A woman told police that she was sexually assaulted in 2017 by Pete Hegseth after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave.

House Speaker Mike Johnson declared that lawmakers and staff will have to use the restroom corresponding with their biological sex.

Demand Justice, a progressive organization focused on the judiciary, is set to bombard Capitol Hill with a message for the closing weeks of the 118th Congress: Do “whatever it takes” to confirm President Joe Biden’s nominees as a second Donald Trump presidency looms.

A Federal Reserve official has given a lengthy defense of the central bank's political independence.

Republican Rep. David Schweikert has won reelection to a U.S. House seat representing Arizona.

U.S. officials say the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division is looking into allegations that the four-star general who heads U.S. Central Command shoved a member of his air crew during a trip overseas.

A federal rule banning fake online reviews is now in effect.

The Federal Trade Commission has adopted a rule that will require businesses to make it easy for consumers to cancel unwanted subscriptions and memberships.

House Republicans have voted to condemn President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

More than a decade after retiring from football, Brett Favre says he has Parkinson’s disease.

As the U.S. Postal Service faces delivery slowdowns, U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Democrat from Georgia, has proposed legislation to impose stricter oversight on who leads the agency.

A new report says former University of Florida president Ben Sasse spent over $1.3 million on private catering for lavish dinners, football tailgates and extravagant social functions.

New Mexico’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against the company behind Snapchat.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel says Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro broke the law by publicly endorsing the reelection of President Joe Biden and criticizing former President Donald Trump in several statements he made while on official duty overseas.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says senior Biden administration officials pressured Facebook to “censor” some COVID-19 content during the pandemic.

A trial is scheduled to start in June 2025 for a California man charged with trying to assassinate Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at his home in a suburb of Washington, D.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will have a book out next winter that draws in part upon his own life and religion for what he calls a “warning” about antisemitism.

A transgender woman’s use of the women’s locker room at a suburban St. Louis gym is prompting protests and calls for an investigation.

New Treasury rulemaking would expand the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’ jurisdiction to review land sales near 56 additional military sites, bringing the overall number to 227.

The Biden administration says it's providing $504 million in implementation grants for a dozen technology hubs in Ohio, Montana, Nevada and Florida, among other locations.

Many states are failing to track how frequently children in foster care facilities are abused, sexually assaulted or improperly restrained, leaving them vulnerable to mistreatment.

Two former U.S. Olympic gold medalists say they've lost faith in the World Anti-Doping Agency to rid their sports of cheaters ahead of next month’s Summer Games in Paris.

The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the state’s longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities.

U.S., Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced new sanctions against members of La Nueva Familia Michoacana drug cartel, a notoriously violent group that wars for territorial control with a slate of other Mexican cartels.

The Congressional Budget Office says it projects this year’s federal budget deficit to be $400 billion higher, a 27% increase compared to its original estimate released in February.

The U.S. government’s top hostage negotiator is defending prisoner swaps that free Americans wrongfully detained by foreign countries in exchange for the release of convicted criminals.

U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert's ex-husband pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment Wednesday after separate altercations with his ex-wife at a local restaurant and their son at a home earlier this year.

Senators criticized top federal officials over the rise of illegal electronic cigarettes in the U.S., a multibillion-dollar business that has flourished in recent years.

Eight individuals from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State group have been arrested in the United States in recent days.

A group of House Democrats is warning about the far-right Project 2025 agenda for a second Trump White House.

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman was treated at a hospital for a bruised shoulder after a car accident Sunday morning, according to a statement from his Senate office.

The Supreme Court has agreed to consider shutting down a multibillion-dollar class action investors’ lawsuit against Facebook parent Meta stemming from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm.

Republican Vince Fong of California has been sworn into Congress after winning a special election to complete the remainder of the term of deposed former U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

Longtime U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee says she has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and is undergoing treatment.

The Supreme Court has given homeowners another chance to force Bank of America and other large banks to pay interest on mortgage escrow accounts.

