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.

amily members hold up images of late loved ones at a ceremony where U.S. President Joe Biden signed the PACT Act in the East Room of the White House on Aug. 10, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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

By: - August 14, 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 […]

Former President Donald Trump boards his plane at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, following an arraignment in Washington, D.C. federal court on August 3, 2023. Trump pleaded not guilty to four felony criminal charges during his arraignment this afternoon after being indicted for his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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 Thursday to four felony charges in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., after a federal grand jury handed up an indictment against the former chief executive related to the 2020 election. Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, was released under the conditions that […]

Former U.S. President Donald Trump waves as he makes a visit to the Cuban restaurant Versailles after he appeared for his arraignment on June 13, 2023 in Miami, Florida. Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 federal charges including possession of national security documents after leaving office, obstruction, and making false statements. (Photo by Alon Skuy/Getty Images)

‘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 […]

The Biden administration has officially designated illicit fentanyl adulterated with xylazine as an “emerging drug threat.” Shown are bags of heroin, some laced with fentanyl, on display before a press conference on a major drug bust, at the office of the New York Attorney General, Sept. 23, 2016 in New York City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

White House rolls out strategy to battle deadly drug mixture of fentanyl and xylazine

By: - July 12, 2023

WASHINGTON — The White House is unveiling a plan to combat the growing threat of drug overdose deaths involving the combination of illicitly manufactured fentanyl and the powerful sedative xylazine, approved only for veterinary use. The plan comes ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’s meeting with state attorneys general next week to discuss the staggering […]

Protestors near the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., after a ruling by the court striking down the use of affirmative action in college acceptance decisions, on Thursday, June 29, 2023. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

‘This is not a normal court,’ says Biden as GOP opponents praise affirmative action ruling

By: - June 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively scrambles the role affirmative action plays in the college admissions process cannot let the country slide “backwards,” President Joe Biden said just hours after the majority justices released their opinion. Meanwhile, Republicans seeking to challenge him in 2024 praised the decision. Issues of race and higher […]

An aerial shot of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. (Getty Images).

US Supreme Court strikes down use of affirmative action in college admissions

By: and - June 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that two prominent universities’ consideration of race in acceptances violated the U.S. Constitution, effectively reshaping the role of affirmative action in the college admissions process throughout higher education. In a 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, wrote that the admissions processes at […]

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, an Alabama Republican, speaks during a hearing before Senate Armed Services Committee on Sept. 28, 2021 on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Swelling crowd of top military nominees blocked from U.S. Senate vote by Tuberville 

By: - June 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — Despite top U.S. military retirements beginning in less than a month, Sen. Tommy Tuberville refuses to budge on his blockade of hundreds of armed services promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s reproductive care policy instituted after the reversal of Roe v. Wade. The first-term Alabama Republican is provoking concern among his own party […]

Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Virginia Thomas while he waits to speak at the Heritage Foundation on October 21, 2021, in Washington, DC. The U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and its subcommittees held hearings this year after revelations about Thomas’ luxury travel and real estate transactions with a GOP donor. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Tougher ethics rules for U.S. Supreme Court justices advocated in Senate hearing

By: - June 15, 2023

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats for the third time this year made their case that U.S. Supreme Court justices must follow stronger ethics rules, including recusing themselves from cases where they have a financial stake or other connection to a case. The series of hearings by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and its subcommittees came […]

Members of the Proud Boys, a white nationalist hate group, at an anti-transgender rally in Nashville in Sept. 2022. (Photo: John Partipilo)

Hate groups’ political influence growing, watchdog says

By: - June 8, 2023

WASHINGTON — More than 1,200 hate and anti-government extremist groups were active across the United States in 2022, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center’s latest report on the nationwide prevalence of extremists who target people of color, LGBTQ people, Jewish communities and other religious minorities. While the overall number of hate and anti-government groups […]

HIROSHIMA, JAPAN - MAY 21: US President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference following the Group of Seven (G-7) leaders summit on May 21, 2023 in Hiroshima, Japan. (Kiyoshi Ota-Pool/Getty Images)

Progressives try to persuade Biden to use the 14th Amendment to resolve debt crisis 

By: - May 23, 2023

WASHINGTON — Progressives are pushing hard for President Joe Biden to take the unprecedented step of invoking the 14th Amendment as a way to avoid financial calamity if the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy do not strike a deal on the debt ceiling in the coming days. The lawmakers and legal scholars argue […]

U.S. House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, left, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speak to reporters outside the White House following a meeting on the debt limit with President Joe Biden. May 22, 2023. Ashley Murray/States Newsroom.

Biden and McCarthy strike positive tone after debt limit talks, but no deal yet

By: and - May 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy left their closely watched meeting Monday without an agreement on government spending or the debt limit, prolonging a stalemate that could soon disrupt Americans’ everyday lives as well as the global economy. Both struck a positive tone Monday, though neither divulged details about what remains unresolved […]

(Photo: Marissa Demarco, Source NM)

A default on the U.S. debt would be far worse than a government shutdown. Here’s how.

By: , , and - May 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — A U.S. default on its debt would have a significantly broader impact on federal operations, financial markets and the global economy than recent government shutdowns that have left ordinary Americans largely untouched. While the two have been confused frequently during debate over the debt limit, the federal government has had considerable practice with […]