AP US Politics News

By THALIA BEATY Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) — The nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice says staff from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency contacted them to assign a team to the organization and told them they planned to similarly install teams with all nonprofits receiving funds appropriated by Congress. Nick Turner, president of the

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned that children in the U.S. are being diagnosed with autism at an “alarming rate,” promising on Wednesday to conduct exhaustive studies to identify any environmental factors that may cause the developmental disorder. His call comes the day after the Centers

By SEUNG MIN KIM and ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Elise Stefanik, a member of House Republican leadership and onetime nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is considering a run for New York governor, according to a person close to her. The person was granted anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

By JIM VERTUNO Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A real estate developer, whose relationship with Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was at the center of the Republican’s historic impeachment trial in 2023 and a recently-ended federal corruption investigation, was sentenced Wednesday to five years’ supervised release and fined $1 million for lying to a

By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro has reopened to the public his official residence that was closed after an arsonist’s fire engulfed one of its wings. A former state police commissioner is studying the residence’s security and fundraising is in the works to help cover the millions of

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans to eliminate the IRS’ Direct File program, an electronic system for filing tax returns directly to the agency for free, according to two people familiar with the decision. The program developed during Joe Biden’s presidency was credited by users with making tax filing

By MARY CLARE JALONICK and MATTHEW BROWN Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen arrived in El Salvador Wednesday to push for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation. Van Hollen, a member

By TODD RICHMOND Associated Press The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided to fast-track permits for building a protective tunnel around an aging Enbridge oil pipeline that runs beneath a channel connecting two Great Lakes, stoking environmentalists’ fears that the project will escape scrutiny, damage the sensitive region and perpetuate fossil fuel use. The

By NADIA LATHAN Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Former Republican U.S. Rep. Mayra Flores is recovering after being hospitalized Tuesday shortly after announcing that she will run for a U.S. House seat in 2026, according to her campaign. In a statement posted on X, the campaign said “Mayra Flores faced a sudden health scare,

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE, MARI YAMAGUCHI and JOSH BOAK Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday inserted himself directly into trade talks with Japanese officials, a sign of the high stakes for the United States after its tariffs rattled the economy and caused the administration to assure the public that it would quickly

By SOPHIE AUSTIN Associated Press/Report for America SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, challenging the president’s authority to impose sweeping tariffs that have set off a global trade war. The lawsuit argues that President Donald Trump’s use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs

By COLLIN BINKLEY Associated Press On one side is Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, with a brand so powerful that its name is synonymous with prestige. On the other side is the Trump administration, determined to go further than any other White House to reshape American higher education. Both sides are digging in

By The Associated Press A federal judge on Wednesday said he has found probable cause to hold President Donald Trump’s administration in criminal contempt of court for violating his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg warned he could refer the matter for prosecution if the

By AMANDA SWINHART and PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press MORGAN, Vt. (AP) — Making maple syrup in New England’s fickle spring weather can be an unpredictable business. Now President Donald Trump’s ever-changing tariff policies are adding anxiety about an industry that depends on multinational trade. “Any kind of disruption with our cross border enterprise, we feel

By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — As measles outbreaks popped up across the U.S. this winter, pediatricians waited for the nation’s public health agency to send a routine, but important, letter that outlines how they could help stop the spread of the illness. It wasn’t until last week — after the number of

By JEFF AMY Associated Press ACWORTH, Ga. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene came to a town hall in suburban Atlanta on Tuesday night to deliver full-throated support of President Donald Trump, and she wasn’t letting the protesters faze her — not even the one who was wrestled to the ground by police and

By FATIMA HUSSEIN Associated Press CHICAGO (AP) — An IRS whistleblower who testified publicly about investigations into Hunter Biden’s taxes is expected to be promoted to IRS acting commissioner, two sources familiar with the plan tell The Associated Press. Gary Shapley, an IRS employee who testified to Congress as Republicans reviewed the business dealings of

FORT PIERCE, Fla. (AP) — A suspect accused of attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump last September in South Florida can hire an expert to examine the rifle recovered from the scene, but only to determine its operability, a federal judge said Tuesday. Ryan Wesley Routh’ s attorneys had asked that their expert be allowed

By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press HOUSTON (AP) — A Texas judge on Tuesday threw out a federal rule that would have capped credit card late fees after officials with President Donald Trump’s administration and a coalition of major banking groups agreed that the rule was illegal. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN and BEN FINLEY Associated Press GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge said Tuesday that she will order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with her orders to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison. U.S. District

By MICHAEL CASEY Associated Press BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to release billions of dollars meant to finance climate and infrastructure projects across the country. U.S. District Judge Mary McElroy, who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, sided with conservation and nonprofit groups and

By MICHELLE L. PRICE Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he wants to give money and an airplane ticket to any immigrant who is in the country illegally who chooses to “self-deport,” and work to get those who are “good” back in the U.S., a break from his usual hardline immigration rhetoric.

By BILL BARROW Associated Press President Donald Trump’s administration has dug in on its contention that the government should not have to repatriate Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite U.S. Supreme Court and lower court rulings that he was wrongly deported and should be returned to the United States. For weeks, officials alternated between admitting Abrego Garcia

By REBECCA BOONE and CEDAR ATTANASIO Associated Press A federal judge on Tuesday allowed the Justice Department to temporarily stop funding legal education programs for people facing deportation or immigration court while a lawsuit brought by the organizations that provide the service moves forward in court. The decision from U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss

By MATT SEDENSKY AP National Writer NEW YORK (AP) — The latest government waste touted by billionaire Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency is hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent unemployment claims it purportedly uncovered. One problem: Federal investigators already found what appears to be the same fraud, years earlier and on a

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

By ANNIE MA, MAKIYA SEMINERA and CHRISTOPHER L. KELLER Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — At first, the bar association for immigration attorneys began receiving inquiries from a couple students a day. These were foreigners studying in the U.S., and they’d discovered in early April their legal status had been terminated with little notice. To their

By MICHELLE R. SMITH Associated Press PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — When the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., endorsed the measles vaccine this month after an outbreak in Texas claimed the life of a second child, his comments made waves because he has spent 20 years making false claims that vaccines are unsafe.

By JONATHAN J. COOPER and REBECCA BOONE Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Stephanie and Ryan Burnett were perplexed. The crowd was enormous. The line snaked endlessly between buildings. Were they in the right place? As the mother and son approached an aging college basketball arena in Salt Lake City, the mass of people

By JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press SAUGATUCK, Mich. (AP) — Former Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox on Tuesday entered the 2026 governor’s race, adding to a growing field of Republicans vying to succeed term-limited Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Cox served as attorney general from 2003 to 2011. He launched a gubernatorial bid near the end of