In The News

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers slowed their spending by 0.2% in December, cutting back for a second straight month in a worrisome sign for an economy struggling under the weight of a still out-of-control pandemic. The decline reported Friday by... Read More

WOODSTOCK, Ohio (AP) — In this don't blink-or-you'll-miss-it, one-stoplight town, dozens of residents still fly “Trump 2020” and “Make America Great Again” flags. But it's a now-shuttered bar that brought the FBI and other investigators to Woodstock, Ohio, around 40... Read More

Johnson & Johnson’s long-awaited vaccine appears to protect against COVID-19 with just one shot – not as strong as some two-shot rivals but still potentially helpful for a world in dire need of more doses. J&J said Friday that in the... Read More

BEIJING (AP) — China said Friday it will no longer recognize the British National Overseas passport as a valid travel document or form of identification amid a bitter feud with London over a plan to allow millions of Hong Kong... Read More

MOSCOW (AP) — Rattled by nationwide protests over jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Russian authorities are moving rapidly to block any new ones – from piling legal pressure on his allies to launching a campaign to discredit the demonstrations. Unprecedented... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats in Congress and the White House have rejected a Republican pitch to split President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue plan into smaller chunks, with lawmakers appearing primed to muscle the sweeping economic and virus aid forward without... Read More

Just two weeks ago, House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy declared Donald Trump culpable in the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol. By Thursday, he was seeking his political support. A private meeting between the two men at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort signaled a... Read More

Democrats plan to move quickly on one of the first bills of the new Congress, citing the need for federal election standards and other reforms to shore up the foundations of American democracy after a tumultuous post-election period and deadly... Read More

Big Tech is only “growing stronger” due to the pandemic and federal antitrust agencies need to “get serious about enforcement in the tech sector,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., during this week’s State of the Net Conference. “We need that... Read More

A new database will track the neurological symptoms of the coronavirus in an attempt to figure out how it disrupts body systems and impacts neurology.  The COVID-19 Neuro Databank/Biobank will assist clinicians in trying to prevent, manage, and treat the... Read More

Recent cyberattacks on U.S. federal systems point to the need to make the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency the "centralizing authority system" for the nation, said Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., during a fireside chat at the State of Net Conference. That... Read More

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials responsible for preparing for a pandemic routinely raided funds for public health emergencies, diverting money from vaccine development to pay for other projects at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, a federal watchdog said... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Homeland Security Department warned that U.S. officials and buildings face a heightened risk of attack in the coming weeks due to violent domestic extremists angry over issues including Joe Biden’s victory as president and coronavirus restrictions. “Information... Read More

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday to end the Justice Department's use of private prisons. The order tells the Justice Department not to renew contracts with the corporations that incarcerate more than 120,000 people in the... Read More

LANSING, Mich. — Michigan House Appropriations Committee Chairman Thomas Albert announced Republicans’ rebuttal to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s proposed COVID-19 recovery plan.  The House Republicans’ plan would provide roughly $3.5 billion in federal and state funds for employers, families, schools and... Read More

Merck has withdrawn from the sprint to produce coronavirus vaccines after its two candidates failed to achieve strong results in preliminary trials. The first phase of clinical studies showed that even though the vaccine candidates were "well tolerated" the immune... Read More

In a Monday webinar hosted by Iowa Democrat Rita Hart, Hart’s attorney Marc Elias disputed Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks' recent motion of dismissal for Hart’s contention with the state’s 2nd Congressional District election results.   Hart, who ran for the House of... Read More

Efforts to modernize the federal government's use of technology have long enjoyed "enthusiastic bipartisan support" that is likely to continue during Joe Biden's presidency, said Matt Lira, who was special assistant to the president on innovation policy during the Trump... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — For nearly a year it was the Trump show. Now President Joe Biden is calling up the nation’s top scientists and public health experts to regularly brief the American public about the pandemic that has claimed more than 425,000... Read More

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers on Wednesday quickly approved the extension of the last remaining nuclear Russia-U.S. arms control, a fast-track action that comes just days before it’s due to expire. Both houses of parliament voted unanimously to extend the... Read More

Answering growing frustration over vaccine shortages, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. is ramping up deliveries to hard-pressed states over the next three weeks and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of... Read More

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — You just can’t keep a good city down, especially when Mardi Gras is coming. All around New Orleans, thousands of houses are being decorated as floats because the coronavirus outbreak canceled the elaborate parades mobbed by... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department rescinded a Trump-era memo that established a “zero tolerance” enforcement policy for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, which resulted in thousands of family separations. Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson issued the new memo... Read More

From a wood-paneled library in his Boston mansion, new climate envoy John Kerry is talking the U.S. back into a leading role in global climate action, making clear the nation isn't just revving up its own efforts to reduce oil,... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin held their first conversation as counterparts Tuesday in a phone call that underscored troubled relations and the delicate balance between the former Cold War foes. According to the... Read More

WASHINGTON - A bipartisan effort in the Senate Tuesday narrowly killed a Republican push to dismiss the impeachment charge against former President Donald Trump as unconstitutional. The staunch opposition of all but a handful of Republicans in the 55-45 vote,... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The interim chief of the Capitol Police apologized Tuesday for failing to prepare for what became a violent insurrection despite having warnings that white supremacists and far-right groups would target Congress. Yogananda Pittman, in prepared testimony before... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron, who has led the resurgent newspaper as it nearly doubled its staff in eight years, said Tuesday that he will retire at the end of February. One of the nation's... Read More

WASHINGTON - It's the buzzword of everyone wanting to bypass GOP resistance and pass President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, and it could upend decades of precedent when it comes to the federal budget process. The word is... Read More

WASHINGTON - Antony Blinken, confirmed as America's top diplomat by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday, now faces a myriad of problems both within the agency he will now lead and abroad. Confirmed by a 78-22 vote Tuesday afternoon, Blinken is... Read More