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  • US Senate Unanimously Endorses Repeal of 2002 Iraq War Resolution

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — More than two decades later, Congress is on the verge of writing a closing chapter to the war in Iraq.

    The Senate voted Thursday to repeal the resolution that authorized the 2003 U.S. invasion, following a House vote last month that would return the basic war power to Congress.

    The amendment by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, a Democrat, and Indiana Sen. Todd Young, a Republican, was approved by voice vote to an annual defense authorization bill that passed the Senate late Thursday — a unanimous endorsement for ending the war that many now view as a mistake.

    Iraqi deaths were estimated in the hundreds of thousands, and nearly 5,000 U.S. troops were killed in the war after President George W. Bush’s administration falsely claimed that then-President Saddam Hussein was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

    “That’s the way the war ends, not with a bang but a whimper,” Kaine said after the vote, which lasted only a few seconds with no debate and no objections. Still, he said, “America is forever changed by those wars, and the Middle East is too.”

    Supporters in both the House and Senate say the repeal is crucial to prevent future abuses and to reinforce that Iraq is now a strategic partner of the United States. The House added a similar amendment to its version of the defense measure in September, meaning the repeal is likely to end up in the final bill once the two chambers reconcile the two pieces of legislation. Both bills also repeal the 1991 authorization that sanctioned the U.S.-led Gulf War.

    While Congress appears poised to pass the repeal, it is unclear whether President Donald Trump will support it. During his first term, his administration cited the 2002 Iraq resolution as part of its legal justification for a 2020 U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian Gen. Qassim Soleimani. It has otherwise been rarely used.

    Young said after the vote that he thinks Trump should “take great pride” in signing the bill after campaigning on ending so-called “forever wars,” especially because he would be the first president in recent history to legally end a longstanding war.

    He said the vote establishes an important precedent.

    “Congress is now very clearly asserting that it is our prerogative and our responsibility not only to authorize but also to bring to an end military conflicts,” Young said.

    The bipartisan vote, added to the larger bipartisan defense measure, came amid a bitter partisan standoff over a weeklong government shutdown. Young said the quick vote was an “extraordinary moment” that he hopes “will help some people see that we can still do consequential things in the U.S. Congress.”

    The Senate also voted to repeal the 2002 resolution two years ago on a 66-30 vote. While some Republicans privately told Kaine that they were still opposed to the measure, none objected to the unanimous vote on the floor Thursday evening.

    A separate 2001 authorization for the global war on terror would remain in place under the bill. While the 2002 and 1991 resolutions are rarely used and focused on just one country, Iraq, the 2001 measure gave President George W. Bush broad authority for the invasion of Afghanistan, approving force “against those nations, organizations, or persons” that planned or aided the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

    Passed in September 2001, it has been used in recent years to justify U.S. military action against groups — including al-Qaida and its affiliates, such as the Islamic State group and al-Shabab — that are deemed to be a threat against America.

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

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  • FACT FOCUS: Trump Paints a Grim Portrait of Portland. the Story on the Ground Is Much Less Extreme

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    PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — President Donald Trump, members of his administration and conservative influencers painted a bleak portrait of Portland, Oregon, at a roundtable event at the White House Wednesday, alleging that the city has been besieged by violence perpetrated by “antifa thugs” and that it is essentially a war zone.

    “It should be clear to all Americans that we have a very serious left-wing terror threat in our country, radicals associated with the domestic terror group antifa that you’ve heard a lot about lately,” Trump said.

    But the reality on the ground in Portland is far from the extremes described at the White House.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    TRUMP: “In Portland, Oregon, antifa thugs have repeatedly attacked our offices and laid siege to federal property in an attempt to violently stop the execution of federal law.”

    THE FACTS: There have been nightly protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland for months, peaking in June when police declared one demonstration a riot. There have also been smaller clashes since then: On Labor Day, some demonstrators brought a prop guillotine — a display the U.S. Department of Homeland Security blasted as “unhinged behavior.”

    The protests at the ICE facility, which is outside downtown, have largely been confined to one city block and have attracted a range of participants. During the day, a handful of immigration and legal advocates mill about and offer copies of “know your rights” flyers. Daytime marches to the building have also included older people and families with young children. At night, other protesters arrive, often using megaphones to shout obscenities at law enforcement.

    While the administration claims protesters are antifa, short for “anti-fascists,” antifa is not a single organization but rather an umbrella term for decentralized far-left-leaning militant groups that confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.

    The building was closed for three weeks from mid-June to early July because of damage to windows, security cameras, gates and other parts of the facility, federal officials said in court filings submitted in response to a lawsuit brought by Portland and Oregon seeking to block the Trump administration’s deployment of the National Guard. The building’s main entrance and ground-floor windows have been boarded up.

    Protesters have also sought to block vehicles from entering and leaving the facility. Federal officials argue that this has impeded law enforcement operations and forced more personnel and resources to be sent from other parts of the country.

    However, in the weeks leading up to the Trump administration’s move to federalize 200 members of the Oregon National Guard on Sept. 28, most nights drew a couple dozen people, Portland police correspondence submitted to the court shows.

    Since June, Portland police have arrested at least 45 people, with the majority of those arrests taking place in June. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors have charged at least 31 people with crimes committed at the building, including assaulting federal officers; 22 of those defendants had been charged by early July.

    TRUMP: “The amazing thing is, you look at Portland and you see fires all over the place. You see fights, and I mean just violence. It’s just so crazy. And then you talk to the governor and she acts like everything is totally normal, there’s nothing wrong.”

    THE FACTS: Fires outside the building have been seen on a handful of occasions. In June, a man was arrested after he lit a flare and tossed it onto a pile of materials stacked against the vehicle gate, according to federal prosecutors, who said the fire was fully extinguished within minutes.

    More recently, social media videos of the Labor Day protest showed a small fire lit on the prop guillotine. And in early October, following the announcement of the National Guard’s mobilization, videos on social media showed a protester holding an American flag on fire — and conservative influencer Nick Sortor stomping the fire out.

    There have also been some high-profile confrontations between protesters and counterprotesters. In late September, conservative media figure Katie Daviscourt was hit in the face with a flagpole and suffered a laceration, police logs show. In early October, Sortor, who has more than 1 million followers on X, was arrested along with two other protesters following an altercation. Local prosecutors ultimately declined to charge him after finding that one of the protesters had pushed him and that “any physical contact he had with other persons was defensive in nature.”

    While Portland police correspondence submitted to the court notes a few instances of “active” energy and disturbances between protesters and counterprotesters, many entries describe low energy and “no issues” in the weeks leading up to the National Guard’s mobilization.

    A new tongue-in-cheek website has also launched in recent days: isportlandburning.com shows multiple live cameras in the city and near-real-time data from the city’s fire department.

    TRUMP: “I don’t know what could be worse than Portland. You don’t even have sewers anymore. They don’t even put glass up. They put plywood on their windows. But most of the retailers have left.”

    THE FACTS: This is false. Portland does have sewers — its sewer and stormwater system “includes more than 2,500 miles of pipes, nearly 100 pump stations, and two treatment plants,” according to the city’s website. The largest sewer pipe is the East Side Big Pipe, which has an inside diameter of 22 feet, while the smallest are only six inches in diameter.

