Hundreds of election workers in Washington state’s second-largest county were busy opening mail-in ballots earlier this month when one of them came across a plain white envelope. As she cut it open, white powder leaked out.

She carefully took off her gloves, put them down, backed away and called her supervisor. Workers evacuated the building ...Read more

President Joe Biden spotlighted the arts as shaping “the very soul of the nation” as he celebrated the latest group of Kennedy Center honorees at the White House on Sunday.

Comedian Billy Crystal, rapper Queen Latifah, and singer Dionne Warwick were among the group honored for their contributions. Soprano Renee Fleming and Bee Gees frontman...Read more

India will begin releasing results of recent state elections on Sunday, providing important clues about voter support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party as he seeks a third term in office.

Three northern states — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh — will be key to watch, since they are spread across what’s known as...Read more

Former President Donald Trump rallied his campaign volunteers for Iowa’s Republican Party caucuses on Jan. 15, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made good on his pledge to visit all of the state’s 99 counties.

With a little more than a month to go, front-runner Trump is stepping up his efforts in Iowa ahead of the first GOP nominating contest...Read more

Former President Donald Trump sought to rally his campaign volunteers for Iowa’s Republican Party caucuses on Jan. 15 while keeping up attacks on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s also campaigning in the state this weekend.

“If you would, work really hard, make sure you are working that night, bring as many people as you can to vote and ...Read more

If Joe Biden wins in 2024, he will make history by being the oldest person elected to the presidency. That month, he’ll turn 82. There is no shortage of people who doubt Biden’s ability to campaign. Polls and pundits are quick to connect Biden’s age with low approval numbers.

Even the former chief strategist for Barack Obama when he ran ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House and Senate appropriators have added into their two fiscal 2024 Defense spending bills a combined $25.7 billion the Pentagon did not formally seek for more than 1,200 research and procurement projects, according to a CQ Roll Call analysis of a watchdog group’s previously undisclosed database.

The House-passed Defense ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is not entitled to absolute presidential immunity against criminal charges over his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday rejected Trump’s early efforts to get the federal indictment in Washington tossed out, including his contention ...Read more

SEATTLE — U.S. Rep. Adam Smith’s Bellevue home has been vandalized by people advocating for a cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, his office said Friday.

According to a spokesperson, Smith’s garage was spray-painted with calls for a cease-fire.

“This attack is sadly reflective of the coarsening of the political...Read more

The Thursday debate between California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Fox News — the talk of the political world this past week — delivered a decent bump in the channel's ratings.

Billed as the "The Great Red State vs. Blue State Debate," the event moderated by Fox News host Sean Hannity averaged 4.75 million viewers, ...Read more

ATLANTA — Holding Donald Trump’s election interference trial next August would amount to serious “election interference,” the former president’s lead Atlanta attorney told a Fulton County judge on Friday.

Making his courtroom debut for Trump, attorney Steve Sadow said the timing proposed by prosecutors — in which the Georgia ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump isn’t currently entitled to absolute immunity against civil lawsuits seeking to hold him responsible for the violence at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, a federal appeals court ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday rejected Trump’s argument that because he was...Read more

ATLANTA — Hours before his showdown Thursday night with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sat at a doughnut shop where no one seemed to recognize him thousands of miles from his home state and begrudgingly predicted what lay ahead.

As a Democrat stepping into a debate held in the Deep South and moderated by conservative ...Read more

By Tamar Hallerman, Bill Rankin and David Wickert

ATLANTA — Holding Donald Trump’s election interference trial next August would amount to serious “election interference,” the former president’s lead Atlanta attorney told a Fulton County judge on Friday.

Making his courtroom debut for Trump, attorney Steve Sadow said the timing ...Read more

By Tamar Hallerman, Bill Rankin and David Wickert

ATLANTA — Holding Donald Trump’s election interference trial next August would amount to serious “election interference,” the former president’s lead Atlanta attorney told a Fulton County judge on Friday.

Making his courtroom debut for Trump, attorney Steve Sadow said the timing ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump isn’t currently entitled to absolute immunity against civil lawsuits seeking to hold him responsible for the violence at the US Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack, a federal appeals court ruled.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday rejected Trump’s argument that because he was ...Read more

Fox News officially titled it “The Great Red vs. Blue State Debate.” But the faceoff quickly turned into a full-out political brawl between Gavin Newsom, California’s Democratic governor who isn’t running for president; and Ron DeSantis, the Florida Republican governor who is, and is not gaining ground against former President Donald ...Read more

Abraham Lincoln vs. Stephen Douglas it was not.

Thursday night’s debate between two of America’s best-known governors — Democrat Gavin Newsom of California and Florida Republican Ron DeSantis — was intended to be a prime-time look at the sharp red-blue political divide in this nation.

But host Sean Hannity and Fox News executives set ...Read more

Fox News host Sean Hannity set Gavin Newsom up, and let Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis knock him down. The duo ganged up on California’s governor and, unfortunately, Newsom sometimes responded with weak defenses. But we give him credit: He was game for a fight Hannity and DeSantis were determined he wouldn’t win. He was articulate and quick-...Read more