Politics Election category, Page 40
Lawmakers seek to rein in citizen ballot initiatives with new requirements for petitions
Citizen activists supporting a public vote on important issues could have to brush up on their reading, writing and arithmetic if they want to get their initiatives on next year’s ballot in some states. A new Arkansas law will bar initiative ballot titles written above an eighth-grade reading level. And...
Appeals court reinstates Republican mayoral candidate to primary ballot
A state appeals court just two weeks before the May 20 primary has reinstated a Jeannette mayoral candidate to the Republican ballot. The ruling has left Westmoreland County election officials scrambling to reprogram voting machines and send more than 100 new mail-in ballots to Jeannette’s Republican voters. In a ruling...
Western Pa. universities work to address antisemitism on campuses as incidents soar nationally
The Anti-Defamation League asserts college campuses have become an “epicenter of American antisemitism,” with nearly 1,700 incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism and violence occurring on campuses last year alone. Western Pennsylvania’s two largest universities — the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University — say they have been working to...
Pennsylvania Senate votes to ban transgender athletes in girls’ sports, but bill faces uphill battle
HARRISBURG — Pennsylvania’s state Senate on Tuesday approved a bill to ban transgender athletes from competing in women’s and girls’ sports at the collegiate and K-12 levels, although the Republican-penned bill is unlikely to get a vote in the state’s Democratic-controlled House of Representatives. The bill passed, 32-18, with five...
Key Republican says he won’t back Trump’s pick for top D.C. prosecutor because of Jan. 6 ties
WASHINGTON — Republican Sen. Thom Tillis says he’s informed the White House that he won’t support Ed Martin, President Donald Trump’spick for top federal prosecutor in Washington, stalling the nomination in the Senate weeks before the temporary appointment expires. The North Carolina Republican told reporters Tuesday that he had met...
Fetterman on article about staffer concerns: ‘It’s a one-source story’
Sen. John Fetterman on Tuesday dismissed a news report detailing staff concerns about his health as a “hit piece” and “one-source story.” A New York Magazine story last week raised new concerns about the senator’s health. The article quoted Fetterman’s former chief of staff Adam Jentleson, who wondered whether Fetterman...
Recreational cannabis would be sold at state-run stores under bill advanced by Pa. Democrats
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit newsroom producing investigative and public-service journalism that holds power to account and drives positive change in Pennsylvania. HARRISBURG — Democrats in the Pennsylvania House have advanced a bill that would permit the sale of recreational cannabis to adults at state-run stores, an...
Trump, Carney faceoff in Oval Office leaves gaping differences on tariffs, 51st state
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney faced off in the Oval Office on Tuesday and showed no signs of retreating from their gaping differences in an ongoing trade war that has shattered decades of trust between the two countries. The two kept it civil, but...
What’s in Trump’s big bill? Money for migrant clampdown but tax breaks and program cuts hit ‘bumps’
WASHINGTON — Congress is deep into drafting President Donald Trump’s big bill of tax breaks, spending cuts and beefed-up funding to halt migrants, but it’s “bumpy,” one Republican chairman says, with much work ahead to meet House Speaker Mike Johnson’s goal of passing the package out of his chamber by...
Badly needed updates to Pa.’s election law unlikely despite new consensus on voter ID
This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. HARRISBURG — For two decades, disputes over voter identification have sunk attempts to rewrite Pennsylvania’s badly outdated election law. But in recent years, prominent Democrats have offered tentative support...
Trump’s meme coin business racks up fees as buyers jump at the chance for access to the president
In the crypto world, meme coins are mostly just jokes with no intrinsic value. But the Trump family is parlaying the president’s meme coin into two valuable commodities: serious cash and access to the president. Since the coin was launched earlier this year, it has generated more than $320 million...
America’s long history of ‘checks and balances’ is being tested by Trump like rarely before
ATLANTA — It’s what one historian calls an “elaborate, clunky machine,” one that’s been fundamental to American democracy for more than two centuries. The principle of “checks and balances” is rooted in the Constitution’s design of a national government with three distinct, coequal branches. President Donald Trump in his first...
