Officials of the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed on Feb. 2, 2023, that the military was tracking what it called a “spy balloon” that was drifting over the continental United States at an altitude of about 60,000 feet. The following day, Chinese officials acknowledged that the balloon was theirs but denied it was intended for spying ...Read more

It’s a safe bet that President Joe Biden will use his State of the Union address to brag about his many policy accomplishments over the last two years — and that the Democrats in the audience will respond with cheers. Many of Biden’s supporters argue that he can claim a truly exceptional degree of legislative success. According to the ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Summer Lee’s swearing-in wasn’t the celebratory moment her family envisioned. Instead of watching Lee take the oath as the first Black woman to represent Pennsylvania in Congress, her mother and grandmother were dozing off in the House gallery as a Republican standstill over electing a new speaker dragged into its eighth ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — Standing in a green-tiled building that has treated Philadelphia’s water for more than a century, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday unveiled $500 million in funding for lead pipe replacements and other water service upgrades in the city as the pair aimed to show that their bipartisan infrastructure...Read more

DENVER — More than seven months have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, but this is the first chance Colorado lawmakers have had to work on legislation in its aftermath.

Last year, the Colorado Legislature passed the “Reproductive Health Equity Act,” guaranteeing the right to abortions in state law. ...Read more

NEW YORK — Former President Donald Trump is getting ready to write a check to a Florida court for more than $1 million — but he’s hoping to get the money back.

Trump and one of his lawyers, Alina Habba, offered to post a $1.03 million bond to appeal a judge’s order sanctioning them $937,989 for filing a “frivolous” conspiracy suit ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House lawmakers are set to meet next month with the CEO of TikTok at a hearing to probe whether one of the most popular apps in the world shares Americans’ data with China and whether it harms young children, the latest face-off between members of Congress and the head of a large social media platform.

Rep. Cathy McMorris ...Read more

NEW YORK — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office went on the offensive Friday, bracing for a new book by a former prosecutor who claims Bragg allowed his office’s criminal probe into Donald Trump to crash and burn.

Bragg has already tried to halt the publication of Mark Pomerantz’s “People vs. Donald Trump,” which hits ...Read more

The killing of Tyre Nichols has raised questions about the use and risks of a routine part of U.S. policing: the traffic stop.

Nichols died in the hospital on Jan. 10, 2022, from injuries sustained in a beating by five officers three days earlier. The violence occurred after the 29-year-old Black man was pulled over while driving in ...Read more

For nearly 60 years, conservatives have been trying to gut the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crowning achievement of the civil rights movement. As a scholar of American voting rights. I believe their long game is finally bearing fruit.

The 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder seemed to be the death knell for ...Read more

As former President Donald Trump steps up his comeback bid, some of the state’s most prominent Republicans are raising urgent concerns about whether he can retake the state — let alone the White House — in 2024.

Dozens of elected officials, conservative activists, current and former party leaders, and state GOP members surveyed by The ...Read more

The field for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination is expanding.

Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is expected to announce her campaign in mid-February, and more contenders will likely follow. Although Donald Trump was the first to kick off the race by announcing his run just after last year’s midterm elections, he’s not ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris aim to move Democrats forward on a visit Friday to Philadelphia. Getting there may require a walk back down memory lane.

They’ll arrive just days ahead of the State of the Union address, when presidents usually lay out their grandest dreams for the coming year. But given ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden said he hoped the death of Tyre Nichols “spurs some action” as he sought to reassure allies in the Congressional Black Caucus of a commitment to work with them to advance police reform.

“We’ve got to stay at it as long as it takes,” Biden said on Thursday at the White House, where he and Vice ...Read more

Hunter Biden’s “new approach” to combating information leaked from a laptop once said to have been his includes a slew of legal letters sent to Federal agencies, conservative activists and the computer repairman responsible for handing over the machine.

“This marks a new approach by Hunter Biden and his team,” according to a CBS News ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden hosted former President Bill Clinton at an event Thursday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Family and Medical Leave Act, saying the landmark law had made a “gigantic difference” for American families.

“The law was a step toward that dignity my dad used to talk about, dignity for working families,...Read more

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday refused to commit to supporting the 2024 Republican presidential nominee — if he doesn’t win it.

“It would depend. I would give you the same answer I gave in 2016,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. “It would have to depend on who the nominee was.”

The GOP...Read more

WASHINGTON — The “fix Congress” panel that officially disbanded last session will return in the 118th Congress in a different form.

The House Administration Committee on Thursday established a new subcommittee — a reincarnation of the House Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress, or ModCom, that first convened in 2019.

One ...Read more

After decades of progress on limiting the buildup of nuclear weapons, Russia’s war on Ukraine has prompted renewed nuclear tensions between Russia and the U.S.

The U.S. State Department told Congress on Jan. 31, 2023, that Russia is not complying with the countries’ last remaining nuclear arms agreement, which was renewed for five...Read more