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  • Trump Administration Must Restore Grants for School Counselors, Judge Rules

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    Congress funded the mental health program after the 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The grants were intended to help schools hire more counselors, psychologists and social workers, with a focus on rural and underserved areas of the country. But President Donald Trump’s administration opposed diversity considerations used to award the grants and told recipients they wouldn’t receive funding past December 2025.

    The preliminary ruling by Kymberly K. Evanson, a U.S. District Court judge in Seattle, applies only to some grantees in the sixteen Democratic-led states that challenged the Education Department’s decision. In Madera County, California, for example, the ruling restores roughly $3.8 million. In Marin County, California, it restores $8 million. The ruling will remain in effect while the case proceeds.

    The Education Department under Democratic President Joe Biden first awarded the grants. Biden’s administration prioritized giving the money to applicants who showed how they would increase the number of counselors from diverse backgrounds or from communities directly served by the school district.

    When Trump took office, his administration opposed aspects of the grant programs that touched on race, saying they were harmful to students. In April, his administration said the grants were canceled because they conflicted with the department’s priority of “merit, fairness, and excellence in education” and weren’t in the federal government’s best interest.

    In her ruling, Evanson called that decision arbitrary and capricious and said the states had made a case for real harm from the grant cuts. In Maine, for example, the grants enabled nine rural school districts to hire 10 new school mental health workers and retain four more — jobs the state said would be lost if the funding ended.

    “Congress created these programs to address the states’ need for school-based mental health services in their schools, and has repeatedly reaffirmed the need for those services over the years by reauthorizing and increasing appropriations to these programs,” Evanson wrote.

    “There is no evidence the Department considered any relevant data pertaining to the Grants at issue,” she wrote, and the department did not tell grantees why their work didn’t meet the “best interest” criteria.

    An Education Department spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • AP Decision Notes: What to Expect in Washington State for the Nov. 4 Election

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington state voters will decide whether to amend their constitution to allow funds from a long-term care insurance program to be invested in the stock market. It is the only statewide contest in a Nov. 4 election that will mostly feature mayoral and other municipal races across the state.

    The proposed constitutional amendment, known as Senate Joint Resolution 8201, will shape the future of the WA Cares Fund, which the state Legislature created in 2019 to help participants defray the costs of certain long-term care services. Washington taxpayers fund the program though a 0.58% payroll tax, which began in July 2023. As of June 30, the fund had a balance of $2.5 billion.

    Supporters of the proposal say that harnessing the growth potential from stock investments would secure the fund’s long-term stability. Opponents argue that private investments offer no guarantees and that market volatility could shrink the fund and result in reduced benefits or higher taxes. Stocks tumbled in April following President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs but rebounded by the summer.

    This will be the second time in five years that this issue will appear on the ballot. About 54% of Washington voters rejected a similar ballot measure in Nov. 2020, compared to about 46% who voted in favor.

    The state constitution generally bans the investment of public funds in private stocks and equities, but voters have approved several exemptions in the past, including for public pensions and retirement funds, workers’ compensation funds and a fund for individuals with developmental disabilities. Those funds are managed by the nonpartisan Washington State Investment Board, which would also oversee the WA Cares Fund if the ballot measure passes.

    Since 1966, Washington voters have considered at least 10 proposed constitutional amendments to exempt certain funds from the ban on investing public funds in stocks and equities. Five of those measures passed, most recently in 2007.

    Only three of Washington’s 39 counties voted in favor of the failed 2020 measure: King and Whatcom, where it received more than 58% of the vote, and Jefferson, where it received about 52%. King is home to Seattle and is the state’s most populous county. Pierce and Snohomish counties, the state’s second and third most populous located just to the north and south of King, both overwhelmingly rejected the proposal with nearly 60% of voters voting against.

    In the 2024 general election, voters rejected a proposal that would have allowed workers to opt out of WA Cares, which would have hobbled the program.

    The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow the trailing candidates to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.

    Machine recounts in Washington state are automatic if the vote margin between the top two candidates is less than 2,000 votes and less than 0.5% of the total votes cast for both candidates. Manual recounts are required for statewide contests if the margin is less than 1,000 votes and less 0.25% of the total votes cast for both candidates. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is eligible for a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.

    Here’s a look at what to expect on Nov. 4:

    Polls close at 11 p.m. ET.

    The AP will provide vote results and declare a winner in the statewide ballot measure. Other elections will be held across the state, including mayoral and municipal elections in Seattle and a handful of state legislative districts, but those contests will not be included in the AP’s vote tabulation.

    Any registered voter in Washington state may cast a ballot on the proposed constitutional amendment.


    What do turnout and advance vote look like?

    There were about 5.1 million active registered voters in Washington state as of Oct. 1. Voters do not register by party.

    Roughly 79% of registered voters cast valid ballots in the 2024 general election. Washington state conducts its elections almost entirely by mail. About 66% of voters delivered their ballots via drop box, 33% sent their ballots by mail and the remainder, less than 1%, used other methods, such as in-person voting.

    In the 2021 general election, only about 39% of registered voters cast valid ballots. About 56% of voters used drop boxes, 43% sent their ballots by mail and 0.3% used other methods.

    As of Thursday, about 244,000 absentee ballots had been received and accepted before Election Day. See the AP Early Vote Tracker for the latest update.


    How long does vote-counting usually take?

    In the 2024 presidential election in Washington state, the AP first reported results at 11:07 p.m. ET, or seven minutes after polls closed. The election night tabulation ended just after midnight at 12:07 a.m. ET with about 66% of total votes counted. It took about three weeks for all counties to finish counting votes.

    As of Nov. 4, there will be 364 days until the 2026 midterm elections and 1,099 days until the 2028 general election.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Trump Will Meet Japan’s New Prime Minister and Address US Troops in Next Stop on Asia Trip

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    TOKYO (AP) — President Donald Trump begins one of his busiest days of his Asia trip on Tuesday, meeting with the new Japanese prime minister, speaking to U.S. troops aboard an aircraft carrier and mingling with business leaders.

    Takaichi is primed for a charm offensive, including a potential purchase of Ford F-150 trucks. Trump has often complained that Japan doesn’t buy American vehicles, which are often too wide to be practical on narrow Japanese streets.

    Although Trump has focused his foreign policy toward Asia around tariffs and trade, he’s also speaking aboard the USS George Washington, which is docked at an American naval base near Tokyo.

    Trump arrived in Tokyo on Monday, when he met with the emperor in a ceremonial visit. He was previously in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he participated in the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

    The gathering was an opportunity for Trump to celebrate an expanded ceasefire agreement between Thailand and Cambodia, which skirmished along their disputed border earlier this year. Trump had pressured them to stop fighting by threatening to withhold trade agreements.

    There were also signs that tensions between the U.S. and China were cooling ahead of a planned meeting between Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, which is expected to take place in South Korea later this week. Top negotiators from each country said a trade deal was coming together, which could prevent a potentially damaging confrontation between the world’s two largest economies.

    Details were scarce, and it was unclear how much any agreement would resolve long-standing issues, or if it would return the relationship to the status quo before recent confrontations. China has restructured the export of rare earth elements that are critical for high-tech manufacturing, and Trump responded by threatening tariffs that even he admits would be unsustainable.

    Trump is scheduled to leave Wednesday for South Korea, which is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

    Megerian reported from Seoul.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Indiana Gov. Mike Braun Calls a Special Session to Redraw the State’s Congressional Boundaries

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    Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Braun called Monday for state lawmakers to return to Indianapolis for a special session to redraw the state’s congressional boundaries, escalating a national fight over midcycle redistricting.

