Orion Donovan Smith/Spokesman-Review

Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has to sign off on the spending bills that require bipartisan support to become law each year. That makes her arguably the most powerful Democrat in the federal government at a time when her party has precious little leverage in the nation’s capital.

WASHINGTON – Two years after his town lost funding to upgrade its aging water infrastructure, the mayor of Chewelah flew more than 2,000 miles to the nation's capital to ask members of Congress for another shot.

Two families of white South Africans whom President Donald Trump has designated as refugees arrived in the United States on Monday, en route to their new homes in southern Idaho.