Democratic-backed Susan Crawford wins Wisconsin Supreme Court seat, cementing liberal majority
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Democratic-backed candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court defeated a challenger endorsed by President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk on Tuesday, touting her victory as a win against “the richest man in the world” and cementing a liberal majority for at least three more years.
Susan Crawford, a Dane County judge who led legal fights to protect union power and abortion rights and to oppose voter ID, stood on stage surrounded by the court's four current liberal justices and celebrated her win as a victory for democracy while also taking a dig at Musk.
“Growing up in Chippewa Falls, I never could have imagined that I would be taking on the richest man in the world for justice in Wisconsin,” Crawford said. “And we won.”
Musk and groups he backed had spent more than $21 million in an effort to defeat Crawford. Musk even traveled to Wisconsin two days before the election to personally hand over $1 million checks to two voters.
“Today Wisconsinites fended off an unprecedented attack on our democracy, our fair elections and our Supreme Court,” Crawford said in her victory speech. “And Wisconsin stood up and said loudly that justice does not have a price, our courts are not for sale.”
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Republicans win Florida special elections in Trump strongholds by narrower margins than in 2024
ORMOND BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Republicans Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine won special elections Tuesday in two Florida congressional districts, bolstered by President Donald Trump’s endorsement to fill vacant seats in reliably Republican strongholds.
Patronis, the state’s chief financial officer, fended off a challenge from Democrat Gay Valimont even though she far outraised and outspent him. He will fill the northwest Florida 1st District seat vacated by former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was chosen to be Trump’s attorney general but withdrew from consideration amid allegations of sexual misconduct, which he has denied.
In north Florida's 6th District, Fine won against Democratic challenger Josh Weil for a seat vacated by Mike Waltz when he was tapped to become Trump’s national security adviser.
The win bolsters Republicans’ margin to 220-213 in the House of Representatives.
Special elections are often low-turnout events that can lead to surprising results. While GOP wins were widely expected in both districts — two of the most heavily Republican in the country — it’s notable that Democrats narrowed the margins considerably from November.
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Trump's 'Liberation Day' is unlikely to free businesses from uncertainty surrounding trade policy
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his tariff announcements slated for Wednesday will amount to a “Liberation Day” for the United States. But American businesses and financial markets are unlikely to be freed from the uncertainty generated by his often stop-and-go trade policy.
Some big questions will be resolved when Trump announces what are expected to be reciprocal tariffs that involve raising U.S. import duties to be equal to the levies that other countries impose on U.S. goods. Companies will have a greater sense of how many countries will be affected, and how high the duties will be.
Yet questions will still swirl around trade and tariffs for months to come, economists say. More tariffs are in the pipeline and could target specific industries such as pharmaceuticals, copper and lumber. And the United States may reach deals with other countries that could alter the reciprocal tariffs. There will also be countless details that could take months to resolve to determine precisely which imports will be hit with taxes.
As a result, few analysts expect Wednesday's announcement to bring the certainty that many businesses — and Wall Street investors — crave.
“April 2 is when this all kicks off, it’s not when all of this ends,” said Kelly Ann Shaw, a former senior White House trade adviser during Trump's first term. “At some point this will settle. But because we’re at the very beginning of what will fundamentally be a total rethink of the global trading system, there are going to be a lot more questions than answers in the near term.”
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Cory Booker sets a record with marathon Senate speech. Will it rally anti-Trump resistance?
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a feat of determination, New Jersey Democratic Sen. Cory Booker held the Senate floor with a marathon speech that lasted all night and into Tuesday night, setting a historic mark to show Democrats’ resistance to President Donald Trump’s sweeping actions.
Booker took to the Senate floor on Monday evening, saying he would remain there as long as he was “physically able.” It wasn't until 25 hours and 5 minutes later that the 55-year-old senator, a former football tight end, finished speaking and limped off the floor. It set the record for the longest continuous Senate floor speech in the chamber’s history. Booker was assisted by fellow Democrats who gave him a break from speaking by asking him questions on the Senate floor.
It was a remarkable show of stamina as Democrats try to show their frustrated supporters that they are doing everything possible to contest Trump’s agenda. Yet Booker also provided a moment of historical solace for a party searching for its way forward: By standing on the Senate floor for more than a night and day and refusing to leave, he had broken a record set 68 years ago by then Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a segregationist and southern Democrat, to filibuster the advance of the Civil Rights Act in 1957.
“I'm here despite his speech,” said Booker, who spoke openly on the Senate floor of his roots as the descendant of both slaves and slave-owners. He added, “I’m here because as powerful as he was, the people are more powerful.”
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the first Black party leader in Congress, slipped into the Senate chamber to watch Booker on Tuesday afternoon. He called it "an incredibly powerful moment" because Booker had broken the record of a segregationist and was “fighting to preserve the American way of life and our democracy.”
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Mass layoffs are underway at the nation's public health agencies
Employees across the massive U.S. Health and Human Services Department received notices Tuesday that their jobs were being eliminated, part of a sweeping overhaul designed to vastly shrink the agencies responsible for protecting and promoting Americans’ health.
The cuts include researchers, scientists, doctors, support staff and senior leaders, leaving the federal government without many of the key experts who have long guided U.S. decisions on medical research, drug approvals and other issues.
