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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some key takeaways from Tuesday's Democratic presidential debate in Des Moines, the final forum before the Iowa caucuses: CIVILITY AND SUBSTANCE OVER FIGHTING AND FRICTION After the United States' killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Democrats were bracing for fights over foreign policy. Instead, a whole lot of substance broke out. There was a brief skirmish between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who opposed the Iraq War, and former vice president Joe Biden, who apologized for supporting for it. But most of the o...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders' campaign said Wednesday that the Democratic presidential candidate had a heart procedure for a blocked artery and was canceling events and appearances "until further notice." The 78-year-old Vermont senator experienced chest discomfort during a campaign event Tuesday and sought medical evaluation. Two stents were "successfully inserted," and Sanders "is conversing and in good spirits," according to the campaign. He’s recovering at a Las Vegas hospital. Sanders tweeted on Wednesday afternoon that he was “fe...
DENVER (AP) — John Hickenlooper will drop out of the Democratic presidential primary on Thursday, according to a Democrat close to him. The two-term former Colorado governor, who ran as a moderate warning of the perils of extreme partisanship, struggled with fundraising and low polling numbers. His planned departure from the 2020 race was confirmed Wednesday night by a Democrat who wasn't authorized to speak publicly before the announcement and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Hickenlooper, 67, is not expected to a...
DETROIT (AP) — When Barack Obama was on the ballot in 2008 and 2012, there was no question that Terrance Holmes would vote for the first black president. But as he helped fix cars this week at a repair shop on Detroit's west side, he recalled his ambivalence about the 2016 campaign. "I just didn't feel no reason to" vote, said Holmes, who is black and holds a second job at an auto parts factory. The 34-year-old feels differently now as another election season begins. He hasn't paid much attention to the early Democratic primary and didn't k...
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate John Hickenlooper is proposing a $15 federal minimum wage — with a twist. Rather than unilaterally hiking the wage to $15, the former Colorado governor proposes phasing in the increases depending on an area's cost of living. The most expensive quarter of the country would get a $15 minimum wage by 2021, and the least expensive would see that hike in 2024. The plan, disclosed to The Associated Press on Friday, proposes then tying future minimum wage hikes to metro areas' cost of living so tha...
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A growing list of Democratic presidential contenders want the U.S. government to legalize marijuana, reflecting a nationwide shift as more Americans look favorably on cannabis. Making marijuana legal at the federal level is the "smart thing to do," says California Sen. Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor whose home state is the nation's largest legal pot shop. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a prominent legalization advocate on Capitol Hill, says the war on drugs has been a "war on people." Former Texas Congressman Beto O...
WASHINGTON (AP) — With a fierce denunciation of late-term abortions, President Donald Trump is making a move to re-energize evangelical voters whose support will be vital in heading off any possible 2020 primary challenge. Trump, at arguably the weakest point of his presidency, seized on abortion during his State of the Union address Tuesday to re-engage on a divisive cultural issue, using both religious rhetoric aimed at conservative Christians and scathing attacks on Democratic lawmakers who support abortion rights — in particular, Vir...
PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona's governor on Tuesday appointed U.S. Rep. Martha McSally to replace Sen. Jon Kyl in the seat that belonged to the late John McCain, sending the GOP congresswoman back to Washington just a month after she lost a tight race for the state's other spot in the Senate. McSally, a former air force colonel, lost to Democratic Rep. Kyrsten Sinema in November after a bruising contest in which she contended Sinema committed "treason" by making anti-war remarks in 2003. Now, McSally will join the Senate the same day that Sinema is sw...
DENVER (AP) — Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and his allies are taking new steps toward launching a presidential campaign, including interviews with dozens of potential staffers and hiring a pollster and national fundraiser, according to a person close to the Democrat. He's already launched a political action committee that allows him to raise money nationally and hired his 2014 campaign manager, Brad Komar, to run it. Since the PAC was formed in September, Komar has done 80 interviews with possible campaign staffers, the person said. Of t...
PHOENIX (AP) — In a windowless conference room, Republican Senate candidate Martha McSally was asking executives at a small crane manufacturing company how the GOP tax cut has helped their business when one woman said: "I want to ask you a question about health care." Marylea Evans recounted how, decades ago, her husband had been unable to get health insurance after developing cancer, forcing the couple to sell some of their Texas ranch to pay for his treatment. Now she was worried about Democratic ads saying McSally, currently a c...
EDMOND, Oklahoma (AP) — Vicki Toombs was watching the returns on election night 2016 when her phone buzzed — a text from her 22-year-old son Beau in Chicago. Beau, who is gay, was afraid that the new administration would end the Affordable Care Act and with it the insurance he and his friends used to pay for the drugs that protected them from HIV and AIDS. "I just felt the bottom drop out of my world," said Toombs, 61. She felt she'd failed her son, as if Donald Trump's election was somehow her fault. She had to do something. So, in one of the...
