U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly said Tuesday that he wants Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA-14) to become “more involved” with the House Republicans on the heels of a “productive meeting” the two shared last week.
According to journalist Jordain Carney, who reports for German-owned Politico, Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that he and Greene discussed her role in the next Congress during a meeting held last week.
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Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes may run for governor in 2026, which would create a primary challenge against incumbent Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs, according to multiple news outlets.
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Virginia ranked second in the Fall 2024 Leapfrog Group Hospital Safety Grade state rankings for patient safety in hospitals, marking the fifth consecutive time the commonwealth ranked second overall.
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Tom Zawistowski, president of the We the People Convention, is not confident that Ohio Governor Mike DeWine will appoint a MAGA Republican to Ohio U.S. Senator JD Vance’s seat once he is sworn in as U.S. Vice President on January 20, 2025.
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Haitians living in Springfield, Ohio appear to be fleeing the city in droves after President-elect Donald Trump was declared the winner of the election, according to reports from locals.
The national spotlight shined on Springfield, a city of roughly 60,000 residents nestled in central Ohio, for weeks following unverified viral online claims that Haitians migrants had been spotted butchering a pet for consumption. The subsequent uproar about Springfield sparked further media debate about mass migration and its consequences, as Springfield has been dealing with an influx of Haitian migrants in a relatively short amount of time.
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Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Monday announced he will seek reelection, officially ending speculation he would launch a gubernatorial bid in an effort to maintain Republican control over the Executive Mansion, as Governor Glenn Youngkin is prevented from seeking a second consecutive term by the Virginia Constitution.
Miyares announced his reelection bid in a post to the social media platform X, where he wrote, “We are not going back to the failed policies of the past; our families’ safety and Virginia’s future depends on it.”
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The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is in crisis, hemorrhaging attorneys at a rate that would make even a fast-food chain flinch.
That’s according to AFSCME Local 2938, a labor union that represents Hennepin County attorneys and legal support staff. In contract negotiation documents from August, the union warned that even with immediate pay adjustments, it could take years—if not decades—for some divisions within the office to regain “their pre-2023 levels of proficiency, professionalism, and recognized statewide leadership among fellow county attorneys’ offices.”
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Jose Ibarra, the alleged murderer of 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, traveled from New York City to Georgia after requesting a humanitarian flight, his roommate testified Monday.
Ibarra is currently standing trial after being charged for the murder of Riley, who died in February from blunt force trauma to the head outside of the University of Georgia’s campus. Ibarra’s roommate, Rosbeli Elisber Flores-Bello, testified that she and the suspected murderer arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City and requested a humanitarian flight to Athens, Georgia, in September 2023.
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Former Senate and gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, R-Ariz., has settled a defamation lawsuit with Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer that centered on Lake’s false allegations that Richer helped steal the 2022 governor election.
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Bucks County, Pennsylvania, received nearly $5 million from the state for election integrity since 2023, but the county was successfully sued for violating election law as voters were turned away after waiting for hours in long lines during the 2024 election cycle.
Democrat Bucks County Commissioner Robert Harvie blamed the long lines — which were the subject of successful litigation from the campaigns of President-elect Donald Trump and Senator-elect Dave McCormick — on budget restraints, despite Bucks County’s receipt of about $4.98 million from a Pennsylvania state program designed to shore up election administration and integrity. Bucks County is again in the news after Harvie and fellow Democrat Bucks County Commissioner Diane Ellis-Marseglia moved Thursday to count deficient ballots as defeated Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey holds out hope that he can win his race after a recount.
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Officials at both the Republican National Committee (RNC) and President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign raised the possibility of criminal charges against the Bucks County, Pennsylvania commissioners who voted to count ballots that were repeatedly deemed illegal by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.
Bucks County commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Bob Harvie successfully voted last Thursday to count mail-in ballots returned with a missing, incorrect, or incomplete date amid a recount in the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race between Senator-elect Dave McCormick and Senator Bob Casey, who has refused to concede despite the Associated Press declaring he lost the election.
