DEMOCRATS

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is running out of options as he tries to press forward with a plan to keep the federal government from shutting down.

Democrats and Republicans are maneuvering to win over young voters before next year's presidential election.

The chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee is slamming a fellow Republican in the Senate for waging an unprecedented attempt to change Pentagon abortion policy by holding up hundreds of military nominations and promotions.

Justice Samuel Alito is rejecting demands from Senate Democrats that he step aside from an upcoming Supreme Court case because of his interactions with one of the lawyers, in a fresh demonstration of tensions over ethical issues.

Morning 4 is a quick roundup of stories we think you should know about to start your day.

President Joe Biden saw from the sky Hurricane Idalia’s impact across a swath of Florida before setting out on a walking tour of the city of Live Oak, which is recovering from the storm.

A school shooting that frightened students and left one faculty member dead at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has galvanized gun safety advocates.

Congressional Democrats are accusing big tax preparation firms including Intuit and H&R Block of undermining the federal government’s upcoming electronic free file tax return system.

Republican and independent support for gun restrictions is slipping a year after Congress passed the most comprehensive firearms safety legislation in decades with bipartisan support.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is asking President Joe Biden to help the state handle a surge of migrants arriving to the city.

Dan Snyder remains in the news despite no longer owning the Washington Commanders.

There are so many dots on the maps they blur into blobs – each one reflecting trillions of public and private dollars flowing in the U.S. in a nationwide investment.

Abortion wasn't technically on the ballot in Ohio's special election.

Abortion rights advocates plan to ask Arizona voters to create a constitutional right to abortion.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is warning that troop readiness and retention is at risk as the Army’s chief recently stepped down, leaving the military’s two ground combat forces without Senate-confirmed leaders for the first time in history.

House Democrats are demanding the release of a transcript from a new FBI witness, saying it contradicts Republicans’ claims in the vast congressional inquiry into President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed legislation Wednesday that prohibits mental health professionals from using so-called conversion therapy on LGBTQ minors.

President Joe Biden is staking his reelection bid on the political and financial muscle of the Democratic National Committee.

The House voted overwhelming bipartisan to pass a resolution reaffirming support for Israel, which appears to serve as an implicit rebuke of a leading Democrat who called the country a “racist state” but later apologized.

New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver has spoken with federal prosecutors as part of the special counsel’s probe into the 2020 election.

Iowa Republicans say the party’s presidential nominating caucuses will be held Jan. 15, on the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. That announcement Saturday puts the first votes of the 2024 election a little more than six months away as the GOP tries to reclaim the White House.

Morning 4 is a quick roundup of stories we think you should know about to start your day.

House Republicans are pushing new restrictions on abortion access and trying to build on the work of activists whose strategy successfully elevated the abortion fight to the Supreme Court.

Speaking at a gathering of evangelical Christians, former Vice President Mike Pence urged his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination to support a 15-week federal abortion ban at minimum.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is escalating his feud with California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom.

A survey finds Americans on the right and the left overwhelmingly agree on several core values but only a minority of each group believes the other side shares them.

House Republicans have passed a resolution that would repeal a Biden administration rule tightening regulations on stabilizing braces for firearms.

Congress will consider rolling back an Obama-era rule that requires airlines to show the total cost of a ticket when advertising fares.

The American public is broadly skeptical of common intelligence practices and of the need to sacrifice civil liberties for security.

Texas has become the most populous state to ban gender-affirming care for minors.

President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy have reached an agreement in principle on legislation to increase the nation's borrowing authority and avoid a default.

With one of three major rating agencies warning that America’s AAA credit is at risk, the stakes are growing in the standoff in Washington over raising the nation’s debt limit.

As families and loved ones mourn the unimaginable loss of 19 children and two teachers shot dead last year in Uvalde, Texas, President Joe Biden will speak Wednesday about the epidemic of gun violence that has become the No. 1 killer of kids in America.

A North Carolina redistricting ruling has set up a possible electoral windfall for congressional Republicans in preserving their U.S. House majority next year, declaring that judges should stay out of scrutinizing seat boundaries for partisan advantage.

