Government shutdown hours away as House GOP pitches last-ditch deal  —  Just hours before a government shutdown, the House planned to vote on a measure to keep the government open for 45 days at current spending levels, adding money for U.S. disaster relief but none of the billions of dollars …

McCarthy compares Rep. Jamaal Bowman pulling a fire alarm to Jan. 6 rioters  —  The fire alarm, which Bowman's office suggested was unintentional, came as Democrats were trying to delay a vote after Republicans rushed to pass the stopgap measure.  —  Rep. Jamal Bowman allegedly pulls fire alarm in House building

Squabbles, missteps and failure to govern: The Republican week that was  —  Republicans offered a kaleidoscopic display of self-inflicted wounds by politicians unwilling to govern responsibly and loath to confront the damage done by Donald Trump  —  There are good weeks and bad weeks …

Pregnant with no OB-GYNs around: In Idaho, maternity care became a casualty of its abortion ban  —  After an Idaho hospital closed its obstetrics department, pregnant women in the county have been left without nearby care.  Their OB-GYNs fled the state.  —  If you're pregnant in Bonner County …

DeSantis Super PAC Cuts Back Iowa, New Hampshire TV Ads in Shift  — DeSantis trails Trump by smaller margin in early-voting states  —  Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's presidential bid, cut more than $530,000 in reserved time on broadcast television stations …

The MAGAmerican dream lives in Sarasota  —  On Florida's Gulf Coast, a loose coalition of activists, officials and Trumpworld celebrities is building the world they want to live in  —  There are a few ways to enter Sarasota County's modern conservative paradise, but Vic Mellor led me in through what he calls “the cave of doom.”

‘No enemies to the right’: DeSantis ally hosts debate hedging white nationalism  —  Christopher Rufo's Twitter space discussed conservatives cooperating with extremists ‘to destroy the power of the left’  —  Conservative activist Christopher Rufo, who is a close ally of Florida governor …

The Trump administration touted him as a victim of #MeToo.  Now he's accused of dismembering a girlfriend  —  The gruesome discovery spoke to a ghastly crime.  —  On the afternoon of July 20, someone using a waterfront trail in Alameda spotted a large garbage bag wrapped in duct tape …

Elon Musk crosses the border to Nazi  —  He's blown past blatant antisemitism and is now aligning with Jew-hating, right wing Germans.  What else would you call that?  —  On Thursday I posted on Bluesky that it's been a quiet week for the Jews, and that turned out to be a mistake.

‘Multiple’ people dead after truck crash and ammonia leak lead to evacuation in Illinois  —  The Friday evening crash involved a semi-truck that started leaking anhydrous ammonia, prompting an evacuation of people within about a one mile radius of the crash, including parts of Teutopolis in south central Illinois.

Michigan Republican Party faces financial turmoil, bank records show  —  Lansing — The Michigan Republican Party had about $35,000 in its bank accounts in August, according to internal records that flash new warning signs about the dire state of the GOP's finances and raise questions …

'It's crazy': Shutdown caps Congress' week from hell  —  Back in the 1990s, as then-Speaker Gingrich put it, Republicans could at least “afford to have five or six people be idiots.”  —  Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman has never seen a scenario like this week: “Not in real life — in movies.