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Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/TNS

Idaho girl went out of state for an abortion. Why her boyfriend faces a criminal charge

Politics / Political News /

BOISE, Idaho — On May 18, a pregnant 15-year-old Idaho girl joined her 18-year-old boyfriend and his mother in a rental car for an eight-and-a-half hour drive west to Bend, Oregon. According to court documents, the girl had an abortion at a Bend Planned Parenthood clinic before returning home to Pocatello a few days later.

The trip soon ...Read more

Megan Jelinger/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Anti-abortion groups shrug off election losses, look to courts, statehouses for path forward

Politics / Political News /

Anti-abortion groups are firing off a warning shot for 2024: We’re not going anywhere.

Their leaders say they’re undeterred by recent election setbacks and plan to plow ahead on what they’ve done for years, including working through state legislatures, federal agencies, and federal courts to outlaw abortion. And at least one prominent ...Read more

Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS

Biden attacks Trump, treating him as de facto Republican nominee

Politics / Political News /

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden directly targeted Republican front-runner Donald Trump at a campaign event Tuesday, treating him as the de facto nominee and warning of the consequences for voters if his political rival is returned to the White House.

“Donald Trump and extreme MAGA Republicans are determined to destroy American democracy,�...Read more

Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Biden campaign attacks Trump's Obamacare threat with help from Nancy Pelosi

Politics / Political News /

WASHINGTON — Joe Biden’s campaign seized on Donald Trump’s call to overturn Obamacare, using it to cast the Republican as a threat to Americans’ health benefits ahead of a likely rematch with the president.

“The former president reminded us that he is hellbent on destroying the Affordable Care Act,” former House Speaker Nancy ...Read more

Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman/TNS

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador wants court to let state enforce its abortion 'trafficking' law

Politics / Political News /

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador has asked a court to allow the state to enforce its ban on out-of-state travel for abortions while a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality proceeds.

In a Tuesday court filing, Labrador’s office asked the U.S. District Court of Idaho to allow him to enforce the state’s law after a ...Read more

US Supreme Court weighs double jeopardy in Georgia murder case

Politics / Political News /

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared doubtful Tuesday that a Georgia man can be retried for malice murder in the stabbing death of his mother after being found not guilty by reason of insanity.

Damian McElrath’s attorney, Richard A. Simpson, urged the court to find that McElrath’s 2017 acquittal of malice murder bars his retrial on ...Read more

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

Georgia prosecutors in election interference case won't consider plea deals for Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani or Trump

Politics / Political News /

Georgia prosecutors in former President Donald Trump’s election interference racketeering case reportedly say they will not consider plea deals for codefendants Mark Meadows, Rudy Giuliani — or Trump himself.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has decided to proceed to try Trump and his two top lieutenants as the alleged ...Read more

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

Newsom vs. DeSantis debate: A battle between 2 Disney governors

Politics / Political News /

TAMPA, Fla. — There are many ways to view this week’s unusual debate between Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gavin Newsom of California: Red State vs. Blue. A presidential candidate vying for attention in the 2024 cycle vs. an ambitious governor possibly setting ground work for the next one.

It’s also a battle of the two Disney ...Read more

Saquan Stimpson - Cnp For Ny Pos/dpa via ZUMA Press/TNS

Hunter Biden agrees to testify at panel hearing, but not closed-door deposition

Politics / Political News /

An attorney for Hunter Biden told a House panel Tuesday that the president’s son is willing to testify at a public hearing, setting up a clash with Republicans who demand he also sit for a closed-door deposition.

House Republicans subpoenaed Hunter Biden earlier this month and instructed him to appear for a deposition on Dec. 13 as part of an...Read more

Joe Raedle/Getty Images North America/TNS

Newsom vs. DeSantis debate: A battle between 2 Disney governors

Politics / Political News /

TAMPA, Fla. — There are many ways to view this week’s unusual debate between Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gavin Newsom of California: Red State vs. Blue. A presidential candidate vying for attention in the 2024 cycle vs. an ambitious governor possibly setting ground work for the next one.

