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The Arizona Senate passed a repeal of the state’s near-total ban on abortion on Wednesday, capping a weekslong legislative scramble to respond to the state Supreme Court’s bombshell ruling that upheld the law from 1864. The bill, which the state House approved last week, will soon head to Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Hobbs said she expects to sign the bill as early as Wednesday night. Two state Senate Republicans — Shawnna Bolick and T.J. Shope — joined all 14 Democrats in the narrowly divided chamber in approving a repeal of the Civil War-era law that held the power to send...

The judge presiding over the NY v. Trump trial in Manhattan granted former President Trump permission on Tuesday to attend his son’s high school graduation in Florida next month. "I don’t think the May 17 date is a problem," Judge Juan Merchan told the court Tuesday morning of Barron Trump's graduation date. Trump had pushed for weeks to attend his son's high school graduation on May 17, but a decision on the matter was left in limbo until Tuesday, with Trump speculating earlier this month he would be denied leaving Manhattan for the event. "(Barron’s) a great student and he’s...

WASHINGTON — House Democratic leadership said in a joint statement Tuesday that they would vote to help save Speaker Mike Johnson if far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., moves to oust him. "From the very beginning of this Congress, House Democrats have put people over politics and found bipartisan common ground with traditional Republicans in order to deliver real results," said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark, and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar. "At the same time, House Democrats have aggressively pushed back against MAGA extremism. We will continue to do just that." Democratic leaders said they would...

A state grand jury in Arizona on Wednesday indicted so-called "fake electors" who backed then-President Donald Trump in 2020, following a sprawling investigation into the alleged efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s win in the presidential election in the state. One month after the 2020 election, 11 Trump supporters convened at the Arizona GOP’s headquarters in Phoenix to sign a certificate claiming to be Arizona’s 11 electors to the Electoral College, though Biden won the state by 10,457 votes and his electors were certified by state officials. The state Republican Party documented the signing of the certificate in a social media...

Washington — The House approved a $95 billion foreign aid package Saturday, in a pivotal moment for House Speaker Mike Johnson as he tries to stave off a right-wing rebellion. The package consists of four bills that were voted on separately and will be combined into one before being sent to the Senate. The first three bills include $60.8 billion to help Ukraine in its war with Russia; $26.4 billion to support Israel, which is fighting Hamas and Iran; and $8.1 billion to counter China in the Indo-Pacific. Humanitarian aid for Gaza, which Democrats said was necessary for their support,...

NEW YORK, April 18 (Reuters) - Lawyers in Donald Trump's historic criminal trial on Thursday selected 12 jurors who will assess his guilt or innocence over the coming weeks in a case stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star. Lawyers for the defense and the prosecution still must select alternate jurors for the trial, the first ever in which a former U.S. president is the defendant. Opening statements could take place on Monday, said Justice Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing the trial. Earlier in the day, Merchan dismissed a juror who said she felt intimidated that some personal...

MINNEAPOLIS — The nation's highest court has rejected an appeal from MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. The U.S. Supreme Court has declined Lindell's appeal over the FBI's seizure of his phone. It was taken in 2022 while Lindell was at a Hardee's drive-thru window in Mankato. The U.S. government was investigating accusations of Lindell sharing sensitive voting system information. The case is just one of several recent legal battles for Lindell. In March, a judge evicted MyPillow from a facility in Shakopee after the landlord filed a lawsuit claiming the company was at least $200,000 behind on rent payments. A month...

Senate candidate Kari Lake has made calls to state lawmakers to push for the repeal of Arizona's Civil War-era abortion ban, according to a Republican legislator who spoke about receiving a call from her. The GOP-controlled Legislature is considering its next steps after the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state's 1864 near-total ban on abortion is enforceable. The Arizona House convenes again Wednesday. Lake's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening on her lobbying of state lawmakers. Lake, who has said she opposes the court's ruling, is among the many Arizona Republicans who...

The six former Mississippi law enforcement officers who tortured and abused two Black men in a racist attack were sentenced on Wednesday to 15 to 45 years in prison on state charges. The men — former Rankin County Sheriff’s deputies Brett Morris McAlpin, 53; Christian Dedmon, 29; Jeffrey Middleton, 46; Hunter Elward, 31; and Daniel Opdyke, 28' and a former police officer from the city of Richland, Joshua Hartfield, 32 — had pleaded guilty to state charges in August. McAlpin, Middleton, and Opdyke were sentenced to serve 20 years; Dedmon to 25 years; Elward to 45 years; and Hartfield to...

No Labels, the bipartisan group that had been working toward putting a third-party presidential ticket on the ballot in all 50 states in 2024, announced Thursday that it was ending its efforts. "No Labels has always said we would only offer our ballot line to a ticket if we could identify candidates with a credible path to winning the White House," No Labels CEO and co-founder Nancy Jacobson said in a statement. "No such candidates emerged, so the responsible course of action is for us to stand down." Jacobson said the group will "remain engaged over the next year during...