The Biden administration has, as expected, announced an additional $275 million in military aid for Ukraine as Kyiv struggles to hold off advances by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region.

Sen. Cory Booker says prisoners should be learning professional skills that help prepare them for their release instead of being forced to work.

The Supreme Court has declined, for now, to hear a challenge to a Maryland law banning certain semi-automatic firearms commonly referred to as assault weapons.

Investigators say the electrical blackouts experienced by the container ship Dali before it left Baltimore’s port were “mechanically distinct from” those that resulted in the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge hours later.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the central bank is unlikely to raise its key interest rate in response to signs of stubborn inflation and underscored his view that price increases would soon start to cool again.

Connecticut Democrats have unanimously endorsed U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy for a third term.

House Republicans are moving forward with holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt of Congress.

The go-broke dates for benefit programs Medicare and Social Security have been pushed back as an improving economy has contributed to changed projected depletion dates, according to the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report.

The U.S. military plans to return to Chad within a month for talks about revising an agreement that allows it to keep troops based there.

A top U.S. military official says there's been no final decision on whether or not all U.S. troops will leave Niger and Chad.

The Supreme Court is wrestling with major questions about the growing issue of homelessness as it considers whether cities can ban people from sleeping outside when shelter space is lacking.

A federal judge has agreed to delay the start of New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez's bribery trial by a week after lawyers said extra days would aid trial preparation.

Iran’s attack against Israel over the weekend has spurred bipartisan legislative action in Congress and sanctions from the Biden administration.

Pentagon leaders are telling Congress that Ukraine and Israel both desperately need the military weapons that are being held up by Congress’ failure to pass a funding package.

Attorney General Merrick Garland has told lawmakers President Joe Biden has shown no signs of cognitive impairment while defending Biden's ability to serve as commander in chief.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has spoken with China’s national defense minister in the latest in a series of U.S. steps to improve communications with the Chinese military and reduce unsafe and aggressive incidents in the Indo-Pacific.

The State Department has greenlighted an emergency $138 million in foreign military sales for Ukraine to provide critical support and repairs for Kyiv's Hawk missile systems.

Two lawmakers from opposing parties are floating a new plan to protect the privacy of Americans' personal data.

House Republicans have filed a lawsuit seeking to force two Justice Department lawyers to testify about the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden as part of the chamber’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.

New bipartisan legislation introduced in the House would require the identification and labeling of online content generated using artificial intelligence.

Republicans are dismissing an immigration-related bill pushed by Democratic senators and allied independents as an election year ploy.

A proposed rewrite of the law governing the Olympics in the United States calls on public funding for the embattled U.S. Center for SafeSport while also forming a new government office to oversee grassroots sports that have long been attached to the Olympics themselves.

Hunter Biden has rejected an invitation from House Republicans to appear for a public hearing next week alongside former business associates.

A sweeping bank regulatory proposal will be significantly revised by year’s end, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday, a potential victory for the large banks that have aggressively opposed the likely changes.

The Environmental Protection Agency says 25 toxic waste sites in 15 states will be cleaned up as part of a $1 billion infusion to the federal Superfund program.

The Biden administration is sending the nation’s top health official to meet with patients and doctors in Alabama on Tuesday to discuss a controversial court ruling that upended in vitro fertilization treatment in the state.

For the third time in five years, senators will be sworn in as jurors for an impeachment trial.

Some of the U.S. Congress' staunchest critics of China are visiting Taiwan in a show of support that's certain to draw scrutiny from Beijing, which views such interactions as a challenge to its claim of sovereignty over the island.

Authorities have launched an investigation after a north Louisiana church attended by House Speaker Mike Johnson received mail containing a white powder.

The Biden administration wants to make residential real estate transactions more transparent — by unmasking the owners of all-cash purchases as part of its ongoing effort to combat money laundering and the movement of dirty money through the American financial system.

Senators have confirmed a veteran of U.S.-Asian engagement and security as the State Department’s second-ranking diplomat.