    Local and state officials have suggested that many of Trump’s claims appear to rely on images from 2020. Portland famously erupted in more than 100 days of large-scale unrest and violent protests after George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police that year. Police were unable to keep ahead of splinter groups of black-clad protesters who broke off and roamed the downtown area, at times breaking windows, spraying graffiti and setting small fires.

    But Portland has largely recovered from that time. Under a new mayor and police chief, the city has reduced crime, and the downtown — which has more than 600 retail shops, many with glass storefronts — has seen a decrease in homeless encampments and increased foot traffic. This summer was reportedly the busiest for pedestrian traffic since before the coronavirus pandemic, and a recent report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association found that homicides from January through June decreased by 51% this year compared to the same period in 2024.

    Gov. Tina Kotek said she told Trump during a phone call that “we have to be careful not to respond to outdated media coverage or misinformation that is out there.”

    KRISTI NOEM, Homeland Security Secretary: “I was in Portland yesterday and had the chance to visit with the governor of Oregon, and also the mayor there in town, and they are absolutely covering up the terrorism that is hitting their streets.”

    THE FACTS: Noem did visit Portland on Tuesday and met with Kotek and Mayor Keith Wilson. Both officials disagree with Noem’s narrative.

    Kotek has repeatedly said that “there is no insurrection in Portland,” including in conversations with Trump and Noem, and that the city does not need “military intervention.” She has also continually called for any protests to be peaceful and said that local law enforcement can “meet the moment.” After Trump threatened to send the National Guard to Portland, Wilson said in a statement that the city has protected freedom of expression while “addressing occasional violence and property destruction.”

    Observations on the ground in Portland support Kotek’s statement. While the nightly protests at the ICE facility have been disruptive for nearby residents — a charter school relocated this summer to get away from crowd-control devices — life has continued as normal in the rest of the city. There is no evidence of the protests in other areas of the city, including the downtown area about two miles away.

    Portland residents have taken to social media to push back against the Trump administration’s statements about their city with the hashtag #WarRavagedPortland, posting photos and videos that show protesters in inflatable unicorn and frog costumes, along with people walking their dogs, riding their bikes and shopping at farmers markets.

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

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  • Oklahoma’s GOP Governor Opposes Sending Out-Of-State Troops to States That Don’t Welcome Them

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    OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. (AP) — Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt, the chair of the National Governors Association, said Thursday that he opposes sending National Guard troops across state borders without the permission of the state receiving them.

    The position from a sitting Republican official posed a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump’s push to send National Guard troops to cities in states where Democrats are in charge, including Chicago where Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker are waging a court fight to try to halt the deployment of Texas Guard members.

    Abegail Cave, a spokesperson for Stitt, said he supports Trump’s effort to help impose law and order in some cities and to aid federal agents removing immigrants who have committed crimes, but that National Guard troops from one state should not be deployed to another over the objection of the receiving state’s governor.

    “When it’s governors working together, it’s a very different story, but this whole situation where one state’s governor is sending their national Guard troops over the objections of another state’s governor, that sets a very dangerous precedent,” Cave said.

    Speaking to The New York Times on Thursday, Stitt said “Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration.”

    Stitt drew one key distinction: While he opposes sending groups across state lines where they’re not welcomed by the governors, he said that Trump should have federalized National Guard from Illinois instead to protect federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. That’s the approach Trump took over the summer went he sent National Guard to Los Angeles during protests there.

    The National Governors Association, a bipartisan group, has experienced turmoil, with Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatening to leave the organization because of its silence over the troop deployments. The organization has still not taken a stance.

    Stitt’s position puts him at odds with the state’s Republican Attorney General and officials in most other Republican-controlled states.

    Oklahoma’s Gentner Drummond was among 20 Republican attorneys general to file a brief Wednesday supporting Trump’s administration in its legal battle to allow him to deploy Oregon and California National Guard troops in Portland.

    In the filing, they say the president needs to be able to federalize National Guard and send troops to Oregon so that federal immigration resources are not diverted there. “Otherwise, states will continue to bear the costs of nonenforcement of federal immigration laws,” they said.

    Most Republican-controlled state including Oklahoma, have also requested permission to file similar papers in the Illinois court case.

    The Democratic attorneys general or governors of 24 states also filed jointly Wednesday to side with California and Oregon.

    There’s a similar partisan split over the use of troops in Washington, D.C.

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

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  • Troops Will Miss Paychecks Next Week Without Action on the Government Shutdown

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — Heather Campbell lost her job working for a food bank over the summer because of federal funding cuts. Her husband serves as an officer in the Air Force, but now he’s facing the prospect of missing his next paycheck because of the government shutdown.

    If lawmakers in Washington don’t step in, Campbell’s husband won’t get paid on Wednesday. Because the couple lacks the savings to cover all their expenses, they expect to survive on credit cards to pay the mortgage and feed their three children, racking up debt as the political stalemate drags on.

    “You’re asking us to put our lives on the line or the people we love to put their lives on the line,” said Campbell, 39, who lives outside Montgomery, Alabama, near Maxwell Air Force Base. “And you’re not even going to give us our paycheck. What? There is a lot of broken trust there.”

    The nation’s third shutdown in 12 years is once again raising anxiety levels among service members and their families because those in uniform are working without pay. While they would receive back pay once the impasse ends, many military families live paycheck to paycheck. During previous shutdowns, Congress passed legislation to ensure that troops kept earning their salaries, but time is running out before they miss their first paycheck in less than a week.

    “There are so many things that Congress can’t agree on right now,” said Kate Horrell, the wife of a Navy veteran whose Washington, D.C., company provides financial advice to military families. “I don’t want to assume that they’re going to be able to agree on this.”


    Paying the troops has support, but it’s unclear when a deal might pass

    When asked if he would support a bill to pay the troops, President Donald Trump said, “that probably will happen.”

    “We’ll take care of it,” Trump said Wednesday. “Our military is always going to be taken care of.”

    Rep. Jen Kiggans, a Virginia Republican and former Navy helicopter pilot, has introduced a measure to maintain military and Coast Guard salaries, and it has bipartisan co-sponsors.

    Amanda Scott, whose husband is an Air Force officer in Colorado, said the uncertainty goes beyond the stress of just getting by — it chips away at the military’s ability to retain the best people and their readiness to fight.

    “How ready and lethal are you if you don’t know if you can feed your family?” said Scott, 33, of Colorado Springs, who works for a defense contractor and volunteers as an advocate for military families. “A lot of these service members are highly skilled and can go out and make much more money in the civilian sector.”


    Aid is available for service members, but it’s not enough for some families

    Support is available for military families through nonprofits and charities. For example, some financial institutions are offering zero-interest loans, while each military branch has a relief organization.

    But Campbell said she and her husband in Alabama can’t apply for a payday loan because they’re refinancing their house. They lack a substantial emergency fund because they were paying off student loans and moved several times in the last few years to military posts. It was often challenging for her to find steady work and child care.

    “The opportunity to build up savings is really difficult on just one income,” Campbell said. “I don’t know many military families that have a month’s worth of income set aside just in case, let alone multiple months’ worth.”

    Jen Cluff, whose husband recently left the Air Force, said her family was on a food aid program during the 2019 shutdown. But even the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, which helps more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children, would run out of federal money within two weeks unless the shutdown ends, experts say.

