Molly Crane-Newman | New York Daily News NEW YORK — A judge considered holding Donald Trump in contempt yet again on Thursday for more potential gag order violations as his hush money trial resumed in Manhattan. Before jurors took their seats for the day, state Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan heard arguments from prosecutors and the former president’s attorneys concerning four more instances of Trump publicly commenting on witnesses and jurors in the case. Prosecutor Chris Conroy alleged Trump had sought to “infect and disrupt” the proceedings by his repeated remarks, including comment ..read more

Berks County election officials have completed their tally of results from the primary election. Just 52,011 of the county’s 219,131 registered voters cast ballots in the April 23 primary for candidates they felt would best fill leadership roles, according to data from the Berks County Election Services Office. That’s a turnout rate of nearly 24%. The vote totals now include 52,011 votes cast in-person on election day, through mail ballots and through provisional ballots. Of those, 35,330 were cast in-person, 16,568 were by mail and 113 were by provisional. The party breakdown of the votes cou ..read more

By GEOFF MULVIHILL Associated Press Two years after a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion signaled that the nation’s abortion landscape was about to shift dramatically, the issue is still consuming the nation’s courts, legislatures and political campaigns — and changing the course of lives. On Wednesday, a ban on abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy, often before women realize they’re pregnant, took effect in Florida, echoing laws in two other states. In Arizona, meanwhile, lawmakers voted to repeal a total ban on abortion dating back to 1864, decad ..read more

A new Emerson College/The Hill swing state poll shows President Joe Biden behind in seven battleground states that could prove as decisive in the next general election as they did in 2020. According to the poll, Biden trails former President Donald Trump by three points or more in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, and has gained very little ground over the last several months of campaigning, despite out-raising his Republican rival and managing to keep his schedule free of frequent court appearances. “The state of the presidential election in swin ..read more

By ALI SWENSON (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump on Tuesday lamented the possibility that Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protesters could be treated more leniently than the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, marking the second time in a week the former president has invoked the ongoing campus protests to downplay past examples of right-wing violence. Speaking in the hallway outside a Manhattan courtroom where his criminal hush money trial is taking place, Trump questioned whether student demonstrators who seized and barricaded a campus building early Tue ..read more

By JONATHAN J. COOPER (Associated Press) PHOENIX (AP) — President Joe Biden may eventually ban TikTok, but he’s moving to give something back to the young people who dominate the popular social media app — a looser federal grip on marijuana. Facing softening support from a left-leaning voting group that will be crucial to his reelection hopes in November, Biden has made a number of election year moves intended to appeal in particular to younger voters. His move toward reclassifying marijuana as a less dangerous drug is just the latest, coming weeks after he canceled student loans for another 2 ..read more

By DAVID BAUDER (AP Media Writer) NEW YORK (AP) — Even as many Americans say they learn about the 2024 election campaign from national news outlets, a disquieting poll reveals some serious trust issues. About half of Americans, 53%, say they are extremely or very concerned that news organizations will report inaccuracies or misinformation during the election. Some 42% express worry that news outlets will use generative artificial intelligence to create stories, according to a poll from the American Press Institute and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The poll found ..read more

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, JAKE OFFENHARTZ, COLLEEN LONG and ALANNA DURKIN RICHER (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — The first week of testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial was the scene-setter for jurors. This week, prosecutors are working on filling in the details of how they say he pulled off a scheme to bury damaging stories to protect his 2016 presidential campaign. Related Articles National News | What marijuana reclassification means for the United States National News | Hundreds of NYPD cops storm Columbia University campus to end pro-Gaza building occupation National News | Hundr ..read more

Chris Marquette and Michael Macagnone | CQ-Roll Call (TNS) WASHINGTON — A deep unease trickled through Jacob Glick’s entire body. He had started a virtual deposition of Jim Watkins, the large, scruffy QAnon conspiracy theorist who runs 8kun, a website filled with hateful, racist content that included calls for violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Glick, then an investigative counsel for the House select committee probing the Jan. 6 attack, made the customary introductions of his colleagues. Watkins jotted down all the names. “It already felt creepier — and I’ve been in some creepy ones,” G ..read more

Michael Macagnone | CQ-Roll Call (TNS) WASHINGTON — How the Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity in former President Donald Trump’s effort to jettison his federal charges could have some collateral damage: Congress’ impeachment power. At oral arguments in the case Thursday, Trump attorney D. John Sauer told the justices that the nation’s founders decided impeachment was the check on a president’s behavior in office — and not criminal prosecution. But several justices and outside experts said Sauer’s arguments, taken together, laid out a diminished version of impeachment power ..read more