Seattle has agreed to pay $10 million to 50 demonstrators who sued over the police department's heavy-handed response to racial justice protests in 2020.

A bill to create a bipartisan commission that would tackle the nation’s soaring debt and make policy recommendations to Congress has won approval from a House committee.

A federal appeals panel says a Missouri lawsuit accusing China of hoarding masks and other protective gear during the COVID-19 pandemic can move forward.

The White House says that President Joe Biden has renominated Julie Su to serve as labor secretary, whose confirmation languished in the Senate for more than 10 months.

Federal prosecutors say a judge should reject U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez's request to delay his bribery trial by two months.

In a story published December 15, 2023, about an attorney for former President Donald Trump, The Associated Press erroneously reported comments attributed to an email written by attorney Ken Chesebro.

Local officials say Ukraine has came under heavy attack from the air and from cyberspace.

The heads of Wall Street’s biggest banks used an appearance on Capitol Hill to plead with senators to stop the Biden administration’s proposed changes to how banks are regulated, warning that the proposals could negatively impact the economy at a time of geopolitical turmoil and inflation.

Sen. Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, was choking on food during a luncheon when fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky performed the Heimlich maneuver on her.

Austan Goolsbee, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, suggested that the economy appears to be on what he calls the “golden path,” another term for what economists often term a “soft landing,” in which the Fed would curb inflation without causing a deep recession.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to take steps to protect Palestinians in the United States as the Israel-Hamas war continues.

House censures Rep. Rashida Tlaib over her rhetoric about Israel, rebuking the only Palestinian American in Congress.

JPMorgan Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon and his family are planning to sell 1 million shares of the bank starting next year, according to a regulatory filing.

Democratic U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes of Maryland will not seek reelection in 2024, choosing to depart his seat after 18 years.

The Federal Aviation Administration finally has a Senate-confirmed leader.

The No Labels Party of Arizona has filed a lawsuit seeking to block people from running for offices other than president using its newly approved 2024 ballot line.

More than 300 people were arrested for illegally demonstrating and three people were charged with assaulting police after protesters descended on Capitol Hill to call for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

Beijing has vigorously protested the U.S. Commerce Department's latest update of export controls to prevent exports to China of advanced computer chips and the equipment to make them.

The Commerce Department has updated and broadened its export controls to stop China from acquiring advanced computer chips and the equipment to manufacture them.

JPMorgan Chase’s third-quarter profit soared 35% from last year, fueled by a rapid rise in interest rates, but the bank’s CEO, Jamie Dimon, issued a sobering statement about the current state of world affairs and economic instability.

NCAA President Charlie Baker is expected to testify in front of a Senate committee next week during the 10th hearing on Capitol Hill over the last three years on college sports.

Watch Flashpoint every Sunday at 10 a.m. on Local 4 News and Local 4+.

The recent collapse of Ukraine aid in Congress was months in the making.

The future of additional U.S. aid to Ukraine is in doubt now that Kevin McCarthy has been ousted as House speaker.

The stunning removal of Rep. Kevin McCarthy as speaker has left the House adrift.

The Supreme Court seems likely to preserve the work of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau against a conservative-led challenge.

Ukraine has hosted an international defense industry conference as part of a government effort to ramp up weapons production within the country to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The Biden administration is moving to make it easier for caregivers to take in family members in the foster care system, requiring states to provide them with the same financial support that any other foster home would receive.

Accusations that New Mexico’s Democratic-led Legislature unfairly diluted the vote of a politically conservative oil-producing region with its redistricting map have gone to trial.

There's a broadcast television network offering plenty of original programming this fall, although it often flies under the radar.

The influential abortion-rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America has changed its name to Reproductive Freedom for All.

The chairman of a Senate investigations subcommittee is subpoenaing Saudi officials for documents on the kingdom’s new golf partnership with the PGA Tour.

Surveillance video shows U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and another guest being kicked out of a “Beetlejuice” musical play in Denver on Sunday.

The California professor who testified that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh had assaulted her while they were in high school has written a memoir.