The only five women in South Carolina’s 46-member Senate have vowed to resist new abortion restrictions up for debate after the group filibustered a near-total ban last month.

Republican presidential hopefuls have rushed to support Daniel Penny, a white U.S. Marine veteran who was caught on video pinning an agitated Black subway passenger to the floor in a fatal chokehold.

Democrats and Republicans were back at the bargaining table in Washington D.C. as the United States government is on its way to a default as soon as next month if the debt ceiling isn't raised.

A new poll finds that most U.S. adults say they are highly concerned about the impact on the national economy if the U.S. debt limit is not increased and the government defaults on its loans.

A ballot question aimed at making it harder to amend Ohio's constitution has been cleared for an August vote.

A Democrat running for a vacant seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives is getting President Joe Biden’s endorsement.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday the state’s budget deficit has grown to nearly $32 billion.

House Republicans are seeking to pass a sweeping bill to build more border wall and impose new restrictions on asylum seekers.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell says he won’t support a fellow GOP senator’s blockade of military nominees, backing Democrats and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who have said that the holdup is harming national security.

A MTV special on mental health that was expected to feature Vice President Kamala Harris next week has been postponed.

The attorneys general of New York and California are investigating allegations of workplace discrimination at the NFL.

Senate Democrats are promising to pursue stronger ethics rules for the Supreme Court in the wake of reports that Justice Clarence Thomas participated in luxury vacations and a real estate deal with a top GOP donor.

Republican Ron DeSantis would not have to resign as Florida governor in order to run for president if he chooses under a bill given final approval in by the GOP-dominated state Legislature.

In massive victories for Republicans, North Carolina’s newly GOP-controlled state Supreme Court has thrown out a previous ruling against gerrymandered voting maps and upheld a photo voter identification law that colleagues had struck down as racially biased.

Colorado’s governor has signed four gun control bills five months after a mass shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub.

President Joe Biden’s student debt agenda would be all but obliterated by the U.S. debt legislation passed by House Republicans, dooming his mass cancellations, scrapping a more generous loan repayment option and barring future regulation around student debt.

Republican lawmakers in Missouri are pushing for a state takeover of the St. Louis police department.

In campaign 2024, Democrats are looking to find a successor for one of their top House candidates as they try to retake the majority in the House.

Sen. Bernie Sanders took to Twitter to support striking GEO workers at the University of Michigan.

After Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed gun reform legislation that includes universal background checks and safe storage requirements, Livingston County plans to push back with a resolution.

The Republican-led House passed a resolution that would block a District of Columbia police accountability bill.

The U.S. Supreme Court says New Jersey can withdraw from a commission the state created decades ago with New York to combat the mob’s influence at their joint port.

Libertarians lined up with Democrats on Friday against a proposal that would effectively block third party candidates from next year’s Montana U.S. Senate election.

Michigan’s governor signed legislation into law Thursday morning that will establish universal background checks and safe storage for guns exactly two months after the Michigan State University shootings.

The expulsion of two Tennessee Democrats over a gun control protest is an extraordinary showcase of how the levers of single-party power in America’s statehouses can be pulled not only to shut down opponents, but also to punish them.

Congressman Jim Clyburn is backing a former staffer in her effort to lead South Carolina’s Democrats, as the state prepares to host the party’s opening presidential primary in 2024.

Nearly four decades have passed since federal immigration laws got a major rewrite.

President Joe Biden won’t veto a Republican-led measure to end the national COVID emergency.

Congress on Wednesday approved a resolution to overturn the Biden administration's protections for thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways.

Republican lawmakers accused top bank regulators of dawdling as Silicon Valley Bank hurtled toward the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history and questioned whether tougher regulations would have made a difference.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a new law that could penalize oil companies for making too much money.

A federal judge quietly cleared the way to drop the minimum age to 18 for Tennesseans to carry handguns in public without a permit the same day Nashville residents were reeling from a fatal grade school shooting that left six dead, including three children.

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has signed legislation to repeal the state's decade-old “right-to-work” law, which was passed by a Republican-controlled Legislature.

