Politics Election category, Page 219
Florida fines key county $3.5 million for mandating vaccines
TALLAHASSEE — The county government that is home to Florida’s capital was fined $3.5 million on Tuesday by state health officials for requiring its employees to get covid-19 vaccines and for firing 14 workers who failed to get the shots. The Florida Department of Health issued the fine for Leon...
Pa. lawmakers spend millions of tax dollars on private lawyers but often don’t reveal why
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania legislature spent nearly $10 million during the last two years on private lawyers but routinely shielded the...
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issues executive order banning vaccine mandates by private entities
AUSTIN — Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday issued an executive order prohibiting any entity in Texas from mandating covid-19 vaccinations for employees or consumers, an expansion of a prior order limited to government entities. Abbott also asked lawmakers to tackle the issue during the current special legislative session, ensuring that...
GOP wants personal voter data to root out fraud, but Pa. already uses a more secure system
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania has spent nearly half a million dollars over the past six years to find and remove outdated registrations...
North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson under attack over anti-LGBT viewsVideo
RALEIGH — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is facing calls to resign from elected officials and LGBTQ advocacy groups over comments he made criticizing sexual education and likening gay and transgender people to “filth.” “There’s no reason anybody anywhere in America should be telling any child about transgenderism, homosexuality,...
Pa. attorney general Josh Shapiro jumps into ’22 governor’s race
Pennsylvania’s high-profile attorney general, Josh Shapiro, will formally announce his candidacy for governor on Wednesday, entering the 2022 race months after making his intentions known and effectively clearing the field of potential rivals for the Democratic nomination. Shapiro, a familiar presence on cable TV news who has spent nearly two...
Congress off the rails? Lawmakers barrel toward fall fights
Year-end pileups of crucial legislation and the brinkmanship that goes with them are normal behavior for Congress. This autumn, lawmakers are barreling toward battles that are striking for the risks they pose to both parties and their leaders. Though few doubt that Congress will again extend the government’s borrowing authority...
No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise refuses to say election wasn’t stolenVideo
WASHINGTON — The House’s second-ranking Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise, repeatedly refused to say on Sunday that the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, standing by Donald Trump’s lie that Democrat Joe Biden won the White House because of mass voter fraud. More than 11 months after Americans picked their president and almost...
Biden won’t invoke executive privilege on Trump Jan. 6 docs
The White House said Friday that President Joe Biden will not block the handover of documents sought by a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, setting up a showdown with former President Donald Trump, who wants to shield those White House records from investigators. The...
Biden is first president to mark Indigenous Peoples’ Day
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, lending the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus toward an appreciation of native peoples. Biden also issued a proclamation of Columbus Day on Monday, which is...
New Hampshire legislator leaves panel leadership over false covid claims
CONCORD, N.H. — Republican state Rep. Ken Weyler on Wednesday stepped down as chairperson of the House Finance and Joint Legislative Fiscal committees after Gov. Chris Sununu said he should be removed because he continued to spread covid-19 misinformation. “Representative Weyler and I spoke about my deep concerns of the...
Report details Trump’s all-out bid to undo election resultsVideo
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s extraordinary effort to overturn his 2020 election defeat brought the Justice Department to the brink of chaos, and prompted top officials there and at the White House to threaten to resign, a Senate Judiciary Committee report found. The report released Thursday by the Democratic-run committee offers...
Trump to invoke executive privilege in Jan. 6 House investigation
WASHINGTON — Donald Trump intends to assert executive privilege in a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, a move that could prevent the testimony of onetime aides, according to a letter sent by lawyers for the former president. The letter went to at least some witnesses...
Mainstream Republicans seek to ‘rescue’ Idaho — from the GOP
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin wants to be the state’s governor after next year’s November elections. But when the man currently holding the job left town this week on official business, she decided not to wait. McGeachin, a far-right Republican known for her opposition to covid-19 restrictions...
Oklahoma schools leader switches parties to run for governor
OKLAHOMA CITY — State Superintendent Joy Hofmeister, who has clashed repeatedly with Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt and his appointees over the state’s response to covid-19 in schools, said Thursday she will switch parties and run as a Democrat against him next year. A longtime Republican first elected in 2014, Hofmeister...
Senate dodges debt disaster, votes to extend borrowing
WASHINGTON — The Senate dodged a U.S. debt disaster Thursday night, voting to extend the government’s borrowing authority into December and temporarily avert an unprecedented federal default that experts warned would devastate the economy and harm millions of Americans. The vote of 50-48 in support of the bill to raise...
Judge orders Texas to suspend new law banning most abortions
AUSTIN — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Texas to suspend the most restrictive abortion law in the United States, which since September has banned most abortions in the nation’s second-most populous state. The order by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman is the first legal blow to the Texas law...
McConnell offers Democrats short-term debt fix amid standoff
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell on Wednesday told Democrats he would allow an emergency debt limit extension into December, edging back from a perilous standoff by offering a potential path to avoid a federal default. A procedural vote on legislation that would suspend the debt limit for two...
New Hampshire governor seeks removal of panel chair over false covid claims
CONCORD, N.H. — Gov. Chris Sununu is calling for the removal of a state representative, a fellow Republican, from his position as head of the legislative fiscal committee, saying the lawmaker is continuing to spread covid-19 misinformation. Last month, Rep. Ken Weyler, of Kingston, told state Health Commissioner Lori Shibinette...
GOP U.S. Senate candidate Sean Parnell seeks to have child custody case sealed
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Sean Parnell testified Tuesday that sealing the docket in his ongoing child custody case, closing the custody trial to the public and imposing a gag order on the parties involved is necessary to protect his three children. “It is for my children, and it’s to protect...
Gaetz friend asks for more time to cooperate with feds
Joel Greenberg, the friend of U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz who pleaded guilty earlier this year to sex trafficking, asked a judge on Tuesday to postpone his sentencing until next year so he can continue cooperating with federal authorities. Greenberg asked the federal judge in a court filing to move his...
Biden eager to get out of D.C., push benefits of spending plan
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is shifting strategy to sell his ambitious social spending plans by traveling outside Washington and courting Democrats who have complained they felt left out of the process. With his agenda in jeopardy on Capitol Hill, Biden on Tuesday will visit the Michigan district of a...
Pittsburgh mayoral candidates Gainey, Moreno outline their visions for city’s future
Mayoral candidates clashed Monday night over their visions for Downtown Pittsburgh, whether Wilkinsburg should merge into the city and how to improve relationships between police and residents across all 90 of the city’s neighborhoods. With four weeks until election day, Democratic nominee Ed Gainey and Republican challenger Tony Moreno participated...
Biden tells GOP to ‘get out of the way’ on debt limit
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden accused Republican lawmakers on Monday of blocking efforts to increase the government’s borrowing authority, saying they’re playing “Russian roulette with the U.S. economy” by committing to filibuster the measure ahead of an Oct. 18 deadline. Biden called on the Senate to suspend the nation’s debt...
‘Everybody is frustrated,’ Biden says as his agenda stalls
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Saturday acknowledged frustrations as Democrats strain to rescue a scaled-back version of his $3.5 trillion government-overhaul plan and salvage a related public works bill after frantic negotiations failed to produce a deal. “Everybody’s frustrated, it’s part of being in government, being frustrated,” Biden told reporters...