    President Donald Trump has ramped up pressure on Republican governors to draw up new maps in an attempt to give the party an easier path to maintain control of the House in the midterms. While Republicans in Texas and Missouri have moved quickly to enact a new set of districts and California Democrats are seeking to counter with their own redistricting plan, Indiana lawmakers have been far more hesitant to the idea and held weeks of discussion on the topic.

    Braun is calling for the General Assembly to convene Nov. 3.

    It’s unclear whether enough of the GOP majority Senate will back new maps.

    The White House held multiple meetings with Indiana lawmakers who were holding out for months. The legislative leaders kept their cards close as speculation swirled over whether the state known for its more measured approach to Republican politics would answer the redistricting call.

    Vance returned to Indianapolis on Oct. 10 to meet with the governor, as well as the Republican state House and Senate members.

    But a spokesperson for Bray said on Wednesday that the Indiana Senate lacked the votes to pass a new congressional map, casting doubt on the success of the special session.

    Braun is a staunch ally of Trump in a state the president won by 19 percentage points in 2024. But Indiana lawmakers have avoided the national spotlight in recent years — especially after a 2022 special session that yielded a strict abortion ban. Braun had previously said he did not want to call a special session until he was sure lawmakers would be behind a new map.

    While some have voiced support, other state Republican lawmakers have expressed opposition to midcycle redistricting since August, saying it is costly and could backfire politically.

    Indiana’s Republican legislative leaders praised existing boundaries after adopting them four years ago.

    “I believe these maps reflect feedback from the public and will serve Hoosiers well for the next decade,” Bray said at the time.

    Typically, states redraw boundaries of congressional districts every 10 years after the census has concluded. Any new maps made by Indiana lawmakers now will likely be challenged in court by opponents.

    State lawmakers have the sole power to draw maps in Indiana. Republicans hold a supermajority in both chambers, meaning Democrats could not stop a special session by refusing to attend, like their peers in Texas briefly did.

    Republicans outnumber Democrats in Indiana’s congressional delegation 7-2, limiting possibilities of squeezing out another seat. But many in the party see it as a chance for the GOP to represent all nine seats.

    The GOP would likely target Indiana’s 1st Congressional District, a longtime Democratic stronghold that encompasses Gary and other cities near Chicago in the state’s northwest corner. The seat held by third-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Frank Mrvan has been seen by Republicans as a possible pickup in recent elections.

    Lawmakers in Indiana redrew the borders of the district to be slightly more favorable toward Republicans in the 2022 election, but did not entirely split it up. The new maps were not challenged in court after they were approved in 2021, not even by Democrats and allies who had opposed the changes boosting GOP standing in the suburbs north of Indianapolis.

    Republicans could also zero in on Indiana’s 7th Congressional District, composed entirely of Marion County and the Democratic stronghold of Indianapolis. But that option would be more controversial, potentially slicing up the state’s largest city and diluting Black voters’ influence.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • New York Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Rallies Voters With Support From Bernie Sanders and AOC

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    NEW YORK (AP) — New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani rallied supporters Sunday with heavyweight support from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the race enters its final stretch, telling a raucous crowd that his campaign is a “movement of the masses.”

    Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, took the stage at a small stadium in Queens where he and two of the nation’s leading progressives pitched his candidacy as a force to take on billionaires and “oligarchs” who have thrown money and support behind his opponents.

    “When you insist on building a coalition with room for every New Yorker, that is exactly what you create: a tremendous force,” Mamdani said. “This, my friends, was your movement, and it always will be.”

    As the crowd chanted his name, Mamdani reiterated plans to hire thousands of new teachers, renegotiate city contracts, freeze rent increases for the city’s 1 million rent-regulated apartments, build more affordable housing and provide universal child care.

    With early voting underway ahead of Election Day on Nov. 4, Mamdani, a democratic socialist, is in an increasingly caustic race with former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is running as an independent candidate after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani, and Republican Curtis Sliwa, who campaigned Sunday in Queens.

    Cuomo has sought to cast Mamdani, a 34-year-old state assemblymember, as a naive candidate whose agenda would damage the city. In a radio interview Sunday morning, Cuomo argued that he is the real Democrat in the race while saying Mamdani’s democratic socialism would result in an exodus of residents and businesses.

    “The socialists want to take over the Democratic Party. That’s what Bernie Sanders is all about. That’s what AOC is all about,” Cuomo said, adding, “He wins, book airline tickets for Florida now.”

    Cuomo resigned as governor in 2021 following a barrage of sexual harassment allegations that he denies. Mamdani has often pressed Cuomo over the allegations, and on Sunday he told the crowd that it is time to leave behind the former governor’s “playbook of the past.” But he urged supporters not to take his lead in the polls for granted and to turn out to vote.

    “We cannot allow complacency to infiltrate this movement,” Mamdani said.

    Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have supported his campaign for months including before the Democratic primary in June. On Sunday they cast Mamdani as an antidote to what they called the creeping authoritarianism of President Donald Trump’s administration.

    Ocasio-Cortez, whose district includes Queens, said a victory for Mamdani will send a message nationally that a progressive message can prevail.

    “It is not a coincidence that the very forces that Zohran is up against in this race mirrors what we are up against nationally … an authoritarian, criminal presidency fueled by corruption and bigotry, and an ascendant right-wing extremist movement,” she said.

    Sanders said a Mayor Mamdani would represent “not the billionaire class” but working families.

    “In the year 2025, when the people on top have never, ever had so much economic and political power, is it possible for ordinary people, for working class people, to come together and defeat those oligarchs?” Sanders said. “You’re damn right we can.”

    Under the slogan “New York Is Not For Sale,” the rally featured rousing speeches from religious and labor leaders along with state elected officials including Gov. Kathy Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie. The event was emceed by Sarah Sherman of “Saturday Night Live.”

    Mamdani recently received an endorsement from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a moderate New York Democrat. Jeffries, in a statement, said he has disagreements with Mamdani but supports him as the nominee, adding that the party should unify against Republicans and Trump.

    Incumbent Mayor Eric Adams abandoned his reelection campaign and endorsed Cuomo.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • The East Wing of the White House Is Gone. Here’s a Look at Some of the History Made There

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Betty Ford reportedly said that if the White House West Wing is the “mind” of the nation, then the East Wing — the traditional power center for first ladies — is the “heart.”

    That “heart” beat for more than 100 years as first ladies and their teams worked from their East Wing offices on everything from stopping drug abuse and boosting literacy to beautifying and preserving the White House itself. It’s where they planned White House state dinners and brainstormed the elaborate themes that are a feature of the U.S. holiday season.

    That history came to an end after wrecking crews tore down the wing’s two stories of offices and reception rooms last week. Gone is an in-house movie theater, and a covered walkway to the White House captured in so many photos over the years. An East Wing garden that was dedicated to Jacqueline Kennedy was also uprooted, photographs show.

    The former real estate developer has long been fixated on building a big White House ballroom. In 2010, he called a top adviser to Democratic President Barack Obama and offered to build one. Trump made no secret of his distaste for the practice of hosting elegant White House state dinners underneath tents on the South Lawn. The offer was not followed up on.

    Now Trump, in his second term, is moving quickly to see his wish for what he calls a “great legacy project” become reality. He has tried to justify the East Wing tear-down and his ballroom plans by noting that some of his predecessors also added to the White House over the years.

    First ladies and their staffs witnessed history in the East Wing, a “place of purpose and service,” said Anita McBride, who worked there as chief of staff to first lady Laura Bush.

    “Tearing down those walls doesn’t diminish the significance of the work we accomplished there,” McBride told The Associated Press.

