Political
Need information regarding current political news? Here we'll keep you updated on the latest political news, locally and nationally.
3 council members renew oaths of office in Ephrata
EPHRATA — Three Ephrata City Council Members were sworn in Wednesday evening after winning their respective races.…
Biden walks storm-ravaged Louisiana: 'I know you're hurting'
LAPLACE, La. (AP) — Giant trees knocked sideways. Homes boarded up with plywood. Off-kilter street signs.
Blinken and Austin to visit Gulf to address postwar stresses
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top U.S. national security officials will see how the failed war in Afghanistan may be reshaping America's relationships in the Middle East as they meet with key allies in the Persian Gulf and Eur…
The Latest: Israel soon allowing some tour groups to visit
JERUSALEM -- Israel says it will soon reopen its gates to foreign tour groups -- even as it battles one of the world’s highest rates of coronavirus infections.
Baby whale unwell, rule issued to keep boaters away
SEATTLE (AP) — The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife has issued an emergency rule ordering commercial whale watch tours to stay farther away from an unwell baby orca to help her survive.
The Latest: Top Republican says Taliban holding Americans
WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee says some Americans who have been trying to get out of Afghanistan since the U.S. military left are sitting in airplanes at an airport ready to…
Arizona man who wore horns in riot pleads guilty to felony
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona man who sported face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns when he joined the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 pleaded guilty Friday to a felony charge and wants to be rele…
'Loss of hope': Idaho hospitals crushed by COVID-19 surge
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — The intensive care rooms at St. Luke's Boise Medical Center are full, each a blinking jungle of tubes, wires and mechanical breathing machines. The patients nestled inside are a lot alike: All u…
NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week
A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here…
Two anchors of COVID safety net ending, affecting millions
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mary Taboniar went 15 months without a paycheck, thanks to the COVID pandemic. A housekeeper at the Hilton Hawaiian Village resort in Honolulu, the single mother of two saw her income completely v…
Democrats see consequences from redistricting reform push
DENVER (AP) — Democrats argue that the once-a-decade process of redrawing political maps shouldn’t be a partisan cage match. In the name of good government and balance, they've pushed for independent commissions to…
The Latest: Vietnam starts new school year amid lockdown
HANOI — About 23 million Vietnamese students have started a new school year, most of them in virtual classrooms, amid a COVID-19 lockdown to contain a virus surge in the country.
GOP-led states see Texas law as model to restrict abortions
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Republican states that have passed increasingly tough abortion restrictions only to see them blocked by the federal courts have a new template in an unusually written Texas law that represe…
Virus pummels French Polynesia, straining ties with Paris
PAPEETE, Tahiti (AP) — France’s worst coronavirus outbreak is unfolding 12 time zones away from Paris, devastating Tahiti and other idyllic islands of French Polynesia.
It's a girl, and a boy: Buttigieg celebrates 2 babies
WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and his husband, Chasten, are
Soldiers detain Guinea's president, dissolve government
CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) — Mutinous soldiers in the West African nation of Guinea detained President Alpha Conde on Sunday after hours of heavy gunfire rang out near the presidential palace in the capital, then announc…