PHOENIX — Groups working to put reproductive rights in Arizona’s state constitution say they have exceeded the signature threshold to put a constitutional amendment on abortion on the state’s ballot in November. Arizona for Abortion Access, a coalition of reproductive rights organizations including the ACLU of Arizona and Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona, says it had gathered 506,892 petition signatures as of this past weekend, with more than three months to go until the July 3 deadline to submit the signatures to Arizona’s secretary of state. The threshold to put a measure on the ballot is 383,923 signatures, and while...

<p>ENID, Oklahoma (AP) — Voters in the northwest Oklahoma city of Enid ousted a city council member with ties to white nationalism, according to unofficial results posted Tuesday on the Oklahoma Election Board website.</p><p>With all four precincts reporting in Enid’s Ward 1, results show voters chose to recall 42-year-old Judd Blevins. They instead selected Cheryl Patterson, a grandmother and longtime youth leader at an area church, to fill the seat.</p>

A Texas appeals court on Thursday overturned the illegal voting conviction of Crystal Mason, who was given a five-year prison sentence for casting a provisional ballot in the 2016 election while on supervised release for federal tax evasion. The decision by the Tarrant County-based Second Court of Appeals means she is formally acquitted of the felony voting charge. The court said in the decision that there was no evidence Mason knew she was ineligible to vote when she cast her ballot — which is a condition that must be met in order to convict her of illegal voting. Mason has...

Democratic candidate Marilyn Lands on Tuesday won a special election for a state House seat in Alabama after she made in vitro fertilization and abortion rights central to her campaign. Lands, a licensed professional counselor, defeated Madison City Council member Teddy Powell, a Republican who once worked as a Defense Department budget analyst. A Republican had held the Huntsville-area seat in the state's 10th District. "Today, Alabama women and families sent a clear message that will be heard in Montgomery and across the nation. Our legislature must repeal Alabama’s no-exceptions abortion ban, fully restore access to IVF, and protect the...

Washington — The House passed a massive spending package on Friday to fully fund the government through September, sending it to the Senate ahead of a midnight deadline to avert a partial shutdown. The House approved the $1.2 trillion package, which was unveiled early Thursday, in a vote of 286 to 134. The package wraps six spending bills into one to fund about three-quarters of the government until the end of the fiscal year. Another package funding the rest of the government cleared Congress two weeks ago. A majority of Republicans voted against the measure, with House conservatives objecting to...

FORT PIERCE, Florida, March 14 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday denied former U.S. President Donald Trump's request to dismiss a criminal case that charges him with illegally holding onto classified documents after leaving the White House. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida came just hours after a hearing in which his lawyers argued that the central charge in the case is improperly vague. Cannon, who was appointed to her post by Trump, ruled that question "warrants serious consideration" but should not be decided at this point. Trump, the Republican challenger to President Joe Biden...

House Republicans are beginning to temper expectations about the success of their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The possibility of pursuing articles of impeachment remains on the table, but Republicans are far from gathering the near-unanimous support needed to recommend removing him from the White House. A resolution formalizing their impeachment inquiry was approved in December. Losing steam Some Republicans feel there’s an unwillingness to follow through, as the chamber has pressing matters to address during a presidential election year. House Republicans face an uphill battle to keep their majority in 2024, and multiple members in vulnerable seats are...

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 75-22 on Friday to pass a major government funding bill to keep a slew of agencies afloat through September, defusing fears of a partial shutdown and sending the legislation to President Joe Biden to become law. The 1,050-page measure is a collection of six appropriations bills negotiated by Schumer, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Biden and top appropriators in both parties and chambers. It funds the departments of Justice, Commerce, Agriculture, Transportation and many other parts of the government, after leaders split federal funding into two packages. It passed the House on Wednesday by a...

Former Rep. George Santos announced Thursday night that he will run for New York's 1st Congressional District, challenging a Republican who voted to expel him from Congress. "Tonight, I want to announce that I will be returning to the arena of politics and challenging Nick for the battle over #NY1," Santos wrote on X, referring to Rep. Nick LaLota. Santos argued that "New York hasn’t had a real conservative represent them since I left office arbitrarily, thanks to RINO, empty suits like [LaLota]." "I look forward to debating him on the issues and on his weak record as a Republican,"...

Democrat Tom Suozzi has won the New York special election to the U.S. House, according to an AP race call. Suozzi will serve out the remainder of the term for former GOP Rep. George Santos, who was expelled from the House last year. The victory further narrows the already razor-thin majority for Republicans in the House. The race was seen as a test of Democrats' ability to overcome attacks over President Biden's handling of the U.S. border with Mexico and convince voters that Republicans are unable to legislate in Washington. Immigration politics have dominated the contest in a congressional district...