    McBride said she supports a ballroom addition because the “large and expensive tent option” that has been used when guest lists stretched longer than could be comfortably accommodated inside the White House “was not sustainable.” Tents damage the lawn and require additional infrastructure to be brought in, such as outdoor bathrooms and trolleys to move people around, especially in bad weather, she said.

    Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, who was policy director for first lady Michelle Obama, said the demolition was a “symbolic blow” to the East Wing’s legacy as a place where women made history.

    “The East Wing was this physical space that had seen the role of the first lady evolve from a social hostess into a powerful advocate on a range of issues,” she said in an interview.

    Here’s a look at some of the history that came out of the East Wing and the first ladies who spent time there:

    She was the first first lady to have her own office in the East Wing. Most first ladies before Carter had worked out of the private living quarters on the second or third floor of the residence. Carter wanted a place where she could separate work and home.

    “I always need a place to go that is private, where I don’t have to dress and don’t have to put on makeup,” she wrote in her memoir. “The offices of the staff of the first lady were always in the East Wing, and it seemed a perfect place for my office too.”

    In her memoir, Carter wrote about her favorite route to her office in winter months. She walked through the basement, past laundry rooms and workshops and the bomb shelter kept for the president and his staff. The thermostats in the residence above had been turned down low because of President Jimmy Carter’s energy conservation program, making the East Wing so cold that she was forced to wear long underwear.

    The subterranean passageway shown to her by a residence staffer provided some relief. “With Jimmy’s energy conservation program, it was the only really warm place in the White House, with large steam pipes running overhead,” the first lady wrote.

    Photos from the East Wing in the early 1980s show the first lady meeting with staff, including her press secretary, Sheila Tate. For a generation of Americans, Nancy Reagan was most closely associated with a single phrase, “Just Say No,” for the anti-drug abuse program she made a hallmark of her White House tenure.

    As Reagan once recalled, the idea for the campaign emerged during a 1982 visit with schoolchildren in Oakland, California. “A little girl raised her hand and said, ‘Mrs. Reagan, what do you do if somebody offers you drugs?’ And I said, ‘Well, you just say no.’ And there it was born.”

    Clinton bucked history by becoming the first first lady to insist that her office be in the West Wing, not the East Wing. In her memoir, Clinton wrote that wanted her staff to be “integrated physically” with the president’s team. The first lady’s office relocated to what is now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building while Clinton was assigned an office on the second floor of the West Wing.

    “This was another unprecedented event in White House history and quickly became fodder for late night comedians and political pundits,” Clinton later wrote.

    Bush wrote in her memoir about what it was like at the White House after the Sept. 11 attacks. Most of her staff members, then in their 20s, “kicked off their high heels and fled from the East Wing” after they were told to “run for their lives” when reports suggested the White House was a target.

    “Now they were being asked to come back to work in a building that everyone considered a target and for a presidency and a country that would be at war,” she wrote.

    Obama was the first Black woman to serve as first lady, becoming a global role model and style icon who advocated for improved child nutrition through her “Let’s Move” initiative. She and her staff in the East Wing also worked to support military families and promote higher education for girls in developing countries.

    Photos from the time show Obama typing on a laptop during an online chat about school nutrition and the White House garden she created.

    Trump pushed the boundaries of serving as first lady by not living at the White House during the opening months of Donald Trump’s first term. She stayed in New York with their then-school-age son, Barron, so he wouldn’t have to switch schools midyear. When she eventually moved to the White House, she and her East Wing aides launched an initiative named, “Be Best,” to focus on child well-being, opioid abuse and online safety.

    Biden was the first first lady to continue a career outside the White House. The longtime community college English professor taught twice a week while serving as first lady. But in her East Wing work, she was an advocate for military families; her late father and her late son Beau served in the military. Biden also advocated for research into a cure for cancer and secured millions of dollars in federal funding for research into women’s health.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Trump’s Redistricting Push Hits Roadblocks in Indiana and Kansas as Republican Lawmakers Resist

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    For most of President Donald Trump’s second term, Republicans have bent to his will. But in two Midwestern states, Trump’s plan to maintain control of the U.S. House in next year’s election by having Republicans redraw congressional districts has hit a roadblock.

    Despite weeks of campaigning by the White House, Republicans in Indiana and Kansas say their party doesn’t have enough votes to pass new, more GOP-friendly maps. It’s made the two states outliers in the rush to redistrict — places where Republican-majority legislatures are unwilling or unable to heed Trump’s call and help preserve the party’s control on Capitol Hill.

    Lawmakers in the two states still may be persuaded, and the White House push, which has included an Oval Office meeting for Indiana lawmakers and two trips to Indianapolis by Vice President JD Vance, is expected to continue. But for now, it’s a rare setback for the president and his efforts to maintain a compliant GOP-held Congress after the 2026 midterms.

    Typically, states redraw the boundaries of their congressional districts every 10 years, based on census data. But because midterm elections typically tend to favor the party not in power, Trump is pressuring Republicans to devise new maps that favor the GOP.

    Democrats only need to gain three seats to flip House control, and the fight has become a bruising back-and-forth.

    With new maps of their own, multiple Democratic states are moving to counter any gains made by Republicans. The latest, Virginia, is expected to take up the issue in a special session starting Monday.

    Indiana, whose House delegation has seven Republicans and two Democrats, was one of the first states on which the Trump administration focused its redistricting efforts this summer.

    But a spokesperson for state Senate Leader Rodric Bray’s office said Thursday that the chamber lacks the votes to redistrict. With only 10 Democrats in the 50-member Senate, that means more than a dozen of the 40 Republicans oppose the idea.

    Bray’s office did not respond to multiple requests for an interview.

    The holdouts may come from a few schools of thought. New political lines, if poorly executed, could make solidly Republican districts more competitive. Others believe it is simply wrong to stack the deck.

    “We are being asked to create a new culture in which it would be normal for a political party to select new voters, not once a decade — but any time it fears the consequences of an approaching election,” state Sen. Spencer Deery, a Republican, said in a statement in August.

    Deery’s office did not respond to a request for an interview and said the statement stands.

    A common argument in favor of new maps is that Democratic-run states such as Massachusetts have no Republican representatives while Illinois has used redistricting for partisan advantage — a process known as gerrymandering.

    “For decades, Democrat states have gerrymandered in the dark of the night,” Republican state Sen. Chris Garten said on social media. “We can no longer sit idly by as our country is stolen from us.”

    Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, who would vote to break a tie in the state Senate if needed, recently called on lawmakers to forge ahead with redistricting and criticized then for not being sufficiently conservative.

    “For years, it has been said accurately that the Indiana Senate is where conservative ideas from the House go to die,” Beckwith said in a social media post.

    Indiana is staunchly conservative, but its Republicans tend to foster a deliberate temperance.

    “Hoosiers, it’s very tough to to predict us, other than to say we’re very cautious,” former GOP state lawmaker Mike Murphy said. “We’re not into trends.”

    The squeamishness reflects a certain independent streak held by voters in both states and a willingness by some to push back.

    Writing in The Washington Post last week, former Gov. Mitch Daniels, a Republican, urged Indiana lawmakers to resist the push to redistrict. “Someone has to lead in climbing out of the mudhole,” he said.

    “Hoosiers, like most Americans, place a high value on fairness and react badly to its naked violation,” he wrote.


    In Kansas, Republicans also struggle to find votes

    In Kansas, Republican legislative leaders are trying to bypass the Democratic governor and force a special session for only the second time in the state’s 164-year history. Gov. Laura Kelly opposes mid-decade redistricting and has suggested it could be unconstitutional.

