First Run News

At the end of a video promoting Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s immigration policies, a disclaimer noted the advertisement’s funding source: an obscure anti-discrimination group called New Yorkers United Together. The fledgling group, which has financed only the one online video, claims it has no ties to any politician. Two of the group’s co-founders said in interviews that the governor had nothing to do with the ad, other than agreeing to appear in it alongside several celebrities. But a closer examination shows otherwise. All of the group’s co-founders are close friends of Mr. Cuomo’s.

COLORADO SPRINGS — Joining the Navy was one of the best decisions Alec Kerry said she had ever made. The other was coming out as transgender. “The Navy taught me how people can come together and work hard to achieve something bigger than themselves,” said Petty Officer Kerry, 24, who is training to operate nuclear reactors and soon plans to adopt the name Eva. “Strangely enough, I think what the Navy taught us about integrity was what gave me the courage to come out.

WASHINGTON — President Trump abruptly announced a ban on transgender people serving in the military on Wednesday, blindsiding his defense secretary and Republican congressional leaders with a snap decision that reversed a year-old policy reviled by social conservatives. Mr. Trump made the declaration on Twitter, saying that American forces could not afford the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members. He said he had consulted generals and military experts, but Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, was given only a day’s notice about the decision. Mr.

WASHINGTON — President Trump abruptly announced a ban on transgender people serving in the military on Wednesday, blindsiding his defense secretary and Republican congressional leaders with a snap decision that reversed a year-old policy reviled by social conservatives. Mr. Trump made the declaration on Twitter, saying that American forces could not afford the “tremendous medical costs and disruption” of transgender service members. He said he had consulted generals and military experts, but Jim Mattis, the defense secretary, was given only a day’s notice about the decision. Mr.

WASHINGTON — For a week, some of President Trump’s top aides have tried to talk him down from his public campaign against Attorney General Jeff Sessions. It was exposing tensions within the administration, stirring consternation with the conservative base and setting off a revolt among Senate Republicans incensed over the treatment of a former colleague. Among those urging Mr. Trump to spare Mr.

WASHINGTON — Lisa Murkowski had heard enough. As President Trump pressed her and her fellow Senate Republicans last week to fall in line behind a repeal of the Affordable Care Act in the interest of party loyalty and protecting the Republican brand, she felt compelled to speak up. “With all due respect, Mr. President,” she said, according to some of the people at the private White House lunch, “I didn’t come here to represent the Republican Party.

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday soundly rejected a measure that would repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act without providing a replacement, leaving Republicans still searching for a path forward to fulfill their promise of dismantling President Barack Obama’s signature health law. Seven Republican senators joined Democrats to vote against the measure, which had been embraced by conservatives but could have left millions of people without health coverage. The rejection of “clean repeal” laid bare the deep divisions within the Republican caucus about how best to proceed.

With the failure Wednesday afternoon of the 2015 House bill that would just repeal the Affordable Care Act, Congress’ two best chances to scrap Obamacare in one fell swoop dissipated before senators’ eyes. That amendment, which also contained a provision to delay the implementation of a repeal by two years to allow lawmakers to come up with a replacement system, failed 45-55, with seven Republicans joining their Democratic colleagues in opposition. The Senate will now continue voting on measures from both parties, with the Republican ones mostly geared toward scrapping individual aspects o

Current and former Jeff Sessions. The latest show of support came today from one of the nation’s top prosecutors, a veteran government attorney who’s been with the Justice Department for nearly two decades. Speaking with ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, U.S. Attorney Jill Rose of the Western District of North Carolina said Sessions “enjoys wide support” among federal prosecutors like her. “And ... in times like this, the men and the women of the Department of Justice continue to do our work.

President Jeff Sessions, among his earliest supporters and the first sitting senator to endorse him. But in the wake of Sessions recusing himself from the Russia investigation – a cloud that has hung over the Trump administration since its inception – that relationship started to fray. Recently, Trump has even rebuked Sessions publicly, indicating that he would have nominated someone else for attorney general had he known about the recusal and called him a “beleaguered A.G.” on Twitter. Despite offering to resign at one poi