First Run News

WASHINGTON — President Trump’s short list of candidates for Federal Reserve chairman all have this much in common: They do not share his frequently professed passion for financial deregulation. Jerome H. Powell, the Fed governor whose candidacy is said to be backed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, participated in the construction of the current rules, and he has defended the bulk of the changes made after the 2008 financial crisis as necessary safeguards for the broader economy. In an appearance in June before the Senate Banking Committee, Mr. Powell described Mr.

BAGHDAD — The man who led an independence push for the Kurdish region of Iraq for more than a decade announced on Sunday that he would quit as president.

Over 500 female artists, writers, curators and directors have signed an open letter condemning the publisher of Artforum, Knight Landesman, and pledging to fight against sexism and sexual harassment in the art world. “We have been groped, undermined, harassed, infantilized, scorned, threatened, and intimidated by those in positions of power who control access to resources and opportunities,” the letter reads.

In late September, just as multiple women were days away from going on the record with reports of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct, one of his alleged assault victims, Rose McGowan, considered an offer that suggested just how desperate the Hollywood producer had become. Ms. McGowan, who was working on a memoir called “Brave,” had spoken privately over the years about a 1997 hotel room encounter with Mr. Weinstein and hinted at it publicly. Through her lawyer, she said, someone close to Mr.

SACRAMENTO — There were the demeaning personal chores she said her boss assigned her, like buying a shower curtain and blankets. And there was the time that he appeared at the door of his apartment with his pants open, she said, exposing himself to her when she went to pick him up for a vote. Nancy Kathleen Finnigan had a long list of grievances from her time working for Steve Fox, at the time a State Assembly member from near Los Angeles. But when Ms. Finnigan, a legislative director, took her complaints to the staff of the Assembly Rules Committee, she felt like the one on trial.

SACRAMENTO — There were the demeaning personal chores she said her boss assigned her, like buying a shower curtain and blankets. And there was the time that he appeared at the door of his apartment with his pants open, she said, exposing himself to her when she went to pick him up for a vote. Nancy Kathleen Finnigan had a long list of grievances from her time working for Steve Fox, at the time a State Assembly member from near Los Angeles. But when Ms. Finnigan, a legislative director, took her complaints to the staff of the Assembly Rules Committee, she felt like the one on trial.

Facing withering criticism from members of Congress and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the governor of Puerto Rico moved on Sunday to cancel a $300 million contract awarded to a small Montana company to rebuild part of the island’s battered power grid. While government officials in Washington and San Juan have argued over how a company from Whitefish, Mont., with connections to the secretary of the interior but only two full-time employees secured an emergency con

WASHINGTON — Republicans will pitch their tax bill this week as a gift to the middle class, but Democrats will call it a Trojan horse: a windfall for big business and the rich dressed as a tax cut for workers. The tensions over who will benefit from the sweeping tax rewrite were on display during an hourlong meeting last week between President Trump and Senate Finance Committee members. Democrats who attended, including many whose states Mr. Trump won, said the president agreed with every point raised on the subject of tax cuts for the middle class.

When the benefits adviser Ted Benna first thought up a new type of employee savings plan in 1980, the client he created it for rejected the idea as too risky. After all, no one had previously used the unremarkable section of the tax code called 401(k) to defer paying taxes on money that rank-and-file workers set aside for retirement. So Mr. Benna decided to try it out at his own workplace, Johnson Companies, a small consulting firm outside Philadelphia. Without intending to, Mr. Benna set off a revolution.

WASHINGTON — Senator Jeff Flake’s decision to abandon his 2018 re-election campaign in Arizona has thrown open the Senate race there, exposing deep fissures not only on the Republican side where a nationalist insurgency is gunning for the party establishment but also among Democrats contending with a rising left. Establishment Democrats have high hopes for Representative Kyrsten Sinema, a centrist who recently dined in the Blue Room of the White House with President Trump, teaches a bipartisan spin class in th