Mississippi Tea Party candidate challenges Cochran’s primary win
JACKSON Miss. (Reuters) – Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party-backed U.S. Senate candidate who lost the Mississippi Republican primary runoff, filed a legal challenge to the result on Monday, alleging that he fell short in the June 24 vote because of electio…
Florida elections face uncertainty as congressional maps redrawn
TALLAHASSEE Fla. (Reuters) – Florida’s state legislature will reconvene later this week to redraw district maps that a judge has found unconstitutional, clouding the outcome of congressional races and possibly forcing delays in elections.
Rabbis urge U.S. action to free American jailed in Cuba
HAVANA (Reuters) – Three hundred U.S. rabbis urged President Barack Obama to “take action” to secure the release of Alan Gross, a U.S. government subcontractor jailed in Cuba who has grown increasingly suicidal and has said goodbye to his family, his l…
Star witness ends testimony in Virginia ex-governor’s corruption trial
RICHMOND Va. (Reuters) – The star witness for the prosecution in the federal corruption trial of former Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell and his wife completed four days of testimony on Monday by detailing financial help he said he had given the coup…
California’s new state budget emphasizes funding for education
(Reuters) – California’s newest budget package of $152.3 billion in state spending emphasizes large increases for education, pays down debts, and proposes a 32-year plan to fully fund the teachers’ pension system, the state’s nonpartisan fiscal and pol…
African leaders want U.S. trade deal renewed for 15 more years
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – African leaders urged the United States on Monday to renew a trade benefits program giving duty-free access to billions of dollars of African exports for 15 years, saying it would help cement trade relations and boost development…
U.S. chicken farmers latest caught in Russia sanction crosshairs
(Reuters) – Russia’s threatened ban on U.S. poultry imports, the latest move in a sanctions skirmish over Moscow’s support of rebels in Ukraine, has agriculture companies alert to the risks of a conflict that’s already roiled trading of crops ranging f…
Florida to begin redrawing unconstitutional congressional maps on Thursday
TALLAHASSEE Fla. (Reuters) – Florida legislative leaders said on Sunday they plan to call a special session on Thursday after a judge ordered them to redraw the state’s U.S. congressional maps and held open the possibility of delaying general elections…
German magazine reports Israel spied on Kerry last year
BERLIN (Reuters) – German magazine Der Spiegel reported on Sunday that Israel and at least one other intelligence agency were listening in on U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s unsecured phone calls last year when he was holding nearly daily negotiat…
Obama: ‘Russia doesn’t make anything,’ West must be firm with China
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama dismissed Russia as a nation that “doesn’t make anything” and said in an interview with the Economist magazine that the West needs to be “pretty firm” with China as Beijing pushes to expand its role in the …
