In television news, there are two roles in front of the camera: reporter and anchor.

During four decades at CBS, Dan Rather played both roles. On March 9, 1981, he took over the position of nightly news anchor from Walter Cronkite, one of the most influential faces in network television. Although Rather held that job for 24 years, ...Read more

CHICAGO — Before federal immigration agents stormed across the Chicago region last year and President Donald Trump threatened to send in the National Guard, Gov. JB Pritzker warned both moves aimed to “normalize” a federal military presence to intimidate voters and depress turnout in the 2026 midterms.

Some at the time viewed Pritzker’s...Read more

As the 2026 midterm elections approach, the U.S. Supreme Court has been busy with voting rights cases.

In mid-September, the court barred the Trump administration from carrying out its proposed restrictions on mail-in voting for the midterm elections.

In late September, the court ruled that the Trump administration could ...Read more

Wherever Marci Bakely went, her ex-boyfriend seemed to know. When the Georgia single mother drove to the grocery store or a date, he often texted within minutes.

According to a Washington Post investigation, Bakely’s ex-boyfriend, Braselton Police Chief Michael Steffman, searched her license plates and those of her teenage daughter ...Read more

There is something genuinely strange happening at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the federal agency responsible for regulating derivatives markets. Under Chairman Michael Selig, the CFTC has challenged states seeking to regulate prediction platforms, arguing that federally designated contract markets fall within its exclusive ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Anchorage resident Bob Butera is a nonpartisan voter — one of more than 381,000 such voters in Alaska. Before 2022, Butera regularly faced an election year conundrum: which partisan primary ballot to pick?

“I want to choose a Republican in one race and maybe a Democrat in another,” Butera said. “I was prevented ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — After being securely held for nearly four decades by one of the most preeminent politicians in California history, the House seat to represent bright blue San Francisco in Congress is up for grabs in November — and dividing the Democratic Party.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, 86, the powerful former House Speaker who's ...Read more

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Inside a crowded Denny’s along a busy commercial strip, Democratic activists listened intently as Katy Padilla Stout mapped out her plan to flip a sprawling Texas district that has shaded bright red in recent elections.

Padilla Stout, a teacher turned child welfare lawyer, is making her first run for elective office. ...Read more

The two candidates to become California’s next governor painted vastly different portraits of the state they want to lead during a televised CNN debate Wednesday night — though they both agreed the state faces tremendous challenges.

Democrat Xavier Becerra, leading in polls, cast the state as an economic engine and a critical bulwark ...Read more

Just days before ballots get sent to voters’ mailboxes, former Health Secretary Xavier Becerra and former Fox News host Steve Hilton took to the stage Wednesday night in what’s likely to be the only governor’s race debate between the two remaining candidates.

Becerra, a Democrat, and Hilton, a Republican, emerged as the top picks in the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The National Urban League and several local housing nonprofits nationwide challenged part of the Trump administration’s last-minute cancellation of congressionally appropriated funds.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday night in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, focuses on one portion of the $810 million cancellation...Read more

New political predictions for the election have shifted some local congressional races to be more competitive and favorable to Democrats.

Republican Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents the 2nd Congressional District, is running for reelection to her second term in a rematch against Democrat and former Congresswoman Elaine Luria, whom Kiggans ...Read more

WASHINGTON — In the last two months of the fiscal year that ends Wednesday, the Pentagon spent tens of billions of mandatory dollars from last year’s reconciliation law, intensely accelerating spending from its unusually large overall budget for the year, congressional sources said this week.

The Pentagon spends scores of billions of ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered a sweeping speech to junior officers and enlisted troops, announcing new military commands and projects, including one to be led by Elon Musk, Anduril Industries Inc. founder Palmer Luckey and former House speaker Newt Gingrich to research the future of warfare.

In a “State of the Force�...Read more

Democrat Xavier Becerra and Republican Steve Hilton meet Wednesday night in the first and so far only scheduled debate of the California governor’s race.

Recent polls show Becerra with a commanding lead, buoyed in part by President Donald Trump’s deep unpopularity in the state. The debate, hosted by CNN at 6 p.m. Pacific time, offers Hilton...Read more

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan bill aimed at pressuring state utility regulators to reduce data center-related costs stalled in the Senate again Wednesday after a procedural vote to take up the bill fell short of the 60 supporters needed to move forward.

The cloture vote on the motion to proceed was 57-43, keeping the measure bottled up for the ...Read more

WASHINGTON — A bill to rein in stock trading by members of Congress did not clear a first procedural hurdle to advance in the Senate on Wednesday, after passing the House on a mostly party-line vote in July.

Democrats tanked a motion to invoke cloture on proceeding to the bill in a 53-47 vote, which fell seven votes shy of the 60 required to ...Read more