Here’s a question submitted by an Associated Press reader: Is it legal to fire furloughed federal workers during a shutdown.

Senate Republicans have barely defeated an effort by Democrats to insert language into Congress’ annual defense authorization bill that would have forced the public release of case files on the sex trafficking investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein.

Voters in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington will choose a replacement Tuesday for the late Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, who died in May after battling cancer.

Democrats and Republicans in northern Virginia have chosen candidates who will vie to replace the late U.S. Rep. Gerry Connolly.