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Wisconsin GOP Senate candidate Eric Hovde conceded his race to Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin on Monday, saying he did not want to “add to political strife through a contentious recount.”
Hovde was down about about 29,000 votes from Baldwin, putting the margin at less than a percentage point, The Associated Press reported. The vote margin allowed him to request a recount that he would have had to pay for himself. Baldwin declared victory in the Senate race two days after Election Day.
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Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday gave an update on the search for Sen. Marco Rubio’s replacement in the Senate, now that the latter has been nominated for Secretary of State.
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Rubio for the post last week as one of his first cabinet nominations for the former president’s second term. Rubio, who is known for being a hawk on China and Iraq, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate next year, after he resigns his post in January.
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Tom Pappert, reporter at The Pennsylvania Daily Star, said Democrats’ ongoing refusal to accept the election results of the Pennsylvania U.S. Senate race which saw Republican Dave McCormick defeat incumbent Democrat Bob Casey (D-PA) is textbook “election denialism.”
While The Associated Press called the race for McCormick two days after Election Day last week, Casey has refused to concede.
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The report issued by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) condemning the abysmal conditions at the Fulton County Jail comes as Fulton County faces a backlog of more than 40,000 cases, which may have contributed to the concerns raised in the report about the lengthy jail stays experienced by those incarcerated at the troubled facility.
The 97-page report containing the findings from the DOJ investigation that began last year accused the jail of violating the U.S. Constitution through the physical conditions at the jail, the county’s inability to guarantee the safety of inmates, and alleged violations of laws designed to protect Americans with disabilities, but also noted inmates “spend long periods detained in the Jail.”
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The incoming 2025 Arizona Legislature is choosing leadership and committee positions, and selected State Rep. Steve Montenegro (R-Goodyear) as speaker of the house on Tuesday. The longtime legislator, who was born in El Salvador and describes himself as MAGA and America First, will be Arizona’s first Latino speaker of the house.
The Arizona Sun Times spoke to Montenegro shortly after he won the three-way race with 18 votes from 33 Republican voting members. He defeated Rep. Joseph Chaplike (R-Scottsdale), a member of the Freedom Caucus, and current House Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci (R-Lake Havasu).
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The two Democratic members of the Bucks County Commission voted to count ballots the Pennsylvania Supreme Court determined are illegal in a previous ruling, with the county specifically giving election workers orders to count mail-in votes returned with an incomplete, incorrect, or missing date.
Despite the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling on November 1 that ballots mailed without correct dates would not be counted, with voters instead told to cast a provisional ballot that would be counted instead, the two Democratic members of the Bucks County Commission voted to accept ballots with missing or incorrect dates.
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Eight candidates competed for the three open seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission – three were registered Republicans in the race, three were Democrats and two were affiliated with the Green Party.
All three of those candidates endorsed by Arizona’s Republican party claimed the available seats with Rachel Walden receiving 17.89% of the votes, Rene Lopez receiving 17.37% and Incumbent Lea Marquez Peterson receiving 16.89% at 99% of precincts reporting.
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Pressure from a Columbus-based policy group has forced five university-based Ohio law schools to stop race-based scholarship or internship programs.
The Buckeye Institute announced law schools at Cleveland State, Ohio State, Akron, Cincinnati and Toledo stopped the programs after it announced an investigation.
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Democrat commissioners in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, voted on Thursday to allow undated and misdated ballots to be counted as defeated Democratic Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey gears up for a recount in the race he lost to Republican Senator-elect Dave McCormick.
Bucks County Commissioners Diane Ellis-Marseglia and Robert Harvie moved to allow for undated or misdated ballots to be counted in the crucial swing county, despite a Nov. 1 state supreme court ruling that undated or misdated ballots cannot be counted. The commissioners voted to do so as the Casey-McCormick Senate race heads to a recount, with McCormick leading by about 25,000 votes, according to The Associated Press.
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Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) said the Republican Party under President-elect Donald Trump successfully neutralized abortion as a major issue with an “effective” states rights argument that left Pennsylvania voters convinced they would not prioritize a nationwide abortion ban.