    The Kansas Constitution allows GOP lawmakers to force a special session with a petition signed by two-thirds of both chambers — also the supermajorities needed to override Kelly’s expected veto of a new map. Republicans hold four more seats than the two-thirds majority in both the state Senate and House. In either, a defection of five Republicans would sink the effort.

    Weeks after state Senate President Ty Masterson announced the push for a special session, GOP leaders were struggling to get the last few signatures needed.

    Among the holdouts is Rep. Mark Schreiber, who represents a district southwest of Topeka,. He told The Associated Press that “did not sign a petition to call a special session, and I have no plans to sign one.” Schreiber said he believes redistricting should be used only to reflect shifts in population after the once-every-10-year census.

    “Redistricting by either party in midcycle should not be done,” he said.

    Republicans would likely target U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids, the Democrat representing the mostly Kansas City area 3rd Congressional District, which includes Johnson County, the state’s most populous. The suburban county accounts for more than 85% of the vote and has trended to the left since 2016.

    Kansas has a sizable number of moderate Republicans, and 29% of the state’s 2 million voters are registered as politically unaffiliated. Both groups are prominent in Johnson County.

    Republican legislators previously tried to hurt Davids’ chances of reelection when redrawing the district, but she won in 2022 and 2024 by more than 10 percentage points.

    “They tried it once and couldn’t get it done,” said Jack Shearer, an 82-year-old registered Republican from suburban Kansas City.

    But a mid-decade redistricting has support among some Republicans in the county. State Sen. Doug Shane, whose district includes part of the county, said he believes his constituents would be amenable to splitting it.

    “Splitting counties is not unprecedented and occurs in a number of congressional districts around the country,” he said in an email.

    Volmert reported from Lansing, Mich., and Hanna from Topeka, Kan. Associated Press writer Heather Hollingsworth in Lenexa, Kan., contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • Trump Aims to Start His Asia Trip With Dealmaking in Malaysia

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    KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — President Donald Trump plans to burnish his reputation as an international dealmaker on Sunday by solidifying a trade agreement with Malaysia and overseeing the signing of an expanded ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand, two nations that skirmished along their disputed border earlier this year.

    Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One that he was optimistic his meeting with Xi could yield progress on a range of issues, including fentanyl trafficking and soybean trade. “I think we have a really good chance of making a very comprehensive deal,” Trump said. “I want our farmers to be taken care of. And he wants things also.”

    Details about Trump’s agreements have been characteristically scarce, even after Trump departed Washington. It remains to be seen whether Trump’s dealmaking addresses longstanding issues or puts them off for another day.

    The Republican president is scheduled to touch down in Kuala Lumpur around 10 a.m. local time. He will meet with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim before attending a ceremony featuring Cambodia and Thailand and later joining regional leaders for dinner.

    U.S. presidents don’t always attend this summit, and Trump went only once during his first term. But he told reporters aboard Air Force One that he wanted to come because Anwar helped resolve the fighting between Cambodia and Thailand.

    “I told the leader of Malaysia, who is a very good man, ‘I think I owe you a trip,’” Trump said.

    Dozens of people died and hundreds of thousands were displaced during five days of combat in July. Cambodia and Thailand have competing territorial claims, and violence periodically flares along their border.

    Trump threatened to withhold trade agreements from the two countries unless they stopped fighting, a display of economic leverage that has been credited with spurring negotiations. A shaky truce has persisted since then.

    “The fact that Trump was holding the tariff card was actually very, very significant,” said Ou Virak, president of Phnom Penh’s Future Forum think tank. “That’s probably the main reason, if not the only reason, but definitely the main reason why the two sides agreed immediately to the ceasefire.”

    Now, he said, “there’s a ceremony for Trump to be in front of cameras” so he can be “seen as the champion that brings an end to wars and conflicts,” giving him ”more ammunition for his bid for Nobel Peace Prize.”

    Thai foreign ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura told reporters on Saturday that the “joint declaration” to be signed on Sunday will state that Thailand and Cambodia “are committed to renew their relations.”

    He also said there has been an agreement to address Thai concerns about landmines and heavy artillery along the border, as well as other issues.

    “It’s not an end in itself,” Nikorndej said. “Work has just begun.”

    Trump expressed confidence about the prospect of finalizing trade agreements during his trip. Negotiations have been underway with Japan and South Korea, two longstanding allies and trading partners.

    In Southeast Asia, trade talks appear further along with Malaysia, and a deal is expected to be signed while Trump is in Kuala Lumpur.

    “We have deals with a lot of people and they’re very good deals,” Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One.

    One leader who will be absent from the summit is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Although he was close with Trump during his first term, the relationship has been more tense lately. Trump caused irritation by boasting that he settled a recent conflict between India and Pakistan, and he has increased tariffs on India for its purchase of Russian oil.

    Associated Press writer Jintamas Saksornchai in Bangkok contributed to this report.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • 7 Charged in 2024 Pennsylvania Voter Registration Fraud That Prosecutors Say Was Motivated by Money

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    HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A yearlong investigation into suspected fraudulent voter registration forms submitted ahead of last year’s presidential election produced criminal charges Friday against six street canvassers and the man who led their work in Pennsylvania.

    The allegations of fraud appeared to be motivated by the defendants’ desire to make money and keep their jobs and was not an effort to influence the election results, said Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday, a Republican.

    Guillermo Sainz, 33, described by prosecutors as the director of a company’s registration drives in Pennsylvania, was charged with three counts of solicitation of registration, a state law that prohibits offering money to reach registration quotas. A message seeking comment was left on a number associated with Sainz, who lives in Arizona. He did not have a lawyer listed in court records.

    The six canvassers are charged with unsworn falsification, tampering with public records, forgery and violations of Pennsylvania election law. The charges relate to activities in three Republican-leaning Pennsylvania counties: York, Lancaster and Berks.

    “We are confident that the motive behind these crimes was personal financial gain, and not a conspiracy or organized effort to tip any election for any one candidate or party,” Sunday said in a news release. Prosecutors said the forms included all party affiliations.

    In a court affidavit filed with the criminal charges on Friday, investigators said Sainz, an employee of Field+Media Corps, “instituted unlawful financial incentives and pressures in his push to meet company goals to maintain funding which in turn spurred some canvassers to create and submit fake forms to earn more money.”

    The chief executive of Field+Media Corps, based in Mesa, Arizona, said last year the company was proud of its work to expand voting but had no information about problematic registration forms. A message seeking comment was left Friday for the CEO, Francisco Heredia. The Field+Media Corps website did not appear to be operative.

    Field+Media was funded by Everybody Votes, an effort to improve voter registration rates in communities of color. The affidavit said Everybody Votes “fully cooperated” with the investigation and noted its contract with Field+Media prohibited payments on a per-registration basis.

    “The investigation confirmed that we hold our partners to the highest standards of quality control when collecting, handling and delivering voter registration applications,” Everybody Votes said in a statement e-mailed by a spokesperson.

    Sainz, who managed Pennsylvania operations from May to October 2024, is accused of paying canvassers based on how many signatures they collected. The police affidavit said Sainz told agents with the attorney general’s office earlier this month he was unaware of any canvassers paid extra hours if they reached a target number of forms.

    “Sainz had to be asked the question multiple times before he stated he was not aware of this and that ‘everyone was an hourly worker,’ ” investigators wrote.

    One canvasser said she created fake forms to boost her pay and believed others did, too, according to the police affidavit. Another told investigators that most of the registration forms he collected were “not real.” A third reported that when she realized she was not going to reach a daily quota, “she would make up names and information,” police wrote, “due to fear of losing her job.”

