.S. Mexico border. The two-bill package ballooned to some 2,371 pages after several... Read More

WASHINGTON — More and more people are living on the streets, in makeshift encampments or their cars — what the federal government calls “other places not suitable for human habitation.” While Washington, D.C., lawmakers are sympathetic and ready to increase... Read More

WASHINGTON — When Alabama closed Roland Cooper State Park in 2015 because of budget cuts, entrepreneur Warren Meyer saw an opportunity. Meyer runs Recreation Resource Management, a concession company that maintains campgrounds, builds cabins and provides amenities at state parks... Read More

WASHINGTON — A roll of the dice decided a tied City Council race in Vineyard, Utah, four years ago. So when the city had the opportunity to test a different way of voting in municipal elections last month, local officials... Read More

A federal judge said he will allow Georgia to begin a sweeping purge of its voter rolls Monday, just hours after he initially put the potential removal of more than 300,000 inactive voter registrations on hold. U.S. District Judge Steve... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Problem Solvers Caucus is throwing its support behind legislation that would update allergen labeling laws, and provide increased funding for research and treatment of food allergies. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 32... Read More

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s controversial plan to impose work requirements and monthly premiums for many Kentucky Medicaid recipients is no more, Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear announced Monday. In one of his first major moves as the... Read More

Republicans aren’t exactly rolling out the red carpet for Jeff Van Drew. The New Jersey Democratic congressman may have hoped his defection to the GOP would ease his path to reelection in a conservative-leaning district. His political prospects as a... Read More

WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators agreed to spend $25 million to study gun violence in America next year, the first time in more than two decades that federal funds will be dedicated to researching the contentious issue. The National Institutes of... Read More

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for a recount. Cuomo pitched legislation Monday as part of his planned 2020 State of the State address that would mandate automatic manual recounts in close elections across the state and lay... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear a major case on homeless, letting stand a ruling that protects their right to sleep on the sidewalk or in public parks if no other shelter is available. The justices without... Read More

WASHINGTON — No date has been set so far for the U.S. and China to kick off “phase two” trade talks, said U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, contradicting a suggestion by President Donald Trump that negotiations would start right away.... Read More

ATLANTA — Until her old concrete-block precinct shut down, Maggie Coleman lived about a mile from a place to cast her ballot in rural Georgia. Now, she has to drive nearly 10 miles, past cotton fields and fallow farms, to... Read More

PHILADELPHIA — The looming impeachment of President Donald Trump and a crowded Democratic primary are dominating the news. But when Craig Robbins goes door-to-door asking voters what they care about, almost no one mentions politics. “It’s health care, crime, schools,... Read More

WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley are negotiating a potential revival of expired tax breaks in last-minute negotiations over a government spending bill. The talks, which were held on Saturday, are focused on reinstating... Read More

A judge in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, just north of Milwaukee, has ordered the state to remove 234,000 from voter rolls because they may have moved from the area. The ruling by Circuit Judge Paul Malloy came after the state Elections... Read More

WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Sunday publicly diverged over how to conduct the expected impeachment trial of President Trump, with some calling for allegations against him to be summarily quashed and others advocating a lengthier process that would include summoning... Read More

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday restored the voting rights of more than 140,000 people with nonviolent felony convictions, making good on an inaugural promise he made after being sworn in recently. The order signed by Beshear applies to Kentuckians... Read More

LOS ANGELES — It came as a bittersweet surprise to biologists and government agencies monitoring the steadily shrinking Salton Sea’s slide toward death by choking dust storms and salt. Thousands of acres of exposed lake bed have become, of all... Read More

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Zachary Berg usually buys guns and ammunition with relative ease. After all, he’s a Sutter County sheriff’s deputy and needs them for his job. California’s stringent gun laws usually don’t apply to him. But Berg couldn’t buy... Read More

NEW YORK — The flu is out in force. And so far this season, it’s been hitting children the hardest. Influenza is a wily virus — it’s almost impossible to predict where and how it will strike as it circumnavigates... Read More

WASHINGTON — Call it President Donald Trump’s Guadalcanal: Like the tiny island U.S. Marines invaded in World War II to break Japan’s Asia-Pacific chokehold, little Juneau County, Wis., is where Trump needs to halt the Democrats’ advance. The struggle for... Read More

State-funded merit scholarships are politically popular. But as college tuition rises, policymakers in some states are starting to rethink financial aid that disproportionately benefits white, wealthy students and often duplicates scholarships awarded by public universities. Lawmakers in Georgia added a... Read More

More than 25 years ago, the internet revolution that was launched in the United States transformed the world. It changed how we communicate, how we shop, and brought the world closer together. Today, we are on the verge of another... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Democratic members of Congress accused U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday of neglecting her duty to protect students from for-profit colleges that defrauded them, promising degrees or job placements they were unable to deliver. In response, the... Read More

WASHINGTON - Sharply divided along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee voted Friday morning to send two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump to the full House for its consideration. All 23 Democrats on the judiciary committee voted in... Read More

WASHINGTON — Republicans and Democrats reached agreement “in principle” Thursday on $1.37 trillion in government funding, staving off the possibility of another shutdown just a week before spending is set to run out, according to Appropriations Committee leaders. The deal... Read More

LONDON — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party appeared to win a decisive parliamentary majority in Thursday’s election, putting the country on track for a historic rupture with the European Union early next year. With all 650 seats in... Read More

PHILADELPHIA — When votes were tallied last month using new voting machines in Northampton County, it was quickly obvious that something had gone wrong. The numbers were so clearly inaccurate that a judge ordered the machines impounded, scanners were brought... Read More

RALEIGH, N.C. — Add North Carolina’s attorney general to the list of those who don’t think the University of North Carolina System should give $2.5 million to the N.C. Sons of Confederate Veterans to preserve and display the Silent Sam... Read More