Scott MacFarlane

Maryland’s congressional delegation will meet with Gov. Wes Moore and the director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget Tuesday to discuss emergency funding for Baltimore and its response to the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, multiple sources familiar with the planning told CBS News.The meeting will be held Tuesday at the U.S. Capitol and comes amid some internal disagreement among Maryland congressional leaders over the size and scope of what Congress should be asked to fund i…

In early March, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly looked at 23-year-old Clifford Mackrell, a Jan. 6 defendant from Ohio, and as she sentenced him to 27 months in prison for his role in the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack, she read a statement warning about the fragility of democracy.“We have an election coming,” Kollar-Kotelly said. “Unless democracy is protected, it will be destroyed.“Kollar-Kotelly didn’t raise her voice, but her words echoed off the floor-to-ceiling wooden walls in her cour…

U.S. Capitol Police found the razor nearby, but not the suspected attacker. Three young women who work for Rep. Mike Carey, an Ohio Republican, made a late afternoon three-block trek to a coffee shop on Capitol Hill in September, the congressman told a House panel this week. A man lunged at them with a razor and threatened to attack. The women were uninjured, but shaken by the incident, an office spokesperson said.The attempted assault is one of a recent series of attacks or crimes committed aga…

Standing next to the roaring fireplace in the lobby off the House floor, GOP Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska paused and then said of the effort to pass Ukraine funding in the House, “I think we’re playing a pretty good game of chess here.” But it’s unclear who makes the next move.Bacon and 14 House colleagues are attempting an unorthodox, novel and — critics say — a long-shot effort to force a vote to provide emergency financial aid to Ukraine. The bipartisan group of House members have signed a fo…

The people who erected the infamous gallows and noose on the west front of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, began their work in the predawn hours that day, according to newly released videos obtained by CBS News. A report by a GOP-led U.S. House subcommittee said the perpetrators remain unaccounted for by prosecutors. Surveillance footage shared with CBS News shows the brazenness of the work behind the gallows and noose, which have a history of racist and threatening overtones. On Jan. 6, then-Vic…

Federal agents have located a person of interest in over 100 swatting calls, which included calls targeting Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure and Security Agency Director Jen Easterly and other senior Biden administration officials, according to law enforcement officials.Officials say the person of interest lives in Serbia; charges have not yet been filed, but sources say they could be filed soon. The person of interest is alleged to have made phone c…

With the acclaimed film “Oppenheimer” winning big at the 2024 Oscars, earning awards in major categories such as best director, best actor and best picture, there’s a renewed focus on Capitol Hill on the generations of Americans affected by living near nuclear test sites.In July 1945, the Trinity test in south-central New Mexico marked the dawn of the nuclear age, a pivotal moment dramatized in “Oppenheimer.“Not far from the test site, in the desert community of Tularosa, lived the family of Tin…

Washington — Fueled by viral videos, the social media app TikTok offers a stage for millions. But soon, the curtain could be coming down on users like Kim Pham, who says she leans heavily on TikTok to lure customers for her noodle company.“It wouldn’t kill us tomorrow, but TikTok as a platform has represented a very kind of meaningful and new way that we reach consumers,” Pham said of a potential ban.For months, lawmakers have warned of national security concerns posed by TikTok’s ties to the Ch…

Besa Pinchotti was juggling tasks in her car, returning calls on her cellphone in between dentist visits for her children, when, after pausing for a moment, she said into her phone, “Military families are sick of feeling like political pawns.“She waited a beat and then emphasized the word “sick.“Pinchotti, the wife of a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, operates an email list of hundreds of thousands of military families from her post with the National Military Family Association, based in Virginia. Fo…

Washington — In a Republican presidential primary season that has seen former President Donald Trump and other GOP leaders refer to Jan. 6 defendants as “hostages” and openly promote conspiracy theories about the attack on the Capitol, one institution has been at the forefront of countering those baseless claims: the federal court in Washington, D.C.In a growing number of cases, judges in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia are using their platform to swat down conspiracy theori…

