Roughly 11 months have passed since former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic ouster in October 2023. Now, his successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is navigating the same fraught political web on government funding that amounted to one of McCarthy’s “final struggles” – but it is not yet clear that he will meet the same fate. House Republicans are huddling for a conference-wide call on Wednesday, when Johnson...

The California state legislature passed a Democrat-led bill last week that, if signed by the state’s governor, would ban private colleges from admitting preferred applicants who are related to alumni, employees or donors. The bill, AB 1780, passed the Assembly unanimously and also cleared the Senate, with just five Republicans voting against it. It now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for approval.  According to the bill’s Democratic...