Politics Election category, Page 55
Trump administration yanks CDC director nomination just before Senate hearing
WASHINGTON — The White House withdrew the nomination of former Florida congressman Dr. David Weldon to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because he wasn’t assured of getting enough Republican support to be confirmed. The Republican-controlled Senate health committee announced Thursday morning that it was canceling a planned...
Fetterman says he’ll back a GOP spending bill to avoid a government shutdown. Will other Democrats follow?
WASHINGTON — The heat is on for Senate Democrats this week as they weigh whether to support a GOP-led government spending bill that they oppose or risk being blamed for shutting down the federal government. And front and center is Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, who has vowed to support the...
Republicans in Florida’s Capitol restart push to lower the gun-buying age to 18
TALLAHASSEE — Gun rights advocates have fought to overturn a Florida law banning gun purchases by people under 21 ever since the day the measure was signed in 2018 as a result of the Parkland school shooting, one of the deadliest mass killings in the U.S. With new leadership in...
USDA ends program that helped schools serve food from local farmers
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Agriculture Department is ending two pandemic-era programs that provided more than $1 billion for schools and food banks to purchase food from local farmers and producers. About $660 million of that went to schools and childcare centers to buy food for meals through the Local Foods...
Trump administration weighs barring Cubans, Haitians from U.S. as part of new travel ban
The Trump administration is weighing including Cuba and Haiti on a list of countries whose nationals will face restrictions to enter the country, sources with knowledge of the ongoing discussions told the Miami Herald. Cuba, which is on a State Department list of countries that sponsor terrorism, might end up...
Explainer: What’s a recession and why is rising anxiety about it roiling markets?
WASHINGTON — Stock markets are plunging, consumers and businesses have started to sour on the economy, and economists are marking down their estimates for growth this year, with some even seeing rising odds of a recession. The tech-heavy Nasdaq stock index slipped into a correction last week, defined as a...
EPA head says he’ll roll back dozens of environmental regulations, including rules on climate change
WASHINGTON — In what he called the “most consequential day of deregulation in American history,” the head of the Environmental Protection Agency announced a series of actions Wednesday to roll back landmark environmental regulations, including rules on pollution from coal-fired power plants, climate change and electric vehicles. “We are driving...
Trump pardons former Tennessee lawmaker convicted in campaign finance scheme
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — President Donald Trump has pardoned a former Republican Tennessee lawmaker who was two weeks into a 21-month prison sentence for an illegal campaign finance scheme that he pleaded guilty to in 2022, before he tried unsuccessfully to take back his plea. Former Sen. Brian Kelsey announced the...
Wisconsin clerk who failed to count almost 200 ballots is suspended
MADISON, Wis. — The mayor of Wisconsin’s capital city said Wednesday she has placed the municipal clerk on leave as investigators work to determine how she failed to count almost 200 absentee ballots in the November election. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said in a statement that the city has launched...
Trump wants to dismantle U.S. Education Department. Here’s what it does
President Donald Trump has said he wants his education chief, Linda McMahon, to “put herself out of a job” and close the Education Department. McMahon, after being confirmed by the Senate on March 3, told employees it was the department’s “final mission” to eliminate bureaucratic bloat and turn over the...
EU retaliates against Trump’s trade moves and slaps tariffs on produce from Republican states
BRUSSELS — The European Union on Wednesday announced retaliatory trade action with new duties on U.S. industrial and farm products, responding within hours to the Trump administration’s increase in tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports to 25%. The world’s biggest trading bloc was expecting the U.S. tariffs and prepared...
New Pa. bill would relieve debt from childbirth, other medical care
This story first appeared in How We Care, a weekly newsletter by Spotlight PA featuring original reporting and perspectives on how we care for one another at all stages of life. Medical debt harms people in different ways. It can lead them to seek payday loans, take money out of...
Court asked to intervene after email tells USAID workers to destroy classified documents
WASHINGTON — A union for U.S. Agency for International Development contractors asked a federal judge Tuesday to intervene in any destruction of classified documents after an email ordered staffers to help burn and shred agency records. Judge Carl Nichols set a Wednesday morning deadline for the plaintiffs and the government...