    “We made so little and had three young children,” said Cluff, 42, of San Antonio. “We were definitely a family that had very little buffer.”

    If Congress had not passed legislation to pay troops during the last shutdown, missing more than two paychecks “would have been catastrophic for us,” she said.

    “Resentment can grow quickly,” Cluff said of the shutdown, adding that “the general public, and many in government, truly don’t understand the daily sacrifices our military members and their families make for our country.”


    Wider effects feared in military-heavy areas

    The economic impact will ripple through regions with large military footprints, like coastal Virginia, home to the nation’s largest Navy base and several other installations. The area’s 88,000 active duty service members and their families likely have pulled back significantly on spending, said Rick Dwyer, executive director of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance, an advocacy group.

    “Think about service members who are deployed right now around the world,” said Dwyer, who served in the Air Force during previous shutdowns. “They’re having to wonder if their families are going to be able to pay the rent, the child care bills, the car payments.”

    A shutdown contingency plan posted on the Pentagon’s website cites the use of funds to continue military operations from Trump’s big tax and spending cut bill. The Congressional Budget Office has said money appropriated to the Defense Department under the new law could be used to pay active duty personnel.

    It was not clear if the funding would be used for that. The Pentagon said Thursday that it could not provide information “at this time.”

    Its contingency plan says it will “continue to defend the nation and conduct ongoing military operations” as well as activities “necessary for the safety of human life and the protection of property.”

    Listed among the highest priorities are securing the U.S.-Mexico border, operations in the Middle East and the future Golden Dome missile defense program. The plan also noted that “child care activities required for readiness” would continue.

    Raleigh Smith Duttweiler, chief impact officer for the National Military Family Association, said most child development centers on military bases are still operating. But she said most service members pay for child care off base.

    “Last I checked, my kids’ babysitter doesn’t take an IOU from the federal government,” said Duttweiler, whose husband is a Marine.

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

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  • What to Watch for in the Virginia Governor’s Race Debate Between Spanberger and Earle-Sears

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    RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Republican Winsome Earle-Sears and Democrat Abigail Spanberger are slated to debate their competing visions for Virginia on Thursday in the state’s gubernatorial race. And each woman arguably has the same goal: to blame her opponent for backing the chaos in Washington.

    Virginia is one of two states choosing governors this November, and its election is often seen as a bellwether for the party in power across the Potomac River ahead of midterm elections next year.

    Washington politics are especially relevant this year in Virginia, as President Donald Trump’s cuts to the federal workforce and Congress’ current government shutdown have an outsize impact in a state filled with federal employees and military personnel.

    Thursday will be Spanberger and Earle-Sears’ first face-to-face debate after months of criticizing each other from afar.

    Virginia has elected leaders from both parties in recent years. In 2021, Republican Glenn Youngkin beat former Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe in the governor’s race. State Democrats narrowly regained complete control of the legislature in the 2023 election.

    Here’s what to watch for during the debate at Norfolk State University:

    Trump is not on the Virginia ballot next month. But the Republican president is expected to play a central role in the debate.

    Spanberger often mentions Trump and Earle-Sears in the same breath. Just last week, Spanberger’s campaign put out a news release arguing Earle-Sears doesn’t “take the economic consequences of Trump’s firings on Virginia seriously.”

    Earle-Sears and other Republicans, however, tend to do-si-do around Trump’s name. They want to reap the benefits of his popularity among Republicans without invoking the ire of Virginians who dislike him.

    Earle-Sears has spoken favorably of the president and invited him to the state to campaign on her behalf. She also has refused to condemn his cuts to the federal workforce earlier this year. Given the opportunity, she declined in a televised interview to tell Trump not to fire any more as part of the shutdown.

    Trump has not directly endorsed Earle-Sears in the race. Although he visited Virginia twice last week, he ignored the Republican candidate for governor.

    The showdown over the shutdown is likely to continue into and beyond Thursday night.

    On Thursday, Spanberger will have the opportunity to paint Earle-Sears as a candidate unable to push back against Trump. Already, the Democrat has pointed out that the Republican president’s threats of imposing mass firings would distinctly impact Virginia, where at least about 315,000 federal workers reside.

    Earle-Sears likely will look to tie her Democratic opponent to the federal shutdown after Congress failed to fund the government. Democrats, who have consistently voted against a short-term spending measure, have said they will only vote in support if Congress extends health care subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.

    Earle-Sears has repeatedly publicly demanded that her opponent tell Virginia Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both Democrats, to vote in favor of the spending bill.

    One key to the debate will be what the candidates hope to be talking about.

    Earle-Sears wants to keep transgender youths out of high school sports and bathrooms. Spanberger would rather talk about keeping Virginia affordable.

    Earle-Sears has campaigned heavily for stronger laws involving transgender girls in Virginia’s public educational systems, flooding the airwaves with ads focused on the cultural divide that helped Trump win the presidency last fall.

    Spanberger has mainly led with kitchen table issues — jobs, the cost of living, health care prices.

    Each candidate has addressed her opponent’s cause with some hesitancy. Earle-Sears has said maintaining the Youngkin administration’s business successes is vital to her, though she does not criticize Trump’s role in cutting jobs across the state.

    Spanberger has said she supports all children, but she stopped short of highlighting her support for trans kids specifically.


    Questions each candidate could field

    Both candidates could be called upon to defend themselves against criticism that has surfaced during the race.

    But Reid isn’t the only candidate the Republican governor has called on to exit the race. Last week, The National Review published a report revealing that Jay Jones, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, in 2022 sent text messages suggesting the former Republican House speaker get “two bullets to the head.”

    Republicans across the U.S., including Trump and Earle-Sears, demanded that Jones drop out for his use of such violent rhetoric. Spanberger condemned the text messages but has stopped short of asking for his departure despite growing pressure to do so. Jones has apologized.

    The debate comes as threats of political violence have escalated across the country following the shooting deaths of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and former Minnesota Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.

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

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  • Federal Court to Weigh Trump’s Deployment of National Guard Troops in Chicago Area

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    President Donald Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in Illinois faces legal scrutiny Thursday at a pivotal court hearing that will occur the day after a small number of Guard troops started protecting federal property in the Chicago area.

    U.S. District Judge April Perry will hear arguments over a request to block the deployment of Illinois and Texas Guard members. Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and local officials strongly oppose use of the Guard.

    An “element” of the 200 Texas Guard troops sent to Illinois started working in the Chicago area on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Northern Command, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in order to discuss operational details not been made public. The spokesperson did not say where specifically the troops were sent.

    The troops, along with about 300 from Illinois, arrived this week at a U.S. Army Reserve Center in Elwood, southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the Northern Command and have been activated for 60 days.

    The Guard members are in the city to protect U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement buildings and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, according to Northern Command. Trump earlier sent troops to Los Angeles and Washington, and a small number this week started assisting law enforcement in Memphis.

    Those troops are part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, a collection of about a dozen federal law enforcement agencies ordered by Trump to fight crime in the city. Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee supports using the Guard.

    The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law.

    Chicago and Illinois have filed a lawsuit to stop the deployments, calling them unnecessary and illegal. Trump, meanwhile, has portrayed Chicago as a lawless “hellhole” of crime, though statistics show a significant recent drop in crime.

