Michele Bachmann eyeing run for Franken’s Senate seat

Former GOP congresswoman and presidential candidate Michele Bachmann said Tuesday she is considering running for Democratic former Sen. Al Franken's Minnesota seat. Bachmann, who was a member of Congress representing Minnesota until 2015, told " The Jim Bakker Show " that she's mulling over whether she should run.

Investigative journalism is not dead. Ask Roy Moore and John Conyers.

Investigative reporters in 2017 exposed accusations of sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein , Roy Moore and many others, documented what appears to be an appalling undercount of the hurricane death toll in Puerto Rico, and caught Michael Flynn in a lie that cost him his job as national security adviser and ultimately led to his criminal conviction and cooperation with a law enforcement investigation of Donald Trump's campaign. Yet conservative commentator Gayle Trotter said Sunday on Fox News that "when you think about independent, investigative journalism, we have seen kind of the death of that this past year."

Officials: Del. set to sue EPA over relief for out-of-state air pollution

On Tuesday, Delaware officials announced their plans to sue a United States government agency, after they reportedly filed four petitions in 2016 to request relief from air pollution from upwind states. The State of Delaware says on Tuesday, that it will send four Notice of Intent to Sue letters tot he United Sates Environmental Protection Agency regarding air pollution that comes into the state for other states.

As U.S. budget fight looms, Republicans flip their fiscal script

The head of a conservative Republican faction in the U.S. Congress, who voted this month for a huge expansion of the national debt to pay for tax cuts, called himself a "fiscal conservative" on Sunday and urged budget restraint in 2018. In keeping with a sharp pivot under way among Republicans, U.S. Representative Mark Meadows, speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," drew a hard line on federal spending, which lawmakers are bracing to do battle over in January.

Indiana National Guard unit honored ahead of deployment

That's something he's getting ready to do when he ships out to Kuwait with the 38th Sustainment Brigade for his third international deployment. But Weeks' departure from his family was made a little easier Tuesday evening after receiving a rousing sendoff from family, friends and elected officials wishing him well before the mission.

Will surprise Alabama election result bring end to inaction in Senate?

When Doug Jones defeated Judge Roy Moore down in Alabama, Democrats picked up a seat in the U.S. Senate and Republicans dodged a bullet. Because the cheers from most Democrats and progressives were so loud, they drowned out the sighs of relief many Republicans and conservatives exhaled when Moore toppled.

Democrats vying to oppose Roskam give views on health care

With three candidates who are cancer survivors, health care issues are personal for several of the seven Democrats hoping to earn their party's nomination to face incumbent Republican Rep. Peter Roskam next November in the 6th Congressional District. Candidates Amanda Howland, Kelly Mazeski and Becky Anderson Wilkins each told a crowd of 800 at a recent forum in Carol Stream the basics of their cancer survival stories as they explained why affordable health care matters.

2018 brings governor’s race, other big contests in Illinois

All statewide offices will be on the ballot on Nov. 8, but no contest will be as fevered i 1 2 or costly i 1 2 as the governor's race. Already, the candidates are raising and spending money at a pace that could make this the most expensive governor's race in U.S. history.

White House aides already anxious about 2018

Iranians Protest Across Country, Defying a Crackdown - TEHRAN - Iranian security forces clamped down on Tehran on Monday after demonstrators across the country ignored calls for calm by President Hassan Rouhani in the most significant venting of pent-up economic and political frustrations in years. Defiant Iran protesters steal Revolutionary Guard's trousers even as death toll mounts - The Basij militiaman, a paramilitary storm trooper of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, was reportedly swinging an electric shock baton when the crowd of angry protesters closed in around him.

With Disney Deal Looming, Murdoch’s Empire Is Fractured

Iranians Protest Across Country, Defying a Crackdown - TEHRAN - Iranian security forces clamped down on Tehran on Monday after demonstrators across the country ignored calls for calm by President Hassan Rouhani in the most significant venting of pent-up economic and political frustrations in years.

Bernard sworn in as mayor

Mayor Thomas Bernard is sworn in as the Mayor of the City of North Adams in City Hall chambers on Monday, January 1, 2018. Mayor Thomas Bernard speaks during inauguration ceremonies of city government in City Hall chambers in North Adams on Monday, January 1, 2018.

Steve McLaughlin sworn in as Rensselaer County executive, vows to

The Rensselaer County Courthouse was packed Monday, Jan. 1, 2018, for the swearing in of County Executive Steve McLaughlin, county legislators, Troy City Council members and others. The Rensselaer County Courthouse was packed Monday, Jan. 1, 2018, for the swearing in of County Executive Steve McLaughlin, county legislators, Troy City Council members and others.

Congress faces difficult issues when it returns this week

Congress faces a jam-packed to-do list when it returns this week, with deadlines looming on difficult issues - including how to fund the government and avoid a shutdown, stabilizing the nation's health-insurance program for poor children, and whether to shield young undocumented immigrants from deportation. Fresh off a party-line vote to overhaul the tax code, the negotiations will test whether Congress and the White House still have the potential to craft any form of bipartisan agreement.

California’s Devin Nunes reasserts authority over House Russia probe

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., seen in March, appears poised to challenge special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., seen in March, appears poised to challenge special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

Brickbats

Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman and Emanuel Cleaver have warned Twitter officials that if the company does not do more to stop "racially divisive communications," Congress will regulate the service. The ethics committee at Bath Spa University, a public university in England, barred a graduate student in psychotherapy from studying transgender people who regret having reassignment surgery.

Best of 2017: Stop that plane – The frantic race to halt a deportation

Protesters voice their opposition to an immigration ban imposed by President Donald Trump at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Credit: Matt Mills McKnight This week Crosscut is running some of our best stories of the year, as selected both by our editors and by popularity with readers.