Fetterman made the remarks about abortion to German-owned Politico in a wide-ranging interview published Thursday, when he suggested the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 decision to overturn Roe v. Wade ultimately did not hurt Republicans on Election Day.
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A Minneapolis man is one of two Somali pirates convicted of kidnapping this week and sentenced to federal prison for 30 years.
Abdi Yusuf Hassan, now 56, a naturalized U.S. citizen and prior resident of Minneapolis, along with Mohamed Tahlil Mohamed, now 43, of Mogadishu, Somalia, held American journalist Michael Scott Moore hostage for nearly three years in Somalia after kidnapping him in 2012.
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Wisconsin’s new 3-cent per kilowatt hour state tax on electricity sales for electric vehicles starts Jan. 1.
Any owner, operator, manager, or lessee of an EV charging station must now register with the Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s Online Business Tax Registration if the charging station is subject to the tax.
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Six bills under consideration in the Michigan’s House Criminal Justice Committee would reform state law to limit judges from requiring bail as a condition of release for some accused criminals awaiting trial.
Among other changes, House Bills 4655-4656 and 4658-4661 would stiffen the criteria for imposing detention conditions on a person accused of a low-level crime awaiting trial, denying judges the ability to factor in a defendant’s criminal history, prior failures to appear in court, or potential danger to the community.
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The deaths of at least four Georgia men with mental disabilities at the Fulton County Jail are “symptomatic of a pattern of dangerous and dehumanizing conditions,” the U.S. Department of Justice said.
The 97-page investigation also said inmates were not protected from harm by other inmates and the living conditions were “unsanitary and dangerous.” The conditions violate the Eighth and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the Justice Department said in a release.
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The Pinal County Attorney’s Office (PCAO) declined to prosecute former Maricopa County prosecutor April Sponsel, whose license was suspended by the State Bar of Arizona for bringing charges against Antifa. PCAO also rejected charges against several Phoenix Police officers involved in quelling a riot by the gang in 2020. The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) had recommended to PCAO to charge the six after the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (MCAO) suggested there was wrongdoing.
Initially, MCAO fully supported prosecuting Antifa, but after ABC-15 issued a series of videos critical of how law enforcement handled the incident, the office reversed its position. In February 2021, then-Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel made a decision to dismiss all the charges against Antifa. Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell testified against Sponsel at her bar disciplinary trial.
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The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) was sued last week by a group of Arizona workers who claim the foreign company discriminated against United States citizens after the President Joe Biden successfully convinced the company to build multiple facilities near Phoenix with $6.6 billion in taxpayer funding and $5 billion in federal loans through the CHIPS Act of 2021.
According to the lawsuit filed last Friday by 13 Arizonans, which was made public Thursday, TMSC failed to address the effects of a “hostile work environment” that affects “employees who are not of East Asian race or Taiwanese or Chinese national origin.”
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Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced “Georgia Plan” for Congress to establish national election rules on Thursday, arguing the Peach State should serve as a model for to establish nationwide regulations that enhance election integrity.
“Voters nationwide deserve to participate in elections that have both security and integrity, along with easy access for eligible voters and quick and accurate reporting of results,” said Raffensperger in a statement, after citing Georgia’s successful early voting period for “a record turnout election that was safe, secure and accurate.”
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Florida officials say 34.6 million visitors spent time in the Sunshine State in the third quarter of this year, eclipsing the previous third quarter record by 1.7% and giving the state three consecutive quarters of record growth.
That comes despite Hurricanes Debby and Helene making landfall in the quarter. Milton, in the just started fourth quarter, made it three hurricanes in 66 days.
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State Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou, D-East Lansing, introduced four House bills that would expand the allowable uses for on-demand ballot printing and clarify statutory language that was missed when implementing Michigan’s Proposal 2 of 2022.
HB 6052 would allow clerks to use on-demand ballot printing for same-day registration voters in a clerk’s office or in election day voting centers. It would also allow on-demand ballot printing for ballots printed in a language other than English so that clerks could avoid having to pre-print large numbers of non-English ballots.
