In The News

WASHINGTON – United States Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., received the “Friend of Farm Bureau” award from the American Farm Bureau Federation on Tuesday.  Spanberger, who serves on the House Agriculture Committee and as chair of the Subcommittee on Conservation and... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Four weeks ahead of Election Day, senior national security officials provided fresh assurances about the integrity of the elections in a video message Tuesday, putting them at odds with President Donald Trump’s efforts to discredit the vote.... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic lawmakers are calling for Congress to rein in Big Tech, possibly forcing Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple to break up their businesses, while making it harder for them to acquire others and imposing new rules to... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity agency have issued a series of advisories in recent weeks aimed at warning voters about problems that could surface in the election — as well as steps Americans... Read More

Mike Pence and Kamala Harris do not have a tough act to follow. The vice presidential debate set for Wednesday night follows the disorderly prime-time spectacle last week that had viewers of President Donald Trump and Democratic rival Joe Biden’s... Read More

DALLAS — The Pakistani immigrant was desperate. COVID-19 was spreading through the Prairieland compound, an isolated immigrant detention center about an hour southwest of Dallas. The diabetic man’s time in the facility became too much. He made a tough decision:... Read More

WASHINGTON — If Democrats win control of the Senate and White House in November, many progressives want to get rid of a long-standing Senate rule — the legislative filibuster — to ensure that their agenda in a Joe Biden presidency... Read More

In August, a video posted on social media by a Florida woman named Tina Brown outlined what she claimed were potential hazards with mail-in election ballots. Brown said envelopes for registered Democratic voters included a D in the barcode, while... Read More

Today the CATO Institute, a non-profit public policy research foundation, released its 15th biennial fiscal policy report card on the nation’s governors. This year’s CATO report card examines the country’s governors and their state budget actions since 2018.  Prior to... Read More

WASHINGTON — Anger on Capitol Hill boiled over Tuesday after President Donald Trump called an abrupt end to negotiations with House Democrats over additional coronavirus relief, delaying action until after the election. Trump announced he was walking away from the... Read More

This is the first installment of an ongoing series of political advertising fact checks during the 2020 campaign. If you would like to submit an advertisement for consideration, please email a link to [email protected]. In a television and Internet ad... Read More

POLITICAL ADS Republicans Point to Corrupt Lobbyists and Billionaires The National Republican Congressional Committee is running a new ad in IL-13 attacking Democrat Betsy Dirksen Londrigan saying her campaign is being funded by corrupt lobbyists. The National Republican Congressional Committee... Read More

WASHINGTON - Within hours of the start of its new term on Monday, the Supreme Court revived a South Carolina law that requires absentee ballots to be returned accompanied by a witness's signature. Lower courts had set aside the law,... Read More

The attorneys general from 18 states are pushing back against the Small Business Administration for what they describe as an overly zealous crackdown on fraud in the coronavirus relief loans. They are bothered by the SBA's proposed appeal process for... Read More

MIAMI — Cuban-American voters continue to favor President Donald Trump over Joe Biden in Miami-Dade County, but more are moving toward the Democratic nominee, boosting Biden’s chances of winning battleground Florida, according to a poll by Bendixen & Amandi International... Read More

Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., and his House colleagues recently introduced the Federal Worker Leave Fairness Act of 2020, legislation that will allow all federal workers to carry over their earned annual leave received during the coronavirus pandemic. Approximately 2 million... Read More

WASHINGTON - This week, the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act achieved final passage in the U.S. House of Representatives with support from a wide swath of bipartisan lawmakers.  The ACE Act helps conserve wildlife and wildlife habitat, including by reauthorizing the... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. - Religious groups and a wedding photographer are suing the state of Virginia over a new law that bans discrimination against gay, lesbian and transgender persons. The law is directed primarily against discrimination in employment, housing and public... Read More

WASHINGTON - "What you're about to witness will be a kind of a Kabuki theatre," Ron Bonjean said the other day. The communications Sherpa during Justice Neil Gorsuch's confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, he was reflecting on that experience... Read More

The United States’ intelligence community is expecting active Russian disinformation efforts to influence the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to analysis by the RAND Corporation. Among the corporation’s key findings was that technological innovation has made widespread propaganda... Read More

A new survey conducted by the Rand Corporation researchers indicates that most schools were not fully prepared for remote instruction and prolonged school closures at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Rand researchers compiled responses from 957 elementary and secondary... Read More

MIAMI — During a scouting mission to check on coral colonies in inshore Biscayne Bay last year, Caroline Dennison and a few other marine biology graduate students found something astounding: healthy populations of brain corals. There were no signs of... Read More

Clarence Troutman survived a two-month hospital stay with COVID-19, then went home in early June. But he’s far from over the disease, still suffering from limited endurance, shortness of breath and hands that can be stiff and swollen. “Before COVID,... Read More

For a term that’s at least 100 years old, “herd immunity” has gained new life in 2020. It starred in many headlines last month, when reports surfaced that a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and adviser to... Read More

MONACA, Pa. — Terri Mitko is sure there are former supporters of President Donald Trump who aren’t going to be voting for him again, because she lives with one: her husband. “There was a whole ‘I don’t want to vote... Read More

The federal government did a quick pivot on the threat of the coronavirus spreading through the air, changing a key piece of guidance over the weekend. On Sept. 18, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that tiny airborne... Read More

Sixty-one percent of Americans are worried that the U.S. could be on the verge of another Civil War, while 52% say they've already started stockpiling food and other essential in anticipation of social unrest, according to a new national poll.... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider a bid by Arizona Republicans to overturn a lower court ruling that struck down recently imposed voting restrictions in the state. In January, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear oral arguments in a challenge to the FCC's efforts to loosen rules that limit media ownership. The underlying case was brought by Philadelphia-based Prometheus Radio Project, a coalition of low-power... Read More

You can call it the battleground state with the sharpest divisions. Like the jagged edges that course through the Grand Canyon, Arizona's political landscape is marked by sharp distinctions, shadows and hazardous crevices. As the Oct. 7 start of early... Read More