AP US Politics News

By JEFF MARTIN, MIKE SCHNEIDER and DANIEL KOZIN Associated Press As the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis prepares to make Florida the first state to remove school vaccine mandates, deep concern is spreading among doctors, parents and public health workers for the safety of children and others who might be vulnerable in a disease outbreak.

By WILL WEISSERT Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Demolition to build President Donald Trump’s new ballroom off the East Wing of the White House can begin without approval of the commission tasked with vetting construction of federal buildings, the Trump-appointed head of the panel said Thursday. Will Scharf, who is also the White House staff

By CHRIS MEGERIAN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden recently underwent surgery to remove skin cancer lesions, a spokesperson said Thursday, the latest health challenge for the former president. His spokesperson Kelly Scully confirmed the surgery after Inside Edition published video of Biden leaving church in Delaware with a fresh scar on his forehead.

By DAVID A. LIEB Associated Press JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri residents denounced a plan to redraw the state’s congressional districts on Thursday as Republican lawmakers pressed ahead with President Donald Trump’s strategy to bolster Republicans in next year’s congressional elections. Dozens of people turned out for the first public hearing on a plan

By MATTHEW PERRONE and ALI SWENSON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — A contentious three-hour hearing between U.S. senators and Robert Kennedy Jr. devolved into multiple screaming matches on Thursday as the nation’s health secretary fended off accusations about sweeping changes he’s made to vaccines, health care policy and leadership. The oversight hearing in the Senate

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and CURT ANDERSON Associated Press TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department is ramping up efforts to target human smuggling operations exploiting America’s northern border, officials announced Thursday, citing growing concerns about sophisticated criminal networks that transport migrants for profit expanding beyond the southern border. The expansion of Joint Task

By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Ten Alaska residents pleaded not guilty Thursday to voter misconduct or other charges in cases that have renewed attention on the complex citizenship status of people born in the U.S. territory of American Samoa. Those facing charges — most of them related to one another —

By LINLEY SANDERS and AMELIA THOMSON-DEVEAUX Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans say kids should be vaccinated to attend school. But as Florida plans to become the first state to eliminate childhood vaccine mandates, U.S. adults are also less likely to think these immunizations are important than they were several decades ago. Routine childhood

The Associated Press Efforts to redraw U.S. House districts for partisan advantage are spreading to more states ahead of next year’s elections. Lawmakers in three states have approved new congressional districts since President Donald Trump began pushing for mid-decade redistricting. The trend began in Texas, where the Republican-led Legislature passed a plan backed by Trump.

By PAUL WISEMAN AP Economics Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump likes to boast about how much money the U.S. Treasury is raking in from the massive taxes – tariffs — he’s slapped this year on imports from almost every country in the world. “We have trillions of dollars coming into our country,” Trump

By MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Congress are clearing the way for President Donald Trump’s plans to expand mining and drilling on public lands by moving to eliminate energy development limits in several Western states. House Republicans on Wednesday night voted largely along party lines to repeal land management

By The Associated Press President Donald Trump hosted a high-powered group of tech executives at the White House on Thursday as he showcased research on artificial intelligence and boasted of investments that companies are making around the United States. Trump has exulted in the attention from some of the world’s most successful businesspeople, while the

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — If Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear vaults into national prominence as a Democratic leader, he may one day look back at Thursday as a key step in that direction. SiriusXM announced that it was giving Beshear’s new podcast a national platform starting this month, along with

By CLAIRE SAVAGE Associated Press Marc Seawright took pride in his job at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where he worked for more than eight years and most recently oversaw technology policy to support the agency’s mission of combating workplace harassment and discrimination. But then President Donald Trump began targeting transgender and nonbinary people

By CLAIRE SAVAGE Associated Press Marc Seawright took pride in his job at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, where he worked for more than eight years and most recently oversaw technology policy to support the agency’s mission of combating workplace harassment and discrimination. But then President Donald Trump began targeting transgender and nonbinary people

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis says the 2020 census numbers for Florida need “fixing” in a way that would give the Sunshine State another congressional seat. The Republican governor blamed the U.S. Census Bureau last month for shortchanging Florida following the last head count of every U.S. resident

By MIKE SCHNEIDER Associated Press ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A federal appeals court panel on Thursday put on hold a lower court judge’s order to end operations indefinitely at the immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” The three-judge panel in Atlanta decided by a 2-1 vote to stay the federal judge’s

By LAURIE KELLMAN Associated Press Artificial intelligence, apparently, is the new “fake news.” Blaming AI is an increasingly popular strategy for politicians seeking to dodge responsibility for something embarrassing — among others. AI isn’t a person, after all. It can’t leak or file suit. It does make mistakes, a credibility problem that makes it hard

By KONSTANTIN TOROPIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — District of Columbia National Guard troops who are deployed as part of President Donald Trump’s federal law enforcement intervention in the nation’s capital have had their orders extended through December, a National Guard official said. The main purpose of the extension is to ensure that any D.C.

By JAKE OFFENHARTZ and ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams insisted Wednesday that he isn’t dropping his reelection campaign after reports he had been approached about potentially taking a job with the federal government. Trump administration intermediaries recently reached out to people close to Adams, a Democrat,

By ALI SWENSON Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has requested access to voting equipment used in the 2020 election in two Missouri counties in what appears to be a wide-ranging effort to more closely monitor election processes around the country. A DOJ official in August contacted the county clerks

By MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators say they are prepared to change the chamber’s rules to get around the Democratic blockade of President Donald Trump’s nominees and are discussing a proposal to make it easier to confirm multiple nominees at once. The Democrats’ obstruction is “historic and unprecedented,” Senate Majority

By THOMAS BEAUMONT and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy’s support was crucial to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s confirmation as Secretary of Health and Human Services. With firings and resignations at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now prompting concern about a leadership breakdown at the nation’s leading public

By LEAH ASKARINAM and KEVIN FREKING Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — An unusual alliance emerged in the House on Wednesday as lawmakers who agree on little else rallied support for a bill that would prohibit members of Congress and their families from owning and trading individual stocks. The group included darlings of the far right,

By COLLIN BINKLEY and MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to reverse its cuts of more than $2.6 billion in research funding for Harvard University, delivering a significant victory to the Ivy League school in its battle with the White House. U.S. District

POWELLS POINT, N.C. (AP) — A coastal North Carolina legislator announced his bid on Wednesday for a U.S. House seat next year, looking to unseat Democratic incumbent Don Davis in what is now the state’s currently only swing congressional district. State Sen. Bobby Hanig of Currituck County said he would seek the Republican nomination for

By STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse made their voices heard Wednesday on Capitol Hill, pressuring lawmakers to force the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier and pushing back on President Donald Trump’s effort to dismiss the issue as a “hoax.” In a news

By DAVID KLEPPER and MARY CLARE JALONICK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The top ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee says a classified meeting planned with a key U.S. spy agency was called off after it was criticized by Laura Loomer, a far-right conspiracy theorist. The cancellation of Sen. Mark Warner’s visit with career

By DAVID BAUDER AP Media Writer NEW YORK (AP) — C-SPAN said Wednesday that it had reached a deal to have its three channels air on YouTube TV and Hulu’s live television feed, ending a dispute that had led to a revenue squeeze for the public affairs network in the cord-cutting era. The network said