President Donald Trump’s controversial pick to lead the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is facing growing scrutiny over his past and qualifications.

Just one week after winning the 2024 presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team are moving quickly to fill key positions, and the pace has surprised political analysts.

Incumbent U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz is seeking re-election in District 6, which covers southern St. Johns County, Putnam and Flagler counties and residents of eastern Marion and northern Volusia counties. He faces one Republican primary challenger, John Grow. The winner will face Democrat James David Stockton III in the November general election. A write-in candidate also qualified for the general election.

A businessman who once pitched himself as someone who could expose corruption in the Trump Administration over its dealings in Ukraine is facing trial in New York City.

Maloney wrote that the Commerce Department — which oversees the Census Bureau — missed a Nov. 24 deadline to give the documents to the committee. Maloney threatened a subpoena if “a full and unredacted set” of the requested documents are not given to the committee by Dec. 9. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Census Bureau switched its deadline for wrapping up the once-a-decade head count of every U.S. resident from the end of July to the end of October. The Census Bureau already was facing a shortened schedule of two and a half months for processing the data collected during the 2020 census — about half the time originally planned. The bureau has not officially said what the anomalies were or publicly stated if there would be a new deadline for the apportionment numbers.

NEW YORK – Chinese-owned TikTok asked a judge to block the Trump Administration's attempt to ban its app, suggesting the video-sharing app's forced deal with Oracle and Walmart remains unsettled. An app-store ban of TikTok, delayed once by the government, is set to go into effect Sunday. President Donald Trump set this process in motion with executive orders in August that declared TikTok and another Chinese app threats to U.S. national security. But he also said he could retract his approval if Oracle doesn't “have total control.”The two sides in the TikTok deal appear at odds over the corporate structure of TikTok Global. ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent, said Monday that it will still own 80% of the U.S. entity after a financing round.

NEW YORK Video app TikTok said it will wage a legal fight against the Trump Administration's efforts to ban the popular, Chinese-owned service over national-security concerns. TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, insisted Monday that it is not a national-security threat and that the government is acting without evidence or due process. President Donald Trump has issued two executive orders in August, first a sweeping but unspecified ban on anytransaction with ByteDance, to take effect within 45 days. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have shared concerns about TikTok that ranged from its vulnerability to censorship and misinformation campaigns to the safety of user data and childrens privacy. But the administration has provided no specific evidence that TikTok has made U.S. users data available to the Chinese government.

Since 2000, more than 250 million votes have been cast via mailed out ballots, LWV of Florida President Patricia Brigham said Monday. It warned mail ballots were at the highest risk for fraud, but earlier this year Carter came out in support of expanding vote by mail in light of the pandemic. I know that there have been some very limited attempts at voter fraud here in Florida, but theyve been caught, Early said. But in Florida, voters have to request mail ballots to the address they have on file. Three weeks before Floridas Aug. 18 primary, the Florida Department of Elections reports that 3,144,285 vote-by-mail ballots have been requested and 686,464 completed ballots have been returned.

(CNN) - Leading e-cigarette company Juul Labs will stop selling several flavored products in the United States, the company announced Thursday. Only tobacco, mint and menthol flavors will remain for sale. This latest move comes after the Trump Administration announced the US Food and Drug Administration would issue guidance that would remove flavors from the market, including mint and menthol. It also comes amid efforts to ban the sale of flavored products in some states. Juul also recently announced it was suspending all broadcast, print and digital product advertising in the US.

But the tobacco giant is unlikely to give up on Juul anytime soon. (CNN) - Leading e-cigarette company Juul Labs will stop selling several flavored products in the United States, the company announced Thursday. Only tobacco, mint and menthol flavors will remain for sale. It also comes amid efforts to ban the sale of flavored products in some states. Juul also recently announced it was suspending all broadcast, print and digital product advertising in the US.