    The Republican president said Wednesday that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Pritzker, both Democrats, should be jailed for failing to protect federal agents during immigration enforcement crackdowns.

    In a court filing in the lawsuit, the city and state say protests at a temporary ICE detention facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview have “never come close to stopping federal immigration enforcement.”

    “The President is using the Broadview protests as a pretext,” they wrote. “The impending federal troop deployment in Illinois is the latest episode in a broader campaign by the President’s administration to target jurisdictions the President dislikes.”

    Also Thursday, a panel of judges in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear arguments over whether Trump had the authority to take control of 200 Oregon National Guard troops. The president had planned to deploy them in Portland, where there have been mostly small nightly protests outside an ICE building. State and city leaders insist troops are neither wanted nor needed there.

    U.S. District Judge Karin J. Immergut on Sunday granted Oregon and California a temporary restraining order blocking the deployment of Guard troops to Portland. Trump had mobilized California troops for Portland just hours after Immergut first blocked him from using Oregon’s Guard.

    The administration has yet to appeal that order to the 9th Circuit.

    Immergut, who Trump appointed during his first term, rejected the president’s assertions that troops were needed to protect Portland and immigration facilities, saying “it had been months since there was any sustained level of violent or disruptive protest activity in the city.”

    Associated Press writers Gene Johnson in Seattle and Konstantin Toropin in Washington 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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  • Jimmy Kimmel Says Critics ‘Maliciously Mischaracterized’ His Kirk Remarks

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    By Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine

    LOS ANGELES, Calif. (Reuters) -Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel said on Wednesday he believed his comments about the reaction to the assassination of political activist Charlie Kirk were “intentionally and maliciously mischaracterized” by critics before his show was suspended.

    Kimmel drew outrage from conservatives for saying on his September 17 show that President Donald Trump’s supporters were desperate to characterize Kirk’s accused assassin “as anything other than one of them” and for trying to “score political points” from his murder.

    “I didn’t think there was a big problem,” Kimmel said to the initial backlash to his comments. “I just saw it as distortion on the part of some of the right-wing media networks, and I aimed to correct it.”

    Speaking at the Bloomberg Screentime conference in Los Angeles, Kimmel added that he thought critics had “intentionally and maliciously mischaracterized” his remarks.

    ABC parent Walt Disney temporarily pulled “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” off the air after Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr said the host misled viewers about Kirk’s alleged shooter’s affiliation with Trump’s Make America Great Again movement. Carr urged local stations to push back and raised the possibility of the FCC revoking the licenses of local television stations that did not comply.

    Kimmel said he spent the weekend following his suspension speaking with Disney Entertainment Co-Chair Dana Walden about how to address the situation.

    “It helped me think everything through, and it helped me just kind of understand where everyone was coming from,” Kimmel said. “I can sometimes be reactionary. I can sometimes be aggressive, and I can sometimes be unpleasant. And I think that it helped me really having those days to think about it.”

        Disney reinstated Kimmel after six days off the air.

    The host said he told Disney executives “the spirit of what I’m going to say” when he returned to the airwaves “rather than specifically what I was going to say.”

    Upon his return, Kimmel defended political satire against “bullying” from Trump and officials in his administration.

    Kimmel’s voice choked with emotion, moments after he took the stage to a standing ovation, and he said: “It was never my intention to make light of the murder of a young man. I don’t think there’s anything funny about it.”

    (Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski and Lisa Richwine; Editing by Kim Coghill)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Frustrated Lawmakers Say Lack of Trust Is Making It Harder to End the Government Shutdown

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A president looking to seize power beyond the executive branch. A Congress controlled by Republican lawmakers unwilling to directly defy him. And a minority party looking for any way to fight back.

    The dynamic left Washington in a stalemate Thursday — the ninth day of the government shutdown — and lawmakers openly venting their frustration as they tried to gain traction without the trust that is typically the foundation of any bipartisan deal.

    “To have good-faith conversations, you have to have trust. There’s a real challenge of trust,” said Rep. Brad Schneider, chair of the New Democratic Coalition, a pragmatic group of House Democrats.

    Groups of lawmakers — huddled over dinners, on phone calls, and in private meetings — have tried to brainstorm ways out of the standoff that has shuttered government offices, kept hundreds of thousands of federal employees at home and threatened to leave them without a scheduled payday. But lawmakers have found themselves running up against the reality that the relationship between the two parties is badly broken.

    “We’re in an environment where we need more than a handshake,” said Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat who has engaged in talks with Republicans.

    President Donald Trump and Republicans have so far held to the stance that they will only negotiate on Democratic demands around health care benefits after they vote to reopen the government. They also say Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is beholden to the left wing of his party and only staging the shutdown fight to stave off a primary challenge.

    “There are some things that I think there is interest on both sides in trying to address when it comes to health care in this country,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune on Wednesday. “But you can’t take the federal government hostage and expect to have a reasonable conversation on those issues.”


    When a handshake deal is not enough

    Democrats have insisted they can’t take Trump at his word and therefore need more than a verbal commitment for any deal.

    “Donald Trump has no respect for law if he can push outside it, so I think we need some safeguards,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat.

    Conflicts over spending power had already been raging before the shutdown as the White House pushed to assert maximum power over congressionally approved budgets. The White House budget office had canceled scores of government contracts, including cutting out the legislative branch entirely with a $4.9 billion cut to foreign aid in August through a legally dubious process known as a “pocket rescission.”

    That enraged Democrats — as well as irked some Republicans who criticized it as executive overreach.

    “I hate rescissions, to be honest with you, unless they’re congressionally approved,” said Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican.

    Matt Glassman, a fellow at the Government Affairs Institute at Georgetown University, said the president’s use of rescissions was “blowing up the underlying dynamic of the bargaining” because it inserts intense partisanship into the budget appropriations process that otherwise requires compromise, particularly in the Senate.

    Then, as the government entered a shutdown, Trump’s budget director Russ Vought laid out arguments that the president would have even more power to lay off workers and even cancel pay due to furloughed federal workers once the funding lapse is solved. Vought has also announced that the administration was withholding billions of dollars for infrastructure projects in states with Democratic senators who have voted for the shutdown.

    Trump has cast Vought’s actions as the consequences of Democratic obstruction, even sharing a video that depicted him as the grim reaper. But on Capitol Hill, there has been an acknowledgment that the hardball tactics are making it harder to negotiate.

    “I think with senators carrots work better than sticks,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican.


    One Democratic idea may win GOP support

    Before they vote to reopen the government, Democrats’ main demand is that Congress take up an extension of subsidies for health plans offered under the Affordable Care Act. Trump has sounded open to a deal, saying that he wants “great health care” for Americans.

    What’s received less attention is that Democrats also want new safeguards in the law limiting the White House’s ability to claw back, or rescind, funding already approved by Congress. While final appropriations bills are still being worked out, Republicans have been open to the idea.

    “When you end the shutdown and get back to regular order within the appropriations bills, there’s very clear language about how we feel about rescissions,” said Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee. “I think you’ll find hard, solid support from Republicans to see that what we agree to will be executed on.”

    In the meantime, the main sticking point for lawmakers this week has been finding any agreement on extending the health care subsidies.


    The consequences of an extended shutdown

    As the shutdown drags on without sign of significant progress to ending the impasse, lawmakers are looking ahead to the dates when federal employees will miss a payday.

