This Week

In the northern sky in December is a beautiful cluster of stars known as the Pleiades, or the “seven sisters”. Look carefully and you will probably count six stars. So why do we say there are seven of them? Many... Read More

WASHINGTON — An advisory panel for the Food and Drug Administration narrowly approved the use of a COVID-19 pill manufactured by Merck. If the agency accepts the recommendation, molnupiravir would be the first drug Americans could be prescribed and take... Read More

OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Three students were killed and eight people were wounded in an attack by a student at a Michigan high school Tuesday afternoon. According to Oakland County, Michigan, Undersheriff Mike McCabe, two of the wounded were undergoing... Read More

RALEIGH, N.C. — With a number of lawsuits challenging North Carolina’s new district maps still pending, a superior court judge has ruled in one case that there’s no reason at all to delay the state’s March 8 primary. The lawsuit... Read More

WASHINGTON — Trista Hamsmith told a Senate panel Tuesday the Christmas story no parent wants to endure. Her normally lively daughter, a toddler named Reese, began coughing and exhibited difficulty breathing last year. A doctor diagnosed her with a common... Read More

WESLACO, Texas — Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush announced a lease agreement on Monday between the General Land Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety authorizing border wall construction along a tract of farmland owned by the office... Read More

WASHINGTON — If the debt limit remains unchanged and the Treasury Department follows through on transferring $118 billion to the Highway Trust Fund on Dec. 15, the federal government could run out of cash before the end of the month,... Read More

WASHINGTON — Mark Meadows, the former North Carolina congressman and House Freedom Caucus chair, is now the highest ranking member of the Trump administration acknowledged to be cooperating with the Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2020, siege at the... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — Global shares mostly slipped Tuesday as investors cautiously weighed how much damage the new omicron coronavirus variant may unleash on the global economy. Germany's DAX lost 1.1% to 15,106.35 in afternoon trading. France’s CAC 40 slipped... Read More

WASHINGTON — According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, at the end of 2020 the most people on record — about 82.4 million people — were displaced around the world and 243.8 million people required humanitarian assistance. That... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration’s new proposal to overhaul the nation's oil and gas leasing program drew praise this week from environmentalists in Congress but complaints from oil-producing states. The proposal wouldn’t eliminate oil and gas leases but it would... Read More

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors on Sunday accused former Trump advisor Stephen K. Bannon of trying to defend against the criminal charges he faces through the media instead of federal court. They said in a court filing that Bannon wants to share... Read More

NEW YORK (AP) — With an expanded definition to reflect the times, Merriam-Webster has declared an omnipresent truth as its 2021 word of the year: vaccine. “This was a word that was extremely high in our data every single day... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will urge Americans to get vaccinated and to receive a booster shot as he seeks to quell concerns Monday over the new COVID-19 variant omicron, but won't immediately push for more restrictions to stop its... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, blasted Sen. Ted Cruz for suggesting that Fauci be investigated for statements he made about COVID-19 and said the criticism by the Texas Republican was an attack on science. “I... Read More

NANTUCKET, Mass. (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday wished Americans a happy and closer-to-normal Thanksgiving, the second celebrated in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, in remarks welcoming the resumption of holiday traditions by millions of U.S. families —... Read More

BRUNSWICK, Ga. — All three defendants have been found guilty of murder in the fatal shooting of jogger Ahmaud Arbery in February 2020. The reckoning came shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday after about 10 hours of deliberations. It followed a... Read More

DALLAS (AP) — Determined to reclaim Thanksgiving traditions that were put on pause last year by the pandemic, millions of Americans will be loading up their cars or piling onto planes to gather again with friends and family. The number... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — It took half a year but Democrats have driven President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion package of social and climate initiatives through the House. It gets no easier in the Senate, where painful Republican amendments, restrictive rules and Joe Manchin... Read More

WASHINGTON — A new, groundbreaking study suggests not only is there strong bipartisan support for corporate efforts to address environmental, social and governance challenges, but that the bipartisan appeal of these initiatives dramatically increases among Americans under the age of... Read More

WASHINGTON — Representatives from more than 100 countries recently gathered in Glasgow, Scotland, for the COP26 climate conference in an effort to pledge commitments and action against climate change, especially actions to prevent temperatures from rising above 2 degrees Celsius,... Read More

SAN ANTONIO — Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, announced on Monday that he plans to join the Republican primary field for Texas attorney general in a bid to oust incumbent Ken Paxton. Gohmert, who has served in the House of Representatives... Read More

WASHINGTON — More than 100 Democrats in the House and Senate are urging their colleagues to help them guarantee a woman’s timely access to birth control at her local pharmacy. The legislation, the Access to Birth Control Act, was reintroduced... Read More

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice announced Monday that it reached a settlement agreement with family members and survivors of the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people. Local media reports say the settlement amount... Read More

