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The Trump administration is running up against a 60-day limit for the Iran war that is instituted by the War Powers Act of 1973, but War Secretary Pete Hegseth told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the ceasefire does not qualify. The law requires that Congress must declare war or authorize the use of force, although it does provide for presidents to have a 30-day extension to draw down hostilities if it notifies Congress. “We are in a ceasefire right now, which our understanding means the 60-day clock pauses or stops in a ceasefire,” Hegseth said at during Thursday's hearing....

Senate Democrats on Tuesday tried to force a vote on a measure to prevent President Trump from launching a military attack on Cuba, as he repeatedly threatens action against the island. But Republicans blocked the procedural vote from moving forward, arguing that the U.S. isn't engaged in hostilities with Cuba. The issue is "moot," GOP Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said. Democrats are seeking to get ahead of the president on Cuba after he took unilateral action against Venezuela and Iran. The resolution was introduced in March by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, who has also spearheaded the efforts...

A wave of party switching in West Virginia is reshaping the state’s political landscape, with tens of thousands of voters — including more than 16,000 Democrats — registering as Republicans since early 2024, according to new data released by the secretary of state. West Virginia Secretary of State Kris Warner reported that 68,235 voters have changed party affiliation since Jan. 31, 2024, signaling a significant shift ahead of the state’s May 12 primary election. Among the biggest changes, 16,910 voters switched from Democrat to Republican, while another 20,003 unaffiliated voters also moved to the GOP, according to the data. At...

If Republicans don’t act fast, Virginia will turn into Colorado, but it doesn’t have to happen that way, although it’ll be hard to undo the damage. Election Day 2025 was a broad disaster for Republicans. Everyone could see that. New Jersey stayed blue, but Virginia went back to being blue at the state level, and the Virginia Democrat party took greater dominance over the Old Dominion’s state legislature. Nationally, Republicans could not avoid the backlash in voter turnout, since the common pattern is that the party out of power rebounds in the Virginia and New Jersey elections the year after...

In a rare bit of good news for anyone tired of bureaucratic fast-tracking in election matters, the Virginia Supreme Court just told the state’s Department of Elections and Attorney General 'not so fast.' The high court denied an emergency stay of last week’s Tazewell County Circuit Court ruling that bars the Board of Elections from certifying the results of Virginia’s redistricting referendum — at least for now.

WASHINGTON — Democrats faced tough questioning before the Virginia Supreme Court on Monday during oral arguments on a redistricting referendum that narrowly passed last week, though most of the justices were oddly quiet. Republicans have challenged the referendum, which paved the way for the Dems to pick up as many as four local congressional seats — potentially leaving them with a 10-to-one margin over GOPers — arguing that the Democrat-led General Assembly flouted procedural rules to get it on the ballot. A constitutional amendment was needed to put it to voters — and state lawmakers have to approve a resolution...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Okello Chatrie’s cellphone gave him away.Chatrie made off with $195,000 from the bank he robbed in suburban Richmond, Virginia, and eluded the police until they turned to a powerful technological tool that erected a virtual fence and allowed them collect the location history of cellphone users near the crime scene.The geofence warrant police served on Google found that Chatrie’s cellphone was among a handful of devices in the vicinity of the bank around the time it was robbed.Now the Supreme Court will decide whether geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches. It’s the latest...

A Virginia transgender substitute teacher was arrested for allegedly plotting a chilling “murder spree” at a local school — and bragging online about having a disturbing hit list. Hadyn Dollery, 19, was busted on school grounds Monday after posting threatening messages on Discord targeting John Champe High School in Stone Ridge, about 40 miles west of Washington, DC, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office and multiple outlets. Police said a tip on the department’s Safe2Talk app exposed the suspect’s sinister online posts. The accused would-be attacker allegedly unleashed threats against family and friends on the messaging app, including disturbing...

For years, Democratic politicians and their allies in the legacy media have spread the damnable Charlottesville Hoax: the propaganda myth that President Trump praised bigots who rioted in 2017 in the Virginia town. Of course, the opposite is true, as Trump actually said: “I’m not talking about the neo-Nazis and white nationalists because they should be condemned totally.”Now, we learn that the entire hoax of Trump and Charlottesville is, itself, built upon another grand lie. The media and people like Joe Biden have continually pushed the narrative that some big, organic gathering of hateful Americans descended upon Charlottesville and represented...

Democratic Virginia state Sen. Lamont Bagby claimed Thursday that watching “The Dukes of Hazzard,” “The Andy Griffith Show” and “The Waltons” as a child taught him about rural America. (snip)“And listen, I almost took issue with the other side saying that we don’t understand [rural America],” Bagby said during the floor debate. “But I grew up watching ‘The Waltons,’ I grew up with Opie [the son of a sheriff played by Andy Griffith], I even watched the ‘Dukes of Hazzard.’ I think I know a little bit about rural America.”

