Politics Election category, Page 266
Trump doled out billions to drugmakers and hospitals with few strings attached
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has pumped billions of dollars into the health care industry during the covid-19 crisis, padding bottom lines at some of the country’s most profitable businesses even as millions of Americans have been left struggling with mounting medical bills. And although taxpayer money has poured into...
AP Explains: Trump pushes questions about Joe Biden’s son
WASHINGTON — Looking to undermine Democratic rival Joe Biden, President Donald Trump’s campaign is pushing a familiar line of attack: unverified allegations about Biden’s son and his foreign business ties. But reporting in the New York Post, and the emergence of a man who says he worked with Hunter Biden,...
Florida judge resigns from vote-counting board over bias concerns
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A local judge in a north Florida county resigned Thursday from a vote-counting board after concerns were raised about his political partisanship. The Florida Times-Union reports that Senior County Judge Brent Shore resigned from the Duval County Canvassing Board after the newspaper reported he had donated $170...
Trump rule says health plans must disclose costs up front
WASHINGTON — Trying to pull back the veil on health care costs to encourage competition, the Trump administration on Thursday finalized a requirement for insurers to tell consumers up front the actual prices for common tests and procedures. A major health insurance industry group said the regulation would have the...
Potentially thousands of requested mail ballots lost in Butler County, official says
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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 — Potentially thousands of mail ballots requested by Butler County voters appear to be lost, a county official said Wednesday,...
Wisconsin Republican Party says hackers stole $2.3 million
MADISON, Wis. — Hackers have stolen $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party’s account that was being used to help reelect President Donald Trump in the key battleground state, the party’s chairman told The Associated Press on Thursday. The party noticed the suspicious activity on Oct. 22 and contacted the...
Westmoreland elections officials: ‘Number of residents’ have not received mail-in, absentee ballots
While nearly 50,000 mail-in ballots from Westmoreland voters have been returned to the county’s Election Bureau, a number of residents have not received the mail-in or absentee ballot they requested. County officials said as of Wednesday, 71,852 of 74,648 ballots had been delivered to the U.S. Postal Service to be...
Biden lead holds steady at 6 points in latest Franklin & Marshall College Poll
Former vice president Joe Biden continued to hold a six-point lead among likely voters in Pennsylvania last week as the number of undecided voters declined, a poll Franklin & Marshall College Poll found. The poll of 558 likely Pennsylvania voters, which was conducted from Oct. 19-25, contained a margin of...
Postal Service ordered to increase late trips for election mail
WASHINGTON — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was ordered to immediately begin expanding mail delivery with extra trips and later deliveries after the U.S. Postal Service failed to improve performance less than a week before the election. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan late Tuesday in Washington granted an emergency request to...
Supreme Court leaves North Carolina absentee ballot deadline at Nov. 12
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will allow absentee ballots in North Carolina to be received and counted up to nine days after Election Day, in a win for Democrats. The justices, by a 5-3 vote Wednesday, refused to disturb a decision by the State Board of Elections to lengthen the...
Ivanka Trump near Portersville: U.S. ‘much more capable of combating this virus as we wait for the vaccine’Video
The United States and its public health leaders are “much more capable” of confronting the next waves of coronavirus cases than they were when covid-19 first struck last spring, Ivanka Trump said while stumping for her father, President Donald Trump, Wednesday on a Lawrence County farm. Ivanka Trump, 38, whose...
Justices deny fast, new look at Pennsylvania ballot deadline
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would not grant a quick, pre-election review to a new Republican appeal to exclude absentee ballots received after Election Day in the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania, although it remained unclear whether those ballots will ultimately be counted. The court’s order...
Florida man charged with changing governor’s voting address
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis couldn’t initially cast his ballot this week because someone illegally changed his address online, a complication that resulted in a suspect’s arrest on felony charges and raised questions about the security of the state’s online registration system. DeSantis went to an early...
Former DHS official says he wrote ‘Anonymous’ Trump critique
WASHINGTON —A former Trump administration official who penned a scathing anti-Trump op-ed and book under the pen name “Anonymous” revealed himself Wednesday as a former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security. The official, Miles Taylor, said in a tweet six days before Election Day that Donald Trump...
What is ‘ballot harvesting,’ and who can and can’t deliver your mail ballot in Pa.
Spotlight PA is an independent, non-partisan 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. This article is made possible through Votebeat, a nonpartisan reporting project covering local election integrity and voting access. HARRISBURG — On...
Carnegie Mellon study finds severe polarization in political language
The divide between political parties is not just ideological. Their members are essentially speaking different languages, a study from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found. Using computer translation tools, researchers analyzed 86.6 million YouTube comments from 6.5 million users on more than 200,000 news videos from CNN, Fox News, MSNBC...
Election 2020: What to watch for in the campaign’s final week
The race for the presidency is in the home stretch, with less than a week until Election Day. Pennsylvania figures to play a prominent role in what unfolds over the next week and who ultimately wins the White House. Here are five things to watch: Where will the campaigns go?...
No right to certain service level for mail-in votes, U.S. says
WASHINGTON — Delivery delays during an election can’t be unlawful, because the Constitution doesn’t guarantee states any particular level of service when it comes to mail-in ballots, the U.S. Postal Service told a federal judge. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and President Donald Trump are seeking dismissal of a lawsuit brought...
Justice Thomas’ wife Ginni boosts unsupported claims against Biden
WASHINGTON — The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is using her Facebook page to amplify unsubstantiated claims of corruption by Joe Biden. Ginni Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, asked her more than 10,000 followers Monday to consider sharing a link focused on alleged corruption by the Democratic nominee...
Incumbent state Senator Brewster faces GOP challenge from Lower Burrell attorney
A Lower Burrell attorney is challenging a Democratic incumbent known for working both sides of the aisle in the 45th State Senate District, which includes parts of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties and stretches from McKeesport to the Alle-Kiski Valley. While both candidates assign importance to similar issues, like the economy,...
Social media CEOs to face grilling from Republican senatorsVideo
WASHINGTON — Less than a week before Election Day, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google are set to face a grilling by Republican senators who accuse the tech giants of anti-conservative bias. Democrats are trying to expand the discussion to include other issues such as the companies’ heavy impact...
Barrett sworn in at Supreme Court; Luzerne County asks for her recusal from Pa. case
WASHINGTON — Amy Coney Barrett was formally sworn in Tuesday as the Supreme Court’s ninth justice, her oath administered in private by Chief Justice John Roberts. Her first votes on the court could include two big topics affecting the man who appointed her. The court is weighing a plea from...
Chorus of artists tell Trump to stop using their music
From the beloved opening lines of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” to the rousing, children’s-choir conclusion of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” President Donald Trump’s campaign rallies have been filled with classic songs whose authors and their heirs loudly reject him and his politics. It’s become a...
Supreme Court won’t extend Wisconsin’s absentee ballot deadline
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is siding with Republicans to prevent Wisconsin from counting mailed ballots that are received after Election Day. In a 5-3 order, the justices on Monday refused to reinstate a lower court order that called for mailed ballots to be counted if they are received up...
Wolf’s office responds to Trump jabs at Lehigh Valley rally: ‘What the president said is inaccurate’Video
After President Trump stood before a cheering crowd Monday in Northampton County and blasted Gov. Tom Wolf repeatedly, a Wolf spokeswoman fired back, countering the Trump claims and calling one alleging interference in Trump rally planning “inaccurate.” Trump, speaking at a campaign rally outside HoverTech International in Hanover Township, several...
