SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Federal Election Commission has fined the campaign fund of a former Illinois congressman $43,475 for failing to refund excess contributions in a timely manner.

A letter from the FEC this month reports the fine against Republican Rodney Davis’ campaign committee, Rodney for Congress, and its treasurer, Thomas Charles Datwyler.

The violations occurred during the 2021-2022 election cycle. Federal campaign finance law prohibits contributions of more than $2,900 per cycle from an individual or single-candidate political committee and $5,000 per election from a multicandidate committee. Excess contributions must be refunded or redesignated within 60 days.

In a negotiated settlement with Davis’ committee and Datwyler, the FEC found that one contribution of $3,625 and general election contributions of $479,784 were not properly redistributed within 60 days, resulting in the fine. Davis was not eligible for the larger amount because he was not on the 2022 general election ballot.

A call to a telephone number associated with Davis went unanswered. A phone message was left for Datwyler.

The FEC noted that the committee disclosed refunds of excessive contributions on quarterly and year-end reports for 2022 and in January 2024 filed paperwork disclosing the refunds that were part of the negotiated settlement.

Davis, a 54-year-old Taylorville resident, served five terms in Congress. After the 2020 congressional redistricting controlled by Democrats in the Illinois General Assembly, Davis was pushed into a district with conservative Republican Mary Miller, who beat Davis in the 2022 GOP primary with more than 57% of the vote.

Davis’ committee told the FEC it would dissolve upon resolving the matter. The fine is payable by July 18.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — San Francisco has earned an unwelcome national reputation for car burglaries that U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff was reminded of the hard way: The Democratic congressman had his luggage swiped from his car while it was parked in a downtown garage.

With his formal clothing gone, Schiff ended up at a fundraising dinner Thursday for his U.S. Senate campaign dressed like he was headed to a Los Angeles Dodgers game — in shirt sleeves and an insulated vest. Others who attended the event were mostly decked out in suit jackets and ties.

Schiff’s campaign confirmed the burglary and declined further comment, citing an ongoing investigation.

“Yes, they took my bags,” the congressman lamented to the San Francisco Chronicle, adding that he didn’t want to dwell on his firsthand experience as a crime victim.

Statistically, reported auto break-ins are down in San Francisco, but vehicles with busted windows and sprinkles of broken glass remain a common sight in the city. Visitors and residents are constantly reminded to remove valuables from parked cars.

It was advice Schiff neglected to follow.

In August, the city’s police chief announced a crackdown on fighting auto smash-and-grabs. The San Francisco Police Department reported nearly 900 break-ins in February, down from 1,850 in July. There were more than 3,000 reported thefts in September 2022.

Schiff, a former federal prosecutor, rose to national prominence as the lead prosecutor in then-President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. Schiff says on his campaign website that he is “committed to reforming our broken criminal justice system and keeping California families and communities safe.”

Schiff was the target of plenty of social media snark following the crime: “Democrats have nobody to blame but themselves,” one user wrote on the social platform X.

The burglary involving a prominent member of Congress recalled the July 2021 robbery and assault of former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer in nearby Oakland, another San Francisco Bay Area city that has struggled with crime rates. She was pushed by an assailant and had her cell phone stolen, but was not seriously injured.

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Blood reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writer Janie Har in San Francisco contributed.

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Former Rep. Peter Meijer withdrew his name from the U.S. Senate race in Michigan on Friday, ending a longshot bid to become the Republican nominee and return to Congress after being ousted by voters for supporting an effort to impeach then-President Donald Trump.

Meijer announced his candidacy in November and contended for the Republican nomination against former U.S. Reps. Mike Rogers and Justin Amash, in addition to wealthy businessman Sandy Pensler.

Meijer met an April 23 deadline to turn in petition signatures to get his name on the ballot for the August primary but withdrew from the race on Friday, a Michigan Secretary of State spokesperson confirmed to The Associated Press. Meijer’s name will not be on the ballot since he met a 4 p.m. deadline Friday to withdraw from the race.

“The hard reality is the fundamentals of the race have changed significantly since we launched this campaign. After prayerful consideration, today I withdrew my name from the primary ballot,” Meijer said in a statement.

Although many believed that Meijer had the potential to be competitive in a general election, his vote to impeach Trump undermined his bid to be competitive in a primary in a state that supported Trump in 2016. Trump has endorsed Rogers in the race.