    Active-duty military troops would miss a paycheck on Oct. 15. Some lawmakers are getting nervous about both the financial implications for the troops and the political blowback of allowing soldiers to go without pay.

    As he argued with Democrats on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson pointed out that House Republicans have already passed a stopgap bill that would “keep the government open to make sure TSA agents, Border Patrol agents, the troops and everybody else gets paid.”

    There has been some discussion in Congress of passing partial government funding legislation to ensure that military members are paid, but so far Republicans have tried to keep the pressure on Democrats to vote for their bill.

    Lawmakers seemed ready to dig in and try to push each other to the brink.

    “I would not challenge Donald Trump’s resolve on this if I was anybody,” Cramer said.

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

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  • Trump Receives Urgent Note From Rubio on Mideast Peace Deal During Antifa Roundtable

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was holding a roundtable event with conservative influencers about antifa Wednesday when Secretary of State Marco Rubio, standing in the back corner of the White House’s Blue Room, caught his eye.

    He had news for Trump, he said, but it would have to wait until after the media left. Then Rubio passed the president a note. News photographers in the room zoomed in on the handwriting on White House stationery that read, “You need to approve a Truth Social post soon so you can announce deal first.”

    It prompted Trump to proclaim, “We’re very close to a deal in the Middle East.”

    The influencer event had already been going on for nearly two hours when Rubio first approached. The president invited him to come in, and Rubio whispered something to Trump before handing him the note.

    The note’s urgent tone came as Trump’s top Middle East adviser, the prime minister of Qatar and other senior officials joined a third day of peace talks between Israel and Hamas at an Egyptian resort Wednesday — a sign that negotiators aim to dive deeply into the toughest issues of an American plan to end the war in Gaza.

    Trump had kicked off the influencer event by telling assembled journalists that he planned to travel to the Middle East “toward the end of the week” and could even “make the rounds” in the region to Egypt and possibly the Gaza Strip.

    After Rubio passed Trump the note, Trump continued to talk to the influencers and take questions from the media as Rubio appeared visibly anxious.

    After several more minutes, the president wrapped by saying: “We’re gonna get peace in the Middle East. That’s what we want to do.” He left without further elaborating.

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

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  • Sherrill, Ciattarelli to Meet in Final Debate in New Jersey Governor’s Race

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    NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Democrat Mikie Sherrill and Republican Jack Ciattarelli will go head-to-head Wednesday in their final debate for New Jersey governor, as the federal government shutdown, Sherrill’s military records and the high cost of living have become major issues in the closely watched race.

    New Jersey is one of two states, along with Virginia, electing governors this fall — contests that are being viewed as a measure of how voters feel about President Donald Trump’s second term and how Democrats are responding.

    The hourlong debate gives the candidates a chance to cement their pitches to voters, who have already begun mailing in ballots ahead of the Nov. 4 election. Early in-person voting is scheduled for Oct. 25 to Nov. 2.

    New Jersey has gone Democratic in presidential and Senate contests for decades, but it’s alternated between Republicans and Democrats in its odd-year elections for governor. Going back to the 1980s, voters went with the nominee from the party opposite of the president’s. But term-limited Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy broke that pattern in 2021 when he won reelection narrowly over Ciattarelli, now in his third campaign for governor.

    The state, however, has grown more conservative in recent years, with Trump losing last November to Democrat Kamala Harris by just 6 points — a dramatic swing from his nearly 13-point deficit in 2016.

    In their first debate, the candidates clashed pointedly, with Ciattarelli calling his opponent’s promises vague and dishonest and Sherrill tying Ciattarelli to Trump and questioning the former business owner and accountant’s math skills. Trump endorsed Ciattarelli in the GOP primary, saying he’d gone “ALL IN” and was “now 100% (PLUS!)” on the president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda, despite past criticism.

    Here’s what to watch for in the debate, televised locally on ABC:


    Shutdown and the Hudson River tunnel

    Sherrill, a four-term congresswoman elected during Trump’s first midterm to a longtime GOP-held seat, has advocated for funding throughout her time in office and has sharply criticized the freeze, holding a news conference outside a suburban New York rail station.

    She could lean into the effect the shutdown could have on the project, which is continuing work for now, though it’s unclear when federal reimbursements might run out if the shutdown drags on.

    “Trump has frozen the funding for this all important project. And what has Jack Ciattarelli said? Not much,” Sherrill said at the recent event in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

    Ciattarelli has blasted Sherrill as responsible for the shutdown as a member of Congress. Look for him to criticize her for voting for previous continuing resolutions that kept the government open under former President Joe Biden despite voting against the current Republican-backed measure.


    The release of military records

    Another topic likely to be raised in the debate stems from two related but separate stories about Sherrill’s time in the Navy. One story detailed how Sherrill’s mostly unredacted military record was released to a Republican operative close to Ciattarelli’s campaign. The other centers on news that Sherrill did not participate in the 1994 graduation from the Naval Academy amid fallout that year from a well-documented cheating scandal.

    Sherrill said she was barred from walking because she did not turn in fellow classmates. She still graduated, was commissioned and went on to become a helicopter pilot.

    Ciattarelli’s campaign has called on her to release additional records to back up that defense, but she has declined.

    “If those sealed disciplinary records match Representative Sherrill’s current explanation, we are unsure why she would refuse to release the records and put this matter to rest,” the campaign said in an email.

    In a recent interview, Sherrill said her files show a “record of service.”

    “I’m certainly not going to allow him,” she said, “to rampage through the records of my classmates at the academy.”

    Instead, Sherrill’s campaign has seized on the improper release of information to the National Archives with personal information unredacted.

    Her campaign has publicized an inspector general’s investigation into the release, and she’s published letters online from the archives, including an apology saying the records were given out “in error.”

    It’s not clear whether any of the records the National Archives released in error were related to the reasons she was not allowed to participate in the graduation ceremony.


    Affordability and who’s to blame

    Both candidates are hammering the high cost of living in New Jersey. Sherrill has said she’d issue an executive order freezing utility rates, which have climbed steadily over the summer. Ciattarelli talks about capping sky-high property taxes as a percentage of home value.

    Ciattarelli blames the economic woes on longtime Democratic control of the state Legislature and the governorship for the past eight years. Calling for a change in Trenton has been a central plank of his campaign.

    Sherrill, meanwhile, points to the president’s tariffs and trade wars as the cause of voters’ belt tightening. She regularly asks voters to elect her to stand up to Trump’s policies, which she casts as out of touch in the Democratic-leaning state.

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

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  • A Veteran Defense Lawyer Turned Judge Will Oversee the Case Against Ex-FBI Director James Comey

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    ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Michael Nachmanoff has built a quiet reputation in the federal courthouse in northern Virginia — a onetime public defender turned judge known for methodical preparation and a cool temperament. On Wednesday, he’ll find himself at the center of a political storm: presiding over the Justice Department’s prosecution of former FBI director James Comey.

    Confirmed to the bench by President Joe Biden in 2021, Nachmanoff was randomly assigned to the case after a Virginia grand jury indicted Comey last month on charges including obstruction of a congressional proceeding. The assignment instantly drew Donald Trump’s attention. The president, long fixated on Comey, blasted him as a “Dirty Cop” and derided Nachmanoff as a “Crooked Joe Biden appointed Judge” while celebrating the charges as “JUSTICE FOR AMERICA!”

