CAPITOL

Pennsylvania state government will prepare to use artificial intelligence in its operations, as states are increasingly trying to gauge the impact of AI and how to regulate it.

Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to accomplish what at times seems impossible.

A jury has acquitted three men in the last trial connected to a plan to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

The head of the United Nations food agency says a global hunger crisis has left more than 700 million people not knowing when or if they will eat again.

California has some of the strongest digital privacy laws in the U.S. and is on the verge of handing consumers a major new tool to combat the sale and secret use of personal information they may never have agreed to share.

Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis says Donald Trump is unlikely to be elected president again if convicted in any of the four criminal cases he faces.

Lawmakers in California's state Assembly have voted to put a measure before voters next March that would overhaul the way counties are funding mental and behavioral health programs.

The Florida Supreme Court must decide whether to overrule broad abortion rights protections provided for decades under the state constitution and instead uphold a law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that bans the procedure in most cases after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

The U.S. Capitol physician says 81-year-old Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell’s health episodes show no evidence of a stroke or seizure disorder.

A Kissimmee man, who is a member of the Oath Keepers militia group, is set to spend the next five years in federal prison for taking part in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The Alaska state board of education voted Thursday to support banning transgender girls from competing on high school girls athletic teams, sending the issue to the attorney general.

Even before the newly elected justice who gave liberals a one-seat majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court has heard a case, Republican lawmakers are talking about taking the unprecedented step of impeaching and removing her from office.

Tennessee lawmakers are convening a special session this week that highlights the divergent response states are taking to a spate of mass shootings.

The final trial of suspects in a bizarre plot to kidnap Michigan's governor is underway.

Tennessee’s GOP-dominant Legislature will soon return to the state Capitol months after a deadly school shooting.

All 16 Michigan Republicans accused in a fake elector scheme to keep former President Donald Trump in power are now challenging the charges in state court.

A North Carolina congresswoman injured in a serious automobile accident this week is recovering at home from a broken sternum and bone in her foot.

A lawsuit filed with Wisconsin’s newly liberal-controlled state Supreme Court argues that Republican-drawn legislative maps are unconstitutional and must be redone.

Observant visitors to the area around the U.S. Capitol building on Tuesday afternoon were treated to a unusual sight: an unmistakable funnel cloud extending diagonally from the sky and seemingly almost reaching the tip of the Capitol dome itself.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested recently he might block the FBI from relocating its downtown headquarters to a new facility planned for the suburbs of Washington.

North Dakota higher education officials are deeply worried about losing students and revenue in 2024 when neighboring Minnesota makes tuition free for thousands of its residents at public colleges and universities.

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a first-of-its-kind ruling from a federal appeals court that found people with gender dysphoria are entitled to the protections of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The Congressional Budget Office is giving the world a concerning look at the U.S. government’s ledgers.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says he supports the idea of expunging the two impeachments of Donald Trump.

Delaware Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester says she is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by fellow Democrat Tom Carper.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing an end to public disclosure of investigations of abusive and corrupt police officers.

A historically high number of supermajorities in state legislatures has pushed laws further to the edge on abortion, climate and transgender issues.

New York would create a commission to consider reparations to address the lingering, negative effects of slavery under a bill passed by the state Legislature.

As smoke spreads from wildfires in Canada, health agencies are recommending steps to stay safe from bad air quality.

Perhaps most critical to locking up the debt-limit deal were President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s five handpicked negotiators, three men and two women unknown to most outside government.

A man has pleaded guilty to assaulting Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota in the elevator of her Washington apartment building in February.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing a historic impeachment vote after years of scandal, criminal charges and corruption accusations.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Some state lawmakers are looking to loosen child labor laws, even as the federal government cracks down on surging violations.

The political divide affecting the United States is hitting Oregon hard.

A top debt ceiling negotiator for House Speaker Kevin McCarthy says it’s time to “press pause” on talks as negotiations with the White House have come to an abrupt standstill at the Capitol.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a bill into law creating a new commission empowered to discipline and remove wayward prosecutors.

New mothers could get a full year of Medicaid health-care coverage under legislation given final approval in Missouri.

Indigenous families and tribal communities are gathering across North America, many wearing red in solidarity as they honor thousands of missing and slain relatives.

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico will seek a third term next year as he champions causes from gun safety to abortion access to a transition toward cleaner sources of energy.

Officials say about a dozen people were arrested while protesting in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Florida Capitol Office.

White House economists are warning of “severe damage” to the U.S. economy in the event of a debt default.

Republican state senators in Oregon haven't shown up to work, denying the Democrats who control the chamber a quorum and casting doubt on planned votes later this week on legislation pertaining to gun control, abortion rights and gender-affirming health care.

Senate Democrats have launched a new legislative effort aimed at taking on China.

Washington Gov. Jay Inlsee, a Democrat who has sought to make the state a leader on progressive policies from climate change to gun violence prevention, says he will not seek a fourth term in office.

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic measure to revive the Equal Rights Amendment, dealing yet another blow to supporters who have pushed for more than five decades to amend the Constitution to prohibit discrimination based on sex.

California lawmakers have authored more than 30 bills in the Legislature this year to address fentanyl.

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado has signed legislation forcing manufacturers to provide the necessary manuals, tools, parts and software to farmers so they can fix their own machines.

In campaign 2024, Democrats are looking to find a successor for one of their top House candidates as they try to retake the majority in the House.

Federal prosecutors recommend a Winter Springs man spend 21 days in jail for his role in the Capitol Hill riot of 2021.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is working to round up the Republican votes needed to pass his debt ceiling package.

The Senate has passed legislation to reauthorize federal grants for local fire departments.

Chances are shrinking fast for a key gun-control proposal to make it out of the Tennessee Legislature.

