October 25, 2025 2:04 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Associated Press photos show the entire White House East Wing has been demolished as President Donald Trump moves ahead with building a ballroom. The two-story structure of drawing rooms and offices, including a walkway to the White House, has been turned into rubble. The wing was demolished as part of the Republican president’s plan to build a ballroom nearly twice the size of the White House itself that he now says will cost $300 million. Trump said Wednesday that keeping the East Wing would have “hurt a very, very expensive, beautiful building,” referring to the ballroom that he said presidents have wanted for years.
October 25, 2025 2:02 am
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — New York Attorney General Letitia James is set to make her first court appearance in a mortgage fraud case. She will be the third adversary of President Donald Trump to face a judge on federal charges in recent weeks. James was indicted earlier this month on charges of bank fraud and making false statements to a financial institution in connection with a 2020 home purchase in Norfolk, Virginia. James has denied any wrongdoing and decried the indictment as “nothing more than a continuation of the president’s desperate weaponization of our justice system.” The indictment stems from James’ purchase of a modest house in Norfolk, where she has family.
October 23, 2025 5:07 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, who created the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao served prison time after failing to stop criminals from using the platform to move money connected to child sex abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism. The pardon announced Thursday caps a monthslong effort by Zhao, a billionaire commonly known as CZ in the crypto world. He and Binance have been key supporters of some of the Trump family’s crypto enterprises. Zhao said in a social media post that he was “deeply grateful” to Trump. The president said he didn’t believe he’d ever met Zhao, but that “a lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything.”
October 23, 2025 5:38 pm
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday rejected dueling partisan bills to pay federal workers during the government shutdown, with both Republicans and Democrats deflecting blame as many employees are set to miss their first full paycheck at the end of this week. Republicans objected as Democrats proposed a voice vote on their legislation to pay all federal workers and prevent President Donald Trump’s administration from mass firings. Democrats then voted down a Republican bill to pay employees who are working and not furloughed. The back and forth on day 23 of the government shutdown comes as the two parties are at a protracted impasse.
October 23, 2025 10:30 am
NEW YORK (AP) — The head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers and a player for the Miami Heat have been arrested along with more than 30 other people in a takedown of two sprawling gambling operations that authorities said leaked inside information about NBA athletes and rigged poker games backed by Mafia families. Portland coach Chauncey Billups was charged Thursday with participating in a conspiracy to fix high-stakes card games tied to La Cosa Nostra organized crime families that cheated unsuspecting gamblers out of at least $7 million. Heat guard Terry Rozier was accused in a separate scheme of exploiting private information about players to win bets on NBA games.
October 23, 2025 4:45 am
Pennsylvania’s Department of Human Services says it’s pushing back the start of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, by a month. The move is the result of the federal government shutdown. The LIHEAP program helps more than 300,000 Pennsylvania families during the colder months. Applications are now expected to open in December. “I urge Congress and the White House to recognize the serious consequences that limiting heating assistance will have on the health and safety of people in Pennsylvania. Congress must come together for a solution that protects people most at risk,” said Secretary of the Department of Human Services Dr. Val Arkoosh. If you need immediate help, many utility companies offer their own assistance programs.
October 23, 2025 5:04 am
CHICAGO (AP) – National Guard troops won’t be deploying in the Chicago area anytime soon unless the U.S. Supreme Court intervenes. A judge in the case extended her temporary restraining order indefinitely. In Portland, Oregon, it will be at least days. And federal appeals judges are weighing whether hundreds of California National Guard members should remain under federal control. President Donald Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities – despite fierce resistance from mayors and governors – has unleashed a whirlwind of lawsuits and overlapping court rulings.
October 23, 2025 4:59 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military has launched its ninth strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel, killing three people in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the strike on social media Wednesday night. It further expands the Trump administration’s campaign against drug trafficking in South America. Wednesday’s strike followed a strike Tuesday night, also in the eastern Pacific, that killed two people. The attacks were departures from the seven previous U.S. strikes that had targeted vessels in the Caribbean. They bring the death toll to at least 37 from attacks that began last month.
October 23, 2025 5:01 am
(AP) – The Pentagon says a “new press corps” of 60 journalists who had agreed to follow a new media policy will be welcomed into the building to cover the U.S. military. Defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s staff wouldn’t say who the reporters were, although several smaller conservative outlets like Gateway Pundit and the National Pulse were among them. Podcaster Tim Pool will also join. Virtually all mainstream journalism outlets last week refused to sign Hegseth’s new policy, which they said would restrict them to only soliciting news he had approved. They turned in their access badges.
October 22, 2025 4:57 am
NEW YORK (AP) — Frontrunner Zohran Mamdani was attacked over his thin resume. Republican Curtis Sliwa strove to prove his seriousness as a candidate. And former Gov. Andrew Cuomo was pressed on the sexual harassment allegations that drove him from office in a contentious final debate in New York City’s mayoral race. They candidates met just days before early voting begins in the country’s largest city. While Mamdani began the debate accusing his rivals of being too consumed by fighting, he quickly joined the fray, including inviting one of Cuomo’s accusers to appear in the studio audience. Cuomo is now running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to Mamdani.