    The investigation began in late October 2024, when election workers in Lancaster flagged about 2,500 voter registration forms for potential fraud. Authorities said they appeared to contain false names, suspicious handwriting, questionable signatures, incorrect addresses and other problematic details.

    The suggestion of criminal activity related to the election came as the battleground state was considered pivotal to the presidential election, and then-candidate Donald Trump seized on the news. At a campaign event, he declared there was “cheating” involving “2,600” votes. The actual issue in Lancaster was about 2,500 suspected fraudulent voter registration forms, not ballots or votes.

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  • US Military Flew Supersonic B-1 Bombers up to the Coast of Venezuela

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military flew a pair of supersonic, heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela on Thursday, a little over a week after another group of American bombers made a similar journey as part of a training exercise to simulate an attack.

    Adding to the speculation, the U.S. military since early September has been carrying out lethal strikes on vessels in the waters off Venezuela that Trump says are trafficking drugs.

    According to flight tracking data, a pair of B-1 Lancer bombers took off from Dyess Air Force Base in Texas on Thursday and flew through the Caribbean and up to the coast of Venezuela. A U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military operations, confirmed that a training flight of B-1s took place in the Caribbean.

    The B-1 bomber can carry more bombs than any other plane in the U.S. inventory.

    A similar flight of slower B-52 Stratofortress bombers was conducted in the region last week. The bombers were joined by Marine Corps F-35B stealth fighter jets — a squadron is currently based in Puerto Rico — for what the Pentagon called a “bomber attack demo” in photos online.

    When Trump was asked about Thursday’s B-1 flight and if it was meant to ramp up military pressure on Venezuela, he said, “it’s false, but we’re not happy with Venezuela for a lot of reasons. Drugs being one of them.”

    The U.S. force in the Caribbean includes eight warships, P-8 maritime patrol aircraft, MQ-9 Reaper drones and an F-35 fighter squadron. A submarine has also been confirmed to be operating in the waters off South America.

    Trump on Wednesday said he has the “legal authority” to carry out the strikes on the alleged drug-carrying boats and suggested similar strikes could be done on land.

    “We will hit them very hard when they come in by land,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “We’re totally prepared to do that. And we’ll probably go back to Congress and explain exactly what we’re doing when we come to the land.”

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that the military had conducted its ninth strike, killing three people in the eastern Pacific Ocean. It followed a strike Tuesday night, also in the eastern Pacific, that killed two people and brought the overall death toll from the strikes to at least 37.

    “Our message to these foreign terrorist organizations is we will treat you like we have treated al-Qaeda,” Hegseth told reporters on Thursday at the White House.

    “We will find you, we will map your networks, we will hunt you down, and we will kill you,” he added.

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  • In Japan and South Korea, Trump Will Promote Big Investments. but the Details Are Still Not Clear

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is going to Japan and South Korea next week to promote an epic financial windfall — at least $900 billion in investments for U.S. factories, a natural gas pipeline and other projects.

    Japan and South Korea made those financial commitments in August to try to get Trump to ratchet down his planned tariff rates from 25% to 15%. But as the U.S. president is set to depart Friday night for Asia, the pledges are more of a loose end than money in the bank for American industry.

    Japan pledged $550 billion in investments, but it wants the money to benefit its own companies, making that a condition in a memorandum released in September. As of Monday, Japan has a new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who has expressed respect for Trump but is operating in an untested coalition government.

    South Korea offered $350 billion — but wants a swap line for U.S. dollars to facilitate its investments and seeks to fund the transactions through loan guarantees. Otherwise, the commitment could sink its own economy.

    The investment arrangements are unusual for trade frameworks, and Trump maintains that he will personally direct how the money is spent, enabling him to pick winners and losers. Weeks of talks have yet to produce any breakthroughs on how the investments would go forward even though both nations want to preserve their relationship with America.

    Still, ahead of the trip, Trump was radiating optimism that his tariffs had forced investments to fuel what he believes will be an economic boom starting next year.

    “We’ve done well, as you know, with Japan, with South Korea,” Trump told Republican senators Tuesday. “Without the tariffs, you could have never made the deal. I’ll tell you what. Tariffs equal national security.”


    Countering China’s manufacturing might

    For Trump, the investments are also about demonstrating America’s strength before a planned meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping while he is in South Korea. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Monday described Trump’s strategy in part as “encouraging allied investment in America’s industrial future” to counter Chinese manufacturers.

    But Japan and South Korea are also competing against China — which is pivoting aggressively into electric vehicles, computer chips and other technologies. There is a risk that mandating investment in the U.S. could weaken allies that are closer geographically to China, said Christopher Smart, managing partner at the Arbroath Group, a geopolitical strategy firm.

    “They need to invest in their own countries,” said Smart, who was a senior economic aide in the Obama White House. He said Trump was “going to extract investment money” from the countries while also erecting “tariff walls” that could make it harder for them to sell goods in America, a rather lopsided view of how alliances work.

    Few experts believe Japan and South Korea would agree with the Trump administration’s framing that their U.S. investments are a way to compete against China.

    “It is really about lowering tariffs and avoiding Trump’s wrath,” said Andrew Yeo, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Center for Asia Policy Studies.


    Nippon Steel deal was a case study in working with Trump

    There is an expectation that Japan and South Korea both want to resolve any hurdles on the investments and will take steps to achieve “progress” in talks with Trump, said William Chou, a senior fellow focused on Japan at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

    Chou pointed to Nippon Steel’s agreement to purchase U.S. Steel this year as an example of how Japan can work with the Trump administration. The president had initially opposed the merger, but later backed it with an agreement that gave the U.S. government some control over the acquired company.

    Similarly, the memorandum of understanding on Japan’s $550 million investment would also give the U.S. government input on how the money would be spent. It provides for a committee led by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to propose investments, giving Japan 45 days to respond, with the understanding that the deals would give preference to Japanese contractors and suppliers.

    “Japan came through with the paperwork,” Lutnick said in a September CNBC interview. “They gave us $550 billion to invest for the benefit of America, build the Alaska pipeline, build nuclear power plants, make your grid better, do generic antibiotics in America.”


    South Korea is still working to reduce US tariffs

    South Korea has yet to finalize a written agreement with the U.S. on the $350 billion investment, a problem as higher U.S. tariff rates still apply to its autos. South Korean officials have balked at U.S. demands for upfront payments, which they say would put the country at risk of a financial crisis. Instead, they have proposed delivering the investment through loans and loan guarantees.

    Returning to South Korea on Sunday after talks in Washington, Kim Yong-beom, presidential chief of staff for policy, told reporters there had been progress, although he declined to provide specifics.

    “We’re nearing an agreement that there should be mutually beneficial (deals) that the Republic of Korea can endure,” Kim said. “The U.S. fully recognizes and understands possible shocks on the foreign exchange market in the Republic of Korea.”

    The proposed South Korean investment represents more than 80% of its foreign currency reserves. South Korea has proposed a currency swap with the U.S. to ease potential financial instability caused by the investment, but no agreement has been reached yet.


    Immigration is another flashpoint

    The Sept. 4 immigration raid by Trump’s government on a Hyundai auto plant in Georgia, causing the detention of more than 300 South Koreans, has also strained the relationship. It came less than two weeks after Trump met South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, and led to calls in South Korea to ensure that its workers operating in the U.S. have legal protections.

    Since that raid, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry has said the United States has now agreed to allow in South Korean workers on short-term visas or a visa waiver program to help build industrial sites in America.

    Lee has said South Korean companies will likely hesitate to make further investments in the U.S. unless it improves its visa system.

