WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans advanced their massive tax cut and border security package out of a key House committee during a rare Sunday night vote. Deficit hawks who blocked the measure two days earlier reversed course after gaining commitments on the package’s spending cuts. Speaker Mike Johnson was determined to make Friday’s setback a short one. He met with Republican lawmakers shortly before the meeting, telling reporters that changes agreed to during weekend negotiations were “just some minor modifications.” The Republicans who have criticized the measure noted that the bill’s new spending and the tax cuts are front-loaded, while the measures to offset the cost are back-loaded.… Continue Reading

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts appears to hold the key vote over whether the Supreme Court will allow the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school, in Oklahoma. Roberts was the only justice whose vote seemed in doubt after the court heard more than two hours of arguments Wednesday in a major culture-war clash involving the separation of church and state. Four other conservative justices seemed firmly on the side of the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School and the state charter school board that approved it. The three liberal justices seemed just as likely to vote to affirm an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling that held that the taxpayer-funded school would entangle church and state in violation of the First Amendment.… Continue Reading

WARREN, Mich. (AP) — President Donald Trump has celebrated the 100th day of his second term — yet spent much of his rally marking it in campaign mode, fixated on past grudges and grievances. He repeatedly mocked his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, at Tuesday’s rally — attacking Biden’s mental acuity and even how he appears in a bathing suit. He again uttered the lie that he won the 2020 presidential election. And he attacked polling and news coverage not favorable to him. And the rally just outside Detroit, which marked Trump’s largest political event since returning to the White House, glossed over two forces that had rocked the state: his steep trade tariffs and combative attitude toward Canada.… Continue Reading