In The News

WASHINGTON -- A California law that requires nonprofit organizations to disclose their donors met with skepticism among most of the U.S. Supreme Court’s justices during a hearing Monday. The law is opposed by coalitions of nonprofit organizations that say the... Read More

WASHINGTON — First used in 1993, HUD’s Community Development Block Grant Recovery Program enhances the agency’s already flexible grants that help cities, counties, and states recover from presidentially declared disasters. These special recovery grants supplement disaster programs of the Federal... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's first address to Congress is an invite-only affair, no guests allowed.The restrictions for Wednesday's event are due to COVID-19 safety protocols, but will have the added security benefit of a limited number of people... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden spent his first 100 days in office encouraging Americans to mask up and stay home to slow the spread of the coronavirus. His task for the next 100 days will be to lay out... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to sign an executive order to increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour for federal contractors, providing a pay bump to hundreds of thousands of workers.Biden administration officials said ahead of... Read More

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Former Rep. Joe Cunningham put an end to months of speculation Monday, formally announcing that he will challenge incumbent Republican Gov. Henry McMaster in this year’s gubernatorial race. Cunningham became a political sensation in the Palmetto State... Read More

A new report from the American Lung Association finds that more than four in 10 people in the U.S. live with polluted air, placing their health and lives at risk. Even more concerning was that, of the 135 million people... Read More

Six states will see their congressional delegations grow in the next Congress, officials with the U.S. Census Bureau announced Monday. Dr. Ron S. Jarmin, the bureau’s acting director, said as of April 1, 2020, the number of people living in... Read More

WASHINGTON - President Joe Biden entered the White House promising that by the time his first 100 days in office had elapsed, at least 100 million COVID-19 vaccines  would be administered. As of Sunday, four days shy of Biden’s 100-day... Read More

The Smithsonian Institution will reopen seven of its museums and the National Zoon in May. The revival of the museums will begin on Wednesday, May 5, with the reopening of the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will make the case before United Nations members on Monday that now is the time for global leaders to begin putting the serious work into how they will respond to the next global... Read More

The Biden administration is expanding a program to feed as many as 34 million schoolchildren during the summer months, using funds from the coronavirus relief package approved in March. The Agriculture Department is announcing Monday that it will continue through... Read More

BOSTON (AP) — The owner of seafood restaurants on Cape Cod has eliminated lunch service and delayed the opening of some locations because his summertime influx of foreign workers hasn't arrived yet.  More than a thousand miles away, a Jamaican... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Washington, D.C.’s attorney general sued baby food maker Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. this week with claims the company misled consumers by failing to disclose toxic metals in its food. The lawsuit filed in District of Columbia Superior Court incorporates... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Biden recently outlined a spend of $174 billion in his American Jobs Plan to boost electric vehicle development, proliferation, and purchasing. His administration touts this as an investment in the future of safe transportation that has potential... Read More

A new report prepared by the Problem Solvers Caucus offers an astonishing array of bipartisan recommendations on how to rebuild and responsibly invest in the nation’s woefully out-of-date and sagging infrastructure. Just 20 pages long, the report, which has been... Read More

WASHINGTON - Nearly 70% of Americans agree with universities and colleges mandating all staff and students be vaccinated for COVID-19 before they resume face-to-face operations, a new, Back-to-Normal Barometer survey has found. The survey asked respondents whether they agreed or... Read More

LOS ANGELES — Former Olympic athlete and reality television star Caitlyn Jenner announced Friday in a press release she will launch a campaign to become the next governor of California. Jenner, a Republican, has been a vocal critic of current... Read More

A recent "trends" report from Airbnb suggests that the ongoing roll out of the coronavirus vaccine is spurring a renewed interest in travel, particularly when it comes to "open air" or "off-the-grid" locations.  In fact, the online rental marketplace said... Read More

Johns Hopkins University and its Whiting School of Engineering announced Thursday that they are establishing the Ralph S. O'Connor Sustainable Energy Institute to support ongoing research and education in the fields of clean, renewable, and sustainable energy technologies. The wide-ranging effort is the... Read More

OKLAHOMA CITY - The Oklahoma House and Senate unveiled new legislative district maps last week, revealing a plan in which no incumbents would be forced to run against each other. “These districts are based on unprecedented public input gathered through... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would help combat the rise of hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, a bipartisan denunciation of such violence during the coronavirus pandemic and a modest step... Read More

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Louisiana has stopped asking the federal government for its full allotment of COVID-19 vaccine. About three-quarters of Kansas counties have turned down new shipments of the vaccine at least once over the past month. And in... Read More

President Joe Biden's nominees to the governing board of the U.S. Postal Service pledged Thursday to rebuild trust with the American public through prompt deliveries, as they outlined a vison for the agency in their first formal statements to lawmakers.The... Read More

WASHINGTON — Some temporary tax changes are in effect as a result of President Biden’s ‘American Rescue Plan.’ The Earned Income Tax Credit is a tax benefit aimed at helping low- and moderate-income earners, but ARPA expands both the eligibility... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The House of Representatives passed a bill Thursday to make the District of Columbia the 51st U.S. state at a time political support for the legislation is the strongest it has ever been. The bill, entitled H.R. 51,... Read More

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan bill with support in both chambers of Congress aims to bolster the nation’s leadership in scientific and technological innovation through greater investment in research that will translate into new industries and create new high-tech jobs. The... Read More

WASHINGTON - Republican Sen. Tim Scott, of South Carolina, will deliver the GOP’s response to President Joe Biden’s address to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday. In announcing Scott’s selection, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell described the South Carolinian... Read More

LANSING, Mich. - Michigan's first-ever, independent citizens redistricting commission got off to a rocky start earlier this month after its decision to hire an alleged Democratic activist as an advisor inspired a strong backlash from the state’s Republican party. The... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., says the U.S. should discard the Trump-era Israel-Palestine policies as a first step to break the status quo. The new report argues that the U.S.... Read More