    “When you build a factory or install equipment at a factory, you need technicians, but the United States doesn’t have that workforce and yet they won’t issue visas to let our people stay and do the work,” Lee said last month.

    Trump has said his tariffs will spur new investments that ultimately will produce jobs for U.S. citizens.

    “Without tariffs, it’s a slog for this country, a big slog,” Trump said Wednesday.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • With East Wing Nearly Demolished, White House Looks for More Donors to Help Fund Ballroom

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    By Jeff Mason and Gram Slattery

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House is looking for more donors to help fund President Donald Trump’s $300 million ballroom.

    The president’s team has released a list of companies and wealthy individuals who have pledged to contribute to the project’s cost, but it has not said how much each is giving or specified how much Trump himself intends to pony up.

    The project had received nearly $200 million in pledged contributions as of last week, according to a White House official. 

    The president said on Thursday he intended to give millions of dollars. “I’ll donate whatever’s needed,” he said.

    Corporations including Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Alphabet’s Google, as well as individuals such as Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, have agreed to help pay for the ballroom, according to the White House.

    “Fundraising has not stopped,” the White House official told Reuters.

    Last week, Trump addressed roughly three dozen major donors and corporate leaders at a dinner in the East Room of the White House to highlight progress on the project.

    “We have a lot of legends in the room tonight, and that’s why we’re here to celebrate you, because you gave,” Trump told them.

    The cost for the 90,000-square-foot addition has grown from Trump’s initial $200 million estimate to $300 million this week, as demolition workers take down the entire East Wing, which held offices for the first lady and other staff. The demolition has prompted outrage from Democrats and others who were shocked at seeing part of the historic building turned to rubble.

    The Department of the Interior was taking the lead on what to do with the rubble, the official said, adding he was not aware of any plans to sell pieces of demolished walls as souvenirs.

    The official said demolition work could be completed in the coming days. “The goal is as soon as possible,” he said. 

    The White House on Thursday said it had been transparent about the project despite concern expressed by critics that it did not go through a proper review process before tearing down the East Wing. Trump, when he announced the project in July, said it would not interfere with the existing structure.

    “The president has been incredibly transparent,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told a briefing. “With any construction project there are changes over time as you assess what the project is going to look like, and we’ll continue to keep you apprised of all of those changes, but just trust the process.”

    (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Gram Slattery in WashingtonEditing by Colleen Jenkins and Matthew Lewis)

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  • Trump Mulls Asking Israel to Free Palestinian Leader Barghouti as US Looks to Gaza’s Post-Hamas Rule

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    Trump, in an interview published Thursday, said he has discussed the potential for Barghouti’s release with White House aides.

    “I was literally being confronted with that question about 15 minutes before you called,” Trump told Time magazine interview when asked about Barghouti. “So I’ll be making a decision.”

    The White House did not respond to a request for comment about Trump’s deliberations on the matter. But the president’s acknowledgment of the internal discussions underscores the difficult task of finding credible political figures to oversee governance in Gaza as the U.S. and Israel say they are committed to preventing Hamas from continuing to rule the territory.

    Barghouti was not among prisoners Israel agreed to release this month in exchange for hostages under the Gaza ceasefire deal, despite Hamas officials reportedly calling for his freedom.

    Israel views Barghouti as a terrorist leader. He is serving multiple life sentences after being convicted in 2004 in connection with attacks in Israel that killed five people.

    Some experts say Israel fears Barghouti for another reason: An advocate of a two-state solution even as he backed armed resistance to occupation, Barghouti could be a powerful rallying figure for Palestinians. Some Palestinians view him as their own Nelson Mandela, the South African anti-apartheid activist who became his country’s first Black president.

    One of the few consensus figures in Palestinian politics, the 66-year-old Barghouti is widely seen as a potential successor to Mahmoud Abbas, the aging and unpopular leader of the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority that runs pockets of the West Bank. Polls consistently show Barghouti is the most popular Palestinian leader.

    Barghouti headed Fatah in the West Bank when the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel, broke out. Israel accused him of being the leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a loose collection of Fatah-linked armed groups that carried out attacks on Israelis.

    Barghouti never commented on his links to the Brigades. While he expressed hopes for a Palestinian state and Israel side by side in peace, he said Palestinians had a right to fight back in the face of growing Israeli settlements and the military’s violence against Palestinians.

    Soon after, he was arrested by Israel. At trial he opted not to defend himself because he did not recognize the court’s authority. He was convicted of murder for involvement in several Brigades’ attacks and given five life sentences, while acquitted over other attacks.

    Most of those released by Israel under the ceasefire this month are members of Hamas and the Fatah faction arrested in the 2000s. Many were convicted of involvement in shootings, bombings or other attacks that killed or attempted to kill Israeli civilians, settlers and soldiers. After their release, more than half were sent to Gaza or into exile outside the Palestinian territories.

    The 2000s saw the eruption of the second intifada, fueled by anger over continued occupation despite years of peace talks. The uprising turned bloody, with Palestinian armed groups carrying out attacks that killed hundreds of Israelis. The Israeli military killed several thousand Palestinians.

    Meanwhile, Vice President JD Vance, winding down a three-day visit to Israel, said Thursday that Gaza reconstruction in areas free of Hamas could begin soon.

    “We could start reconstruction of the areas that are free of Hamas very quickly. We think that we could potentially get hundreds of thousands of Gazans living in that area very quickly,” Vance said. “But again, this is all still pretty early. But that’s the basic idea.”

    Rafah’s population surged early in the war as many Palestinians were displaced by Israeli operations elsewhere in the territory. By this past spring, Rafah was also largely decimated by the fighting.

    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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  • University of Virginia to Roll Back DEI Programs in Deal With White House

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    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Donald Trump’s administration said on Wednesday it struck a deal with the University of Virginia to pause civil rights investigations and keep it eligible for federal funding in exchange for the school rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

    The agreement, made public by the Justice Department, marks the first time a state university has settled with the Trump administration in its wide-ranging campaign to pressure top U.S. universities over pro-Palestinian student protests and policies designed to increase diversity that the administration has condemned as discriminatory.

    The university’s prior president resigned in June under pressure from Trump officials.

    “This notable agreement with the University of Virginia will protect students and faculty from unlawful discrimination, ensuring that equal opportunity and fairness are restored,” Harmeet Dhillon, the head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement. 

    A University of Virginia spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The Trump administration previously reached agreements for Columbia University to pay $200 million and Brown University to pay $50 million to resolve civil rights investigations and restore federal funding for research and other activities.

    A Justice Department spokesperson said there is no monetary penalty in the University of Virginia deal.

    The deal requires the University of Virginia to adopt the Trump Justice Department’s view on what constitutes unlawful racial discrimination in university hiring, programming and admissions. It will require the university to provide data each quarter through the end of Trump’s second term in 2028.

    The Justice Department said it would “pause” civil rights investigations into the university’s admissions policies and other issues, with those probes being formally closed if the university follows through on its rollback of DEI programs.

    The department said the university would be treated as “fully eligible for future grants and awards.”

    (Reporting by Andrew Goudsward; editing by Scott Malone and Bill Berkrot)

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  • Hegseth Changes Policy on How Pentagon Officials Communicate With Congress

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders at the Pentagon have significantly altered how military officials will speak with Congress after a pair of new memos issued last week.

    In an Oct. 15 memo, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his deputy, Steve Feinberg, ordered Pentagon officials — including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — to obtain permission from the department’s main legislative affairs office before they have any communication with Capitol Hill.

    The memo was issued the same day the vast majority of Pentagon reporters exited the building rather than agree to the Defense Department’s new restrictions on their work, and it appears to be part of a broader effort by Hegseth to exert tighter control over what the department communicates to the outside world.

