The GOP fights for its own voters to stop the next Roy Moore

Republicans who hope their Senate disaster in Alabama will scare voters away from other outsider, longshot conservatives should spend some time with Michele Evans. Three thousand miles from the scene of Republican Roy Moore's stunning defeat, the Nevada Republican doesn't see a connection between Moore and her preferred Senate candidate, Danny Tarkanian, who is trying to unseat incumbent Dean Heller after several failed election attempts.

Trump vacations at his Florida golf resort

US President Donald Trump has begun his year-end vacation at his exclusive golf club and resort in West Palm Beach. According to the pool reporters accompanying him, the president arrived on Saturday shortly after 9am at the Trump International Golf Club, where he is expected to spend a good part of the day amid warm temperatures and clear skies.

Cosby and casinos among Pennsylvania’s top 2017 stories

Months before a national reckoning on sexual harassment and assault would topple powerful men in entertainment, business and media, entertainer Bill Cosby stood trial in a suburban Philadelphia courtroom, accused of drugging and molesting a woman at his home in 2004. Jurors heard lurid testimony about the TV star once known as "America's Dad" for his role as kindly Dr. Cliff Huxtable on "The Cosby Show."

Marc Thiessen: Trump should make vulnerable Democrats who opposed…

President Trump raised eyebrows when he invited Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to fly with him aboard Air Force One for a tax-reform rally in her home state of North Dakota earlier this year. For a vulnerable Democrat running for reelection in a deep-red state that Trump won by 36 points, appearing with the president was a political gift.

RBS to pay $125 million to settle California mortgage bond claims

The settlement announced on Friday by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra was the latest by RBS aimed at resolving claims stemming from its sale of mortgage-backed securities, which were at the heart of the 2008 financial crisis. Becerra's office said those securities were typically backed by thousands of mortgage loans of varying quality in which the buyer relied on the assurance that those mortgages were carefully screened and were not overly risky.

@PKCapitol: Will the tax bill help or hurt Republicans? It depends.

Interpretation of the news based on evidence, including data, as well as anticipating how events might unfold based on past events Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell speaks at the White House Wednesday following the passage of tax legislation, with Vice President Pence, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Sen. Tim Scott . A couple with two children from Indiana, where Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly faces a difficult reelection next year, explain to the audience that with combined wages of $73,000, they stand to save $2,000 under the Republican tax cuts enacted Wednesday.

Tran’s GOP win douses Democrats’ firepower

The recent election of Republican Dean Tran of Fitchburg to the Massachusetts state Senate was an embarrassing rebuke to the state's top Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Despite their opposition, Tran defeated Democrat Susan Chalifoux Zephir, a Leominster city councilor who had the support of the state's Democrat Party hierarchy, as well as Charlene DiCalogero of Berlin an unenrolled candidate Claire Freda.

New year to be a challenge for Republicans in Congress

Ready to leave for the Christmas recess, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks to a news conference to discuss the GOP agenda for next year and and his accomplishments in the first year of the Trump Administration, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 22, 2017. Their tax bill triumph in the rear-view mirror, Republicans running Congress face a 2018 in which they'll need Democratic votes to get almost anything done.

Will voters listen as GOP tries to stop the next Roy Moore?

In this Oct. 17, 2017, file photo, former Republican Arizona state Sen. Kelli Ward smiles as she is greeted by supporters at a campaign fundraiser, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Some Republican Party leaders warn that conservative candidates with problematic track records like Danny Tarkanian In Nevada or Arizona state Sen. Kelli Ward can't win general election battles and will lead the GOP to lose seats in 2018.

LA Shelter System Animals Get Christmas Treat

Los Angeles shelter system animals got Christmas treats early last week with the help of some volunteers as part of the Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation third annual Hope for the Holidays shelter feeding, People magazine reported . More than 1,000 dogs and cats in the L.A. Animal Services Shelter system received the freshly cooked meal of organic rice, beef and peas, turkey and lentils, and turkey and peas from Dec. 12-17, People noted.

Train video: Crew not distracted by electronic devices before crash

Video from the cab of the Amtrak train that hurtled off the tracks in Washington, killing three people and injuring dozens, shows that the engineer did not appear to be using a cellphone or any other personal electronic device just before the derailment, federal investigators said Friday. The video and audio captured from a camera facing inside the cab also revealed that the engineer was heard commenting about the train's speed just before the train crashed while traveling more than double the posted 30 mph speed limit.

What’s next in the net neutrality battle?

US legislators and digital advocates are coming together in plans to reverse the FCC's December decision to end net neutrality protections in the US. Opponents of the US Federal Communication Commission's decision to end net neutrality on December 14 see promise in Congressional disapproval of the move.

Hill pushes spy bill renewal to January, but a bitter debate still looms

Congress voted Thursday to give itself an extra three weeks to settle bitter differences over how to reauthorize one of the government's most prized foreign intelligence-gathering tools, but the last-minute move has done little to reconcile competing concerns about the need to maintain powerful spy capabilities and Americans' right to privacy. Neither Republicans nor Democrats are united over how to limit the authority to conduct foreign surveillance on U.S. soil, particularly when it comes to the question of when law enforcement officials can scour the collected surveillance for information about Americans.

This week in the Trump-Russia investigation – Republicans…

It was a relatively slow week in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, but some key revelations helped move the investigation forward. Anti-Mueller Republicans have been communicating with the White House : One of the Republicans who has been critical of Robert Mueller's investigation indicated that he has spoken to the White House about the issue, but maintains that the questions he asked about the two FBI agents who exchanged anti-President Donald Trump texts were motivated purely by the evidence.

Young immigrants to wait until 18 to learn their fate in US

The fate of hundreds of thousands of young immigrants living here illegally and facing deportation will be decided next year, a Republican senator says. Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake said Wednesday he received assurances from Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that the Senate will vote in January on bipartisan legislation.

Joy Reid: Nunes and House Republicans’ only goal is to shield Donald Trump from the rule of law

Joy Reid appeared on Friday's edition of "Deadline: White House" and said Republicans and Fox News conspiracy theorists who are attacking special counsel Robert Mueller have only one goal, exonerating President Donald Trump, which they will pursue "by any means necessary." Reid zeroed in on Rep. Devin Nunes and other House Republicans who have been running a parallel "investigation" of the Steele Dossier using documents provided to them by the federal investigation into possible collusion with Russia by Trump's 2016 electoral campaign.