Republicans’ Electoral College edge, once seen as ironclad, looks to be fading
Ever since Donald Trump’s stunning victory in 2016 — when he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes but still triumphed with over 300 electoral votes — many who follow politics have believed Republicans hold an intractable advantage in the Electoral College.
The U.S. News college rankings are out. Cue the rage and obsession
After months of tumult on American college campuses, relative stability in one realm returned Tuesday, when U.S. News & World Report published its oft-disparaged but nevertheless closely watched rankings.
Harris to more fully detail economic plans
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris is set to ramp up her economic message this week, with a speech reframing her policy vision and a lengthy new document describing her approach in more detail.
US accuses Visa of monopoly in debit cards
The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa on Tuesday, accusing the financial giant of unfairly stifling competition in debit cards, the latest in a string of cases aimed at deterring monopolistic behavior by big companies.
Brett Favre reveals he has Parkinson’s disease
WASHINGTON — Brett Favre, the former NFL quarterback accused of diverting millions of dollars in federal money away from welfare recipients, said Tuesday that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
On Chicago’s South Side, White Sox fans know misery. But not like this.
CHICAGO — It was the bottom of the second inning Sunday afternoon before Lauren Eaves, the bartender at BallPark Pub in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago, remembered to turn one of the bar’s six flat-screen TVs to the White Sox game.
Gunman convicted of murdering 10 at Colorado supermarket
The man who fatally shot 10 people at a Boulder, Colorado, grocery store in 2021 was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison Monday. Jurors rejected his lawyers’ argument that mental illness had made him unable to distinguish right from wrong.
New state laws are fueling a surge in book bans
States and local governments are banning books at rates far higher than before the pandemic, according to preliminary data released by two advocacy groups on Monday.
Punching octopuses lead fish on hunting parties
Effective leaders consider all of their options before making a decision. They work with others from different backgrounds. They’re ready to give anyone who steps out of line a swift punch to the gills.
Pentagon to send more US troops to Middle East as tensions rise
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is sending additional U.S. troops to the Middle East as tensions continue to rise after Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah killed at least 350 people in Lebanon, Defense Department officials said Monday.
U.S. to seek attempted assassination charge for Trump golf course suspect
WASHINGTON — The federal government will pursue a charge of attempted assassination against a man accused of lurking with a gun near where former President Donald Trump was golfing in Florida last week, prosecutors said in a court hearing Monday. Among the government’s evidence, they said, was a note the suspect had written suggesting that he had planned the attack.
Murder in US continues steep decline, FBI reports
The number of murders reported in the United States dropped in 2023 at the fastest rate on record, continuing a decline from the surge in homicides during the pandemic, the FBI reported Monday.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon kill hundreds as warplanes target Hezbollah
JERUSALEM — Dozens of Israeli fighter jets bombed Hezbollah targets in southern and eastern Lebanon on Monday, killing hundreds and wounding more than a thousand others, Lebanese officials said, in the deadliest attacks in the country since 2006, when Israel and Hezbollah fought their last all-out war.
In a first among Christians, young men are more religious than young women
On a beautiful Sunday morning in early September, dozens of young men in Waco, Texas, started their day at Grace Church.
Congress unveils short-term spending deal
WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders from both parties unveiled a short-term agreement to fund the government on Sunday, after Speaker Mike Johnson abandoned demands for a longer-term deal that also included new proof-of-citizenship requirements for voter registration.
Israel and Hezbollah threaten to hit harder, raising fears of all-out war
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and a top Hezbollah leader vowed on Sunday to increase the intensity of their cross-border attacks, raising fears that the renewed conflict could escalate into all-out war.
‘He saved many lives’: Small Kentucky community mourns slain judge
As a rural Kentucky town reeled from the fatal shooting of a judge, residents over the weekend mourned the victim, whom many saw as a kind man who loved his community.
The politics of motherhood become a campaign-trail cudgel
WASHINGTON — She is not humble. She has no stake in the future of the country. She and other childless women are looking down on Americans who have chosen to reproduce.
Biden hosts a final ‘Quad summit’ at his Delaware home
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is hosting the leaders of Australia, India and Japan at his home in Wilmington, Delaware, this weekend, seeking to use his fourth and final “Quad summit” to cement the alliance between the United States and Indo-Pacific nations and to counter China’s rising influence in the region.
Harris agrees to a second debate, but Trump declines
Vice President Kamala Harris said Saturday that she had accepted an invitation from CNN to participate in a second presidential debate next month, putting pressure on former President Donald Trump to join her for a rematch.