“The revolution begins today!” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote on social media as he celebrated the swearing-in of his latest hires: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, the new director of the National Institutes of Health and Martin Makary, the new Food and Drug Administration commissioner. Kennedy's post came just hours after employees began receiving emailed layoff notices. He later wrote, “Our hearts go out to those who have lost their jobs,” but said that the department needs to be “recalibrated" to emphasize disease prevention.
Kennedy announced a plan last week to remake the department, which, through its agencies, is responsible for tracking health trends and disease outbreaks, conducting and funding medical research, and monitoring the safety of food and medicine, as well as for administering health insurance programs for nearly half the country.
The plan would consolidate agencies that oversee billions of dollars for addiction services and community health centers under a new office called the Administration for a Healthy America.
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Survivors still being found from Myanmar earthquake, but hopes begin to fade as deaths exceed 2,700
BANGKOK (AP) — Rescue workers saved a 63-year-old woman from the rubble of a building in Myanmar's capital on Tuesday, but hope was fading of finding many more survivors of the violent earthquake that killed more than 2,700 people, compounding a humanitarian crisis caused by a civil war.
The fire department in Naypyitaw said the woman was successfully pulled from the rubble 91 hours after being buried when the building collapsed in the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that hit midday Friday. Experts say the likelihood of finding survivors drops dramatically after 72 hours.
The head of Myanmar’s military government, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, told a forum for relief donations in Naypyitaw that 2,719 people have now been found dead, with 4,521 others injured and 441 missing, Myanmar's state MRTV television reported.
He said Friday’s earthquake was the second most powerful in the country's recorded history after a magnitude 8 quake east of Mandalay in May 1912.
The casualty figures are widely expected to rise. The earthquake hit a wide swath of the country, leaving many areas without power, telephone or cell connections and damaging roads and bridges, making the full extent of the devastation hard to assess.
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Naval Academy removes nearly 400 books from library in new DEI purge ordered by Hegseth's office
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Naval Academy has removed nearly 400 books from its library after being told by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's office to review and get rid of ones that promote diversity, equity and inclusion, U.S officials said Tuesday.
Academy officials were told to review the library late last week, and an initial search had identified about 900 books for a closer look. They decided on nearly 400 to remove and began doing so Monday, finishing before Hegseth arrived for a visit Tuesday that had already been planned and was not connected to the library purge, officials said. A list of the books has not yet been made available.
Pulling the books off the shelves is another step in the Trump administration’s far-reaching effort to eliminate so-called DEI content from federal agencies, including policies, programs, online and social media postings and curriculum at schools.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said late Tuesday, “All service academies are fully committed to executing and implementing President Trump’s Executive Orders.”
The Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, had not been included in President Donald Trump's executive order in January that banned DEI instruction, programs or curriculum in kindergarten through 12th grade schools that receive federal funding. That is because the academies are colleges.
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UN agency closes its remaining Gaza bakeries as food supplies dwindle under Israeli blockade
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — The U.N. food agency is closing all of its bakeries in the Gaza Strip, officials said Tuesday, as supplies dwindle after Israel sealed off the territory from all imports nearly a month ago.
Israel, which later resumed its offensive to pressure the Hamas militant group into accepting changes to their ceasefire agreement, said enough food had entered Gaza during the six-week truce to sustain the territory's roughly 2 million Palestinians for a long time.
U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Israel’s assertion was “ridiculous,” calling the food shortage very critical. The organization is “at the tail end of our supplies” and a lack of flour and cooking oil are forcing the bakeries to close, Dujarric said Tuesday.
Markets largely emptied weeks ago. U.N. agencies say the supplies they built up during the truce are running out. Gaza is heavily reliant on international aid because the war has destroyed almost all of its food production capability.
Mohammed al-Kurd, a father of 12, said his children go to bed without dinner.
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Federal prosecutors to seek death penalty for Luigi Mangione in UnitedHealthcare CEO's killing
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said Tuesday that she has directed prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, following through on the president's campaign promise to vigorously pursue capital punishment.
It is the first time the Justice Department has sought to bring the death penalty since President Donald Trump returned to office in January with a vow to resume federal executions after they were halted under the previous administration.
“Luigi Mangione’s murder of Brian Thompson — an innocent man and father of two young children — was a premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America,” Bondi said in a statement. She described Thompson’s killing as “an act of political violence.”
Mangione, a 26-year-old Ivy League graduate from a prominent Maryland real estate family, faces separate federal and state murder charges after authorities say he gunned down Thompson, 50, outside a Manhattan hotel on Dec. 4 as the executive arrived for UnitedHealthcare’s annual investor conference.
Mangione’s lawyer, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, said Tuesday that in seeking the death penalty “the Justice Department has moved from the dysfunctional to the barbaric.”
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NFL postpones a decision on the tush push but passes other rule changes
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A decision on the future of the tush push has been pushed until next month.
NFL team owners had been set to vote Tuesday on Green Bay’s proposal to ban the play that’s helped the Philadelphia Eagles win one Super Bowl and reach another, but it was tabled until May.
Team owners approved modifying the kickoff rule, expanding replay assist, revising overtime rules, along with other changes.
Postponing the tush push vote means the debate will continue while teams gather more information. Proponents of the play and those who oppose it presented strong arguments while the league's medical experts expressed safety concerns.
NFL Competition Committee chairman Rich McKay stressed the issues surrounding the play extend beyond safety because there's not enough data to indicate it's dangerous. The league already has said no injuries have been reported on a tush push.
