News

Ugly ads, courtroom battles set stage for tense midterm elections

WASHINGTON — When the polls close Tuesday night, the 2026 U.S. election will go down as one of history’s most expensive and extraordinarily ugly midterms — galvanizing record-breaking early voter turnout among a deeply divided electorate. Voters on Saturday crossed the high-water mark of 52.7 million early votes cast, surpassing the midterm record set in 2022, though analysts were reluctant to translate it into a Democratic wave on the way. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice continued to run into a firewall of federal judges, losing its previous cases ...

Supreme Court rejects Trump administration push to set aside thousands of California ballots

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected the Trump administration's push to force California to set aside thousands of ballots from people the federal government claims are noncitizens, a decision that came hours before the final day of voting in the pivotal midterm elections. The high court refused to immediately intervene in a case involving 20,000 people the Republican administration flagged as likely noncitizens on the largely Democratic state's voter rolls. The swift rejection capped a string of losses for the president's effort to intervene in the election before the ...

‘Medically frail’ Medicaid enrollees won’t have to prove their inability to work

Medicaid recipients who are disabled or have a chronic illness will not have to prove they are unable to work to be exempted from new work requirements that take effect next year, a federal judge ruled Thursday. The decision by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston grants a partial victory to the 25 Democratic-led states that sued the Trump administration in June, arguing that its new “medically frail” designation was too narrow and would make it too difficult for ill and disabled people to remain on Medicaid, the joint federal-state health insurance program for people with ...

Early vote totals near 950 in Lyon Co.

MARSHALL — Voters in Lyon County continued to cast early ballots over the weekend and into Monday, Lyon County Auditor/Treasurer John Xiong said. On Monday, the total of early ballots received by the Auditor/Treasurer’s Office was at 948, Xiong said. By Monday, there were also a total of 2,379 absentee and mail-in ballots cast in Lyon County. This is the first year that Minnesota has had early voting, and the county Auditor/Treasurer’s Office had special hours on Saturday and Sunday to help accommodate voters. Xiong said there were a total of 36 voters who came to the Lyon ...

Spreading 'Halloween cheer'

MARSHALL — There were lots of ways to join in some Halloween fun over the weekend. On Saturday, crowds of families and kids in costume were headed downtown, visiting businesses along Main and Third Streets, and even some outdoor tables set up along the way. Eric Miller said he was ...

Halloween fun