    Despite the political noise, lawyers who know Nachmanoff say he is unlikely to be swayed.

    “Whatever his personal politics are, I do not think that they will enter the courtroom,” said longtime Virginia defense attorney Nina Ginsberg, who has tried cases before him. “He’s confident enough in his ability to judge fairly that I don’t think he’s going to be influenced by politics or the media coverage.”

    Nachmanoff, 57, came to the bench after more than a decade as the Eastern District of Virginia’s top federal public defender, where he argued and won a Supreme Court case that helped reduce racial disparities in crack cocaine sentencing. He served six years as a magistrate judge, handling some politically tinged cases. In 2019 he oversaw the first appearances of Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, associates of Trump ally Rudy Giuliani, releasing them on $1 million bonds. More recently, he refused to block the CIA from firing Dr. Terry Adirim, a Pentagon physician targeted by Trump allies over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

    “He was an aggressive advocate, the kind of lawyer who left no stones unturned,” Ginsberg said of the judge. She said he conducts his courtroom in an even-handed, respectful manner.

    Timothy Belevetz, a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, said Nachmanoff was “always a worthy adversary.”

    “He’s been around the courthouse for years and years and years,” Belevetz said. “He’s very well-respected. He’s very smart, he’ll give parties a fair shake, he listens to the arguments.”

    Comey was charged late last month with lying to Congress. Days earlier, Trump appeared to urge Attorney General Pam Bondi to prosecute the former FBI director and other political enemies.

    Comey himself has acknowledged the political backdrop but expressed confidence in the court system. In a video after his indictment, he said: “My heart is broken for the Department of Justice but I have great confidence in the federal judicial system, and I’m innocent. So let’s have a trial.”

    The clash between Trump and Comey has been building for years. Trump fired the FBI director in 2017, just months into his first term, as the bureau investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election. Since then, the former president has repeatedly called for Comey’s prosecution and, in the days before the indictment, publicly pressed Bondi to act.

    For lawyers who’ve worked with Nachmanoff, that kind of political noise is unlikely to matter. They point to his long record of independence and constitutional rigor. “Federal public defenders are renowned for their fidelity to the Constitution and due process,” said Lisa Wayne, executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

    She said the White House should welcome Nachmanoff’s involvement as a safeguard “against the appearance of partisan political attacks.”

    Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Eric Tucker and Gary Fields in Washington 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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  • Staffing Shortages Cause More US Flight Delays as Government Shutdown Reaches 7th Day

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    Staffing shortages led to more flight delays at airports across the U.S. on Tuesday as the federal government shutdown stretched into a seventh day, while union leaders for air traffic controllers and airport security screeners warned the situation was likely to get worse.

    The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing issues at airports in Nashville, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia, and at its air traffic control centers in Atlanta, Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The agency temporarily slowed takeoffs of planes headed to the first three cities.

    Flight disruptions a day earlier also were tied to insufficient staffing during the shutdown, which began Oct. 1. The FAA reported issues on Monday at the airports in Burbank, California; Newark, New Jersey; and Denver.

    Despite the traffic snags, about 92% of the more than 23,600 flights departing from U.S. airports as of Tuesday afternoon took off on time, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

    But the risk of wider impacts to the U.S. aviation system “is growing by the day” as federal workers whose jobs are deemed critical continue working without pay, travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said. The longer the shutdown drags on, the more likely it is to affect holiday travel plans in November, he said.

    “I’m gravely concerned that if the government remains shut down then, that it could disrupt, and possibly ruin, millions of Americans’ Thanksgiving holidays,” Harteveldt said in a statement.

    Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday that there has already been an uptick in air traffic controllers calling out sick at a few locations. When there aren’t enough controllers, the FAA must reduce the number of takeoffs and landings to maintain safety, which in turn causes flight delays and possible cancellations.

    That’s what happened Monday afternoon, when the control tower at Southern California’s Hollywood Burbank Airport shut down for several hours, leading to average delays of two-and-a-half hours.

    When a pilot preparing for takeoff radioed the tower, according to communications recorded by LiveATC.net, he was told: “The tower is closed due to staffing.”

    Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the shutdown highlighted some issues his union’s members already face on a regular basis due to a national airspace system that is critically understaffed and relies on outdated equipment that tends to fail.

    A couple of controllers missing work can have a big impact at a small airport already operating with limited tower staffing, he said.

    “It’s not like we have other controllers that can suddenly come to that facility and staff them. There’s not enough people there,” Daniels said Tuesday. “There’s no overtime, and you have to be certified in that facility.”

    Air travel complications are likely to expand once a regularly scheduled payday arrives next week and air traffic controllers and TSA officers don’t receive any money, the union leader said. If the impasse between Republican and Democratic lawmakers on reopening the government persists, the workers will come under more pressure as their personal bills come due, Daniels said.

    “It’s completely unfair that an air traffic controller is the one that holds the burden of ‘see how long you can hang in there in order to allow this political process to play out,’” he said.

    Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees chapter that represents TSA workers, said he was hearing concerns from members about how they will be able to pay bills, including child support and mortgage payments, and if they’re at risk for termination if they have to miss work during the shutdown.

    “The employees are struggling. They’re assessing what they need to do and they’re assessing how this is all going to work out,” said Jones, who has worked as a screener since the TSA was established.

    Some TSA officers already have called in sick, but Jones said he did not think the numbers were big enough to cause significant problems and delays at airports.

    Aviation unions and U.S. airlines have called for the shutdown to end as soon as possible.

    The unions are also making appeals to food banks, grocery chains and airports to secure support for workers during the shutdown. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was offering federal workers $15 food vouchers and allowing them to park in the terminal, according to Jones.

    John Tiliacos, the chief operating officer of Florida‘s Tampa International Airport, said the facility started preparing for the shutdown well before it began.

    Nicknamed “Operation Bald Eagle 2” among airport staff, the efforts center around pulling together resources for the roughly 11,000 federal employees who are working at the airport without pay, including security screeners and air traffic controllers.

    Tiliacos said the help would include a food pantry, free bus rides to work and a program with the local utility provider to keep the lights on at the homes of the workers.

    “Whatever we can do to make life a little easier for these federal employees that allows them to continue coming to work and focus on keeping our airport operational, that’s what we’re prepared to do,” he said.

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

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  • A Judge Has Blocked a Trump Administration Effort to Change Teen Pregnancy Prevention Programs

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    A judge Tuesday blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from requiring recipients of federal teen pregnancy prevention grants to comply with Trump’s orders aimed at curtailing “radical indoctrination” and “gender ideology.”

    The ruling is a victory for three Planned Parenthood affiliates — in California, Iowa and New York — that sued to try to block enforcement of a U.S. Department of Human Services policy document issued in July that they contend contradict the requirements of the grants as established by Congress.

    U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell, who was appointed to the bench by former President Barack Obama, blasted the administration’s policy change in her written ruling, saying it was “motivated solely by political concerns, devoid of any considered process or analysis, and ignorant of the statutory emphasis on evidence-based programming.”