    According to the memo, a copy of which was authenticated by a Pentagon official, “unauthorized engagements with Congress by (Pentagon) personnel acting in their official capacity, no matter how well-intentioned, may undermine Department-wide priorities critical to achieving our legislative objectives.”

    Sean Parnell, the top Pentagon spokesman, called the move a “pragmatic step” that’s part of an effort “to improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating with the Congress to facilitate increased transparency.”

    Previously, individual agencies and military branches within the Pentagon were able to manage their own communications with Congress.

    A second memo, issued Oct. 17, directed a “working group to further define the guidance on legislative engagements.”

    The memos were first reported by the website Breaking Defense.

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  • Alabama Board Seeks to Ban Books That ‘Positively’ Depict Trans Themes From Library Youth Sections

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    MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama board is seeking to prohibit public libraries from placing books that “positively” depict transgender themes and topics in teen and children’s sections.

    The Alabama Public Library Service Board of Directors is considering a proposed rule change that expands the existing requirement for youth sections to be free of “material deemed inappropriate for children.” The new proposal said that includes any material that “positively depicts transgender procedures, gender ideology, or the concept of more than two biological genders.”

    The Alabama proposal is the latest salvo in the national fight over library content. The state board on Tuesday held a lengthy and sometimes heated and emotional public hearing ahead of next month’s expected vote.

    Opponents called the proposal blatantly discriminatory and an attempt to impose one viewpoint on all Alabamians at the expense of trans youth and their families.

    “These changes do not protect children — they police ideas,” said Matthew Layne, a past president of the Alabama Library Association.

    Supporters of the proposal said parents who want their children to read the books can get them in other places.

    “Removing trans books is not book-banning,” Julia Cleland, a member of the group Eagle Forum, told the board. Cleland said she would prefer the books be removed entirely from public libraries, not just youth sections.

    John Wahl, the chairman of the library board, said he expects the board to approve the rule change, or an amended version of it, when they meet next month. He said libraries could stock the materials in adult sections where parents could access them for their children.

    “We want parents to be confident that the children’s sections of Alabama libraries are age appropriate, that their children are not going to stumble against sexually explicit content,” Wahl said. Wahl is also chair of the Alabama Republican Party.

    Some speakers said public libraries must serve all types of families, including those with trans children and adults.

    Alyx Kim-Yohn, a librarian in north Alabama, told the board that as a queer teenager, they were isolated and bullied to the point of writing a suicide note.

    “What saved me was reading literature that had people like me in it. What saved me was finding other queer folks who had the opportunity to grow up and be queer adults, which not all of us get,” Kim-Yohn said.

    Other speakers said they didn’t want their child or grandchild to see books suggesting that gender can be changed.

    The three-hour meeting ended with pointed disagreements over the motivation for the proposal.

    “It’s politically motivated. It is taking away control from local libraries who are appointed by local governing bodies,” board member Ronald A. Snider said. Snider accused Wahl of using his position as Republican Party chairman to drum up support of the proposal.

    Wahl said the proposal was in response to concerns and that his goal was “to put parents in charge.”

    If the Alabama change is adopted, a local library could lose state funding if the board decides it is not compliant. The Alabama library board this spring voted to withhold state funding from the Fairhope Public Library because of some of the books available in the teen section of the library.

    The Alabama proposal comes amid a wave of legislation and regulations in Republican-controlled states targeting libraries.

    Kasey Meehan, the director of the Freedom to Read program at PEN America, said this is not the first time they’ve seen a state government “attempt to remove youth access to books with LGBTQ+ themes.” She noted an Idaho law that restricted access to books with content considered “harmful to minors.”

    “Policies that target LGBTQ themes in libraries are not only discriminatory but a disaster for libraries and readers,” Meehan said. “These policies feed on ignorance and fear-mongering against queer and trans people, and diminish the ability of libraries to effectively serve all within their communities.”

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  • White House Says It Will Submit Ballroom Plans for Review, With Demolition Already Under Way

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    By Jeff Mason and Nandita Bose

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House said on Tuesday it will submit plans for President Donald Trump’s $250 million White House ballroom project to a body that oversees federal building construction, even though demolition work began earlier this week.

    Trump reveled on Tuesday in the demolition sounds by construction workers for the ballroom addition to the White House, the first major change to the historic property in decades.

    But critics, aghast about images of the White House walls crumbling after Trump had pledged the project would not interfere with the existing landmark, said a review process should have taken place before the work began.

    The White House still intends to submit those plans to the National Capital Planning Commission, which oversees federal construction in Washington and neighboring states, a White House official told Reuters.

    “Construction plans have not yet been submitted to the National Capital Planning Commission but will be soon,” the official said, adding that the NCPC does not have jurisdiction over demolition work.

    Asked why the demolition of East Wing walls was occurring despite Trump’s promise that it would not affect the existing building, the official said modernization work was required in the East Wing and changes had always been a possibility.

    “The scope and size was always subject to vary as the project developed,” he said.

    Trump, a former New York real estate magnate who has made changes to the Oval Office, Rose Garden and other parts of the executive mansion complex since taking office in January, has long wanted to build a ballroom to host larger gatherings. Trump has said it will be paid for by himself and donors, allowing him to avoid seeking congressionally appropriated government funds but raising questions about possible conflicts of interest.

    Bryan Green, who served as an NCPC commissioner under Democratic President Joe Biden, said demolition work was connected to the ballroom project.

    “Demolition really cannot be separated from the new construction that follows,” he said. “These are linked.”

    A tennis pavilion on White House grounds completed during Trump’s first term went through a review process with the NCPC and the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, Green noted.

    Doing the same kind of review this time would have avoided the shock that many observers felt this week when the demolition began unannounced on Monday. Trump later said ground had been broken on the project after images of the demolition started circulating in news reports.

    “You don’t have the image of a wrecking ball hitting the president’s house, one of the most important buildings in our country, by surprise to everyone except a small handful of people,” Green said.

    Trump’s White House dismissed criticism, calling it “manufactured outrage.” It pointed to additions and renovations that have been made to the executive mansion and its grounds by presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to Bill Clinton.

    Loud banging from the East Wing demolition caught the attention of tourists walking past the south lawn of the White House on Tuesday, causing several people to stop briefly to see demolition excavators tearing down the roof.

    “I think it’s a total waste of money and shows a complete lack of respect for historic buildings in our nation’s capital, but it’s totally not surprising. I am having PTSD from my bathroom remodel,” said Catheryn Koss, 52, from California. “I thought they said they were going to preserve it.”

    Several prominent Democrats also voiced disapproval.

    “It’s not his house. It’s your house. And he’s destroying it,” former first lady and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said on X.

    There has been some ambiguity about which entities have jurisdiction over the project.

    Priya Jain, who chairs a heritage conservation committee at the Society of Architectural Historians, which has expressed concern about the work, said the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 normally requires reviews for projects that affect historic buildings.

    But a carve-out for the White House, the U.S. Capitol and the Supreme Court and their grounds meant Trump’s project was exempt.

    “We have best practices (on) how to do this, and it would have been nice to see some of that process, even if it was not required by law,” she said.

    The U.S. Treasury, which sits adjacent to the White House, confirmed that it directed its employees not to share pictures of the construction site.

    “Carelessly shared photographs of the White House complex during this process could potentially reveal sensitive items, including security features or confidential structural details,” a spokesperson said.

    The White House’s East Wing sits on top of the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a bunker the president would use in a wartime scenario. It is unclear how the facility is being impacted.

