This Week
WASHINGTON -- As part of the official launch of its Academic Leaders Task Force on Campus Free Expression Initiative, the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington, D.C., think tank dedicated to bipartisanship, hosted a roundtable discussion on campus free expression faced... Read More
WASHINGTON — Congress will emerge from the Trump administration with weakened power to check a president or oversee the operation of the federal government, the most consequential fallout experts see for lawmakers after four years of nearly constant high-profile courtroom showdowns with a... Read More
Historians and watchdog groups sued the Trump administration again over its alleged failure to preserve White House records. "With President Trump's term in office soon coming to an end," the White House's flouting of record-keeping requirements could deprive historians and the public "of records documenting a... Read More
WASHINGTON — Congress is focused this week on negotiating a government funding deal and determining whether bipartisan consensus can be reached to enact any additional COVID-19 relief before year's end. Those fiscal negotiations will continue among top appropriators, congressional leaders and their staffs... Read More
WASHINGTON — Democrats and Republicans split on Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's decision to end most of the emergency lending facilities established at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic at a Senate hearing Tuesday. "Even the Chamber of Commerce said that shutting down the emergency lending programs 'closes the door on important... Read More
WASHINGTON — Rep. Zoe Lofgren spent her summer doing "a very nerdlike" line-by-line reading of the 55-year-old law that governs U.S. immigration policy in anticipation of widespread Democratic election wins that would give her party the ability to enact a massive immigration overhaul next year.... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force on Tuesday that its new guidance would cut quarantine time for individuals exposed to the virus by as much as half, according to two people familiar with the matter.... Read More
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration will not automatically authorize emergency use of coronavirus vaccines before completing a rigorous independent review, despite heightened expectations that two vaccine candidates will be available to Americans this month, Dr. Stephen Hahn, FDA commissioner, told McClatchy in... Read More
WASHINGTON — Health care workers and residents at long-term care centers should be first in line for COVID-19 vaccines, key government advisers urged Tuesday, citing the high risk for infection within the two groups and the positive effects on hospital care.... Read More
President Donald Trump's path to reversing the election result has nearly closed after all the key battleground states certified their vote totals and took steps to appoint electors ready to formalize Joe Biden's victory. Trump continues to hurl unsubstantiated accusations of voter fraud on... Read More
WASHINGTON — A House Democratic panel in charge of committee selections gave Rosa DeLauro the nod to become the next Appropriations chairwoman following a closed-door vote Tuesday. The Connecticut Democrat received 36 votes from Democratic Steering and Policy Committee members, according to a source familiar with the... Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is investigating whether there was a secret scheme to lobby White House officials for a pardon as well as a related plot to offer a hefty political contribution in exchange for clemency, according to... Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr has given extra protection to the prosecutor he appointed to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, granting him authority to complete the work without being easily fired. Barr told The Associated Press... Read More
WASHINGTON -- A former Trump administration head of cybersecurity is considering legal action against a lawyer for the president who said Monday he should be executed. The dispute arose from President Donald Trump’s allegations of voter fraud during the presidential... Read More
WASHINGTON - Rep. Suzan DelBene, of Washington State, was unanimously elected Tuesday to serve as the next chair of the New Democrat Coalition. In addition, the coalition of moderate Democrats elected five individuals -- Reps. Ami Bera, of California, Sharice... Read More
WASHINGTON - The committee raising money for President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration is limiting individual contributions to no more than $500,000, and corporate contributions to no more that $1 million, according to an official involved in the planning of the event.... Read More
WASHINGTON - Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday that the Justice Department has not uncovered voting fraud at a scale that could have affected the results of the presidential election. Barr's comments, made during an interview with the Associated Press,... Read More
Now into their second week of freshman orientation, incoming members of Congress are beginning to pick up the pace of building their staff for the 117th Congress. Each member-elect can access funds to officially hire one staffer for the interim... Read More