Virginia’s redistricting referendum, which could net Democrats a 10-1 House seat advantage, is spurring Republican legislation that would expand the borders of Washington, D.C., and cost the state Democratic voters. Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick said Thursday he introduced the Make DC Square Again Act, a bill that would undo the 19th century return of the southwestern part of the district to the state of Virginia, known as retrocession. “The Make DC Square Again Act restores the original ten-mile-square District and ends the artificial advantage Virginia Democrats have recently gained from all the federal bureaucrats moving into Virginia,” McCormick said...

The Rich Men north of Richmond may have won for a day, but they cashed out every ounce of public goodwill they had to do it.If they truly wanted non-partisan redistricting, they would have pushed the Virginia Model to the other 49 states. So spare me — not interested. Lucy can keep her football this time.

The redistricting vote in Virginia was not only dishonest, it was unconscionable and shameless. I don't know how any democrat can look themselves in the mirror or sleep at night after the way that vote was worded.The vote should have been worded this way :DO YOU AGREE THAT THE REDISTRICTING PLAN PUT FORTH BY THE DEMOCRATS SHOULD BE APPROVED--GIVEN THE FACT THAT IT IS LIKELY THAT HALF THE POPULATION OF VIRGINIA WILL GET ONLY 9% REPRESENTATION IN CONGRESS? THE OTHER HALF SPONSORING THIS VOTE WILL GET 91% REPRESENTATION.YES OR NO.I just cannot believe the wording that was actually used. It...

During a Virginia state Senate floor debate on gerrymandering, Democrat Lamont Bagby decided to flex his deep understanding of rural America ... by explaining that he picked it all up from watching the 1980s TV classic The Dukes of Hazzard. Because nothing says 'I get country folks' quite like a big-city pol citing a show about moonshiners and car chases to justify redrawing district lines that would dilute conservative voices in the Old Dominion. You just can’t make this level of tone-deaf arrogance up. Actually, considering what Democrats just did to half the state of Virginia, we don't have to...

A Georgia congressman is proposing a controversial new idea -- he’s calling the “Make D.C. Square Again Act." He said it would expand Washington, D.C. by adding Arlington and Alexandria into the nation's capital. In a post on X, Congressman Rick McCormick said Arlington and Alexandria were “always meant” to be part of D.C., arguing the change would simplify long-running debates over political maps and representation. "What we want to do is make D.C. square again. It's a simple concept. Square. We repeal that unconsituational law, gIve back Virginia exactly what it should have, give D.C. what it should have...

In 1846, a third of the District of Columbia was stolen by Virginia to appease slaveholders. It is time to right that wrong and return to the borders laid down by George Washington himself. The One-Way Ratchet The Constitution gave Congress a one-way ratchet: the power to create a permanent seat of government by accepting cessions from states. Once that ratchet clicked forward in 1790, it was locked. The Constitution provides no mechanism to pull it back. Article I, Section 8 grants Congress the power to "exercise exclusive Legislation" over a district "not exceeding ten Miles square" that becomes "the...

Republicans are cheering a circuit court victory in Virginia that showed Democrats' redistricting efforts in Virginia are not quite ...

Democrats cheered a redistricting measure that reportedly passed in Virginia on Tuesday. The passage gives the Democrat-controlled state legislature the ability to redraw the commonwealth's congressional map ahead of the 2026 midterms. Except there are already questions about whether this will stand, as we reported. On Wednesday afternoon, Tazewell Circuit Court Judge Jack Hurley Jr. ruled that Tuesday's referendum is unconstitutional and issued an injunction preventing the certification of the election maps. Judge Hurley has also denied any motion to stay his ruling pending appeal. That decision will likely be appealed. Democrats like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08) were...

Voters are in the Virginia polls, choosing yes or no on a constitutional amendment that could sway four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives come November. New congressional redistricting maps were ignited by second-term Republican Donald Trump’s pressure onto Texas in 2025. Thus far, redraws have given hope for Republicans to gain three seats; Virginia could change that to a one seat deficit.The state has six Democrats and five Republicans in the House, and if the amendment passes would be forecast to reach a 10-1 edge. In the last statewide presidential vote of 2024, Democrat Kamala Harris edged Trump...

A Virginia circuit court judge on Wednesday struck down the state's voter-approved redistricting amendment in its entirety, ruling that the measure was unconstitutional from its inception and that every vote cast in Tuesday's special election — for or against — is legally void. Judge Jack Hurley, a Republican appointee, entered the sweeping final judgment on April 22, granting relief to the plaintiffs on all counts. He declared the proposed constitutional amendment "void ab initio" — Latin for void from the start — and permanently enjoined state officials from certifying the election results or taking any steps to implement new congressional...