Former CIA operative Valerie Plame has lost her race in the Democratic primary for an open seat representing New Mexico in Congress.
Attorney Teresa Leger Fernandez overcame six competitors to win her party’s nomination to succeed U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján as he runs for the U.S. Senate. Sen. Tom Udall is retiring.
In her first run for public office, Plame harnessed her fame as a former U.S. intelligence operative whose secret identity was exposed shorty after her diplomat husband disputed U.S. intelligence used to justify the 2003 Iraq invasion.
Leger Fernandez was making her first bid for public office as a professional advocate for Native American communities and voting rights issues.
She could become the first woman to represent the state’s 3rd Congressional District, a Democrat-heavy district.
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Controversial Iowa Republican congressman Steve King has lost his bid to be nominated for a 10th term.
The 71-year-old Iowa native faced four challengers in Tuesday’s Iowa primary. Topping the field is a well-funded state senator, Randy Feenstra, who offered support for President Donald Trump, hardline immigration policies and other conservative views without King’s baggage.
Provocative statements piling up over the years have been a drag on King’s latest campaign. He has compared immigrants crossing the border illegally to cattle, made light of rape and incest in defending his anti-abortion views, and wondered aloud when the term “white supremacist” became offensive.
Last year House Republicans stripped King of his committee assignments after his remarks seeming to defend white nationalism appeared in The New York Times. King said they were taken out of context.
Critics in both parties have charged that King is no longer an effective representative for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District on agriculture and other local issues. Worse for King, even his supporters worried that he could lose the seat to a Democratic challenger if he were nominated again.
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Joe Biden has scored a clean sweep of the seven states conducting Democratic presidential primaries on Tuesday, not at all a surprise given that the presumptive Democratic nominee has no active opposition.
Yet the delegate haul is important to Biden’s goal of gaining enough delegates to claim the Democratic nomination before the party’s summer convention. Tuesday’s results may leave Biden just short of the 1,991 delegates he needs, but primaries next week in Georgia and West Virginia could put him over the top.
Of Tuesday’s elections, Pennsylvania’s primary could add the most delegates to Biden’s count. He also won contests in Maryland, Indiana, Rhode Island, New Mexico, Montana, and South Dakota.
Also choosing a nominee Tuesday are voters in the District of Columbia. Those results are pending.
Many U.S. consumers say they’ve noticed higher than usual prices for holiday gifts in recent months, according to a a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A contributing factor is the unusually high import taxes the Trump administration put on foreign goods. While the worst-case consumer impact that many economists foresaw from the administration’s trade policies hasn’t materialized, some popular gift items have been affected more than others. Most toys and electronics sold in the U.S. come from China. So do most holiday decorations. Jewelry prices have risen due to the cost of gold.
Serbia’s prosecutor for organized crime has charged a government minister and three others with abuse of position and falsifying of documents related to a luxury real estate project linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The charges came on Monday. The investigation centers on a controversy over a a bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade that was a protected cultural heritage zone but that is facing redevelopment as a luxury compound by a company linked to Kushner. The $500 million proposal to build a high-rise hotel, offices and shops at the site has met fierce opposition from experts at home and abroad. Selakovic and others allegedly illegally lifted the protection status for the site by falsifying documentation.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to block states from regulating artificial intelligence. He argues that heavy regulations could stifle the industry, especially given competition from China. Trump says the U.S. needs a unified approach to AI regulation to avoid complications from state-by-state rules. The order directs the administration to draw up a list of problematic regulations for the Attorney General to challenge. States with laws could lose access to broadband funding, according to the text of the order. Some states have already passed AI laws focusing on transparency and limiting data collection.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
House Republicans in key battleground districts are working to contain the political fallout expected when thousands of their constituents face higher bills for health insurance coverage obtained through the Affordable Care Act. For a critical sliver of the GOP majority, the impending expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits after Dec. 31 could be a major political liability as they potentially face midterm headwinds in a 2026 election critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda. For Democrats, the party’s strategy for capturing the House majority revolves around pinning higher bills for groceries, health insurance and utilities on Republicans.
