Politics

James L. Martin, chairman of the 60 Plus Association, speaks to seniors in St. Petersburg, Fla. The "social welfare" nonprofit is funded largely by billionaire businessmen Charles and David Koch and their conservative political network.

Is Koch group lowballing election spending?

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Assembly to vote on long-term funding proposal for open space program

TRENTON - In a surprise move, the New Jersey Assembly on Monday will vote on a long-term funding proposal for the state's depleted open-space program.

File: Republican Jon Runyan accepts his reelection to Congress from South Jersey, with his family at the Westin in Mount Laurel.

Runyan: This is why I'm quitting my seat

WASHINGTON -- For Jon Runyan, days like Thursday are exactly why he's leaving Congress after just two terms. Once again, the South Jersey Republican...

Nutter to House Republicans: 'do your job'

After the House of Representatives cancelled a scheduled vote to approve a $2-per-pack cigarette tax to fund Philly schools, a fired up Mayor Nutter...

Data dive: City Council aims to pinpoint neediest neighborhoods

Philadelphia City Council announced Wednesday the launch of an ambitious data-driven program meant to identify neighborhoods most in need of support.

The House is scheduled to return Monday and vote on a bill that would authorize the city to impose a $2-per-pack tax to raise money for its cash-strapped public schools. Republicans are trying to decide whether to postpone their return.

Cigarette-tax vote hits a Pa. legislative roadblock

HARRISBURG - The proposed new cigarette tax for Philadelphia may be hitting another legislative roadblock. The House, on paper at least, is scheduled to return Monday and vote on a bill that would authorize the city to impose a $2-per-pack tax to raise money for its cash-strapped public schools.

Gov. Christie continued his Shore talks with a town-hall meeting Wednesday at a gazebo near Belmar´s beach. The crowd included many retired teachers and other state workers who held signs and wore shirts that said "Our Pain, Christie´s Gain" - a play on the "No Pain, No Gain" title his staff has given this summer´s push. (Mel Evans/AP)

Christie's town hall in Belmar attracts protesters

BELMAR, N.J. - Gov. Christie was greeted by a smattering of protesters Wednesday during his latest summertime talk with residents in New Jersey's beach communities.

Forty years past Watergate, authors add to Nixon-era literature

John Dean is awfully tired of Americans' penchant for applying the suffix -gate - from Monicagate to Obamagate - to attack politicians they dislike.

President Barack Obama waves after stepping off Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, July 30, 2014, as he returns from Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Obama order presses contractors to obey labor laws

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama moved Thursday to require federal contractors to give their workers more rights in labor disputes, putting his pen to an executive order the day after the House voted to sue him for allegedly exceeding his presidential powers. In an election-year dare to Republicans, Obama said congressional obstinacy would only embolden him to take even more aggressive actions on his own.

State Dept: 'No American is proud' of CIA tactics

WASHINGTON (AP) - The State Department has endorsed the broad conclusions of a harshly critical Senate report on the CIA's interrogation and detention practices after the 9/11 attacks, a report that accuses the agency of brutally treating terror suspects and misleading Congress, according to a White House document.

President Barack Obama speaks about the economy, Wednesday, July 30, 2014, at the Uptown Theater in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Local GOP Reps back plan to sue Obama

WASHINGTON – Philadelphia-area Republicans voted Wednesday to support a measure authorizing House Speaker John Boehner to sue President Obama for...

Cory Booker, Rand Paul show lighter and serious side of alliance

WASHINGTON – Cory Booker and Rand Paul took their buddy-movie-style alliance and push for criminal sentencing reforms to Twitter and PBS’...

Camden, N.J. Mayor Dana Redd, left, and other community leaders, listen Wednesday, July 30, 2014, in Trenton, N.J., as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, center at podium, talks about his decision to hold a special legislative session on Thursday to try to persuade lawmakers to adopt an overhaul of the state´s bail system. The proposed changes would give judges discretion to keep those considered dangerous behind bars and to release minor offenders even if they can´t afford bail. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Christie urges lawmakers to change bail system

Gov. Christie on Wednesday urged lawmakers to vote for changes he says are needed to reverse the "utter failure" of New Jersey's bail system, declaring that "we are nearly out of time to act."

Rendell talks of Biden in The New Yorker

Rendell holds forth on Biden in a New Yorker mag Biden profile.

Supporters of incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran shout their approval during his speech at the Neshoba County Fair in Philadelphia, Miss., Thursday, July 31, 2014. The fair is a traditional gathering place for politicians, area residents, business leaders, voters and families. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

GOP's Cochran seeks voters at 'Giant Houseparty'

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. (AP) - Republican Sen. Thad Cochran said Thursday that he's asking for the support of Mississippi voters in November "no matter your skin color, or how much money you have."

