
Democrat Phil Murphy locked in tight New Jersey governor's race
CNN
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is locked in a closer-than-expected race that remains too close to call as he tries to become the first Democratic governor in more than four decades to win reelection in the Garden State.
Like Virginia -- where Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin won Tuesday night -- New Jersey has trended reliably blue in federal and local contests but has a history of voting in the party out of the White House in its off-year gubernatorial races.
On top of their loss in Virginia, the close race in the Garden State -- where President Joe Biden also won by double digits in 2020 -- is a warning sign to Democrats looking to maintain their congressional majorities in next year's midterms.

The Trump administration’s sweeping legal effort to obtain Americans’ sensitive data from states’ voter rolls is now almost entirely reliant upon a Jim Crow-era civil rights law passed to protect Black voters from disenfranchisement – a notable shift in how the administration is pressing its demands.

White House officials are heaping blame on DC US Attorney Jeanine Pirro over her office’s criminal investigation into Fed Chair Jerome Powell, faulting her for blindsiding them with an inquiry that has forced the administration into a dayslong damage control campaign, four people familiar with the matter told CNN.

The aircraft used in the US military’s first strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean, a strike which has drawn intense scrutiny and resulted in numerous Congressional briefings, was painted as a civilian aircraft and was part of a closely guarded classified program, sources familiar with the program told CNN. Its use “immediately drew scrutiny and real concerns” from lawmakers, one of the sources familiar said, and legislators began asking questions about the aircraft during briefings in September.

DOJ pleads with lawyers to get through ‘grind’ of Epstein files as criticism of redactions continues
“It is a grind,” the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division said in an email. “While we certainly encourage aggressive overachievers, we need reviewers to hit the 1,000-page mark each day.”

A new classified legal opinion produced by the Justice Department argues that President Donald Trump was not limited by domestic law when approving the US operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro because of his constitutional authority as commander-in-chief and that he is not constrained by international law when it comes to carrying out law enforcement operations overseas, according to sources who have read the memo.