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Arizonans have passed a law that would allow both commercial and residential property owners to be eligible for a tax refund if they can provide proof that the city failed to enforce public nuisance laws affecting their property.
At 90% of precincts participating, 58.6% of voters approved Prop. 312. This proposition has received a national audience as one of the laws encouraging law enforcement to criminalize homelessness put forth following the 2023 ruling by SCOTUS striking down protections for homeless individuals.
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The Ohio Chamber of Commerce and nearly 20 business groups from four states want the Biden administration to start handing out money from the CHIPS Act immediately.
In a letter, the groups from Ohio, New York, Oregon and New Mexico want the money distributed now. Intel has said the money is critical to its plan for the ongoing development of its massive manufacturing facility in central Ohio that could lead to 3,000 direct jobs and thousands of other related jobs.
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A teacher at Minnesota Connections Academy, an online public school, sent an email to eighth grade Language Arts students saying he wondered how he “could possibly come to school” following last week’s election of President Donald Trump.
“It’s the fact that it’s pushing an agenda. The Democrats are saying that it’s not happening, but it very clearly is,” Antonio Pici, a law enforcement officer and veteran, shared with Alpha News.
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Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction Superintendent Jill Underly said she plans to ask for more than $4 billion in new state spending on the state’s schools, which was termed an “additional $3 billion” in the upcoming 2025-27 biennial budget.
The figures are just a request at this point before Gov. Tony Evers offers his proposal and then legislative budget writers in the Republican-led legislature begin their process.
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As President-elect Donald Trump is making cabinet picks and Congress orients its new members, Virginia is gearing up for its next elections.
One week after election day, campaign announcements for 2025 are popping up across the commonwealth. Virginia is one of just a handful of states that holds major elections in off years, so while special elections to replace state Sens. John McGuire, R-Goochland, and Suhas Subramanyam, D-Loudoun – both elected to Congress last week – are the most immediate, they’re just the beginning of the political contests Virginians will see in 2025.
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President-elect Donald Trump selected Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL-01) on Wednesday as his nominee for attorney general. The 42-year-old attorney has been one of Trump’s loudest and fiercest defenders, especially in stopping the lawfare against Trump.
Jeffrey Clark, a former DOJ official who briefly served as acting attorney general in the Trump administration and assisted Trump with investigating 2020 election irregularities, told The Arizona Sun Times he agreed with the selection. “Matt Gaetz is an outstanding lawyer and constitutionalist!” Clark said. ”I think he is an amazing pick by President Trump.”
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A Georgia Democrat who was recruited to run for state office in a rural district revealed on Tuesday that the state party had specific criteria for the selection of its delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. He explained that as a “white male heterosexual,” he did not fit these criteria.
Jack Zibluck explained in a column published by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that made the observations about the party’s delegate selection process when he was nominated to serve as an alternative delegate at the RNC during his campaign against State Representative Mike Cameron (R-Rossville) to represent Georgia’s First district. Zibluck ultimately received less than 20 percent of the vote.
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The Arizona state Legislature is seeing some new leadership in its upcoming session.
In private meetings in and around the capitol on Tuesday, members voted on their picks to run the show. State Rep. Steve Montenegro will succeed outgoing Speaker Ben Toma. Montenegro won with 18 votes and ran against State Rep. Joseph Chaplik and current Majority Leader Leo Biasiucci.
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The Biden U.S. State Department announced on Thursday the agency’s transition to the Trump administration will be coordinated by Stephen Mull, a former longtime State Department official who most recently served as the lead coordinator for the Iran nuclear deal reached under former President Barack Obama, and who is now the provost for the University of Virginia (UVA).
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller confirmed Mull was appointed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to lead the agency’s transition in a press conference. He told reporters the agency views a “peaceful transition of power” as an “essential part of our democracy that is vital to our nation’s security.”
