Politics and Government

The Senate will debate a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 bill and aim to pass it using a process that avoids a Republican filibuster. A battle over efforts to raise the minimum wage still splits Democrats.

A more than 180-degree turn in the state’s finances will reshuffle debate over a new state budget. Here is a nuts-and-bolts look at the Minnesota Legislature for this week.

Taking the stage for the first time since leaving office, former President Donald Trump on Sunday called for Republican Party unity, even as he exacerbated intraparty divisions and trumpeted lies about the election.

The governor said he will ask New York's attorney general and the state's chief judge to pick an independent investigator to review allegations against him brought by two former aides.

The vice president touted how President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package would benefit Black Americans hit disproportionately hard by the coronavirus.

Some Capitol rioters are arguing in court they were following Trump's instructions on Jan. 6. But the legal strategy has already been shot down by at least one judge, and experts believe the argument is not likely to get anyone off the hook for the insurrection

The Democrats' goal is to have COVID-19 relief approved by mid-March, when extra unemployment assistance and other pandemic aid expires. The Senate, which Democrats control with a tie-breaking vote from the vice president, will consider the bill next.

The House approved a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill that was championed by President Joe Biden, the first step in providing another dose of aid to a weary nation as the measure now moves to a tense Senate.

Sicknick was injured while fending off the mob of Trump supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. He died the following evening from his injuries.

President Joe Biden is cautioning Iran against threatening U.S. troops in Iraq, saying his authorization of airstrikes against facilities in Syria used by Iran-backed militia groups was meant to signal to Iran that it “can't act with impunity.”