WASHINGTON — Few things are certain in Congress anymore. One thing lawmakers can still count on? August recess.

But the five-week-long break for the House isn’t all fun and games — especially ahead of the tight midterm elections battle for the majority.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is packing his bags for a campaign blitz with incumbents...Read more

WASHINGTON — As Congress acts on a stopgap funding bill to keep the government operating beyond Oct. 1 at current levels, unless specified otherwise, it must decide whether to grant exceptions — potentially including $1 billion to start procuring parts for the first of a new line of proposed Trump-class battleships.

But three GOP-majority ...Read more

MILFORD, Mich. — President Donald Trump touted his administration's efforts to boost manufacturing and combat inflation during a speech in Michigan on Monday, telling people they will "see results very soon."

Trump's remarks came eight days before the battleground state's Aug. 4 primary election and 99 days before the November general ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department has released audio recordings of interviews that former President Joe Biden taped with his memoir-writing partners years ago after he lost a court fight to prevent the disclosure.

An advocacy group affiliated with the Heritage Foundation on Monday made the tapes available online, ending a yearslong ...Read more

As the Senate speeds toward its upcoming August recess, President Donald Trump is turning up the pressure on Senate Majority Leader John Thune to keep his chamber in session and in Washington instead.

So far, that’s unlikely.

“You could stay here till Christmas” and the situation wouldn’t change, Thune said. “If I thought there was ...Read more

The federal judge in Florida overseeing President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times has deferred ruling on the newspaper’s request to toss the case, and instead is allowing Trump to revise his complaint.

The president has until Aug. 27 to file an amended suit, U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday ruled ...Read more

President Donald Trump headed to Michigan on Monday to again try selling the U.S. economy to voters ahead of November’s midterms, hitting the state’s competitive 7th District with control of the House on the line.

After making a campaign stop last week in Georgia, he was back in a state with races that are expected to help decide which ...Read more

Rep. Angie Craig and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan came out swinging during their second debate of the U.S. Senate campaign on Monday.

Fraud, endorsements and Israel defined the MPR News debate, as well as questions over which of the two Democrats is best positioned to defeat a Republican in November.

The debate came two weeks before the Aug. 11 ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration urged the Supreme Court on Monday to lift a judge’s order and clear the way for state-by-state lists of citizens who are eligible to vote by mail.

Solicitor Gen. D. John Sauer filed an emergency appeal and said judges in Boston had wrongly intervened too soon.

In March, Trump ordered the U.S. Postal ...Read more

For decades, terrorism researchers have generally distinguished terrorism from other forms of violence by one defining feature: the intention to intimidate a wider audience beyond immediate victims.

That distinction has shaped both academic research and criminal prosecutions in the U.S. Yet scholars have long debated a deceptively ...Read more

Air Force One used to be a high-flying symbol of American technology, ingenuity and power. For many, it was also a source of national pride.

The current Boeing 747s that serve as Air Force One are a combination transport vehicle, command center, press room, medical center and apartment, complete with bedroom and office for the nation�...Read more

MILFORD, Mich. — President Donald Trump touted his administration's efforts to boost manufacturing and combat inflation during a speech in Michigan on Monday, telling people they will "see results very soon."

Trump's remarks came eight days before the battleground state's Aug. 4 primary election and 99 days before the November general ...Read more

WASHINGTON — John Thune has yet to be branded with a derisive nickname from Donald Trump, but the president and his team have turned up the heat on the Senate majority leader. Yet, GOP sources are banking that the South Dakotan has the support of his caucus.

The latest Republican-on-Republican drama has yet to reach full-blown Washington feud...Read more

During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing last week on Haiti’s security crisis, Florida Republican Rep. Brian Mast repeatedly claimed that giving Haitians in the U.S. Temporary Protected Status had significantly weakened the Haiti National Police and impeded the country’s fight against terrorist gangs.

Mast, the committee’s ...Read more

Less than a year after Missouri lawmakers carved up Kansas City’s main congressional district under pressure from the Trump administration, six Republicans and one Libertarian are now running to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.

The new 5th Congressional District boundaries were designed to ease a path for Republicans to force out ...Read more

In the opening pages of the book he published between losing and then winning a Pennsylvania seat in the U.S. Senate, Dave McCormick painted the picture of an uncomfortable scene at Mar-a-Lago.

It was early 2022. McCormick, a former hedge fund CEO running in a tough Republican primary against celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz, had made the pilgrimage ...Read more

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, the Supreme Court's most influential member prior to his retirement, has watched quietly for eight years as a new conservative majority took charge.

He was troubled by partisan gerrymandering, but a year after he stepped down, a 5-4 ruling closed the federal courts to challenges to state voting maps that allow one ...Read more

Every election season, Maryland political campaigns blanket voters with paper mailers, plastic yard signs and campaign literature. After the votes are counted, much of that material becomes trash — waste that few agencies track and almost no candidates campaign on reducing.

Some ends up in landfills or is burned at trash incinerators, while ...Read more

When powerful U.S. Rep. Sam Graves announced he would not seek a 14th term in Congress, his retirement kicked off a mad dash of candidates hoping to vie for his open seat.

Missouri’s sweeping 6th Congressional District, historically a Republican stronghold, stretches across northern Missouri and touches Kansas City’s Northland. Four ...Read more

Three Republican candidates in a sprawling new South Florida congressional district have poured millions of dollars of their own money into the abbreviated campaign for their party’s nomination.

Just before the final sprint to the Aug. 18 primary, campaign reports show:

—Belinda Keiser loaned her campaign $3 million. In addition to her own...Read more