DOT leader Sean Duffy facing ethics scrutiny over Toyota-backed road trip
WASHINGTON — U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is facing scrutiny over potential conflicts of interest and misuse of public resources associated with a road trip reality show filmed with his family over the past year. The official’s “Great American Road Trip” program will feature Duffy, his wife Rachel, and their...
Trump’s redistricting push fizzles in South Carolina Senate but wins in Missouri’s top court
President Donald Trump’s push to redraw the nation’s U.S. House districts received mixed results Tuesday as South Carolina senators defied his desires, but Missouri’s top court upheld a new map that could help Republicans win an additional seat in the November midterm elections. Rather than waning, a national redistricting battle...
Democrats want Virginia Rep. Jen Kiggans out over ‘cotton-picking’ episode
WASHINGTON — Democrats are doubling down on calls to oust Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Republican running to defend her vulnerable seat in Virginia this fall, after she seemed to agree with a conservative radio host’s racist description of Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. Kiggans, who denies agreeing with the comment, on...
Trump FDA chief leaving after angering pharma CEOs, vaping lobbyists and anti-abortion groups
WASHINGTON — The head of the Food and Drug Administration, Dr. Marty Makary, is resigning after a rocky tenure that drew months of complaints from health industry executives, anti-abortion activists, vaping lobbyists and other allies of President Donald Trump. News of Makary’s departure Tuesday came just 13 months after he...
Missouri’s new U.S. House map goes to court while Louisiana and South Carolina consider redistricting
Missouri’s top court is hearing an important legal challenge Tuesday to one of President Donald Trump’s earliest redistricting successes while lawmakers in Louisiana and South Carolina weigh whether to become the most recent Republican states to redraw U.S. House districts ahead of the midterm elections. Rather than waning, a national...
Trump is getting another medical checkup at the end of May, the White House says
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is scheduled to see doctors for a medical and dental checkup this month — his fourth publicized visit to medical experts since returning to office — in what the White House describes as an annual physical and regular preventive care. Trump, who turns 80 next...
1st Amendment rights at center of clash between Pa. schools, students over ICE walkouts
This story was produced by the Berks County bureau of Spotlight PA, an independent, nonpartisan newsroom. Sign up for Good Day, Berks, a daily dose of essential local stories at spotlightpa.org/newsletters/gooddayberks. READING — Do students have the right to leave school as a protest tactic? Nationwide, including in Pennsylvania, communities...
David Wecht’s decision to leave Democratic Party is symbolic, experts say
The announcement this week by Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht that he was renouncing his Democratic Party affiliation amid what he feels is growing antisemitism in the party likely will have a limited impact on him politically. That’s because Wecht, who won another 10-year term on the bench in...
Trump nominates Doug Mastriano for ambassador to Slovakia
President Donald Trump has nominated Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano to fill a vacant ambassadorship to the Slovak Republic. The White House announced the pick Monday along with a series of nominations. Mastriano, a Trump loyalist from Franklin County, has been a Republican state senator since 2019. He ran unsuccessfully...
Supreme Court halts order for Alabama to use U.S. House map with 2 largely Black districts
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday set the stage for Alabama to get rid of one of two largely Black congressional districts before this year’s midterm elections, creating an opening for Republicans to gain an additional U.S. House seat in a partisan battle for control of the closely...
Senate Republicans move ahead with $1B for Trump’s ballroom security as Democrats pledge to fight
WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans say they will move forward with a proposal to give the Secret Service up to $1 billion for security upgrades to Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, arguing that more security is needed for the president after a man was charged with trying to assassinate him...
Voter confusion and headaches for election officials follow hasty GOP push to redraw U.S. House seats
BATON ROUGE, La. — Thousands of Louisiana voters have already cast early ballots for congressional candidates in what soon could be the wrong districts. Alabama’s primaries are a week away, but the state could force a do-over for voting on U.S. House races. A new congressional map in Tennessee upended...
