Author

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include domestic policy and appropriations.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

PACT Act in one year aided 340,000 ailing veterans and survivors, Biden says

By: - August 10, 2023

WASHINGTON — One of the “most significant laws ever signed to help veterans” has already assisted over 340,000 former service members and their survivors seeking care for illnesses and cancers now presumed to be connected to open burn pits and other toxins, President Joe Biden said in Utah on Thursday as he marked one year […]

Veterans exposed to burn pits, toxins urged to apply for retroactive benefits

By: - August 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — A deadline for a year’s worth of backdated benefits is fast approaching for U.S. veterans suffering illnesses after exposure to open burn pits, Agent Orange and other toxins. Nearly a year ago, President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act, a law supporters describe as the largest expansion of veteran benefits in U.S. history. […]

Trump pleads not guilty to charges he sought to subvert 2020 election

By: and - August 3, 2023

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony charges Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after a federal grand jury handed up an indictment against the former chief executive. Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, was released under the conditions that he must not violate federal, […]

Congress, GOP presidential candidates react to Trump indictment

By: and - August 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — Members of Congress and Republicans competing against Donald Trump in the presidential primary quickly reacted Tuesday to the latest indictment against the former president, falling largely along party lines. This one, by a federal grand jury, stems from Trump’s alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election after Election Day and leading up to […]

‘Fueled by lies,’ Trump charged with seeking to overturn 2020 election

By: , and - August 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted Donald Trump on Tuesday, alleging that Trump and co-conspirators attempted to subvert the 2020 election to keep the former president in power through a series of illegal actions that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The former president faces four […]

Is there evidence of extraterrestrial life? Congress tries to figure it out

By: - July 26, 2023

WASHINGTON — During an otherworldly hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday, lawmakers and witnesses launched accusations that the Pentagon is stonewalling Congress and the public from information about unidentified anomalous phenomena, more often referred to as UFOs. That includes a 2014 encounter when a “dark gray or black cube inside a clear sphere” traveled within 50 […]

U.S. Senate votes to curb farmland purchases by China, Iran, North Korea, Russia

By: - July 25, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators approved bipartisan amendments to the annual defense policy bill Tuesday night that would prohibit China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing U.S. farmland and screen American investment in high-tech ventures on foreign adversary soil. By a 91-7 vote, the lawmakers approved a measure that would require review of — and […]

Tuberville hold on military nominees is ‘not only wrong–it is dangerous,’ Biden says

By: - July 21, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden directly criticized Sen. Tommy Tuberville Friday in a statement over the Alabama senator’s monthslong blockade of high-ranking military nominees in protest of the administration’s abortion policy for service members. “What Senator Tuberville is doing is not only wrong — it is dangerous,” Biden said in a statement. “In this moment […]

Ethics rules for Supreme Court justices approved on party-line vote by U.S. Senate panel?

By: - July 21, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Thursday approved a proposal to impose a code of ethics for the U.S. Supreme Court, amid revelations that justices failed to disclose luxury travel and real estate deals, as well as directing staff to promote book sales. The panel split along party lines, in an 11-10 […]

Israeli president tells Congress criticism of his country must not negate ‘right to exist’

By: - July 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — Israeli President Isaac Herzog, honoring Israel’s 75th year of independence, on Wednesday assured U.S. lawmakers that his nation “has democracy in its DNA,” even as tensions grow over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s increasingly extreme agenda to overhaul Israel’s judicial system and ramp up construction of settlements in the West Bank. Herzog’s remarks to […]

Family pleads for U.S. teacher imprisoned in Russia: ‘We’re not forgetting my brother’

By: - July 17, 2023

WASHINGTON — Days after meeting with high-level White House officials, the family of an American teacher imprisoned in Russia walked the halls of the U.S. Capitol complex Thursday, pleading with U.S. leaders to remember that Marc Fogel is staring down a 14-year sentence in a penal colony on a marijuana charge. Fogel, 61, an international […]

Tuberville concedes ‘white nationalists are racists’ but hangs on to holds on military nominees

By: - July 11, 2023

WASHINGTON — As U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama continues his blockade of hundreds of military promotions, he again entered the spotlight Tuesday for his comments that seemingly excused white nationalism. Just before 2 p.m. Eastern, the Alabama senator told Capitol Hill reporters that “white nationalists are racist,” according to pool audio, when asked to […]