Federal Reserve likely to defy Trump, keep rates unchanged this week
WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve will likely keep its key short-term interest rate unchanged on Wednesday, despite weeks of harsh criticism and demands from President Donald Trump that the Fed reduce borrowing costs. After causing a sharp drop in financial markets two weeks ago by saying he could fire Fed...
Trump, in a new interview, says he doesn’t know if he backs due process rights
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — President Donald Trump is circumspect about his duties to uphold due process rights laid out in the Constitution, saying in a new interview that he does not know whether U.S. citizens and noncitizens alike deserve that guarantee. He also said he does not think military...
Putin says he hopes there will be no need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine had not arisen and that he hopes it will not. In comments aired Sunday in a film by Russian state television about his quarter of a century in power, Putin said Russia has the strength...
Fetterman video shows argument with airplane crew about seatbelt
A video filmed earlier this year showing Sen. John Fetterman in a tense exchange with an airline crew member over his seatbelt on a flight to Pittsburgh has gone viral online — after a New York Magazine report raised new concerns about his health. The video of the senator’s exchange...
Where did all the Democrats go? In suburban Pittsburgh counties, they’re harder to find in elected office
Democrats are disappearing from elected office in the six counties surrounding Allegheny County. Just 13 Democrats combined serve as county commissioners or row officers in Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, compared to 57 Republicans. Only about a decade ago, nearly three times as many Democrats — 38...
Analysis: National security shake-up narrows Trump’s circle of influence
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s removal of national security adviser Mike Waltz brings further disruption to a national security team that has endured scrutiny over using the Signal messaging app to discuss sensitive military operations as well as mounting questions over the leadership of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the...
Trump draws criticism with AI image of himself as the pope ahead of the papal conclave
NEW YORK — President Donald Trump posted an artificial intelligence-generated image of himself dressed as pope as the mourning of Pope Francis continues and just days before the conclave to elect his successor is set to begin. Trump’s action drew rebukes from a group representing Catholic bishops in New York...
Marco Rubio criticized Germany. The foreign ministry hit back
BERLIN — Germany’s foreign ministry hit back at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after he criticized the decision to classify the Alternative for Germany party as a “right-wing extremist” organization. The spat deepened Friday to embroil the foreign office, Rubio, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and tech billionaire Elon...
Fetterman’s ex-chief of staff warned doctor of mental health concerns, report says
The former chief of staff to U.S. Sen. John Fetterman grew so concerned about the Pennsylvania Democrat’s behavior last year he wrote a detailed letter to Fetterman’s doctor, warning that the politician appeared to be experiencing significant mental health challenges that could pose serious risks to his well-being, according to...
Trump signs executive order directing federal funding cuts to PBS and NPR
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order aiming to slash public subsidies to PBS and NPR as he alleged “bias” in the broadcasters’ reporting. The order instructs the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other federal agencies “to cease Federal funding for NPR and PBS” and further...
Trump re-ups his threat to strip Harvard University’s tax-exempt status
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday re-upped his threat to strip Harvard University of its tax-exempt status, escalating a showdown with the first major college that has defied the administration’s efforts to crack down on campus activism. “We are going to be taking away Harvard’s Tax Exempt Status,” Trump...
White House will unveil Trump’s 2026 budget, his 1st since returning to power
WASHINGTON — The White House is planning on Friday to unveil President Donald Trump’s 2026 budget, a sweeping framework that is expected to propose steep reductions, if not a wholesale zeroing out, of various federal programs as part of his administration’s priorities. Budgets do not become law but serve as...
Trump says it’s Biden’s economy, but businesses, economists beg to differ
WASHINGTON — When the stock market was climbing in January 2024, Donald Trump knew exactly who deserved credit: Himself. Nearly a year before his return to the White House, he declared on his Truth Social platform that investors were celebrating his lead in the polls against President Joe Biden. When...
