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U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) returned for his second year to lead a town hall-styled forum at the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference, an annual tradition where local and state officials, lobbyists and other interested parties ask Maryland’s senior U.S. senator about operations at the federal level. This year, Van Hollen said...

Washington state Rep. Tarra Simmons was fined $15,000 on Friday by a state ethics panel for improperly using her position to steer public funds to a nonprofit where she worked, and trying to retaliate against the person who initiated the investigation against her. A unanimous Legislative Ethics Board concluded the Bremerton Democrat committed th...

Gov. Jeff Landry said he won’t personally talk to New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno until after an investigation determines who was behind the July indictment of Attorney General Liz Murrill. “She’s always free to have a discussion with my staff,” Landry said about Moreno in a live interview WRKF-FM aired Friday. “I’m not going to be speaking to t...

Dallas Fort Worth International Airport canceled plans to install a facility commonly used for Islamic prayer after Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday threatened to withdraw state and federal funding. Abbott sent a letter to the North Texas airport’s CEO Christopher McLaughlin, as well as the mayors of Houston, Dallas and Fort Worth, stating his office ...

Alaska’s two leading Democratic candidates for governor have quietly been discussing whether one of them should quit the race if both are among the top four vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary election. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich each said by phone on Thursday that they’ve been discussing different scenarios about what could happen whe...