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Judge denies attempt by Trump’s DOJ to exclude 20,000 California ballots from vote count

President Donald Trump’s administration is attempting to assert authority over state-run elections in the final days before voting ends in the midterm elections. (Photo by Simone Hogan/Getty Images) A federal judge on Wednesday denied a U.S. Department of Justice request that would have forced California to not count the ballots of 20,000 voters the Trump administration alleges are likely noncitizens. The decision sets the case on a course to possibly reach the U.S. Supreme Court within days. In a scathing decision, Judge David Carter ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration was seeking to coerce California to abandon its constitutional elections procedures and “bend to the will of the Executive Branch” — a situation the veteran judge called unprecedented. Carter, an appointee of President Bill Clinton in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, denounced the Justice Department’s lawsuit in strong terms as a threat to the ability of more than 20,000 Cali...
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Time for change? Permanent daylight saving time bill awaiting US Senate action

A clock stands in front of the former train depot in downtown Fargo, North Dakota, on March 6, 2025. (Photo by Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor) Most of the nation returns to standard time Sunday morning, and Congress could decide as early as next month whether it will be the last time people have to change their clocks. President Donald Trump wants year-round  daylight saving time . The U.S. House voted overwhelmingly in July for the change. Lots of Democrats and Republicans are behind the idea. Yet, any momentum has stalled. The legislation can’t get out of the U.S. Senate, and it looks unlikely there’ll be much progress anytime soon. Senators are due to return to Washington from a lengthy recess on Nov. 9, and a push for year-round daylight saving time is expected. But it faces strong opposition from senators in rural areas and those who represent states where children could be walking to school in darkness for most of the winter. “No one likes changing the clock, me included...
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DHS targeting naturalized Americans in voter investigations, civil rights groups say

A sign directs Gwinnett County, Georgia, voters to a polling station ahead of the 2025 general election.(Photo by Maya Homan/Georgia Recorder) The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is unlawfully scrutinizing naturalized U.S. citizens and placing them at risk of disenfranchisement, civil rights groups alleged in a lawsuit Wednesday, less than a week before Election Day. The lawsuit,  filed in California , came as Homeland Security asked for an emergency order to restart election-related field operations in nine states after a federal judge paused them over concerns they could sweep up U.S. citizens. The developments add to the  growing legal war over the midterm elections being fought in federal courts across the country. President Donald Trump’s administration is waging an aggressive and highly visible effort to target alleged noncitizen voting — a campaign Democrats and voting rights groups fear will wrongly ensnare Americans entitled to cast a ballot. Homeland Securit...
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Courts to decide fate of Trump’s latest push to control voting as Election Day nears

Early voters line up at the Midtown Mall in Anchorage, Alaska, on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026. (Yereth Rosen photo/Alaska Beacon) Less than a week before Election Day, President Donald Trump’s unprecedented drive for power over elections has set the stage for a series of courtroom fights that could quickly lead to a high-stakes showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court over the limits of federal authority. Democrats and voting rights advocates have long feared Trump would attempt to interfere in the midterm elections, especially if Republicans appear poised to lose control of Congress. With early voting  well underway across much of the country, they say those concerns are being confirmed as the Trump administration rushes forward a last-minute legal campaign to pressure election officials in a growing number of states. The U.S. Department of Justice over the past two weeks has sued Alaska and California, seeking extraordinary federal intervention in their elections. Signs suggest the lega...
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Early voting surges in midterm elections as millions cast their ballots

Voters mark their ballots during the first day of early voting at the Bismarck Event Center in Bismarck, North Dakota, on Oct. 22, 2026. (Photo by Jack Dura/North Dakota Monitor) WASHINGTON — Tens of millions of Americans have already made their way to the ballot box as early voting is underway in a midterm election that will determine control of the House and the Senate, possibly flipping one or both from Republicans to Democrats.  As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 34 million people have either gone to the polls to cast a ballot or have mailed in their vote, and the current tally is on track to surpass early voting in the 2022 midterm elections, said Michael McDonald, a professor of political science at University of Florida who runs the  UF Election Lab that tracks early voting. With one week until Election Day on Nov. 3, McDonald said he’s not sure if voters will surpass record-breaking early voting of 2018, but it’s clear that the surge in early voting will eclipse tur...
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Following anti-Arab remarks, RFK Jr. promotes faith-based recovery program at Detroit visit

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks to reporters following a visit to the Detroit Wayne Integrated Health Network on Oct. 27, 2026. (Photo by Katherine Dailey/Michigan Advance) DETROIT — A day after Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made anti-Arab remarks at a get-out-the-vote rally for Republican candidates in Grand Rapids, he declined to address the comments during a stop in Detroit to promote a new care program for homeless individuals.  Kennedy said Monday evening that Arabs do not contribute to research in science and literature, blaming the Muslim Brotherhood for “destroying” the Muslim tradition that “produced all of these great foundational discoveries in science and medicine and biology and navigation” — remarks that have been largely condemned as racist and Islamophobic. “There are five hundred million Arabs in the world. And yet they don’t produce science,” Kennedy said. “They don’t win the Nobel Prize. They do...
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Conservative lender accused of Ponzi scheme sentenced to 15 years in prison

First Liberty Building and Loan the day after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed its complaint against the Newnan-based lender. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder Edwin Brant Frost IV, the founder of a conservative lending firm in Georgia, was sentenced on Monday to 15 years in prison for his role in running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors out of millions of dollars. Frost, a 69-year-old and founder of the now-defunct First Liberty Building & Loan, was accused of leading a $140 million Ponzi scheme that officials say started around 2021 and scammed about 300 investors. Frost, who was convicted of wire fraud in May after he pleaded guilty, will also have to pay back over $76 million in restitution to victims. After he serves his sentence, he will have three additional years of supervised release. At Frost’s sentencing hearing Monday in Newnan, Frost took responsibility for his role in scamming these investors, including many people who handed over their savings for ret...
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