DENVER (AP) — Colorado's civic community is trying to find a way to save The Denver Post. The newspaper drew national attention two weeks ago with an editorial pleading for a sale. Its owners have slashed the staff deeply. The editorial warned that in a few years "The Denver Post will be rotting bones." The Post's owner is called Digital First Media. It is controlled by a New York-based Hedge Fund known as Alden Global Capital. It has made deep cuts in several newspapers across the country. The Post's editorial triggered sympathetic columns i...
Before the shooting had even stopped, teenagers hiding at their Florida high school were talking about gun control. Within days, they had launched a crusade against gun violence — one that will result in a nationwide series of protests Saturday. In taking up the fight, the students have joined forces with liberal organizations that have been pushing for years for tighter gun laws. That's led to criticism that the youngsters' cause is less spontaneous than it seems and that they are being used as pawns. Such suspicions infuriate the teenagers w...
DENVER (AP) — Denver Public Schools this week decided to reject charitable grants from the NRA, but there's another Denver-based organization that's eager for them -- the conservative Independence Institute. The libertarian-leaning Independence Institute is one of the top recipients of charitable NRA grants, according to an Associated Press analysis of the NRA Foundation's public tax records. The think tank received $241,000 from the foundation in 2016, the last year for which data is available. The institute reported receiving a total of $2 m...
DENVER (AP) — When President Donald Trump raised the idea of banning "bump stocks" and curbing young people's access to gun, gun owners and advocates who helped his political rise talked about disloyalty and desertion. Trump's flirtation with modest gun control measures drew swift condemnation from gun groups, hunters and sportsmen who banked on the president to be a stalwart opponent to any new restrictions. He's pledging to make schools safer and reduce gun violence after the Florida school shooting. But gun advocates see a weakening r...
GREENWOOD VILLAGE, Colo. (AP) — Grumbling and jeers met the request for a moment of silence for the 17 people killed last week in the Florida school shooting. "Let's do something for them!" one man yelled at the beginning of Republican Rep. Mike Coffman's town hall Tuesday night. Another participant cried out, "We're done with thoughts and prayers!" Coffman's swing district in the Denver suburbs is all too familiar with mass shootings. A few miles to the northeast of the high school that hosted Tuesday's town hall is the location of the A...
DENVER (AP) — In a Denver co-working space between a brewpub and a shop serving the Hawaiian raw fish salad called poke, independent candidates and possible contenders for U.S. Senate and governorships recently plotted how to pry loose Republicans' and Democrats' grip on U.S. politics. Terry Hayes, Maine's treasurer and a gubernatorial candidate, left the Democratic Party over its domination by teachers' unions. Craig O'Dear, a Kansas City lawyer exploring a challenge to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri, was active in the GOP but b...
The most contentious piece of President Donald Trump's new proposal to protect the so-called Dreamers has nothing to do with them. It's the plan's potential impact on legal immigration that sparked fierce Democratic opposition Friday and appeared to sink chances for a bipartisan deal in Congress. The proposal outlined Thursday by the White House would end much family-based immigration and the visa lottery program, moves that some experts estimate could cut legal immigration into the United States nearly in half. The plan would protect some...
NEW YORK (AP) — Shrugging off the prospect of a government shutdown, liberal activists are demanding that Democrats protect thousands of young immigrants from deportation, no matter what. The conflict comes to a head this week as the Republicans who control Congress scramble to get enough votes -- including some from Senate Democrats -- to avoid the partial shutdown. On Capitol Hill, Democrats are being urged to let the shutdown happen unless Republicans and President Donald Trump agree to restore a program that protects from deportation s...
DENVER (AP) — Colorado's top federal prosecutor said his office won't alter its approach to enforcing marijuana crimes after U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions withdrew a policy Thursday that allowed pot markets to emerge in states that legalized the drug. The statement by U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer came amid bipartisan outrage over Sessions' decision to end the so-called Cole memorandum, which sharply limited what charges prosecutors could pursue in legal pot states. He will allow federal prosecutors to decide how aggressively to enforce l...
DENVER (AP) — A watchdog arm of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said Thursday that the agency's Denver-area hospital violated policy by keeping improper wait lists to track veterans' mental health care. Investigators with the VA Office of Inspector General confirmed a whistleblower's claim that staff kept unauthorized lists instead of using the department's official wait list system. That made it impossible to know if veterans who needed referrals for group therapy and other mental health care were getting timely assistance, a...
Time has not healed the Democratic party's wounds. On Election Day 2016, Democrats suffered a devastating and shocking loss. A year later, they're still sorting through the wreckage. The infighting, the divisive personalities and the questions about how it happened are still front and center, threatening to hold the party back in elections on Tuesday and into next year's midterms. Hillary Clinton is on a tour promoting her book on last year's campaign, entitled "What Happened." The man she defeated in the party's presidential primaries, Bernie...