Washington — The House plans to vote next week on a standalone Israel aid bill Speaker Mike Johnson said in a letter to colleagues on Saturday, in which he describes a new plan to vote on its foreign aid.This is both a new initiative — and something of a retreat by House Republicans, who late last year approved a plan that provided billions in Israeli aid, but also cut money for the IRS. The earlier plan in November left out funding for Ukraine and other national security priorities. Johnson th…

Washington — A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday handed down a series of guilty verdicts in one of the first and highest-level prosecutions stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb found Ryan Samsel of Pennsylvania and four co-defendants — James Grant, Paul Johnson, Stephen Randolph and Jason Blythe — guilty on a range of charges related to the Capitol siege, including assaulting police. The five men were accused by federal prosecutors of lead…

Congress may have found at least one clear signal out of its partisan dead zone: cellphones. In a heated election year, in which a narrowly divided Congress is largely stalemated on most legislation and disrupted by heated rhetoric, fears about the impact of cellphones and social media on children have united political rivals. In rapid succession over the past few months, bipartisan groups of members of Congress have proposed legislation or amendments to curb, shift or study the impact of phones…

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago police officer and his sister, who were convicted for their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, avoided jail time on Wednesday as they were sentenced to home confinement and probation.Karol Chwiesiuk and his sister, Agnieszka, were convicted of misdemeanor charges, including entering or remaining in a restricted building, disruptive conduct in a restricted building, and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building.Federal prosecutors have said they were sp…

The room was especially chilly and filled with bright lights. And it was noisy. But Rep. Anna Paulina Luna’s baby boy was quiet, content and snuggled beneath a blanket in his black stroller, not far from mom.Luna, a Republican serving her first-term representing the Clearwater, Florida area, was staging a news conference, making a case to change House rules. Luna has proposed a true Congressional rarity: A bipartisan bill that unites some of the House’s most fiery Republican and Democratic flame…

More than a dozen public officials have been targeted by attempted “swatting attacks” in the weeks since Christmas, according to a review by CBS News. The calls have targeted judges overseeing cases against former President Donald Trump, politicians of both parties, a prosecutor, and even the White House — part of a growing and alarming number of swatting incidents nationwide.What is swatting?Swatting is a dangerous and illegal scheme in which people make false emergency calls in an attempt to…

Washington — Members of Congress, their staffers and one of the world’s most famous doctors, Dr. Anthony Fauci, sat for 14 hours over two days last week around a long conference table in a private office in the basement of the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center. They took breaks to munch on sandwiches, salads, cookies and chips. And the two main players shook hands at the very end.The marathon closed-door interview sessions with Fauci, who helped spearhead the federal government’s response to the COVID…

Washington — Former President Donald Trump’s controversial and provocative claim that Jan. 6 Capitol riot defendants are “hostages” has been echoed by some — but only some — of his Republican allies in Congress. In a series of interviews conducted by CBS News, Trump’s congressional supporters, including some who have endorsed his 2024 White House candidacy, largely declined to endorse Trump’s use of the word “hostages.” In campaign stump speeches over the past month, Trump has argued the defen…

Virginia Del. Don Scott Jr. made history Wednesday when he was sworn in as the state’s first Black speaker of the House of Delegates.The Portsmouth Democrat, who was first elected to the chamber in 2019 and unanimously chosen by his party for the speakership in November, was sworn in in Richmond on Wednesday, becoming the first Black speaker in the state’s history.“With the 2024 session now underway, I’m grateful for the trust that my colleagues have placed in me. Let’s meet this historic momen…

Marty Nohe, who owns a family-run appliance store and distribution center in Woodbridge, Virginia, said his employees have asked him “why business was so quiet.“He said, “I told them, ‘Haven’t you been watching the news?’” He says he watched customer traffic dwindle at least twice in 2023 during the weeks when Congress nearly breached deadlines to avoid government shutdowns. “There’s no question — even just the discussion of shutdowns causes a noticeable change in foot traffic. It hurts. I have…