    Speaking to Republican lawmakers gathered in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday, Trump noted the noises of demolition work coming from the other side of the grounds.

    “You probably hear the beautiful sound of construction to the back,” he said, sighing approvingly. “That’s music to my ears. I love that sound. Other people don’t like it. … When I hear that sound it reminds me of money.”

    (Reporting by Jeff Mason, Nandita Bose, Courtney Rozen, Trevor Hunnicutt, and Jessica Koscielniak; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Leslie Adler)

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  • New Jersey Republicans Ask for Federal Monitors in Critical County Ahead of Governor’s Election

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    The U.S. Department of Justice is reviewing a request from New Jersey Republicans to send election monitors to oversee the handling of mail ballots in a key county that will help settle the state’s Nov. 4 governor’s race.

    The New Jersey Republican State Committee told Harmeet Dhillon, who leads the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department, in a letter that federal intervention is necessary to ensure an accurate vote count in Passaic County.

    The suburban county has been a Democratic stronghold. But it shifted to President Donald Trump’s column in 2024 and may be critical to GOP gubernatorial nominee Jack Ciattarelli’s hopes against Democratic nominee Mikie Sherrill.

    New Jersey Republicans asked specifically for federal monitors to “oversee the receipt and processing of vote-by-mail ballots” and “take steps to monitor access to the Board of Elections around the clock.”

    Justice Department spokesman Gates McGavick said in a statement that the agency “is committed to upholding the integrity of our electoral system and is reviewing this request to ensure all elections remain free, fair, and transparent.”

    The New Jersey GOP request cited previous voter fraud cases in the county, alleging a “long and sordid history” of vote-by-mail shenanigans and asserting that state officials have not done enough in response.

    New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    While voter fraud does occur nationally, it is rare and there are safeguards in place to prevent it. But Passaic County drew Trump’s attention in 2020 as a case study in what could happen in an election conducted mostly by mail.

    A judge ordered a new election for a city council seat in Paterson — the largest city in Passaic County — after the apparent winner and others were charged with voter fraud. The Passaic County Board of Elections decided not to count 800 ballots cast in the race after the U.S. Postal Service’s law enforcement arm said hundreds of mail-in ballots were located in a mailbox in Paterson, along with more found in nearby Haledon.

    In 2024, Trump became the first Republican presidential nominee to win Passaic County in more than 30 years. He carried the heavily Latino city of Passaic and significantly increased his support in Paterson, the state’s third-largest city, which is majority Latino and has a large Muslim community.

    That performance was part of Trump dramatically improving his statewide performance in New Jersey. In 2020, he lost the state by nearly 16 percentage points to Demcorat Joe Biden. Trump narrowed that margin to 6 percentage points last year in his matchup against Democrat Kamala Harris.

    Trump has for years questioned mail voting as part of his repeated false claims that Biden’s national victory in 2020 was rigged. Trump has suggested that mail balloting is riddled with fraud, despite analyses that show no widespread fraud in U.S. elections. Earlier this year, Trump pledged to ban vote-by-mail across the country, something he has no power to do under the U.S. Constitution.

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  • Biden Completes a Round of Radiation Therapy as Part of His Prostate Cancer Treatment

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    Biden had been receiving treatment at Penn Medicine Radiation Oncology in Philadelphia, said aide Kelly Scully.

    In May, Biden’s postpresidential office announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that it had spread to his bones. The discovery came after he reported urinary symptoms.

    Prostate cancers are graded for aggressiveness using what is known as a Gleason score. The scores range from 6 to 10, with 8, 9 and 10 prostate cancers behaving more aggressively. Biden’s office said his score was 9, suggesting his cancer is among the most aggressive.

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  • Comey’s Lawyers Say Case Against Him Is Driven by Trump’s ‘Personal Animus’ and Must Be Thrown Out

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former FBI Director James Comey urged a judge Monday to dismiss the case against him, calling it a vindictive prosecution motivated by “personal animus” and orchestrated by a White House determined to seek retribution against a perceived foe of President Donald Trump.

    The two-prong attack on the indictment, which accuses Comey of lying to Congress five years ago, represents the opening salvo in what is expected to be a protracted court fight ahead of a trial currently set for Jan. 5. The motions take aim not at the substance of the allegations but rather on the unusual circumstances of the prosecution, which included Trump exhorting his attorney general to bring charges against Comey as well as his administration’s abrupt installation of a White House aide to serve as top prosecutor of the elite office overseeing the case.

    “Bedrock principles of due process and equal protection have long ensured that government officials may not use courts to punish and imprison their perceived personal and political enemies,” wrote Comey’s defense team, which includes Patrick Fitzgerald, the former U.S. Attorney in Chicago and a longtime Comey friend. “But that is exactly what happened here.”

    They said the Justice Department had brought the case because of Trump’s hatred of Comey, who as FBI director in the first months of Trump’s first term infuriated the president through his oversight of an investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. Trump fired Comey in May 2017. The two have been open adversaries in the years since, with Comey labeling Trump “unethical” and comparing him to a mafia boss and Trump branding Comey an “untruthful slimeball” and calling for him to be punished because of the Russia investigation.

    “The government has singled out Mr. Comey for prosecution because of his protected speech and because of President Trump’s personal animus toward Mr. Comey,” defense lawyers wrote, adding that such a “vindictive and selection prosecution” violates multiple provisions of the Constitution and must be dismissed.

    Comey’s defense team had foreshadowed the arguments during his first and only court appearance in the case, where he pleaded not guilty.

    Though motions alleging vindictive prosecutions do not often succeed, this one lays out a timeline of events intended to link Trump’s demands for a prosecution with the Justice Department’s scramble to secure an indictment last month just before the statute of limitations was set to lapse.

    Last month, for instance, he complained in a Truth Social post directed to Attorney General Pam Bondi that “nothing is being done” on investigations into some of his foes and called for action, specifically referencing inquiries into Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

    “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!” part of the message said.

    He installed Lindsey Halligan, a White House aide who had been one of Trump’s personal lawyers but had no experience as a federal prosecutor, to run the Eastern District of Virginia and replace Erik Siebert, who had resigned as U.S. attorney one day earlier amid administration pressure to charge Comey and James. Comey was indicted days later.

    Comey’s lawyers argued that that social media post represented an admission that the government was prosecuting Comey for “an impermissible discriminatory purpose.”

    “For many years, President Trump has sought to prosecute or otherwise punish Mr. Comey because of overt hostility to Mr. Comey’s protected speech and because of his personal bias against Mr. Comey,” the attorneys said. “But despite President Trump’s yearslong campaign to prosecute Mr. Comey, no career or appointed prosecutor had ever agreed to do so. Thus, Mr. Trump made clear to his Attorney General that the only way to achieve ‘JUSTICE’ against Mr. Comey was by ousting Mr. Siebert and installing Ms. Halligan.”

    Defense lawyers in a separate motion argued that the case was “fatally flawed” because Halligan was unlawfully appointed before she signed the indictment late last month.

    “The President and Attorney General appointed the President’s personal lawyer as interim U.S. Attorney in violation of a clear statutory command so that the interim U.S. Attorney could indict an outspoken critic of the President just days before the relevant statute of limitations was set to expire,” defense lawyers said.

    Halligan is not the only U.S. attorney facing a court challenge.

    Separately Monday, defense lawyers and prosecutors argued in court papers over a suggestion by the Justice Department that Fitzgerald, might have to step aside. Prosecutors late Sunday asserted in a court filing that Comey’s “lead defense counsel” had earlier been used by Comey to disclose classified information, a claim the defense team called “provably false” and defamatory.

    Associated Press writer Mike Catalini in Philadelphia contributed.

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