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department intervened this week in a lawsuit former President Donald Trump filed against social media companies Facebook, Twitter and Google’s YouTube. Trump accuses the companies of violating his First Amendment right to free speech by banning... Read More

WASHINGTON - Social media, once a venue for pet pictures and catching up with friends from high school, has turned toxic in many cases. And it’s almost impossible to escape the most divisive of political commentary. Among those trying to... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is free to rent the email list compiled by his principal campaign committee, Schiff for Congress, to promote his new memoir, “Midnight in Washington,” the Federal Election Commission said in an advisory opinion announced... Read More

NEW YORK — Researchers at New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics found that issuing warnings of possible suspensions resulting from the use of hate speech on Twitter reduced the ratio of tweets containing hateful language by up... Read More

WASHINGTON — Foreign policy experts described an enormous challenge Monday for U.S. corporations wanting to improve their international business while facing political pressure from authoritarian governments. Some cave to the pressure to increase their revenue while others resist, putting them... Read More

WASHINGTON — House Democrats succeeded in including a proposed fee on methane emissions in the Build Back Better Act, but the measure will have to endure scrutiny from centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., before it becomes law. The Democrats' framework... Read More

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Sean Parnell, the candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, on Monday suspended his campaign after he lost a court fight over custody of his three children in which the judge... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden opened the holiday season at the White House by breaking off a sprig from the official Blue Room tree and giving it — and a big smooch — to her toddler grandson. “Look how beautiful... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — A committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection has issued subpoenas to five more individuals, including former President Donald Trump’s ally Roger Stone and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, as lawmakers deepened their probe of the rallies that preceded... Read More

WASHINGTON — Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, is retiring from Congress after nearly three decades in office, bringing to 16 the number of Democrats who are bowing out before the 2022 election. Johnson, a trailblazer her whole life, was the... Read More

WASHINGTON — The lines just keep blurring between the physical and online worlds, with the pandemic accelerating the adoption of immersive technologies that merge the physical world with digital or simulated reality. But while many are familiar with some type... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Monday that he's nominating Jerome Powell for a second four-year term as Federal Reserve chair, endorsing Powell's stewardship of the economy through a brutal pandemic recession in which the Fed's ultra-low rate policies... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has been on a crusade for swift and sweeping reform of Big Tech platforms, introducing a number of bills and even publishing a book titled “Antitrust” that looks at the history of policy toward... Read More

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A joyous scene of marching bands and children dancing in Santa hats and waving pompoms turned deadly in an instant, as an SUV sped through barricades and into a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee, killing at... Read More

RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia Supreme Court has selected two “special masters” to assist the court in redrawing the state’s congressional and legislative districts. In a unanimous decision, the justices selected Sean Trende, a senior elections analyst for RealClearPolitics and... Read More

ATLANTA — Early voting kicked off this week for Georgia’s 2021 runoff elections, the most watched being the race to finally decide who will be Atlanta’s next mayor. City Council President Felicia Moore and Council Member Andre Dickens are facing... Read More

WASHINGTON — The backlash continued Friday against Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., for her one-minute name-calling tirade against Democrats Wednesday in defense of Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz. Gosar was censured and stripped of his committee memberships this week by congressional leaders... Read More

SEATTLE — Testimony this week during a civil trial in Seattle could explain why opioid deaths set a record of more than 100,000 in a year by last April. The class action lawsuit seeks $95 billion in damages against pharmaceutical... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sunshine Beverages was a good idea looking to get its grow on. Founded by artisanal entrepreneurs Keith Vest and Joe Parrish in 2013, the energy drink company was the offshoot of Vest’s forward-thinking ad agency, The Variable. Coming... Read More

WASHINGTON — A jury on Friday found Kyle Rittenhouse, the Wisconsin teenger who fatally shot two protesters and wounded a third, not guilty of murder and other felony charges. The shootings occurred last summer during demonstrations in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in... Read More

WASHINGTON — House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said Thursday she wants the House to pass a short-term continuing resolution that doesn’t extend into the new year so that Congress has time to negotiate an omnibus package but doesn’t incentivize... Read More

WASHINGTON — It was a long night’s journey into day but in the end, House Democrats passed the $1.85 trillion Build Back Better Act, President Joe Biden’s sweeping social program and climate spending plan by a vote of 220-213. One... Read More

WASHINGTON — A top State Department official continued the Biden administration’s theme of “We’re back” during a congressional hearing Thursday on the United States’ role in the United Nations. The State Department is trying to regain leadership positions that suffered... Read More

WASHINGTON — Leaders from the New Democrat Coalition and the public policy think tank Third Way participated in a press call hosted by Invest in America Action on Thursday to share their support for the Build Back Better Act’s passage.... Read More