Search

::: spoiler spoiler

:::Public support is building for changes to housing zoning codes and other laws that dominated American housing policy for decades.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) won the floor vote for the House speaker gavel on Wednesday, ending the weeks of stalemate and failed nominations that followed the historic ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)

Oct. 20 (UPI) -- A Manhattan Supreme Court judge on Friday fined former President Donald Trump $5,000 for violating a gag order placed on him during his civil fraud trial in New York.

"Donald Trump has received ample warning from this court as to the possible repercussions of violating the gag order," Judge Arthur Engoron said in his order Friday. "He specifically acknowledged that he understood and would abide by it.

"Accordingly, issuing yet another warning is no longer appropriate; this court is way behind the 'warning stage.'"

Engoron also threatened Trump twice with jail time if the former president violates the order again, CNN reported.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s top corporate deputies considered adding a “presidential premium” when calculating the value of his Trump Tower penthouse, Mar-a-Lago resort and other assets during his White House years, a gambit that would’ve padded his net worth by nearly $145 million, an executive at the former president’s company testified Friday.

Trump Organization Assistant Vice President Patrick Birney said at Trump’s New York civil fraud trial that they ended up scrapping the idea, but state lawyers contend that merely going through the exercise underscores how Trump and his underlings were intent on finding ways to puff up his net worth.

Trump was expected to return to court for the trial next week when fixer-turned-foe Michael Cohen was scheduled to take the witness stand, though Cohen said late Friday that he needed to attend to a medical condition that might delay the showdown. Cohen said he would testify “at the earliest opportunity.”

Birney was testifying at the end of t

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) had a fiery exchange with reporters Friday about the House’s ongoing dilemma, blaming Democratic members for bringing “chaos to Congress.”

After House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) was nominated for the top position on Friday evening, lawmakers went on recess for the weekend without bringing a vote to the House floor.

CNN’s Manu Raju questioned McCarthy on whether acting Speaker Patrick Henry (R-N.C.) should take on more power since the House’s divisiveness has stalled Congress. Deflecting the question, the California Republican shifted blame to the Democrats for the Speakership drama.

“So they’ve really stymied, they brought chaos in … Congress and now they’ve tried to stymie our ability to have continuity of Congress, which I think is a real problem, what the Democrats have done,” McCarthy said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on Wednesday nominated Rep. Steve Scalise to be the next House speaker and will now try to unite around the conservative in a floor vote to elect him after ousting Rep. Kevin McCarthy from the post.

In private balloting at the Capitol, House Republicans pushed aside Rep. Jim Jordan, the Judiciary Committee chairman, in favor of Scalise, the current majority leader, lawmakers said. The Louisiana lawmaker is seen as a hero to some after surviving a mass shooting on lawmakers at a congressional baseball game practice few years ago.

Republicans who have been stalemated after McCarthy’s removal will seek to assemble their narrow House majority around Scalise in what is certain to be a close vote of the full House. Democrats are set to oppose the Republican nominee.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stalemated over a new House speaker, the Republican majority is meeting behin

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is dropping out of the Democratic primary race against Joe Biden to launch an independent campaign for president next year, he said in a speech on Monday.

Speaking to a crowd in front of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he cast his decision to leave the party his family has symbolized for decades as in keeping with American values of individualism -- and his own platform, which mixes liberal policy priorities with tougher rhetoric on immigration and controversial claims about public health.

"Something is stirring in us. It says, 'It doesn't have to be this way,'" Kennedy said. "People stop me everywhere, at airports and hotels and malls on the street, and they remind me that this country is ready for a history-making change. ... They are ready to reclaim their freedom, their independence. And that's why I'm here today. I'm here to declare myself an independent candidate … for president of the United States."

"I'm comi

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Attorneys who’ve been defending MyPillow chief executive and election denier Mike Lindell against defamation lawsuits by voting machine companies are seeking court permission to quit, saying he owes them unspecified millions of dollars and can’t pay the millions more that he’ll owe in legal expenses going forward.

Lindell confirmed in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that he’s out of money and said he understands his lawyers are people who need to make a living.

Attorney Andrew Parker wrote in documents filed in federal court on Thursday that his firm and a second firm representing MyPillow in lawsuits by Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems can’t afford what it would cost to represent Lindell and MyPillow through the rest of the litigation. Continuing to defend him would put the firms “in serious financial risk,” he wrote.

It’s the latest in a string of legal and financial setbacks for Lindell, who propagates former President Donald Trump’s lies

The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump's classified documents case on Friday temporarily paused a series of significant pre-trial deadlines pertaining to prosecutors' sharing of sensitive materials that the former president is entitled to while building his defense, The Messenger reports.

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon authorized a paperless order delaying the deadlines she'd previously set for October 2023 through May 2024, when the trial for Trump and his three co-defendants in the case is scheduled to start in Fort Pierce, Florida.

Though Cannon's order doesn't address the May 20 start date for the trial itself, it does state that all of the scheduled deadlines connected to classified information are on hold "pending consideration and resolution" of a Trump motion proposing a new timeline that was filed last month.

That Sept. 22 filing accused special counsel Jack Smith's team of making "unjust efforts...to foist rushed CIPA litigation o

Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that he would not give Democrats anything in exchange for their votes to help save his Speakership, after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) moved to force a vote on ousting him.

“They haven’t asked for anything. I’m not going to provide anything,” McCarthy said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz filed a resolution late Monday to oust Kevin McCarthy as speaker, setting up a likely showdown vote in the House in the days ahead.

The far-right Republican from Florida has for months threatened to use the procedural tool — called a motion to vacate — to try to strip McCarthy of his office. Those threats escalated over the weekend after McCarthy relied on Democrats to provide the necessary votes to fund the government.

In an earlier speech on the House floor, Gaetz demanded McCarthy disclose the details of a supposed deal the speaker made with the White House to bring forward legislation to help fund the war in Ukraine during funding negotiations.

“It is becoming increasingly clear who the speaker of the House already works for and it’s not the Republican Conference,” Gaetz said in his speech, hours before he filed the resolution.

Oct. 2 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a case that seeks to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot in 2024.

The high court, which started a new term Monday, shot down a case brought by John Anthony Castro. The longshot Republican presidential candidate argues that Trump is not eligible to be on the ballot due to his involvement with the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Trump is considered the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.

Castro cites Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, a Civil War era provision that was used to bar former members of the Confederacy from holding office

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has selected Laphonza Butler, a Democratic strategist and adviser to Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign, to fill the U.S. Senate seat made vacant by the death of Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

In choosing Butler on Sunday, Newsom fulfilled his pledge to appoint a Black woman if Feinstein’s seat became open. However, he had been facing pressure from some Black politicians and advocacy groups to select Barbara Lee, a prominent Black congresswoman who is already running for the seat.

Butler will be the only Black woman serving in the U.S. Senate and the first openly LGBTQ+ person to represent California in the chamber.

Newsom said in a statement that the priorities Feinstein fought for in Congress — reproductive freedom, equal protection and safety from gun violence — were under assault in the nation. “Laphonza will carry the baton left by Sen. Feinstein (and) continue to break glass ceilings and fight for all Californians in Washington D.