Education Department plans to lay off 1,300 employees as Trump vows to wind the agency down
WASHINGTON — The Education Department plans to lay off over 1,300 of its more than 4,000 employees as part of a reorganization that’s seen as a prelude to President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the agency. Department officials announced the cuts Tuesday, raising questions about the agency’s ability to continue...
Pennsylvania Rep. Scott Perry co-sponsors bill to abolish Federal Reserve
A bill in the U.S. House to repeal the 112-year-old Federal Reserve Act and abolish the nation’s central bank has attracted several co-sponsors, including York County Republican Rep. Scott Perry. Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie introduced the bill on March 5 and Perry is one of 10 co-sponsors, all Republicans,...
Trump doubles tariffs on Canadian metals, causing Ontario to back down on electricity price hikes
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he would double his planned tariffs on steel and aluminum from 25% to 50% for Canada, a retaliation that prompted the provincial government of Ontario to back down on its planned surcharges on electricity sold to the United States. Tuesday’s escalation and...
Former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter steps into crowded California governor’s race
LOS ANGELES — Former Democratic U.S. House member Katie Porter announced Tuesday that she is entering the 2026 contest for California governor, joining a crowded field of candidates that could be upended if former Vice President Kamala Harris joins the race. Porter, who became a social media celebrity by brandishing...
Polls open in Greenland for parliamentary elections
NUUK, Greenland — Polls opened in Greenland for early parliamentary elections Tuesday as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks control of the strategic Arctic island. The self-governing region of Denmark is home to 56,000 people, most from Indigenous Inuit backgrounds, and occupies a strategic North Atlantic location. It also contains rare...
House passes bill to fund federal agencies through September, though prospects unclear in Senate
WASHINGTON — The House passed legislation Tuesday to avert a partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies through September, providing critical momentum as the measure now moves to the Senate, where bipartisan support will be needed to get it over the finish line. Republicans needed overwhelming support from their members...
Elon Musk eyes Social Security, benefit programs for cuts while claiming widespread fraud
WASHINGTON — Elon Musk pushed debunked theories about Social Security on Monday while describing federal benefit programs as rife with fraud, suggesting they will be a primary target in his crusade to reduce government spending. The billionaire entrepreneur, who is advising President Donald Trump, suggested that $500 billion to $700...
Senate confirms Lori Chavez-DeRemer as Trump’s labor secretary
The Senate voted Monday to confirm Lori Chavez-DeRemer as U.S. labor secretary, a Cabinet position that puts her in charge of enforcing federally mandated worker rights and protections at a time when the White House is trying to eliminate thousands of government employees. Chavez-DeRemer will oversee the Department of Labor,...
Homeland Security overhauls asylum phone app — now it’s for ‘self-deportation’
The Trump administration has unveiled an overhauled cellphone app once used to let migrants apply for asylum, turning it into a system that allows people living illegally in the U.S. to say they want to leave the country voluntarily. The renamed app, announced Monday and now called CBP Home, is...
Trump loves the Gilded Age and its tariffs. It was a great time for the rich but not for the many
WASHINGTON — In President Donald Trump’s idealized framing, the United States was at its zenith in the 1890s, when top hats and shirtwaists were fashionable and typhoid fever often killed more soldiers than combat. It was the Gilded Age, a time of rapid population growth and transformation from an agricultural...
Drawing huge crowds, Bernie Sanders steps into leadership of the anti-Trump resistance
WARREN, Mich. — Bernie Sanders is standing alone on the back of a pickup truck shouting into a bullhorn. He’s facing several hundred ecstatic voters huddled outside a suburban Detroit high school — the group that did not fit inside the high school’s gym or two overflow rooms. The crowd...
Canada’s next prime minister has managed the financial crisis, Brexit and now Trump’s trade war
TORONTO — Canada’s next prime minister has already helped run two Group of Seven economies in crisis and now will try to steer Canada through a looming trade war brought by U.S. President Donald Trump, a threat of annexation and an expected federal election. Former central banker Mark Carney will...
