WASHINGTON — The White House still employs 45 staffers for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency despite the Tesla Inc. CEO’s departure in May — and they’re exempt from being furloughed during the government shutdown.

The arrangement was revealed in a memo released Thursday from the White House Office of Administration ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Health care providers across the country are canceling telehealth visits with Medicare beneficiaries or warning patients they will have to pay out of pocket for appointments because Congress let coverage lapse.

When government funding expired Sept. 30, so did several health care policies mostly involving payments, and among them ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s term starting Monday could include major cases on President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, with the government now asking the justices to determine the lawfulness of his order to curtail birthright citizenship.

The executive order from Trump, signed on the first day of his second term as part of a ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Friday prepared plans for mass layoffs of federal workers and unilaterally cut $2 billion in funding for a previously approved Chicago subway project as the government shutdown continued with no end in sight.

With both sides standing firm, the Senate was set to vote again on what looked to be a doomed resolution to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Former Missouri Rep. Cori Bush, a onetime member of the progressive “squad” who lost her bid for reelection amid an onslaught of outside spending from pro-Israel groups last year, is seeking a comeback.

“I ran for Congress to change things for regular people,” the Democrat said in her launch video. “I’m running again ...Read more

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump bowed to pressure Friday and restored $187 million in anti-terrorism funding cuts to New York law enforcement amid widespread outrage from both sides of the political aisle.

The Department of Homeland Security said it would restore the funding to the NYPD, FDNY, Port Authority and other New York state ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide if licensed guns owners have a right to carry their weapons at public places, including parks, beaches and stores.

At issue are laws in California, Hawaii and three other states that generally prohibit carrying guns on private or public property.

Three years ago, Supreme Court ruled that...Read more

Money is power. In our system of government, that power was intended to rest squarely with Congress. Yet in recent years, we’ve seen presidents of both parties find ways to sidestep Congress’s “power of the purse” authority, steadily chipping away at their Article I powers and turning appropriations into suggestions rather than binding ...Read more

Scapegoating is an old ruse of authoritarian leaders to get their followers to support action against the minority scapegoated, or even commit crimes themselves against the scapegoated.

The Nazi's used the burning of the Reichstag (the German equivalent of the Capitol), which they blamed on a Communist, to convince the German President to issue...Read more

MIAMI — Donald Trump’s planned presidential library in Downtown Miami is already breaking norms — after a lightning-quick land deal, discussions of a hotel on-site and an unusual early source of funds from lawsuit settlements.

Since the state of Florida only had one requirement in the land transfer — that construction begin within five ...Read more

Amid a funding stalemate in Congress and a federal government shutdown, President Donald Trump’s planned termination of nearly $8 billion for energy projects primarily in states that didn’t vote for him includes $583 million in cuts for projects in Illinois.

Among those set to lose tens of millions of dollars in anticipated funding are ...Read more

The U.S. Department of Energy is canceling 12 grants for energy projects in Minnesota, including a $464 million proposal to build large transmission lines in seven states, according to a list reviewed by The Minnesota Star Tribune.

The projects are part of $7.5 billion in Energy Department cuts announced by the Trump administration Wednesday ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The partial government shutdown rolled on Thursday with both sides dug in and President Donald Trump using the funding lapse as an excuse to cut billions of dollars in “dead wood,” as he put it, throughout the executive branch.

Trump said in a social media post that he’d meet with Office of Management and Budget Director ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to pull “billions of dollars” in state funding from any California university that signs a Trump administration proposal offering preferential funding in exchange for certain demands, including a cap on international students.

“California will not bankroll schools that sell out their students, ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Vice President JD Vance has emerged as President Donald Trump’s lead attack dog on the government shutdown as some Democrats lambaste what they see as a lack of White House leadership.

Vance, a former Ohio senator, helped Republicans negotiate a tax and spending bill among themselves earlier this year, but he has stepped into ...Read more

Starting next year, offering money or prizes for voting or registering to vote will be criminalized in California.

Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday said he signed two election reform bills into law, including one that criminalizes lotteries for voter registration or participation.

From state Sen. Tom Umberg, a Santa Ana Democrat, the idea is to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is weighing slashing “thousands” of federal jobs ahead of a meeting with his budget director, Russell Vought, as the White House looks to ratchet up pressure on Democrats to end a government shutdown that has entered its second day.

“It’s likely going to be in the thousands,” White House press ...Read more

The controversial statue of President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein holding hands has been reinstalled on the National Mall almost a week after it was taken down by the National Park Service.

“Just like a toppled Confederate general forced back onto a public square, the Donald Trump Jeffrey Epstein statue has risen from the rubble to stand ...Read more

President Donald Trump is declaring drug cartels to be “unlawful combatants” and informed members of Congress the United States is in an “non-international armed conflict” with them.

“The president determined these cartels are non-state armed groups, designated them as terrorist organizations, and determined that their actions ...Read more

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is weighing slashing “thousands” of federal jobs ahead of a meeting with his budget director, Russell Vought, as the White House looks to ratchet up pressure on Democrats to end a government shutdown that has entered its second day.

“It’s likely going to be in the thousands,” White House press ...Read more