A Tennessee man and his mother have been convicted of charges that they stormed the Capitol and brought plastic handcuffs into the Senate gallery during a mob's attack.

The recently reinstated Rep. Justin Jones carried an infant-sized casket into Tennessee’s Capitol as protesters calling for gun safety legislation outside the Capitol were blocked from bringing caskets inside.

A trio of health care bills enshrining access to abortion and gender-affirming procedures and medications have become law in Colorado as the Democrat-led state tries to make itself a safe haven for people from states where Republican leaders have restricted care.

A U.S. Supreme Court order that keeps access to an abortion drug in place for now could be especially welcome in some safe haven states that would have been hit hard by restrictions.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a bill to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, giving the Republican a major conservative policy victory as he prepares to launch an expected presidential candidacy.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed into law a bill approved by the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature to ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

Authorities say they've arrested a suspect who made threats against California's Capitol on Thursday shot a gun from his vehicle while driving through two Sacramento suburbs the night before.

The Arizona House of Representatives has expelled a Republican lawmaker who organized a presentation by someone who made unsubstantiated accusations that a wide range of public officials took bribes from a Mexican drug cartel.

A federal appeals court has sided with the Justice Department in a case that could have upended hundreds of charges brought following the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The majority-white and Republican-led Mississippi Legislature is taking final steps to expand the territory of a state-run police department inside Jackson.

In a story published March 29, 2023, about the Mississippi Senate voting not to confirm a new state superintendent of education, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the previous superintendent, Carey Wright, had served 13 years.

West Virginia will no longer allow children and young teens to marry, after the governor signed a compromise bill Wednesday.

Public outrage is swift following mass shootings such as the one that killed six people at a Nashville elementary school.

A U.S. Senate staffer remained hospitalized Tuesday after police say he was attacked leaving a restaurant in Washington this weekend by a man who had been released from federal prison a day earlier.

Just years after labor activists persuaded a handful of states to raise their minimum wage to $15 per hour, workers initially thrilled with the pay bump are finding their hard-won gains erased by inflation.

Rep_ Marjorie Taylor Greene swept into the District of Columbia jail to check on conditions for the Jan_ 6 detainees, who chanted “Let’s Go Brandon!”.

The U.S. House has failed to override President Joe Biden’s first veto.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a ban on most gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for transgender people under 18.

Lawmakers in states including Colorado, California, Texas and New York are taking big, legislative swings at the eating disorder crisis.

Florida Gov_ Ron DeSantis is walking back his characterization of Russia's war on Ukraine as a “territorial dispute."

The Michigan Republican Party's social media posts are being called “hateful” and “ignorant” for comparing gun reform to the Holocaust.

At this point during the last presidential election in 2020, more than 15 Democrats had jumped into their party’s open presidential race.

Federal prosecutors have rested their seditious conspiracy case against former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four lieutenants charged with plotting to stop the transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election.

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed a new law that will allow an anti-abortion monument to be built near the state Capitol.

Michigan Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Thursday that will permanently outlaw discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state.

A proposed six-week abortion ban is advancing in Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has indicated support for the restrictions as he prepares a potential presidential run.

A man once identified by the FBI as one of the “top ten most wanted” after the riot on Capitol Hill has agreed to a plea deal.

An anti-abortion monument would be built near Arkansas' Capitol under legislation on its way to the governor's desk.

The FBI is searching for a Florida woman who was supposed to stand trial Monday on charges stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack as well as another riot defendant who has also gone missing.

Lawmakers often cite concerns about young people regretting irreversible body-altering transgender medical treatment, but studies suggest regret is uncommon.

A Pennsylvania lobbyist is naming the Democratic state representative who she says sexually harassed her.

House Republicans have introduced a bill to give parents more of a say in school curriculum.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves is doing an abrupt about-face on an issue Democrats have been hammering him on this election year.

A St. Louis prosecutor is denouncing efforts to oust her from office after a teenage volleyball player from Tennessee lost her legs in a vehicle crash caused by a speeding driver facing felony charges.

Michigan State University students and faculty have returned to the East Lansing campus, one week after a gunman killed three students and injured five others.

Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida has amended a plan to overhaul how the federal government works after Democrats repeatedly seized on it to accuse Republicans of looking to cut Medicare and Social Security.

Pennsylvania Democratic Senator John Fetterman is seeking treatment for severe depression months after having a stroke.

The head of the Federal Aviation Administration is defending the safety of air travel as he answers questions about recent close calls between planes.

Black lawmakers in Missouri are accusing House Republican leaders of racism after shutting down debate and passing a bill that could strip power from the Black woman elected as the St. Louis prosecutor.

The Senate will vote this month to repeal two decades-old measures that approved American military action in Iraq.

Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota is recovering after an assault in her Washington apartment building.

The U.S. House voted unanimously Thursday to condemn the Beijing government for its balloon surveillance program.

A former University of Mississippi chancellor says Republican Gov. Tate Reeves spoke privately with him years ago about the benefits of expanding Medicaid to people in low-wage jobs.

The Nebraska Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee took nearly eight hours of testimony Wednesday before adjourning without a vote on whether to advance a bill that would outlaw abortion at a point before many women know they’re pregnant.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed dramatic spending to help New York City handle a wave of international migrants and to stabilize its reeling public transit system with her $227 billion state budget Wednesday, even as she warned of tougher economic times ahead.

The Michigan House voted along party lines Tuesday to move the state's primary to the fourth week of February to match an early presidential primary plan approved by a Democratic National Committee panel last month.

The rank-and-file Democrat who was unexpectedly elected speaker of the Pennsylvania House as a compromise candidate earlier this month is saying he hopes to keep the job.