AP US Politics News

By KIM CHANDLER Associated Press BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, kicked off his campaign for governor Friday, saying voters deserve a choice and a leader who will put aside divisions to address the state’s pressing needs. “With your help we can finish

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee threatened Friday to begin contempt of Congress proceedings against former President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton if they refuse to appear for depositions as part of the committee’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Rep. James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said

By ERIC TUCKER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department violated the constitutional rights of a close friend of James Comey and must return to him computer files that prosecutors had hoped to use for a potential criminal case against the former FBI director, a federal judge said Friday. The ruling from U.S. District

By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Utah has repealed a collective bargaining ban passed earlier this year that prevented labor unions serving teachers, firefighters, police and other public employees from negotiating on behalf of their workers. Republican Gov. Spencer Cox on Thursday approved the repeal of a policy that experts had

By RIO YAMAT AP Airlines and Travel Writer The Transportation Security Administration is renewing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s push to end a collective bargaining agreement with airport screening officers — the second such attempt this year, coming just a month after the longest government shutdown on record. The agency said Friday the move relies

By JOSH FUNK AP Transportation Writer The federal government’s crackdown on commercial driver’s licenses for immigrants has found problems in eight states so far in the wake of several deadly crashes. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has publicly threatened to withhold millions in federal money from California, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and now New York after investigations found

By REBECCA BOONE Associated Press The U.S. Justice Department is suing four more states as part of its effort to collect detailed voting data and other election information across the country. The department filed federal lawsuits against Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Nevada on Thursday for “failing to produce statewide voter registration lists upon request.” So

By THOMAS BEAUMONT and ISABELLA VOLMERT Associated Press If Indiana Republican senators had any doubt about what to do with President Donald Trump’s redistricting proposal, he helped them make up their minds the night before this week’s vote. In a social media screed, Trump accused the state’s top senator of being “a bad guy, or

By JOHN O’CONNOR Associated Press SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Illinois residents with terminal illnesses may choose to end their lives on their own terms under a law Gov. JB Pritzker signed Friday. Legalized medically assisted suicide takes effect in September 2026 to give the Illinois Department of Public Health and other medical participants time to

By KATE PAYNE Associated Press/Report for America PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Florida officials are plowing ahead with a proposal to roll back certain vaccine mandates for the state’s schoolchildren, after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis called for the state to become the first in the nation to eliminate all school vaccination requirements. Pediatricians, infectious

ASSOCIATED PRESS ATLANTA (AP) — The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Friday announced it would send $350 million in funding to localities and electric cooperatives for relief efforts following Hurricane Helene and Tropical Storm Debby. The announcement comes two months after Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia released a report that nearly $500 million

By JOSH FUNK AP Transportation Writer New York is the eighth state found to routinely issue commercial driver’s licenses to immigrants that are valid long after they are no longer legally authorized to be in the country, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Friday, and he threatened to withhold $73 million in highway funds unless

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department asked an appeals court Friday to block a contempt investigation of the Trump administration for failing to turn around planes carrying Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador in March. The department also is seeking Chief Judge James Boasberg’s removal from the case, accusing him of

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson asked the U.S. Department of Justice this week to investigate allegations made by a former attorney for President Donald Trump in Wisconsin that a judge overseeing his felony case is guilty of misconduct and must step aside. The judge on Tuesday

By The Associated Press President Donald Trump said Friday that Thai and Cambodian leaders have agreed to renew a truce after days of deadly clashes threatened to undo a ceasefire that the U.S. administration helped broker this year. Trump announced the agreement via social media following calls with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian

By AMANDA SWINHART and MARK SCOLFORO Associated Press WINOOSKI, Vt. (AP) — A small school district in Vermont was hit with racist and threatening calls and messages after a Somali flag was put up a week ago in response to President Donald Trump referring to Minnesota’s Somali community as “ garbage.” The Winooski School District

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Education Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group in Congress is urging the Education Department to add nursing to a list of college programs that are considered “professional,” adding to public outcry after nurses were omitted from a new agency definition. The Trump administration’s list of professional programs includes medicine, law

By SCOTT BAUER Associated Press MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A pair of lawsuits seeking to redraw congressional boundary lines that currently favor Republicans in Wisconsin are on track to be resolved after the 2026 midterms, even as attorneys for one case argued Friday in court that there’s still time to enact new maps for the

By MARC LEVY Associated Press ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Many political candidates like to talk up their résumé in their stump speech. Ryan Crosswell reads from his resignation letter. A former federal prosecutor now running for Congress, he quit in February when President Donald Trump’s administration dropped corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric

By STEVEN SLOAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump successfully harnessed voter anxiety over the economy, immigration and crime last year to retake the White House — and lift plenty of other Republicans into office with him. But as the party tries to keep its grip on complete control in Washington, that strategy

By GABRIELA AOUN ANGUEIRA Associated Press A meeting by a council appointed by President Donald Trump that was meant to announce recommended reforms to the Federal Emergency Management Agency was abruptly canceled Thursday, according to a person familiar with the matter and a separate White House official, prolonging months of anticipation over how the administration

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two dozen House Republicans joined Democrats Thursday to pass a bill that would restore collective bargaining rights for hundreds of thousands of federal employees, an attempt to overturn an executive order that President Donald Trump issued earlier this year. The measure passed 231-195 after reaching the

By KATE PAYNE Associated Press/Report for America TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Local officials in Florida’s capital city have voted to sell a city-owned golf course built on top of the graves of enslaved people to a once-segregated country club, despite vocal opposition from local residents and historians. Evidence of Florida’s slave-holding past lies just beneath

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The crime-fighting arm of the IRS spent less time tracking down tax evaders this year, instead picking up some new responsibilities, such as helping with immigration enforcement and supporting National Guard deployments in two Democratic-led cities. IRS Criminal Investigations Chief Guy Ficco spoke with The Associated Press

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A grand jury declined for a second time in a week to re-indict New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday in another major blow to the Justice Department’s efforts to prosecute the president’s political opponents. The repeated failures amounted to a

By STEVE KARNOWSKI Associated Press SHAKOPEE, Minn. (AP) — Mike Lindell, the fervent supporter of President Donald Trump known to TV viewers as the “MyPillow Guy,” officially entered the race for Minnesota governor Thursday in hopes of winning the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic Gov. Tim Walz in 2026. Lindell made the announcement at a

By JOSH FUNK AP Transportation Writer Senators from both parties pushed Thursday for changes to a massive defense bill after crash investigators and victims’ families warned the legislation would undo key safety reforms stemming from a collision between an airliner and Army helicopter over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people. The head of the National

By ALI SWENSON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — When senators voted on rival health bills Thursday, they had two chances to address expiring COVID-era subsidies that will result in millions of Americans saddled with higher insurance costs in the new year. But the Senate rejected both, and hopes of solving the problem this year