Mike Rounds

Beyoncé provided more excitement than either game during Netflix’s NFL debut on Christmas Day. Riding into her halftime appearance on a white horse, the 32-time Grammy winner rocked her hometown Houston crowd with a nearly 13-minute performance on Wednesday. She surprised fans by bringing out Shaboozey to perform “Sweet Honey Buckiin” and Post Malone joined [...]

Missouri invests $4.8 million to upgrade Rocky Mount's sewer systems, aiming to modernize waste management by December 2025.

Donald Trump is suggesting that his new administration could try to regain control of the Panama Canal.

Agriculture is a major economic driver in the U.S., but it is just as prone to foreign cyber threats as more widely reported areas of the U.S. economy and security state.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, here at a news conference at the Capitol last week, is up for reelection in 2026. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, said Congress should not be “sneaking new member perks into must-pass legislation.”

West Point has not yet contacted Pete Hegseth after the school said an employee mistakenly said he had not applied and was not accepted, Hegseth told Fox News Digital.

The measure would prevent a partial government shutdown set to begin after midnight Friday.

'Border security must move first'

the nighttime sightings are producing tons of talk, a raft of conspiracy theories and craned necks looking skyward.

In a move meant to resolve constitutional concerns, Nebraska lawmakers will seek to establish a permanent oversight committee to supervise oversight of the state's most troubled agencies.

The mullahs' regime is a terrorist mafia masquerading as a government — and a revival of President Trump's maximum pressure campaign is the only possible response.

Gabbard, a recent Donald Trump Cabinet pick, predicted catastrophe if Assad were overthrown. So far, things have played out differently.

The governor's office has been involved in discussions with U.S. Postal Service officials about acquiring the main Post Office site in the Haymarket as a possible convention center site.

DES MOINES, Iowa — A week after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, Elon Musk said his political action committee would “play a significant role in primaries.”

Some of the choices come with controversy and face pointed questions from Republican senators.

The former Fox News host, Army National Guard major and combat veteran spent much of the week trying to salvage his Cabinet nomination.

The North Dakota Legislature is preparing to give newer lawmakers an experience boost during the upcoming legislative session, with term limits expected to turn over about half the lawmakers in 2028.

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump’s drive to upend the FBI was welcomed by Republican senators although it was not clear on Sunday how strongly members of the incoming majority party would embrace his move to install ally Kash Patel as the next director of the Justice Department’s top investigative arm.

It was a change from recent years, when most young male voters backed the Democratic candidate.

Congress returns with a full plate for December, as well as plenty of announced nominees to begin vetting for the incoming Trump administration.

Donald Trump proposed on Saturday that current FBI Director Christopher Wray be replaced by pro-Trump loyalist and conspiracy theorist Kash Patel. Wray was appointed by Trump in 2017 and is slated to serve a 10-year term which would end in 2027. Replacing him ahead of time would require Wray to voluntarily retire or for Trump to fire him once he becomes president.Some Republicans have already expressed skepticism about replacing Wray. South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds said on ABC’s “This Week” that he had not heard complaints about Wray’s leadership of the law enforcement agency.“The message, and one that I feel very strongly about, is that there is a constitutional separation. The Founding Fathers did that for a reason,” Rounds told the network.

The pardon was a sharp reversal for Biden.

President Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call on Tuesday that following the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, the focus should now be on reaching a hostage-release and ceasefire in Gaza deal, two U.S. officials told Axios.Why it matters: There are still 101 hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas, including seven American citizens. Israeli intelligence services believe roughly half of them are still alive.U.S. officials said Biden intends to continue pushing for a deal to release the hostages until his last day in office, even if President-elect Trump ultimately gets credit for a deal."Biden thinks that doing nothing and telling the hostage families to wait until January 20 would be crazy," one of Biden's aides told Axios.Behind the scenes: Two U.S. officials said the conversation between Biden and Netanyahu, which took place shortly after the Israeli Security Cabinet approved the Lebanon ceasefire agreement, lasted a few minutes and the only topic that came up besides Lebanon was the deal to release the hostages and establish a ceasefire in Gaza."We have an opportunity now. Let's get the hostages," Biden told Netanyahu, according to the U.S. officials who said the prime minister responded positively and said he wanted to try.Israeli and U.S. officials said the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon increases the chances of a hostage-release and ceasefire in Gaza deal, even if it only includes implementing the first phase of the proposed deal and the release of only some of the hostages.A senior Israeli cabinet minister told Axios that Netanyahu is interested in pushing for a partial hostage deal that would not oblige him to agree to an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. "There is an intention to make a renewed effort to get a deal in Gaza. It was clear that the war in Lebanon had to end first. Now Hamas is in a weaker position because Hezbollah is out of the war," the cabinet minister said.The Israeli Prime Minister's Office declined to comment.Following the ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, Hamas on Wednesday issued a statement that the group is willing to cooperate with efforts to reach a deal in Gaza.However, Hamas emphasized that any agreement must include an end to the war and a full withdrawal of Israel Defense Forces from Gaza.Between the lines: In the last round of negotiations in August, Netanyahu added new conditions for a deal. Israeli negotiators saw Hamas' position as a response to Netanyahu's new terms.Netanyahu's critics, including many families of the hostages, accuse him of undermining a deal for his own political survival.Biden and his team have been publicly putting the onus on Hamas and accusing it of preventing a deal. But in private the president and his aides also put some of the responsibility on Netanyahu.Catch up quick: The negotiations over the Gaza deal have been stalled for more than three months. During Israeli President Isaac Herzog's visit to Washington two weeks ago, he urged Biden to work with Trump on advancing a deal.Herzog conveyed the same message in a phone call with Trump after his election victory and said it was an urgent matter. Trump was surprised to hear from Herzog during the call that, contrary to what he thought, half of the hostages are believed to be alive, according to three sources briefed on the call.A few days after meeting Herzog, Biden raised the issue of the hostages during his meeting with Trump in the Oval Office and proposed they work together on a deal.White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan also discussed the hostages issue last week with his successor Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla). State of play: Since Qatar announced earlier this month that it was suspending its efforts to mediate a deal, several senior Hamas officials, including the head of the negotiating team, Khalil al-Haya, left Doha and moved to Turkey.The director of the Israeli Shin Bet intelligence agency Ronen Bar recently visited Turkey and met with his Turkish counterpart Ibrahim Kalin to discuss the hostage deal. Since that visit, the Turks have become more active on the issue, Israeli officials said. In his speech at the White House on Tuesday, Biden mentioned Turkey, along with Egypt and Qatar, as countries who could help advance a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal.Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani visited Cairo on Wednesday and met with Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi. The Egyptian foreign minister said after the meeting that one of the main issues discussed was the efforts to reach a deal in Gaza.

To prevail, more than 3,300 signatures would have needed to be proved invalid on each petition. "The plaintiff and secretary are well short," Lancaster County District Court Judge Susan Strong wrote.

Coming up on a month since the presidential election, some things are starting to become clearer, though many questions remain. We will release a Viewpoints article in the next week that will be a more in-depth assessment of the implications of what is known about both the incoming Trump administration and congressional priorities. So, be sure to keep an eye out! In the meantime, we wanted to highlight some new energy-related programs and announcements from the Department of Energy (DOE), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and other agencies, building off the views in our November update.Trump’s Cabinet PicksPresident-elect Trump has named Chris Wright, currently CEO of Liberty Energy, an energy services company headquartered in Denver, as his nominee for Secretary of Energy. Wright’s announcement led many to view a video posted on LinkedIn where he pushed back hard against language about an “energy transition,” “clean energy,” “carbon pollution,” and a “climate crisis,”... Read the complete article here...©1994-2024 Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. All Rights Reserved.

The following is a transcript of an interview with Ret. Gen. H.R. McMaster, national security adviser in the first Trump administration, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that aired on Nov. 24, 2024.

Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell is reportedly under consideration by President-elect Trump to be special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

One security expert says it appears to be "a sophisticated operation."