WASHINGTON - Republican and Democratic senators were joined by members of the House Problem Solvers conference Tuesday to endorse a $908 billion COVID economic relief bill they say should carry the nation into the early spring. The proposal, described by... Read More
Congress returned Monday from its Thanksgiving break hoping to avoid a government shutdown looming at the end of next week — with President Donald Trump being a potential wild card. Hopes for a new coronavirus stimulus package are slim as lawmakers focus on the more... Read More
Arizona and Wisconsin confirmed Democrat Joe Biden won in their states on Monday, dealing the latest blow to President Donald Trump's campaign to overturn his defeat. Biden defeated Trump by 10,457 votes in Arizona, according to the official results certified by Secretary of State Katie Hobbs in Phoenix. The process was... Read More
Coronavirus infections are already reaching unprecedented levels throughout the U.S. Now with Thanksgiving in the rearview mirror and Christmas and New Year's just around the curve, the question is: Just how much worse is the pandemic going to get? The latest travel data out Monday suggest... Read More
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's plan to exclude millions of immigrants in the country illegally from the 2020 census count appeared to fizzle at the Supreme Court on Monday. California officials feared that Trump's policy, if put into effect in the last weeks of his presidency,... Read More
Moderna Inc. requested clearance for its coronavirus vaccine in the U.S. after a new analysis showed the vaccine was highly effective in preventing COVID-19, with no serious safety problems. A Moderna spokesman said in a text message late Monday afternoon that its application for an... Read More
WILMINGTON, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden on Monday announced his senior economic team, confirming after a week of speculation, that he would nominate Janet Yellen, the former Federal Reserve chair, to be the first woman to head the Treasury Department,... Read More
In the end, it came down to a razor thin margin of six votes out of 394,441 cast, but that was margin enough for the Iowa state canvassing board Monday to declare Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks winner of the state's hotly... Read More
WILMINGTON, Del. - President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris unveiled their Presidential Inaugural Committee on Monday, as preparations continue for their swearing in on Jan. 20. Although final plans for the inauguration are still somewhat up in the... Read More
Large hospital systems are grappling with how best to decide which health care workers will be vaccinated first for COVID-19, a daunting task when it's unclear which shots they'll get, how many and when they'll arrive. The first COVID-19 vaccine... Read More
ATLANTA — There are a few certainties about the all-important runoffs in Georgia: The Jan. 5 contests will decide control of the U.S. Senate, set soaring spending records, attract the shiniest stars from both parties and put Georgia at the center of the political universe. But much... Read More
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden has built a senior communications team composed entirely of women, including Jen Psaki to be the face of the administration as White House press secretary, his transition said Sunday. Psaki, a former Obama White House communications director and State Department spokeswoman, has been an on-camera spokeswoman... Read More
BEIRUT — The U.S. drone missile punched through the car of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, instantly killing the 62-year-old Iranian spymaster and national hero as he drove through the streets of Baghdad last January. Days later, Iranian leaders who swore "severe revenge" lobbed ballistic missiles... Read More
Top federal officials voiced dire predictions of a nationwide post- Thanksgiving surge in COVID cases on Sunday. "What we expect, unfortunately, as we go for the next couple of weeks into December, (is) that we might see a surge superimposed upon that... Read More
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump, even while repeating his groundless claim that "we won the race," appeared Sunday to acknowledge dwindling chances of success in his legal battle to overturn the results of the Nov. 3 election won by President-elect Joe Biden. "It's hard to... Read More
NEW YORK -- Fox News is paying a reported seven-figure sum in a settlement reached this week with the parents of a Democratic National Committee staff member who was murdered in Washington, D.C.’s Bloomingdale neighborhood in 2016. A subsequent Fox... Read More
WASHINGTON - There has probably never been a comprehensive tome on the American presidency quite like this one. Entitled "Wine and the White House: A History" and coming in at 456 pages, this new, elegant offering from the White House... Read More
“Life is going to return to normal,” Joe Biden promised last week in a Thanksgiving address to the nation. He was talking about life after COVID-19, but you could be forgiven if you thought he was also making a promise... Read More