    The policy requiring changes to the pregnancy prevention program was part of the fallout from a series of executive orders Trump signed starting in his first day back in the White House aimed at rolling back recognition of LGBTQ+ people and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

    In the policy, the administration objected to teaching that promotes same-sex marriage and that “normalizes, or promotes sexual activity for minors.”

    The Planned Parenthood affiliates argued that the new directives were at odds with requirements of the program — and that they were so vague it wasn’t clear what needed to be done to follow them.

    The decision applies not only to the handful of Planned Parenthood groups among the dozens of recipients of the funding, but also nonprofit groups, city and county health departments, Native American tribes and universities that received grants.

    The Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the program, declined to comment on Tuesday’s ruling. It previously said the guidance for the program “ensures that taxpayer dollars no longer support content that undermines parental rights, promotes radical gender ideology, or exposes children to sexually explicit material under the banner of public health.”

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  • US Weighs Selling Parts of $1.6 Trillion Federal Student Loan Portfolio, Politico Reports

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    (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is mulling options to sell off parts of the federal government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio to the private market, Politico reported on Tuesday, citing three people familiar with the matter.

    Reuters could not immediately verify the report.

    (Reporting by Yazhini MV in Bengaluru; Editing by Aidan Lewis)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Maine Is Investigating a Claim That Bundles of Ballots Ended up in a Resident’s Amazon Order

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    AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — Authorities in Maine are investigating an allegation that dozens of unmarked ballots that were to be used in this November’s election arrived inside a woman’s Amazon order.

    The town of Ellsworth reported to the state last week that it was missing a shipment of 250 absentee ballots, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows said Monday. That happened the same day a woman in a town roughly 40 miles (65 kilometers) away reported finding bundles of ballots — 250 in all — wrapped in plastic inside the box that contained her delivery from Amazon.

    The secretary of state’s law enforcement division is investigating the discovery with assistance from the FBI and state authorities, Bellows said during a news conference at the state Capitol. She declined to identify the person who reported the ballots inside the delivery box, except to confirm she lived in the town of Newburgh.

    “I have full confidence that law enforcement will determine who is responsible, and any bad actor will be held accountable,” she said, suggesting there could be other examples.

    “This year, it seems that there may have been attempts to interrupt the distribution of ballots and ballot materials,” Bellows said, declining to elaborate.

    The investigation into the wayward ballots is taking place less than a month before the state’s Nov. 4 election and with absentee voting already underway. The ballot includes a Republican-backed initiative that would implement a photo ID requirement for voters, limit the use of drop boxes and make changes to the state’s absentee voting system.

    It also comes as Bellows, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for governor in 2026, is clashing with the U.S. Department of Justice over its requests in numerous states for detailed voter roll information. The department has sued several states that have refused to turn over the data, including Maine.

    Bellows has been a target of Republican ire in Maine since she removed President Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 presidential primary ballot under the Constitution’s insurrection clause. Trump appeared on the ballot after the U.S. Supreme Court intervened.

    The story of the misplaced ballots has spread widely on social media since a conservative website in the state first reported it last week and has reignited claims by conservatives that Maine’s elections need to be more secure. Some prominent Republicans have used it to promote the need for the election-related ballot initiative.

    “What this means is that Mainers need to turn out in force, and every single person that supports voter ID and securing our elections needs to get out and vote between now and Nov. 4 to ensure that we secure our elections,” said Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby, a supporter of the voter ID initiative.

    Maine’s top Republicans in the Democratic-majority Legislature sent a letter last week to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel requesting an investigation into the claims. The letter states that the person who received the package, whom it does not name, informed their town office about the discovery.

    Officials with the Justice Department and town of Newburgh declined to comment. Amazon said the company is cooperating with Maine’s investigation.

    “Based on our initial findings, it appears that this package was tampered with outside of our fulfillment and delivery network, and not by an Amazon employee or partner,” the company said in a statement to The Associated Press.

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

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  • AP Reader Question: Is It Legal to Fire Furloughed Federal Workers During a Shutdown?

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    Here’s a question about the shutdown submitted by an Associated Press reader, G:


    Is it legal to fire furloughed federal workers during a shutdown?

    This question has prompted a fierce conversation, and it ultimately might be up to the courts to decide.

    Before the shutdown went into effect, a group of labor unions filed a lawsuit claiming that the Trump administration violated the law by threatening to perform a mass firing of federal workers during a shutdown.

    The Office of Management and Budget said late last month that agencies should consider layoffs for shutdown programs whose funding is not otherwise funded and is “not consistent with the President’s priorities,” and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said this week that layoffs were “imminent.”

    There are federal statutes that lay out how reductions in force – or “RIFs” – are supposed to be carried out, including giving employees a 60-day notice, and some Democrats including newly elected Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia have called any plans for mass firings an “illegal power grab.”

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  • Government Shutdown Threatens Food Aid Program Relied on by Millions of Families

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — A food aid program that helps more than 6 million low-income mothers and young children will run out of federal money within two weeks unless the government shutdown ends, forcing states to use their own money to keep it afloat or risk it shutting down, experts say.

    The $8 billion Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, also known as WIC, provides vouchers to buy infant formula as well as fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat milk and other healthy staples that are often out of financial reach for low-income households.

    The shutdown, which began Wednesday, coincided with the beginning of a new fiscal year, meaning programs like WIC, which rely on annual infusions from the federal government, are nearly out of money. Currently, the program is being kept afloat by an $150 million contingency fund, but experts say it could run dry quickly.

    After that, states could step in to pay for the program and seek reimbursement when a budget finally passes, but not all states say they can afford to do so.

    “We feel good about one to two weeks,” said Ali Hard, policy director for the National WIC Association. “After that, we are very worried.”


    WIC helps families buy more nutritious food

    Taylor Moyer, a mother of three who recently separated from her husband, has been receiving WIC since her first son was born nine years ago. She said the program allowed her to feed her children nutritious food that tends to be pricier than calorie-dense, processed options. It also provided guidance when she struggled to breastfeed and counseled her on how to handle her son’s picky eating stage.

    “There’s been times where I have sat back in my house and really wondered how I was going to feed my family,” said Moyer, who works at the LGBT Life Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia. “And I went to the store with my WIC card … I get rice, I got avocados, I got eggs, and I made a balanced meal that was actually good.”

    The shutdown came as Democrats and Republicans failed to pass a new spending plan. Democratic lawmakers want to extend tax credits that make health care cheaper for millions of Americans, and they want to reverse deep cuts to Medicaid that were passed earlier this year. They refused to sign on to any spending plan that did not include those provisions.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, blamed Democrats for the shutdown and called them hypocritical because failing to fund the federal government endangers so many health programs.

    The WIC program, which has long had bipartisan support, aids those who are pregnant, mothers and children under age 5. Research has tied it to lower infant mortality, healthier birth weights, higher immunization rates and better academic outcomes for children who participate. Nearly half of those who are eligible don’t enroll, often because they believe they don’t qualify or they can’t reach a WIC office.

    Some Republican lawmakers want to cut WIC, which is targeted for elimination in Project 2025, the influential policy blueprint authored by the man who’s now President Donald Trump’s budget chief. Trump’s budget request and the spending plan backed by House Republicans would not fully fund the program. They also want to cut funding for families to buy fresh fruits and vegetables.