FILE - In this Aug. 19, 2013 file photo U.S. Rep. Tim Huelskamp speaks in Wichita, Kan. When the congressman from Kansas´ First District, where eleven biofuel plants dot the sprawling landscape, refused to back away from his co-sponsorship of a bill that would phase out a renewable fuel program, many of his rural constituents were infuriated. That anger has now come back to haunt Huelskamp, a tea party favorite, in the waning days before the Aug. 5 GOP primary. (AP Photo/Wichita Eagle, Brian Corn)

Kansas congressman hit by farmers' backlash

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - Eleven biofuel plants dot the vast expanse of western and central Kansas, where farm fields stretch to the horizon and corn and sorghum are the backbone of the rural economy.

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts talks with reporters during a campaign stop Wednesday, July 30, 2014 in Emporia, Kan. Tea party challenger Milton Wolf confronted Roberts during a walking tour of downtown Emporia on Wednesday, interrupting the senatorâ€™s campaign stop to call attention to his refusal to have debates ahead of the Republican primary in Kansas. (AP Photo/Emporia Gazette, Dustin Michelson)

Tea-party challenger confronts Roberts in Kansas

EMPORIA, Kan. (AP) - Tea-party challenger Milton Wolf confronted U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts during a walking tour in eastern Kansas on Wednesday, interrupting the senator's campaign stop to call attention to his refusal to have debates ahead of the Republican primary.

This photo taken July 29, 2014 shows the District of Columbiaâ€™s Ward 1, Bernice Fonteneau Senior Wellness Center. The Associated Press has learned that federal investigators in the nation´s capital are looking for fraud in a program meant to bring local contractors into major construction projects in the District of Columbia. Three people familiar with the probe tell The Associated Press that the FBI and the U.S. Attorney´s office are scrutinizing partnerships between local companies and outside firms. These sources spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their business relationships in the city. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Feds probing for fraud in DC building projects

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal investigators looking for fraud in the nation's capital are scrutinizing a program meant to give local contractors a share of major construction projects, people familiar with the probe have told The Associated Press.

FILE - Democratic state Sen. Kay Hagan is shown during a campaign event in Charlotte, N.C., in this Sept. 29, 2008 file photo. The first-term Democrat lined up dozens of co-sponsors from both parties and appeared ready to claim a feel-good accomplishment. And yet the proposal still collapsed, one of many uncontroversial measures to die as members of Congress, consumed by midterm election politics, deny each other achievements _ then complain about their do-nothing colleagues. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton, File)

Partisan gridlock robs senators of feel-good laws

WASHINGTON (AP) - The "Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act of 2014" seemed ideal for Sen. Kay Hagan's re-election bid in politically divided North Carolina, where many people like to hunt and fish. Her bill would open more federal lands to hunters, and conservation groups liked it too.

Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio, flanked by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., left, and incoming Majority Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., right, speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, following a Republican strategy session. Boehner discussed various topics including that he dismisses suggestions that Republicans are planning to impeach President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Democrats have million-dollar day on impeachment

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats are cashing in on chatter that Republicans are plotting to impeach President Barack Obama, raising $1 million on Monday alone, their campaign chief said Tuesday. Republicans insisted such talk was bogus.

Maine Gov. Paul LePage speaks to the media at a homeless shelter Monday, July 28, 2014, in Lewiston, Maine. LePage, the governor of the state with the largest percentage of white people, placed thousands of miles from the southern border, has thrust the issue of immigration to the forefront with his criticism over the federal government´s placement of eight immigrants in the state. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Immigration debate roils politics in ... Maine?

LEWISTON, Maine (AP) - In the whitest U.S. state, thousands of miles from the Mexican border, the debate over immigration is becoming a central issue in one of the nation's most closely watched governor's races.

This April 18, 2013 file photo shows an aerial view of the remains of a fertilizer plant and an apartment complex to the left, destroyed by an explosion in West, Texas. The government has failed to inspect virtually all of the chemical facilities that it considers to be at high risk for a terror attack, numbering in the thousands, and has underestimated the threat to densely populated cities, congressional investigators say. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)

Govt fails to vet chemical plants with terror risk

The government has failed to inspect virtually all of the chemical facilities that it considers to be at a higher risk for a terror attack and has underestimated the threat to densely populated cities, congressional investigators say.

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, right, accompanied by Treasury Undersecretary For Terrorism And Financial Intelligence David Cohen, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 29, 2014, before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Iran. The Obama administration is refusing to impose a hard deadline for a deal with Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

US negotiator gives no hard deadline for Iran deal

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration's chief nuclear negotiator refused Tuesday to provide a hard deadline for a deal with Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. She vowed to consult with Congress before suspending more economic sanctions on Tehran, but said the administration won't necessarily seek lawmakers' approval.

Boehner calls impeachment talk Democratic 'scam'

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker John Boehner (BAY'nuhr) says the House has no plans to impeach President Barack Obama. He says talk of impeachment is all a scam by Democrats at the White House.

GAO: Big risks remain for healthcare.gov

WASHINGTON - Federal health officials were responsible for the problem-pocked start of HealthCare.gov last year because of poor planning and lax oversight of outside contractors, according to government investigators who warned that "significant risks remain" that some Americans could again have trouble buying coverage in the federal marketplace this fall.