The U.S. House of Representatives will decide Jan. 3 whether to re-elect Speaker Mike Johnson to the top GOP job after he faced a contentious vote to avert a government shutdown at the last minute just before the holidays, leaving some Republicans skeptical of his prospects.

All of Minnesota’s four Republican members of Congress say they plan...Read more

WASHINGTON — Death penalty opponents on Thursday launched a new effort to spare Pittsburgh synagogue shooter Robert Bowers and two others remaining on death row from being executed.

Death Penalty Action submitted a letter to the White House signed by almost 450 organizations, asking President Joe Biden to commute the sentences of the three ...Read more

As he assembles his team for a second term, President-elect Donald Trump is entitled to some latitude, even for his more unconventional picks. Yet not all executive-branch positions are created equal. Senate Republicans should be willing to draw a line when it comes to national security.

Of particular concern are the nation’s intelligence ...Read more

News that President-elect Donald Trump’s team wants to hack away at the forbidding tangle of U.S. bank regulation is welcome in the abstract. In practice, though, much will depend on the details. The goal should be simplifying financial oversight more broadly — not just defanging a tough watchdog.

No doubt, the current system is unwieldy. ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump wants a Miami-Dade County commissioner to serve as ambassador to Panama. The nomination comes as Trump is threatening to retake control of the Panama Canal over fees charged U.S. ships in the waterway.

Commissioner Kevin Cabrera, a Republican who won his county election two years ago after an endorsement by Trump, ...Read more

The soon-to-be 47th president of the United States wished almost everyone a Merry Christmas on Wednesday, even the “Radical Left Lunatics” and the “wonderful soldiers of China.”

Presidents and politicians have delivered holiday well wishes for decades — former President Calvin Coolidge issued the first official greeting in 1927 — ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden signed a bill this week aimed at preventing hazing on college campuses and building transparency around hazing incidents — the first federal law of its kind.

Though most states have enacted laws aimed at curbing hazing with tougher penalties or some sort of public reporting system, the rules are uneven. ...Read more

Anyone who has undergone IVF will tell you that the process can be daunting. It involves weeks of mood-altering, bloat-inducing hormone injections to retrieve eggs so they can be fertilized in a lab before being implanted. That’s followed by weeks of holding your breath to find out if all the discomfort, anxiety and many thousands of dollars ...Read more

WASHINGTON — Lingering ill will among House Republicans after another messy spending fight could complicate Speaker Mike Johnson’s bid to retain the House gavel — and potentially the Jan. 6 formalizing of Donald Trump’s election victory.

As president of the Senate, Vice President Kamala Harris would be the presiding officer during a ...Read more

U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Aspinwall, and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., plan to press the next Congress to invest up to $200 billion in passenger and freight rail overhauls across the country over the next five years, including tens of billions of dollars in safety improvements that Mr. Deluzio says are critical for Western Pennsylvania.

The pair is...Read more

LOS ANGELES — Two San Fernando Valley men, who were sentenced to death over a decade ago for killing five people, had their sentences commuted to life in prison on Monday by President Joe Biden.

In 2007, Iouri Mikhel and Jurijus Kadamovas were sentenced to death after they were convicted of murdering five people in a kidnapping-for-ransom ...Read more

Former national security adviser John Bolton warned Tuesday that there is a “much higher chance” of a major international crisis in the upcoming second administration of President-elect Donald Trump.

The prominent foreign policy hawk said Trump’s lack of focus and inability to stick to policy decisions could trigger an overseas disaster. ...Read more

Former President Bill Clinton is home for the holidays following a brief hospital stay in the nation’s capital.

The 42nd president’s Deputy Chief of Staff Angel Ureña said Monday that the 78-year-old Democrat was under observation at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital where he was running a fever and undergoing testing. Ureña posted ...Read more

Nippon Steel Corp.’s proposed $12.3 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel Corp. moved a step closer to being blocked after a U.S. national security panel deadlocked on its review and left the final decision with President Joe Biden, who has repeatedly indicated his opposition to the deal.

The case was referred by the Committee on Foreign ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump slammed President Joe Biden on Tuesday for commuting the death sentences of 37 federal prisoners in an act of holiday clemency.

Trump said relatives of victims are angry that Biden spared the lives of some of the “worst killers in our country,” including inmates convicted in the slayings of police and military ...Read more

BOSTON — Boston Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley praised President Joe Biden’s move to take killers off death row but added he hasn’t gone far enough.

In a statement that has gone viral, Pressley said Biden has made a “groundbreaking act” that was long overdue.

“The death penalty is a racist, flawed, and fundamentally unjust ...Read more

President-elect Donald Trump slammed President Joe Biden on Tuesday for commuting the death sentences of 37 federal prisoners in an act of holiday clemency.

Trump said relatives of victims are angry that Biden spared the lives of some of the “worst killers in our country,” including inmates convicted in the slayings of police and military ...Read more

South Korea’s main opposition party is seeking to impeach Acting President Han Duck-soo in a potentially risky move to put maximum pressure on the ruling party.

The Democratic Party intends to wait till Thursday to submit an impeachment motion, according to Yonhap News, delaying its earlier plan to submit on Tuesday. Officials were ...Read more

Numerous East Coast states are counting on offshore wind projects to power tens of millions of homes and to help them transition to cleaner energy.

But putting wind turbines at sea requires the cooperation of a powerful landlord: the federal government. Soon, that government will be led by President-elect Donald Trump, who has frequently ...Read more