    Some states pledge to plug gaps in food aid

    In the event of an extended shutdown, several states have sought to reassure WIC recipients that they will continue to receive benefits. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, said the state will pick up the tab if federal funding runs out.

    “I want those young families, those moms, to know that your WIC card will continue to be good for the foreseeable future,” Lamont said. “We’re making sure that the government does not take that away from you.”

    But in Washington state, where a third of babies receive WIC benefits, officials say they do not have the money to keep the program open.

    “Washington WIC may be able to sustain benefits for one to two weeks before a federal shutdown would force a full closure of the program,” said Raechel Sims, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Health. “If the shutdown lasts longer than that, DOH does not have the ability to backfill WIC funding.”

    Moyer, the mother from Virginia Beach, warned that ending the program could be catastrophic for recipients.

    “There is going to be infants skipping feeds. There is going to be pregnant women skipping meals so that they can feed their toddlers,” she said. “And it means that people are not going to have a balanced and healthy diet.”

    Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.

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

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  • Voting Is Underway in California on New Maps That Could Swing US House Control, Check Trump’s Power

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    LOS ANGELES (AP) — The midterm elections might be a year away, but the fight for control of the U.S. House is underway in California.

    The outcome of the 70-word, “yes” or “no” question could determine which party wins control of the closely divided House, and whether Democrats will be able to blunt Trump’s power in the second half of his term on issues from immigration to reproductive rights.

    The proposal is “a starting point for the 2026 race,” said Democratic consultant Roger Salazar.

    “2026 is the whole ball game,” he said.

    The national implications of California’s ballot measure are clear in both the money it has attracted and the figures getting involved. Tens of millions of dollars are flowing into the race — including a $5 million donation to opponents from the Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC tied to House Speaker Mike Johnson. Former action-movie star and Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has spoken out to oppose it, while former President Barack Obama is in favor, calling it a “smart” approach to counter Republican maneuverings aimed at safeguarding House control.

    The election that concludes Nov. 4 will also color the emerging 2028 presidential contest in which Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — the face of the campaign for the new, jiggered districts — is widely seen as a likely contender.

    So goes California, so goes the nation?

    “Heaven help us if we lose,” Newsom wrote in a recent fundraising pitch to supporters. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment for Democrats.”


    An election gamble that could check Trump’s power

    The unusual special election amounts to a Democratic gambit to blunt Trump’s attempt in Texas to gain five Republican districts ahead of the midterms, a move intended to pad the GOP’s tenuous grip on the House.

    The duel between the nation’s two most populous states has spread nationally, with Missouri redrawing House maps that are crafted state by state. Other states could soon follow, while the dispute also has become entangled in the courts.

    A major question mark has emerged in Texas, where a panel of federal judges is considering whether the state can use a redrawn congressional map that boosts Republicans.

    If the Texas map is blocked even temporarily, it’s not clear how that decision would influence California — if at all — where voting is underway. Newsom has previously indicated that California could keep its current map if other states pull back efforts to remake districts for partisan advantage, but that language was not included in the final version of what’s officially known as Proposition 50.


    GOP could be left with just four House seats in California

    If approved in California, it’s possible the new political map could slash five Republican-held House seats while bolstering Democratic incumbents in other battleground districts. That could boost the Democratic margin to 48 of California’s 52 congressional seats, up from the 43 seats the party now holds.

    Liberal-tilting California has long been a quirk in House elections — the state is heavily Democratic but also is home to a string of some of the most hotly contested congressional districts in the country, a rarity at a time when truly competitive House elections have been dwindling in number across the U.S.

    The contours of the race have taken shape, with Newsom framing the contest as a battle to save democracy against all things Trump, while Republicans and their supporters decry the proposal as a blatant power grab intended to make the state’s dominant Democrats even more powerful while discarding House maps developed by an independent commission. Democrats crafted the proposed lines behind closed doors.

    Republicans hold a 219-213 majority in the U.S. House, with three vacancies.

    New maps are typically drawn once a decade after the census is conducted. Many states, including Texas, give legislators the power to draw maps. California is among states that rely on an independent commission that is supposed to be nonpartisan — the Democratic ballot proposal would shelve that group’s work and postpone its operation until the next census.


    Creative boundary lines create districts to favor Democrats

    In some cases, the recast districts would slice across California, in one case uniting rural, conservative-leaning northern California with Marin County, a famously liberal coastal stronghold north of San Francisco. In others, district lines are left unchanged or have only minor adjustments.

    With rural and farming areas in some cases being combined in new districts with populous cities, there is “worry about us losing our voice,” said John Chandler, a partner in almond-and-peach grower Chandler Farms in the state’s Central Valley farm belt. “It hurts us,” Chandler said during an online event organized by proposition opponents.


    Who will show up and vote?

    Democrats come to the contest with significant advantages — they outnumber registered Republicans in the state by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, and a Republican candidate hasn’t won a statewide election in nearly two decades.

    Still, ballot questions can be unpredictable. Voters are in a grumpy mood nationally and hold mixed views of both political parties.

    It’s difficult to determine precisely who might show up in an election with no candidate on the statewide ballot — only a question involving a constitutional amendment on the arcane subject of redistricting, or the realignment of House district boundaries. And campaigns are competing for attention in a nation of nonstop distraction, from wars abroad to the political stalemate in Washington.

    Supporters and opponents are running a cascade of ads in the state’s big media markets. Trump is trying to “steal congressional seats and rig the 2026 election,” one ad from supporters warns. Opponents are spotlighting a recent appearance by Schwarzenegger, who in one ad clenches his fist and says, “Democracy — we’ve got to protect it and we’ve got to go and fight for it.”

    In the state’s Central Valley, Kelsey Hinton is working to mobilize infrequent Latino voters hitched to hectic jobs and child care who are often overlooked by major campaigns. Her group, the Community Water Center Action Fund, dispatches canvassers to knock on doors to explain the stakes in the election.

    Operating separately from Newsom’s campaign, and backed by funding from a left-leaning political group known as the Progressive Era Issues Committee, they hope to boost voter participation in an area where turnout can be among the sparsest in the state.

    What are they finding? “People don’t even know there is an election,” Hinton said.

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

    Photos You Should See – Sept. 2025

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  • Trump Seeks Texas National Guard Deployments to Illinois, Oregon, Other Locations, Illinois Gov. Says

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    (Reuters) -Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said on Sunday that President Donald Trump was “ordering 400 members of the Texas National Guard for deployments to Illinois, Oregon, and other locations within the United States.”

    In a social media post, Pritzker called on Texas Governor Greg Abbott to “immediately withdraw any support for this decision and refuse to coordinate.”

    (Reporting by Rami Ayyub)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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  • Trump Calls on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Get Big Homebuilders ‘Going’

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    (Reuters) -President Donald Trump on Sunday urged U.S. mortgage financing companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “get Big Homebuilders going,” saying without providing evidence that U.S. builders were “sitting on 2 Million empty lots, a RECORD.”

    It was unclear exactly what action Trump expected builders or the mortgage giants to take. Trump met in August with top U.S. bank executives to discuss his administration’s plans to privatize the finance firms, which guarantee over half the nation’s mortgages and have been under federal conservatorship since the 2008 financial crisis.

    (Reporting by Julia Harte; editing by Rami Ayyub)

    Copyright 2025 Thomson Reuters.

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