Politics Election category, Page 227
Tennessee House GOP urges session to curb local covid powers
NASHVILLE — All 73 Tennessee House Republicans signaled their support on Wednesday for a special session to limit the authority of local officials to make rules aimed at preventing the spread of covid-19, as lawmakers fumed over mask requirements in a handful of school districts. House Speaker Cameron Sexton sent...
Trump accounting firm must release some financial records to Congress
WASHINGTON — A federal judge in Washington ruled that Donald Trump must disclose certain financial records held by his accounting firm Mazars in response to a subpoena from congressional Democrats. But in an order on Wednesday, the judge stopped short of calling for the handover of all the financial records...
Cuomo dynasty sputters out as scandal ends in lonely resignation
Andrew Cuomo’s resignation as governor of New York this week brought to an end a political dynasty stretching back to the 1980s, as a once-towering presence in Democratic politics was forced off stage for sexual misconduct ahead of a possible impeachment trial. It was an ignominious ending to the once-bright...
Senate nears OK of Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget, despite GOP attacks
WASHINGTON — Democrats pushed their expansive $3.5 trillion framework for bolstering family services, health, and environment programs toward Senate passage early Wednesday, as Republicans unleashed an avalanche of amendments aimed at making their rivals pay a price in next year’s elections. Congressional approval of the budget resolution, which seems assured,...
What’s inside the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill
WASHINGTON — The Senate has passed a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan plan to rebuild roads and bridges, modernize public works systems and boost broadband internet, among other improvements to the nation’s infrastructure. The White House is projecting that the investments will add, on average, about 2 million jobs per year...
Census data spurred GOP’s largest partisan edge in decades
Fresh off sweeping electoral victories a decade ago, Republican politicians used census data to draw voting districts that gave them a greater political advantage in more states than either party had in the past 50 years, according to a new Associated Press analysis. That advantage, measured by a formula designed...
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul threatens a Senate bottleneck to protest covid-19 restrictions
As schools wrestle with mask mandates and government agencies grapple with in-office work, Rand Paul is promising to pick a fight against continued coronavirus restrictions. And he’s threatening to gum up work in the U.S. Senate well into the future to make his point. The junior senator from Kentucky said...
Infrastructure senators brush off criticism from left, right
WASHINGTON — Often elusive, the political center is holding steady in the Senate as a coalition of Democratic and Republican senators brushes off critics to push the $1 trillion infrastructure package toward final passage. On the left, the Democrats have withstood the complaints of liberals who say the proposal falls...
Senators push infrastructure bill a step closer to passageVideo
WASHINGTON — Senators hoisted the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package over another hurdle late Sunday, a coalition of Democrats and Republicans pushing it closer to passage despite a few holdouts trying to derail one of President Joe Biden’s top priorities. The rare bipartisan momentum was holding steady, a reflection of...
Mark Zuckerberg’s cash fuels GOP suspicion and new election rules
When Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg donated $400 million to help fund election offices as they scrambled to deal with the coronavirus pandemic late last summer, he said he hoped he would never have to do it again. Republican legislatures are granting him that wish. At least eight GOP-controlled states have...
Texas Democrats continue holdout, don’t show for new session
Texas Democrats still refused to return to the state Capitol on Saturday as Gov. Greg Abbott began a third attempt at passing new election laws, prolonging a monthslong standoff that ramped up in July when dozens of Democratic state lawmakers left the state and hunkered down in Washington, D.C. “A...
Budget office: Infrastructure bill adds $256 billion to deficits
WASHINGTON — Nearing decision time, senators are wrapping up work on the bipartisan infrastructure plan and talks were underway Thursday to expedite consideration of the nearly $1 trillion proposal, with votes expected in the days ahead. A much anticipated analysis of the bill from the Congressional Budget Office concluded that...
South Carolina House lawmaker suing Pelosi over mask rule says he has covid
COLUMBIA, S.C. — Rep. Ralph Norman, one of the three congressional Republicans suing Speaker Nancy Pelosi over fines for not wearing masks during a vote on the U.S. House floor, has contracted a breakthrough case of covid-19, the second member of South Carolina’s delegation to do so. Norman, who has...
Biden, reversing Trump order, announces tougher car pollution standardsVideo
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden introduced plans Thursday to strengthen car pollution standards through 2026, putting the United States on a path to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — though not as quickly as many environmentalists say is needed. The proposed standards, written by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation...
Majority of New York Assembly would oust Cuomo if he doesn’t quitVideo
ALBANY, N.Y. — A majority of state Assembly members support beginning impeachment proceedings against Gov. Andrew Cuomo if he doesn’t resign over investigative findings that he sexually harassed at least 11 women, according to an Associated Press count Wednesday. At least 83 of the body’s 150 members have said publicly...
Biden chides Republican governors who resist vaccine rules
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden called on resistant Republican governors to “get out of the way” of vaccine rules aimed at containing the more transmissible and dangerous covid-19 variant. He backed city and private mandates requiring people to be vaccinated to go about some daily activities. Speaking Tuesday from the...
Trump-backed Mike Carey, centrist Shontel Brown win Ohio U.S. House races
COLUMBUS — Mike Carey, a coal lobbyist backed by former President Donald Trump, won a Republican primary Tuesday for an open U.S. House seat in central Ohio that tested Trump’s status as kingmaker. While centrist County Councilwoman Shontel Brown held off progressive Nina Turner in the race for the other...
CDC issues new eviction ban for most of U.S. through Oct. 3
WASHINGTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued a new moratorium on evictions that would last until October 3, as the Biden administration sought to quell intensifying criticism that it was allowing vulnerable renters to lose their homes during a pandemic. The new moratorium could help...
Andrew Cuomo defiant after probe says he sexually harassed 11 women
NEW YORK — New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced mounting pressure Tuesday to resign, including from President Joe Biden and other onetime Democratic allies, after an investigation found he sexually harassed nearly a dozen women and worked to retaliate against one of his accusers. “I think he should resign,” Biden...
Democrats demand Kevin McCarthy to recant Pelosi taunt as tensions rise
WASHINGTON — Several House Democrats have called on House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy to apologize to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi or resign after audio surfaced of him saying at a weekend fundraiser that it would be “hard not to hit her” with a gavel if he’s sworn in as speaker...
Biden bipartisan infrastructure bill timeline: What’s next?Video
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of senators is hoping to approve an expansive infrastructure bill this week after months of negotiation, compromise and delay. The bill, which contains $550 billion in new spending on roads, bridges and broadband internet access, is the first part of President Joe Biden’s “Build Back...
Trump’s kingmaker status faces test in Ohio special election
GROVE CITY, Ohio — As soon as it became clear last week that a Texas congressional candidate backed by Donald Trump would be defeated in a special election, the former president’s allies quickly shifted their attention to Ohio to ward off another embarrassing loss. Make America Great Again, a super...
Senators produce bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure billVideo
WASHINGTON — After much delay, senators unveiled a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package Sunday night, wrapping up days of painstaking work on the inches-thick bill and launching what is certain to be a lengthy debate over President Joe Biden’s big priority. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act clocked in...
Senators hope to wrap up draft of infrastructure bill Sunday
WASHINGTON — The Senate will reconvene in a rare weekend session on Sunday as negotiators work on the text of a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. Despite the delays, two senators predicted that the text would be released within the day and the bill passed by the end of the...
Evictions looming, Biden fails to get Congress to extend ban
WASHINGTON — A nationwide eviction moratorium is set to expire Saturday after President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress worked furiously but ultimately failed to align on a long-shot strategy to prevent millions of Americans from being forced from their homes during a covid-19 surge. More than 3.6 million Americans...