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Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan on Monday urged other “disgruntled” Republicans who opposed President-elect Donald Trump to give the incoming administration “a chance” in the wake Trump’s electoral landslide and popular vote mandate.
Duncan, who is facing expulsion from the Georgia Republican Party (GAGOP) over his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential election, made his remarks during a Monday interview with WABE.
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As local Republicans celebrate President Donald Trump’s historic reelection to the White House on Nov. 5, Minnesota workplaces, schools, and local leaders have responded by creating safe spaces and mourning.
“We have been through a Trump presidency before and we made it through,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in a somber video posted to X. “We will make it through again.”
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With thoughts focused on the holiday season, small business owners in Ohio continue to struggle with finding employees.
But that’s not the only issue.
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Senator-elect Dave McCormick (R-Penn.) announced Monday that he plans to attend the freshman Senator orientation on Tuesday, despite the lack of an invitation from Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY).
“Looking forward to joining the Senate freshman class of 2025 for orientation this week!” McCormick wrote on X. “I’m honored to represent the people of Pennsylvania, and will fight hard to make sure their voices are heard in Washington. Let’s get to work!”
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Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Gilbert) promised to submit legislation to increase the speed of the state’s election reporting after it was the last state in the union to declare the the winner of its presidential election on Saturday, when it confirmed President-elect Donald Trump will receive Arizona’s 11 electoral votes.
Petersen made the pledge in a post to the social media platform X, where he wrote that Senators Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff), JD Mesnard (R-Chandler), and Shawnna Bolick (R-San Miguel) will receive help from Florida Secretary of State Cord Byrd to craft “the best legislation possible for introduction in January.”
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Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) on Friday offered the viral advertisement by President-elect Donald Trump that elevated past statements by Vice President Kamala Harris, including video of her expressing support for taxpayer-funded transgender surgeries for prison inmates, as an example of the Trump campaign’s effective messaging that led to a landslide victory last Tuesday.
The Pennsylvania Democrat highlighted the ad campaign during a Friday interview with Semafor while also arguing President Joe Biden would have fared better against Trump.
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While the mainstream media has called every other state in the country for Donald Trump and almost all other candidates, Maricopa County and some other Arizona counties are still tabulating ballots several days after the election, leaving the results of the U.S. Senate race between Kari Lake and Ruben Gallego up in the air. In response, Turning Point USA and Lake supporters launched a massive ballot curing effort, and Lake sent a stern letter to Pima County about anomalies.
Arizona has not announced its presidential results even though Trump is leading by 6 points over Kamala Harris with 99 percent of precincts reporting. When Joe Biden ostensibly won the state in 2020 by 10,457 votes, or 49.4 percent to 49.1 percent, Fox News called the election for Biden on election night.
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The Georgia man who pleaded guilty to making multiple death threats to Representative Marjorie Taylor Green (R-GA-14) was reportedly sentenced on Friday to supervised released and five months of confinement, which will be credited against his time spent in custody while his case was determined, meaning no additional prison sentence was imposed.
Sean Patrick Cirillo was sentenced to three years of supervised release and five months, credited against the time he already spent in federal custody, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in its Friday reporting of the sentencing. Law360 confirmed no additional prison sentence was imposed beyond the five months Cirillo already spent in custody.
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A federal court upheld four female high school track athletes’ challenge to a Connecticut policy allowing male participation in female sports.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert N. Chatigny, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, ruled in favor of allowing the athletes’ case against the Connecticut Association of Schools to proceed, rejecting the request of state officials to dismiss it.
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Virginia’s legislative watchdog agency presented a stark review of ongoing financial management and staffing issues at the Virginia Department of Health to legislators Thursday.
Republican and Democratic state legislators alike were surprised at the severity and extent of the department’s issues, calling the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission staff’s findings “very sobering,” “shocking” and “disturbing.”
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Ohio plans to spend $17.5 million in taxpayer funds to get people to and from work.
The state announced a series of grants Friday to fund workforce transportation efforts in both rural and urban areas across the state as part of the Ohio Workforce Mobility Partnership Program.
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