Breaking News

Uncategorized

Debt ceiling: McCarthy wins 1st round, Biden eyes long game

WASHINGTON — Speaker Kevin McCarthy surprised Washington when he showed he could unite the House’s raucous Republican majority to pass a sweeping package to raise the nation’s debt limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep spending reductions, an opening bid awaiting President Joe Biden’s response. The next moves are more difficult, and politically uncertain. This week’s stunning turnaround for the battle-hardened Republican speaker is only act one in what is expected to be a long summer battle with Democrats to find agreement to lift the nation’s borrowing capacity ...

Washington, Minnesota become trans refuges, shield abortions

SEATTLE — Washington and Minnesota won’t cooperate with attempts to prosecute out-of-state patients seeking reproductive or gender-affirming procedures and treatment, under new laws signed Thursday by the two states’ Democratic governors. They’re the latest liberal states to enact legal safeguards as Republican legislators across the country are rushing to block or limit transgender and abortion health care. More than a dozen states have effectively banned abortion outright in the year since the Supreme Court’s conservative majority overturned Roe v. Wade. “Freedom of ...

FBI shoots, kills man in Minneapolis standoff

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The FBI said a man was shot and killed after a long standoff Thursday at a north Minneapolis home. Agents were attempting to serve a search warrant at the home when the man barricaded himself inside, the FBI said in a statement. After hours of negotiations, the man came out of the home with a weapon and was shot. It was not immediately clear how many FBI agents fired their weapons. An unarmed woman who was inside the home was injured and taken to a hospital but the extent of her injuries was not known, officials said. No further details were immediately released.

Despite flooding on Mississippi River, Midwest mayors upbeat

DES MOINES, Iowa — The Upper Mississippi River will rise to near record-high levels as it flows through Wisconsin and Iowa, but officials said Thursday they expected to hold back floodwaters with a combination of flood walls, temporary barriers and wetlands, especially if dry weather continues. The Mississippi already has crested in St. Paul, Minnesota, and La Crosse, Wisconsin, but it will be days before it begins falling in some areas to the south. The high water is due to the quick melting of a giant snowpack in northern Minnesota that is slowly moving down the approximately ...

People in the News

Asa Hutchinson formally launches 2024 campaign in Arkansas BENTONVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson formally launched his Republican presidential campaign Wednesday, pledging to “bring out the best of America” and aiming to draw contrasts with other GOP hopefuls on top issues, including how best to reform federal law enforcement agencies. Hutchinson kicked off his 2024 bid in his hometown of Bentonville, on the same steps where he launched an unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign 30 years ago. “I ran as a conservative Republican when being a Republican ...

House Republicans pass US debt bill, push Biden on spending

WASHINGTON — House Republicans narrowly passed sweeping legislation Wednesday that would raise the government’s legal debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep spending restrictions, a tactical victory for Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he challenges President Joe Biden to negotiate and prevent a catastrophic federal default this summer. Biden has threatened to veto the Republican package, which has almost no chance of passing the Democratic Senate in the meantime, and the president has so far refused to negotiate over the debt ceiling which the White House insists must be ...