Streaming giant Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX) could be facing several lawsuits after shattering records from its highly anticipated boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson, which saw Paul named the victor via unanimous decision.What Happened: Netflix had a problem that most streamers would love to have on Friday. The company had so many people trying to watch its live boxing event that the site was crashing for viewers around the world.While the good problem to have could mean a boost in subscribers for the current fourth quarter and a boost to advertising revenue from its ad-supported customers, Netflix is facing at least one lawsuit over tech hiccups.A lawsuit has been filed in Florida by Netflix customer Ronald "Blue" Denton, as reported by Fox News. The lawsuit alleges "breach of contract" by Netflix and was first reported by TMZ.Netflix said the fight was watched by more than 108 million viewers globally to become the "most-streamed sporting event ever," while also acknowledging the tech difficulties that some customers had. The event peaked at 65 million concurrent households in the U.S. watching with an estimated 56% of all U.S. TV traffic from 12 a.m. ET to 1 a.m. ET watching the Netflix fight."This unprecedented scale created many technical challenges, which the launch team tackled brilliantly by prioritizing stability of the stream for the majority of viewers," Netflix executive Elizabeth Stone said.Stone said the event was "a huge success," while acknowledging there was room for improvement.The hashtag #NetflixCrash trended on social media platform X Friday and more than one million people around the world, ...Full story available on Benzinga.com

WASHINGTON—Some of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees will start making the rounds on the Senate side this week, his transition team announced on Nov. 19. Nominees who have confirmed visits to senators’ offices include House GOP Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), former Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), and Fox News commentator Pete Hegseth. [...]

Matt Gaetz has been making calls to Republican senators ahead of a likely difficult confirmation process in 2025.

Critics often blast ranked choice voting as being complicated and undemocratic, saying it violates the “one person, one vote” principle of American elections.

The rematch between Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano was as bloody and bruising as the original. The disputed decision — and the reaction to it — was about the same, too.

'Ten GOP members have endorsed a candidate so far'

Hard-line conservatives are plotting to challenge Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for the gavel during Wednesday’s internal House GOP elections, four sources familiar with the matter told The Hill. The sources — who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations — said the conservatives are planning to nominate an alternative candidate [...]

Control over the U.S. House of Representatives still hangs in the balance, teetering between a Republican or Democratic majority with more than a dozen races left to be called

While strong rhetoric on the campaign trail can cause these big swings, not all of the promises turn into actual policy.

Suburban voters outside Chicago generally bucked a national conservative trend in Tuesday’s election by supporting more than a dozen measures to borrow more than $1.1 billion to fund schools, and more for fire stations, park facilities and open land.

If current projections hold, Republicans are on track to retain their majority.

Nine NFL teams have nearly no chance nine weeks into the season

"It's the economy, stupid!" That is, was and will always be.

Sen. Steve Daines is pushing colleagues to support Sen. John Thune in the leader race, according to a source familiar.

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 7, 2024--

Mike Tyson and Jake Paul will face off Nov. 15 in a heavyweight boxing match streamed exclusively on Netflix. Here are the rules the boxers will be required to follow: Tyson and Paul must spend the first 20 minutes explaining who they are to Gen Z and Gen X, respectively. Boxers are each limited to [...]The post Rules For The Mike Tyson Vs. Jake Paul Fight appeared first on The Onion.

Donald Trump is preparing to hire a new round of people to help him run the country. With Trump’s track record of never-ending chaos and disorder, they may want to keep their resumes handy.Trump is reportedly considering a team of loyalists, the people who will tell him he’s never wrong when he suggests policies like injecting bleach to fight off COVID-19 and launching nuclear weapons at hurricanes.Among the names in circulation are former ambassador and social media troll Richard Grenell heading the State Department; apostrophe investigator Rep. Elise Stefanik as U.N. ambassador; Taliban meeting coordinator Mike Pompeo as secretary of defense; and anti-vaccine crackpot Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running the Department of Health.

Football fans in two of the nation's most closely divided states try to catch a break from the presidential campaign.

Both on the airwaves and the campaign trail, it’s time for candidates and campaigns to make their final pitches and make sure their voters turn out. It’s already past the time when the U.S. Postal Service says it is safe to mail ballots — especially in states with requirements that ballots be received, rather than [...]The post At the Races: Closing time appeared first on Roll Call.

National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chair Steve Daines (R-Mont.) is telling colleagues that he will support Senate Republican Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) in the race to become next Senate Republican leader, according to sources familiar with the private conversations. Daines’s public support would be a promising development for Thune, who is locked in a tough [...]

Submissions about charities, benefits and nonprofit fundraisers for the weekly Good Neighbors calendar published Wednesdays should be emailed to [email protected] by noon Friday.