Only 10% of U.S. adults say they have significant confidence in the nation’s banks and financial institutions, a new poll finds.

Watch Flashpoint every Sunday at 10 a.m. on Local 4 News at Local 4+.

Texas officials have announced a takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student school district.

The Michigan Senate has approved legislation to repeal the state's “right-to-work” law, further advancing one of Democrats' top legislative goals since taking control of the state government this year.

The North Carolina Supreme Court is hearing arguments again in a redistricting case it ruled on only three months ago.

Michigan Democrats introduced a bill that would codify the state’s electric storage goals listed in Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s MI Healthy Climate Plan.

Michigan Democrats are poised to bring an 11-bill package to the Legislature that would implement safe storage laws, universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders, also known as red flag laws.

Watch Flashpoint every Sunday at 10 a.m. on Local 4 News at Local 4+.

In two years as Virginia's governor, Republican Glenn Youngkin has gone from political newcomer to potential 2024 presidential candidate.

The Senate has voted to block new District of Columbia crime laws and overrule the city government as lawmakers in both parties have expressed concern about rising violent crime rates in cities nationwide.

President Joe Biden’s support of a resolution to block new District of Columbia crime laws has split members of his own party amid rising concerns about crime in the nation’s capital and other cities.

Gun violence and common sense gun legislation were top of mind inside a church on Detroit’s east side.

President Joe Biden has visited the Senate to demonstrate unity among Democrats — but he ended up endorsing a Republican priority instead.

The two top Democrats in Congress are asking Fox News executives not to spread false information about the 2020 election and are demanding that commentators who suggested that the election was stolen acknowledge on the air that they were wrong.

President Joe Biden is imploring House Democrats to go out and sell the Democratic accomplishments of the last two years to voters.

A spokesman for Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman says the Democrat is “on a path to recovery” after checking himself into a hospital for clinical depression earlier this month, and he is still expected to be away from the Senate for several weeks.

Senate Republicans' campaign operation is taking steps to avoid a repeat of their party's disastrous showing in last year's midterms.

South Carolina is accustomed to increased attention in the years leading up to presidential elections, given that the state has hosted the South’s first voting contests for several of the last cycles.

Lawmakers in several Democratic-controlled states are advocating sweeping voter protections.

Democrats in Lansing have introduced a series of gun control bills in the wake of the deadly mass shooting at Michigan State University.

Election conspiracist Kristina Karamo, who was overwhelmingly defeated in her bid to become Michigan’s secretary of state, was chosen Saturday to lead the state’s Republican Party for the next two years.

The Michigan Republican Party has elected Kristina Karamo to be its next chair during a convention in Lansing.

Subpoenas have been sent to the chief executives of the five largest tech companies as congressional Republicans moved to investigate what they assert is widespread corporate censorship of conservative voices.

The Congressional Budget Office says it expects the U.S. economy to stagnate this year.

One check per filing means if you file jointly with a spouse, it’s a single check for you to share. That check is the real sticking point in the battle between Democrats and Republicans over House Bill 4001.

North Carolina’s Republican-controlled Senate has passed a bill requiring teachers to alert parents in most circumstances before calling a student by a different name or pronoun.

Michigan will become one of the first primaries in the country and the first in the Midwest after a National Democratic Party approved sweeping changes to the primary election calendar for the 2024 election on Saturday.

A newly released audio recording offers a behind-the-scenes look at how former President Donald Trump’s campaign team in a pivotal battleground state knew they had been outflanked by Democrats in the 2020 presidential election.

A new poll shows that more U.S. adults disapprove than approve of the way President Joe Biden has handled the discovery of classified documents at his home and former office.

A group of Hispanic lawmakers in Connecticut has proposed that the state follow Arkansas’ lead and ban the term “Latinx” from official government documents, calling it offensive to Spanish speakers.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed dramatic spending to help New York City handle a wave of international migrants and to stabilize its reeling public transit system with her $227 billion state budget Wednesday, even as she warned of tougher economic times ahead.

Congress is going to take another look at legislation covering the rights of airline passengers.

A Democratic-led Virginia Senate panel has defeated several bills that would have restricted abortion access in the state.