WASHINGTON — The Smithsonian Institution is resisting an effort from Texas lawmakers to transport the space shuttle Discovery from a Virginia museum to Houston, home of Mission Control, in a battle framed by the cost.

Texas GOP Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz included in the reconciliation law a provision that would authorize the relocation of...Read more

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Monday issued a preliminary injunction blocking language in the GOP budget reconciliation law that made Planned Parenthood ineligible for Medicaid reimbursements for one year.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani had granted a preliminary injunction last week blocking the provision for only some Planned ...Read more

WASHINGTON — House Republican appropriators plan to disregard the White House’s proposed 40% cut to the National Institutes of Health budget for fiscal 2026, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation.

Instead, the funding levels being discussed are similar to what’s currently appropriated, they said.

Republicans in ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Monday said he never had the “privilege” of visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s private island as he shed new details on his split from the notorious pedophile who was once his close friend and neighbor in Palm Beach, Florida.

Brushing off questions about Epstein, Trump again suggested the firestorm over Epstein was ...Read more

President Donald Trump on Monday shortened to less than two weeks his deadline for Russia’s Vladimir Putin to talk peace with Ukraine.

After previously giving the Kremlin strongman 50 days, Trump said he has lost patience with Putin’s refusal to come to the table to end the three-year invasion of its smaller neighbor.

“I’m going to ...Read more

WASHINGTON — With the House away, nominations and appropriations remain at the forefront of the Senate’s agenda for what is scheduled to be the final week before August recess.

Advancing President Donald Trump’s nominations is straightforward but laborious, with Democrats showing little willingness to expedite the process. That has led ...Read more

GARFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A Walmart store where 11 people were stabbed Saturday in what appeared to be random attack by a Cheboygan man remained closed Monday, though community members were rallying together to support one another.

Linda Peters was walking her two small dogs in front of the closed Walmart on Monday morning when a UPS truck ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Even as the Trump administration pursues a hard-line approach to enforcing immigration law, some congressional Republicans acknowledge the need to expand immigration opportunities for workers in specialized sectors such as agriculture.

As industries that depend on temporary workers like agriculture and tourism say they need ...Read more

DETROIT — A northern Michigan man accused of stabbing 11 people Saturday at a Walmart near Traverse City was previously accused of digging up a grave in a Petoskey cemetery and trying to remove the casket, court records show.

The criminal case against Bradford Gille offers a fuller picture of the mental health issues ― including a history ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- Her name is ubiquitous in public spaces around Los Angeles: the Wallis Annenberg Building at the California Science Center in Exposition Park, the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, the soon-to-debut Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing in Agoura Hills.

Then there’s the Annenberg Community Beach ...Read more

Minnesotans looking to praise, protest or petition their government have gathered at the State Capitol for more than a century.

Farmers packed the rotunda during the Great Depression to demand farm aid. In 1964, Minnesotans gathered to pray as the U.S. Senate debated the Civil Rights Act. Anti-abortion activists gather every year to advocate ...Read more

Juan Ortíz trudged through 100-degree heat along the U.S.-Mexico border, weighed down by a backpack full of water bottles that he planned to leave for migrants trying to cross this rugged terrain.

Only there hadn't been many migrants of late.

When Ortíz started water drops in this especially dangerous stretch of desert near El Paso nearly ...Read more

A last-minute scramble to add a $50 billion rural health program to President Donald Trump’s massive tax and spending law has left hospital and clinic leaders nationwide hopeful but perplexed.

The Rural Health Transformation Program calls for federal regulators to hand states $10 billion a year for five years starting in fiscal year 2026.

...Read more

“Almost 5 million able-bodied Medicaid recipients ‘simply choose not to work’ and ‘spend six hours a day socializing and watching television.’”

Scott Jennings on “CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip” on July 1

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Republicans defended the GOP megabill’s Medicaid changes as targeting a group of people they believe shouldn’t ...Read more

CHICAGO — Twenty-year-old Eric Mun didn’t want to believe it: Only one kid in the family could make it to medical school — and it wasn’t going to be him.

Mun had done everything right. He graduated high school with honors, earned a scholarship at Northwestern University and breezed through his biology courses.

He immigrated to Alabama ...Read more

As extreme heat claims more lives during ruthless summers in the region, Southern Nevada is upping the ante in its tree planting efforts. But a new study suggests trees alone may not be enough to make a meaningful difference in the daytime.

While Las Vegas’ trees can cool surrounding air temperatures up to nearly 35 degrees at night and shade...Read more