It’s also a battle of the two Disney ...Read more

He has a theological degree. Here's how Rep. Greg Landsman sees faith in Congress

Politics / Political News /

In a Congress filled with memes and hot takes, Rep. Greg Landsman stands out for the opposite. The freshman Democrat from Ohio speaks methodically, uttering each word only after an almost rabbinical level of contemplation — which is fitting for someone with a master’s in theological studies from the Harvard Divinity School.

That doesn’t ...Read more

Bipartisan consensus elusive on government retirees' benefits

Politics / Political News /

​There are renewed signs of life for congressional efforts to overhaul a pair of much-maligned Social Security policies that cut some public workers’ retirement benefits. But in a year of tumult in the House, there’s still a long way to go.

The House Ways and Means Committee held its first hearing in years on the two provisions, dubbed ...Read more

Speech is freer in California than in Florida, watchdog warns ahead of Newsom-DeSantis debate

Politics / Political News /

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is due to debate California Gov. Gavin Newsom later this week about whose state offers a better model for the country, is leading an "assault on free expression in Florida" that is "almost without peer in recent U.S. history," a watchdog warned in a pair of reports released Tuesday.

Pen America, which defends the ...Read more

Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Editorial: Biden immigration policies souring even Democrats

Politics / Political News /

Democrats have ridden an abortion rights platform to outperform expectations in recent elections. Do Republicans have a similar opportunity when it comes to illegal immigration?

President Joe Biden’s handling of the southern border has been a fiasco. According to Syracuse University’s TRAC website, which compiles immigration information, ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Editorial: Supreme Court needs a real ethics code

Politics / Political News /

Holding judges to high ethical standards is essential to the US legal system. The Supreme Court’s recent adoption of an ethics code is an overdue acknowledgement of this reality. But the court’s failure to include any enforcement provisions reduces the code to a paper tiger. The public shouldn’t fall for it.

Where ethics are concerned, ...Read more

Carl Court/Getty Images North America/TNS

Editorial: The Right against rights: Far-right victories should concern us all

Politics / Political News /

A shock result in Dutch elections handed the largest number of the country’s parliamentary seats to the party of extreme right, isolationist, anti-immigrant and Islamophobic longtime political gadfly Geert Wilders last week. He vowed that the country would be “returned to the Dutch.”

Wilders might be a relative unknown to most Americans, ...Read more

Win McNamee, TNS/Palm Beach Post/Win McNamee, TNS

Editorial: The Trump ballot battle: If the 14th Amendment doesn't block him, voters must

Politics / Political News /

A Denver state judge, Sarah B. Wallace of the 2nd Judicial District Court, was asked if candidate Donald Trump can appear on the Colorado Republican primary ballot or if he is disqualified based on a post-Civil War part of the Constitution meant to exclude Confederate traitors from public office.

At issue is Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, ...Read more

Win McNamee/Getty Images North America/TNS

Christie to fellow candidates: Target Trump, not each other

Politics / Political News /

With the polls ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday showing former President Donald Trump commanding more than 60% of support among conservative voters, one candidate is openly wondering what the rest are doing.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made a round of television appearances on Sunday ahead of planned stops in New Hampshire this week,...Read more

Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/TNS

Here's who's in the running to succeed Long Island Rep. George Santos

Politics / Political News /

NEW YORK — With Rep. George Santos’ days in Congress apparently numbered, the focus is already turning toward who might succeed him.

Democrats and Republicans alike are lining up to run for the Long Island swing seat if the scandal-plagued lawmaker steps down or is expelled from the House of Representatives in the coming days.

If Santos ...Read more

Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/TNS

Idaho asks Supreme Court to allow enforcement of state abortion ban

Politics / Political News /

WASHINGTON — Idaho asked the Supreme Court on Monday to allow enforcement of the state’s abortion ban when it comes to emergency rooms, which federal courts blocked in a legal challenge from the Biden administration.

Idaho’s law allows state officials to prosecute or revoke the professional license of doctors who perform abortions unless ...Read more