Politics Election category, Page 15
Treasury defends proposal to put Trump on $1 coin
The Treasury Department is defending a proposal to mint a $1 coin with images of President Trump to help celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, citing a bill signed into law by Trump during the last week of his first administration. “(Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent) is honored to exercise the authorities...
Trump keeps bringing up the Insurrection Act. What is it?
WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Monday said he might use the Insurrection Act, a law authorizing the president to deploy military forces on U.S. soil, if courts and governors continue to block his deployment of National Guard troops in Democratic-led cities. Here’s what to know about the centuries-old law....
Canada’s Carney makes 2nd White House visit to talk trade with Trump
WASHINGTON — Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney made his second visit to the White House in five months on Tuesday under increasing pressure to address U.S. tariffs on steel, autos, and other goods that are hurting Canada’s economy. Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump, both smiling, shook hands and chatted...
Trump’s threat to invoke Insurrection Act escalates showdown with Democratic cities
President Donald Trump’s threat to invoke a federal anti-insurrection law to expand his deployment of military personnel to U.S. cities has intensified the legal battle between the president and Democratic-led cities, as hundreds of National Guard troops from Texas on Tuesday prepared to patrol the streets of Chicago. Trump told...
Pamela Bondi stonewalls Democrats at DOJ oversight hearing
WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pamela Bondi repeatedly declined to answer questions from Democratic senators during a Senate oversight hearing Tuesday on some of the largest controversies involving the Justice Department. The close ally of President Donald Trump often took a combative attitude with Democratic senators when pressed on those topics,...
Westmoreland County approves ballot curing process for November election
The Westmoreland County commissioners on Tuesday approved a process to allow voters this fall to correct mail-in ballots. Republicans Sean Kertes and Doug Chew, who for the past five years have opposed efforts to allow what is known as ballot curing, said they were required to reverse course and implement...
More Americans blame Trump, congressional Republicans for shutdown, new poll finds
WASHINGTON — A new poll found that more Americans blame President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans for the federal government shutdown than congressional Democrats. The CBS News/YouGov poll, conducted between Oct. 1 and Oct. 3 among 2,441 adults, found that 39% of respondents believe Trump and congressional Republicans deserve the...
‘Russ Vought is the reaper’ as Trump throws shade at Dems
Meet President Donald Trump’s reaper. His name is Russell Thurlow Vought (pronounced “vote”) and he’s in his second stint as director of the White House Office of Management and Budget. The job allows him to exert executive branch control over the nation’s purse strings. Trump is touting Vought’s role as...
Pa. election 2025: How to serve as a poll worker on Nov. 4
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — When Pennsylvania holds its 2025 municipal election on Nov. 4, thousands of poll workers will ensure that...
Though wary of covid shots, these Trump voters balk at restricting traditional vaccines
Chad Hill thinks some questions need to be asked about vaccines. Hill has harbored doubts about the covid-19 vaccine since it was introduced, due to how quickly it was developed and released. He suspects that medical experts who pushed the vaccine were compromised by ties to drugmakers. And he supported...
Health Secretary Kennedy speeds autism drug with GSK help
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. could deliver a policy win for the Trump administration in just a few months after the Food and Drug Administration enlisted GSK to help it fast-track approval of a decades-old drug to treat an autism-related disorder. The FDA’s unusual move will allow it to...
Supreme Court opens new term, with major Trump cases in store
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court kicks off its new nine-month term on Monday with major cases in store concerning presidential powers as Donald Trump probes the limits of his authority under the U.S. Constitution and federal law. The nine justices are scheduled to hear arguments in two cases on...
Federal shutdown enters 6th day as threat of layoffs looms
WASHINGTON - The U.S. government shutdown entered its sixth day on Monday, with President Donald Trump’s Republicans and congressional Democrats still at an impasse and the White House threatening to ramp up pressure by ordering mass layoffs of federal workers. The Republican-led Senate was slated to vote again on dueling...
Democrats want to reach young male voters. How to get them is up for debate
NEW YORK -The Democratic Party has made no secret of the need to reconnect with young male voters, a demographic that drifted toward Republican Donald Trump in the last presidential election and will be key in the 2026 midterms. But a year before the elections that will determine who controls...
White House: Mass layoffs will start if shutdown talks ‘going nowhere’Video
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will start mass layoffs of federal workers if President Donald Trump decides negotiations with congressional Democrats to end a partial government shutdown are “absolutely going nowhere,” a senior White House official said on Sunday. As the shutdown entered its fifth day, White House National Economic...
FBI agent relieved of duty over refusing Comey perp walk, 4 people familiar say
WASHINGTON — An FBI agent was relieved of duty for declining to arrange a “perp walk” of the bureau’s former director, James Comey, in front of news media cameras after Comey was federally charged last month, four people briefed on the matter said on Friday. Comey was charged on Sept....
Did Trump’s crime crackdown in Washington work? It’s complicated
WASHINGTON — After mobilizing hundreds of federal agents and thousands of soldiers to the nation’s capital, President Donald Trump has declared victory over what he called a “crisis” of crime in Washington, and floated the idea of using such deployments to U.S. cities as training grounds for the military. “We...
Government shutdown will crash into the weekend as Senate votes fail
WASHINGTON ‒ The government will remain closed for the weekend after the Senate failed to reach the 60 votes needed on competing Republican and Democratic plans to fund the government. Two Democrats and an independent voted for a GOP measure to end the shutdown, but the 54-44 vote left Republicans...
Another U.S. appeals court rejects Trump’s order curtailing birthright citizenship
President Donald Trump’s effort to curtail birthright citizenship was declared unconstitutional by a second U.S. appeals court Friday, handing him another defeat on a core piece of his hardline immigration agenda whose ultimate fate might lie with the U.S. Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit...
Trump’s $100,000 fee for H-1B worker visas challenged in lawsuit
A coalition of unions, employers and religious groups filed a lawsuit Friday seeking to block President Donald Trump’s bid to impose a $100,000 fee on new H-1B visas for highly-skilled foreign workers. The lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco is the first to challenge a proclamation Trump issued...
Would-be Kavanaugh assassin sentenced to 8 years in prison
A California resident who admitted trying to assassinate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2022 was sentenced Friday to eight years and one month in federal prison. Sophie Roske, who was charged under her birth name Nicholas Roske but now uses female pronouns, was sentenced at a hearing before...
Pittsburgh native Larry Hailsham Jr. named executive director of Pa. Democratic Party
Pittsburgh native Larry Hailsham Jr., a top aide to Gov. Josh Shapiro, has been named executive director of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party. State Democrats also announced this week that Shapiro donated $250,000 to the party as it gears up for pivotal elections in November and next year. Hailsham was appointed...
Biden ban on offshore drilling in vast areas was illegal, court rules
Former President Joe Biden exceeded his authority by withdrawing large areas along U.S. coastlines from future offshore oil and gas development, a federal judge in Louisiana ruled on Thursday. U.S. District Judge James Cain in Lake Charles, Louisiana, sided with Republican states and oil and gas industry groups that sued...
Trump freezes $2.1 billion in funds for Chicago in shutdown standoff
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration froze $2.1 billion in Chicago transit funding Friday, starving another strongly Democratic city of funds as the government shutdown entered its third day. Budget director Russ Vought said the money, earmarked for elevated train lines, had been put on hold to ensure it was...
U.S. Supreme Court to hear challenge to Hawaii handgun limits
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a challenge to a Hawaii law restricting the carrying of handguns on private property that is open to the public such as most businesses, giving the justices a chance to further expand gun rights. The justices took up an...
