First Run News

WASHINGTON — After a halting start, the Republican-controlled 115th Congress — sometimes in collaboration with President Trump, often despite him — has enacted surprisingly far-reaching conservative achievements in its first year, among them a long-promised rewrite of the tax code, oil drilling in the Arctic and a series of lifetime appointments to the judiciary. For the new year, Republican leaders in the House have their sights on decades-old programs for the poor that they say are too easily exploited by those who do not need them. Mr.

WASHINGTON — Representative Pete Sessions, a veteran Republican, was re-elected to his affluent Dallas-area House seat in 2016 with 71 percent of the vote, the remaining 29 percent split between the Libertarian and Green Party candidates. Hillary Clinton won the district by three percentage points, but no Democratic candidate even showed up to ride her coattails. In 2018, there will be 10. Federal Election Commission filings show that if a wave crashes on the Republican House majority in November,

KHOGYANI, Afghanistan — When the American military dropped the largest bomb in its arsenal on an Islamic State cave complex here in eastern Afghanistan in April, the generals justified it as part of a robust campaign to destroy the group’s local affiliate by year’s end. Its force had been reduced to 700 fighters from 3,000, they said, and its area of operation diminished to three districts from 11. But as the year comes to a close, the Islamic State is far from being vanquished in eastern Afgh

President Donald Trump is celebrating Christmas the way millions of Americans do: surrounded by family, the White House said. But unlike most Americans, he released a brief video in which his wife, Melania, joined him to "wish America and the entire world a very Merry Christmas." The first lady says that at this time of year "we see the best of America and the soul of the American people" in children packing boxes to help brighten Christmas for service members and communities coming together to help one another. "In this sea

The U.S. Secret Service says it has interviewed someone claiming responsibility for delivering a gift-wrapped package of horse manure addressed to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin (mih-NOO'-shin). The box was found Saturday at the home of Mnuchin's neighbor in the wealthy Bel Air neighborhood in Los Angeles. The LAPD bomb squad responded to the package, which police say was marked as being from "the American people." Secret Service spokesman Cody Starken said Monday that the agency was contacted by Los Angeles police and interviewed a person who claimed responsibility.

Democrats eager to take control of the Senate next year are turning to the state of Tennessee, where a popular Democratic former governor is running for the seat being vacated by the retirement of Republican Sen. Bob Corker. Neither of Tennessee's two top GOP candidates, Rep. Marsha Blackburn and former Rep. Stephen Fincher, has the kind of personal baggage Republican Roy Moore had in the Alabama race won by a Democrat.

With yet another touchdown reversal by officiating chief Al Riveron, the only thing that's "clear and obvious" anymore is the owners' decision to grant full replay authority to NFL headquarters has only added to the league's cluster of headaches. To the player protests, president's put-downs, receded ratings and sidelined superstars add the unrelenting second-guessing the league has invited with its frame-by-frame micromanagement of the on-field officiating in 2017. After Jets tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins lost two TDs and Bears tight end Zach Miller another this season, the latest examp

The Trump family seems to be feeling the festive spirit of the Christmas season down in Florida. First lady Christmas Eve service at the Palm Beach church where they were married and were greeted by applause. Guests at Mar-a-Lago had a wide array of food options for their Christmas Eve dinner, including turkey, beef tenderloin, cornbread, creamy kale, popovers, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, various local vegetable dishes, a seafood display including

DATA: Twitter Daniel McLaughlin / Globe Staff © 2017 Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC

For pols who shunned Donald Trump’s candidacy, 2017 has been an annus horribilis. Except, of course, for Governor Baker.   Some Boston residents received a poll in recent days asking questions about a hypothetical matchup between Ayanna Pressley and Michael Capuano.  capital source The endorsement comes at a critical time for candidate Jay Gonzalez.  One of the City Council’s most high-profile acts of the year still sits in the hands of Mayor Martin Walsh.  capital source Wednesday’s meeting was the council’s last of the year, before a new council is sworn in on Jan. 1.