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Congress returned to the Capitol on Tuesday after their month-long summer break. They’re already in a time crunch. Lawmakers have around four weeks – or around just 14 legislative days – to pass a spending measure and avoid a government shutdown before Sept. 30. Tensions between Republicans and Democrats are high. After the passages of President Donald Trump’s spending and rescission bills, Democr...

Donald Trump says the office of the president gives him the right to deploy the National Guard to U.S. states. But does it? And who decides? The president signed an executive order last week calling for a restructuring of the National Guard. It also asks the nation’s defense secretary to create a rapid response force to be deployed to states for “quelling civil disturbances and ensuring public saf...

We love talking about food at 1A . From the latest cookbooks to answering your questions about your favorite foods. As a holiday weekend treat and a fond look back at summer, we bring you highlights from an episode of Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street Radio Podcast . The team discusses grilling and answer listener questions. Find more of our programs  online . Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing...

A shooter opened fire in a Minneapolis church on Wednesday, injuring 17 people and killing two children. Parishioners and students were gathered at a Mass marking the first week of school A federal grand jury in the nation’s capital this week declined to indict a man who threw a sandwich at a federal officer in Washington DC. Emails between top Florida officials show that they expect the state’s n...

It’s been two decades since Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans , making landfall in the city as a Category 3 storm. The massive storm surge broke through levees and the flood walls. Some 80 percent of New Orleans flooded. Entire neighborhoods were wiped out. The official death toll totaled nearly 1,400 people. And what happened in the storm’s wake changed the face of emergency response in this...

President Donald Trump is ramping up his attacks on the Federal Reserve. On Monday, the president posted orders on Truth Social to remove Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook – effective immediately. The president claims she committed mortgage fraud, an allegation first raised by a Trump loyalist and housing official. Cook, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, responded in a statement sa...

Another Friday, another move against a perceived enemy of the president. Last week, the FBI searched the Maryland home and Washington office of President Trump’s former national security advisor, John Bolton. Since he was fired from the administration during Trump’s first term, Bolton has turned into one of the president’s most vocal critics. Vice President JD Vance confirmed in an interview that...

"Corrupt" is the word President Trump is using, without evidence, to describe mail-in voting. It's how almost one third of Americans cast their ballots in the last election. States including Florida and Pennsylvania also saw recent jumps in GOP mail-in ballots, after President Trump in his campaign called for votes by any means possible, including by mail. And while mail-in voting has historically...

President Donald Trump is continuing his efforts to  influence the Federal Reserve.   He’s calling on one of its governors to resign, publicly criticized Chair Jerome Powell, and is trying to fast-track a close ally onto the board. The White House continued its campaign against the Smithsonian Institution this week. Its given museums 120 days to adjust any content that the administration finds pro...

ChatGPT has at least 500 million weekly users. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says that number is growing extraordinarily fast. When the chatbot went through an update a couple weeks ago, it brought to light how many users were relying on AI for their emotional wellbeing and even as a companion. People using AI for intimate, personal reasons is a phenomenon that we are only beginning to understand. There a...

Nearly 43 million Americans have federal student loan debt. Their borrowing totals more than $1.8 trillion. That’s according to  the Education Data Initiative. Now, the federal student loan system is facing significant changes under the Trump administration. One of the biggest differences is the  end of the Saving on a Valuable Education,  or SAVE plan, started by President Joe Biden. The income-d...

President Donald Trump gave Vladimir Putin what the Russian leader  wanted during their meeting in Alaska last week.   Now, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is back in the U.S. for more talks. His last visit to the White House  was disastrous, to say the least.  This time, he’s bringing key European leaders with him to meet with Trump. What does the future of the conflict in his country loo...

President Donald Trump and his administration want control over exhibits at the Smithsonian Institution. In a letter sent Aug. 12, three White House officials told the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Lonnie G. Bunch III, that the administration would conduct a review at certain Smithsonian museums.  The goal? To “celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives,...

President Donald Trump put the police force in Washington D.C. under federal control. He also called in the National Guard and ICE to patrol the streets. The Justice Department says last year violent crime in the District of Columbia hit a 30-year low. Cuts to the social safety net are set to leave some 2.4 million Americans without access to the food stamps they were entitled to before the passag...

President Donald Trump has taken over Washington D.C.’s police force and deployed the National Guard in the capital. The president took over the city’s police department for 30 days, and says he wants Congress to grant him “long-term” control of the force. All this in the name of public safety, despite the fact that D.C.'s violent crime rate is at a 30-year low. He says he might do the same in pla...

The U.S. undertakes the census every 10 years . Hundreds of thousands of Census workers set out to count everyone living in the U.S., regardless of their citizenship status. That data is used to reallocate seats in the House of Representatives , redraw voting districts on the local level, and decide how federal funds should be allocated in each state. The next one is 5 years away, and President Do...

Commander and Astronaut James A. Lovell, Jr. – died Thursday at the age of 97. He was one of the three-man Apollo 13 spacecraft crew that set for the moon in April 1970.   In 1970, the Apollo 13 spacecraft launched from the Kennedy Space Center. It captured the world's attention as America's third attempt to get to the moon. But after only two days, an explosion crippled the spacecraft and changed...

An extraordinary fight is underway in Texas over redistricting.  And it’s turning into a showdown that has nationwide implications for the House of Representatives. The situation paints another stroke in a portrait of a president who hasn’t been shy about his desire to consolidate power and shore up GOP prospects ahead of the 2026 midterms. So, what kicked this off? Last week more than 50 Democrat...

After months of delays, President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs went into effect on Thursday. A planned strategy meeting among top Trump administration officials whether to release the transcript from the Department of Justice interview with Ghislaine Maxwell was cancelled. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government considers a total takeover of the Gaza strip. The UN warn...

The president of the United States fired the head of the government's main economic statistics agency after a recent report showed a less than positive picture of U.S. employment. The civil servant President Donald Trump fired was former Commissioner of Labor Statistics Erika McEntarfer, a labor economist nominated to the role in 2023 by President Joe Biden. The Senate overwhelmingly confirmed her...

Who do high profile people or companies facing a scandal call when they're in a crisis? Maybe their therapists. But definitely a crisis communications specialist. Like the work of Olivia Pope in the T-V series Scandal, crisis communications is the practice of shaping public perception and reputation during a crisis. And it's a vital tool for maintaining people's reputations in today's digital land...

Abraham Lincoln was the first U.S. president to sport a beard. For the next 50 years, whiskers were commonplace in the White House. But then, they went out of style. Now, Vice President JD Vance is the first executive branch leader in more than a century with a furry face. And others are following suit. From the Senate to the campaign trail, more and more men in politics are letting their facial h...

The controversial immigration detention center — dubbed by Florida officials and the Trump administration, "Alligator Alcatraz"-- has already hit some legal snags since opening earlier this month. Civil rights groups are suing the Trump administration over due process complaints. The lawsuit alleges detainees are being held without charges and aren't being given access to their attorneys. It comes...

The White House took a victory lap this week as President Donald Trump secured a trade deal with the European Union. The agreement sees goods imported to the U.S. subjected to a 15 percent tariff. As the Jeffrey Epstein scandal continues to unfold, this week President Trump claimed that the New York financier "stole" young women working at his Mar-a-Lago estate. American workers are beginning to n...

Experts say a "worst-case" famine scenario is unfolding across the Gaza Strip. That's according to a new report published this week by a U.N.-backed commission that tracks food security worldwide. The starvation in Gaza is reawakening global attention to hunger crises unfolding around the world. Elsewhere in the world: most of Haiti's population is experiencing critical levels of food insecurity....