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

BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and the attorneys general in Arkansas and Alabama filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. Supreme Court, suing California, Massachusetts and New York to invalidate the so-called “shield laws” that have allowed providers in those states to send abortion medication to people in states ...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

Embattled Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-New Jersey, has reportedly made a list of “almost cooked” Republican incumbents as an expected Democratic blue wave looms in the upcoming congressional midterm elections.

Kean, who represents the leafy suburban 7th District of New Jersey, is seeing his chances of winning a third term start to slip away as GOP ...Read more

Embattled Texas Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton is reportedly blaming President Donald Trump’s controversial midterms political convention for hurting his already troubled campaign.

Paxton, who portrays himself as a diehard right-wing MAGA loyalist, was caught on a leaked tape admitting Trump’s high-profile appearance at the two-day ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — With gas prices topping $6 a gallon and an unpopular war continuing in Iran, President Donald Trump's approval has slipped with California Republicans — a falloff that could diminish the party's chances in the state's few competitive congressional races.

A new poll by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, co-...Read more

LOS ANGELES — House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to visit California on Wednesday to stump and fundraise for Republican candidates in a state that could determine control of the U.S. House of Representatives during President Donald Trump's final two years in office.

Johnson, R-La., plans to visit the Central Valley and the Inland Empire, a sign...Read more

Pennsylvania lawmakers returned to Harrisburg on Sept. 28, 2026, after a 10-week recess with little time to determine the future of the state’s skill games. On June 15, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled that the devices are slot machines governed by the state’s gambling and criminal laws. The court stayed its order for 120 days to give...Read more

Imagine watching a political campaign video in which a candidate admits to taking a bribe. You recognize the face and voice. But the confession is entirely fabricated, thanks to artificial intelligence.

Now imagine that your state has passed a law against these AI-generated election deepfakes. Would that mean the video has to be ...Read more

MIAMI — Dozens of friends, relatives and former political colleagues are asking a federal judge to show leniency to former U.S. Rep. David Rivera when he is sentenced later this week, while prosecutors are urging the court to impose a significant prison term on the former Miami congressman for secretly acting as an agent of Nicolás Maduro’s...Read more

The confusion surrounding a proposed civil nuclear deal with Saudi Arabia hasn’t exactly disappeared: The White House is still claiming it depends on the country normalizing relations with Israel, even if that’s not part of the written agreement. At least Congress now has the text for review. Having seen its flaws, legislators should demand ...Read more