Pa. Gov. Josh Shapiro endorses Bob Harvie’s campaign to oust Brian Fitzpatrick in Bucks County congressional seat
Gov. Josh Shapiro has officially thrown his support behind Bucks County Commissioner Bob Harvie’s campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick. The Democratic governor’s endorsement comes a little more than a week ahead of the May 19 primary, when Harvie will face grassroots candidate Lucia Simonelli for the party’s nomination...
President of Parks and Rec? Trump asserts authority over public spaces in DC
WASHINGTON — A federal judge weighing the future of an expansive Washington park insisted this week she had no intention of becoming Amy Poehler, the actress who spent seven seasons memorably playing the head of a local parks and recreation department. But President Donald Trump might be interested in the...
What to know about the latest wave of changes to congressional districts
The remaking of the U.S. political map accelerated this week in courts and legislatures, all of it in this round expected to boost Republicans in their attempt to keep control of Congress in November’s elections. This week’s major action came in Southern states, with a significant state court ruling in...
In legal dispute over ‘The View,’ ABC argues Trump administration is trying to chill free speech
NEW YORK — In a strongly worded filing, ABC accuses the Trump administration of trying to chill its constitutionally protected free speech and hinder open political discussion. The point of contention: The popular show “The View,” and whether it’s subject to equal time rules. ABC’s filing to the Federal Communications...
Republicans seize momentum in redistricting battle for U.S. House seats ahead of midterm elections
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — A national redistricting battle over U.S. House seats swung toward Republicans on Friday, as a Virginia court invalidated a Democratic gerrymandering effort and Republicans in other Southern states forged ahead with plans that could yield additional GOP seats in the November midterm elections. Tensions ran high at...
Fetterman says he has no plans to switch parties: ‘I’d be a terrible Republican’
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman says he’d make a terrible Republican. Fetterman, a Democrat from Braddock, has drawn the ire of many in his party for breaking with them on issues like border security and Israel and for occasionally aligning with President Donald Trump and other Republicans. While Politico reported this...
McCormick defends Homer City data center project amid environmental concerns
U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick said Thursday that the rise of environmentalists protesting the addition of data centers in communities “reminds me a little bit of fracking 15 years ago.” McCormick met in Pittsburgh with officials from Homer City Redevelopment and Indiana County where construction has begun on a natural gas...
Tennessee lawmakers to vote on new U.S. House map sought by Trump that carves up Memphis
NASHVILLE — Amid raucous protests Thursday, Republicans in Tennessee enacted a new U.S. House map that carves up a majority-Black district in Memphis, reshaping it to the GOP’s advantage as part of President Donald Trump’s strategy to hold on to a slim majority in the November midterm elections. The final...
Chief Justice John Roberts says Supreme Court is not political
HERSHEY — Supreme Court justices are not “political actors,” Chief Justice John Roberts said Wednesday, insisting unpopular court decisions are based solely on the law. “I think, at a very basic level, people think we’re making policy decisions, we’re saying we think this is how things should be, as opposed...
Justice Department can keep 2020 election ballots seized from Georgia’s Fulton County, judge rules
ATLANTA — The federal government doesn’t have to return the 2020 election ballots from Georgia’s Fulton County that were seized by the FBI from a warehouse near Atlanta, a judge ruled Wednesday. U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee’s decision came after lawyers for the county had argued that the ballots and...
Trump’s Indiana wins show his power over GOP with more primaries and redistricting debates ahead
Five months ago, President Donald Trump was stinging from one of the first political defeats of his second term as Republican state senators defied him on redistricting in Indiana. Now he has proved he can still punish wayward party members after he endorsed a slate of challengers who defeated almost...
Howard Lutnick’s testimony about Epstein draws praise from GOP chair and derision from DemocratsVideo
WASHINGTON — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared Wednesday before a House committee investigating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, trying to explain to lawmakers his contact with the financier after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. The Cabinet member was the latest powerful political figure to appear before...
For many Americans, Trump’s immigration crackdown is personal, new poll shows
WASHINGTON — Most U.S. adults say the United States is no longer a great place for immigrants, according to a new AP-NORC poll, as about one-third of Americans report knowing someone impacted by the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement. A new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs...