Meijer, who is from Grand Rapids, is an heir to a Midwestern grocery store empire and a former U.S. Army Reserve officer who served in Iraq. He was seen as part of the next generation of Republican leaders when he was elected to the U.S. House in 2020 at only 32 years old.

Meijer was among 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump in 2021 following the deadly mob siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He then would lose reelection to a Trump-backed primary opponent in 2022 despite having a significant fundraising advantage.

By Tim Reid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Kristi Noem, a contender to become Republican Donald Trump’svice presidential running mate, defended herself on Friday against Democratic attacks over her account of shooting a dog on her family farm.

Noem, the governor of South Dakota, describes killing an “untrainable” dog called Cricket which she “hated” in an upcoming memoir, excerpts of which were first published by The Guardian on Friday. She also said she shot to death a goat.

Noem said the dog ruined a hunt and later attacked chickens owned by a local family, behaved like a “trained assassin,” and was “dangerous to anyone she came in contact with.”

“I realized I had to put her down,” Noem writes.

The Democratic National Committee seized on the excerpts, calling them “horrifying” and “disturbing” and tried to make a 2024 election argument about the shooting of the animals.

“If you want elected officials who don’t brag about brutally killing their pets as part of their self-promotional book tour, then listen to our owners – and vote Democrat,” the DNC said in a statement, giving voice to the dogs.

Responding on X, Noem said, “We love animals, but tough decisions like this happen all the time on a farm. Sadly, we just had to put down 3 horses a few weeks ago that had been in our family for 25 years.”

Noem is on a list of candidates being considered by Trump to be his vice presidential running mate, friends and allies of Trump have told Reuters. Trump faces a general election rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden on Nov. 5.

Colleen O’Brien, senior director at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), decried Noem’s decision to kill the dog.

She criticized Noem for allowing “this rambunctious puppy loose on chickens and then punishing her by deciding to personally blow her brains out rather than attempting to train her or find a more responsible guardian who would provide her with a proper home.”

(Reporting by Tim Reid, editing by Ross Colvin and Sandra Maler)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s administration on Friday formally began planning for a potential presidential transition, aiming to ensure continuity of government no matter the outcome of November’s general election.

Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, sent memos to all executive departments and agencies, directing them to name a point person for transition planning by May 3. It’s the routine first step in congressionally mandated preparedness for presidential transitions.

Next week, White House chief of staff Jeff Zients — who also chaired Biden’s 2020 transition effort — will lead the first meeting of the White House Transition Coordinating Council, which consists of senior White House policy, national security and management officials, as required by the Presidential Transition Act.

The act provides federal support for major party candidates to prepare to govern so that they can have personnel in place to take policy actions on their first day in office. Making sure presidential candidates are ready to take charge of the federal government became a heightened priority after the Sept. 11 attacks, and the act has been updated several times since to provide additional resources to candidates and to require incumbents to plan for a handoff with even greater intensity.

Young’s letter is nearly identical to the one sent four years ago by Trump administration acting director Russell Vought, for a transition process that started out orderly, but derailed when then-President Donald Trump refused to concede his defeat to Biden. It took until Nov. 23, two weeks after the election was called, for Trump’s General Services Administration to name Biden as the “apparent winner” of the 2020 race — a required step for the transition to begin.

The law requires presidential candidates and the General Services Administration to reach a memorandum of understanding that governs everything from the provision of federal office space to access to sensitive documents by Sept. 1, though often it is reached sooner. Candidates must first formally secure their party’s nomination at their conventions before the memorandum of understanding can be signed.

Transition teams begin vetting candidates for jobs in a future administration, including beginning the time-consuming security clearance process for likely appointees who need to be ready to take their posts on Inauguration Day.

Biden in February launched a separate task force aimed at addressing the “systemic” problem of mishandling classified information during presidential transitions, days after a Justice Department special counsel’s sharply critical report said he and his aides had done just that when he left the vice presidency in 2016.

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — A judge upheld the disqualification of a candidate who had had planned to run against the judge presiding over former President Donald Trump’s 2020 Georgia election interference case.

Tiffani Johnson is one of two people who filed paperwork to challenge Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee. An administrative law judge earlier this month found that she was not qualified to run for the seat after she failed to appear at a hearing on a challenge to her eligibility, and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger adopted that decision.

Johnson last week filed a petition for review of that decision in Fulton County Superior Court. After all of McAfee’s colleagues on the Fulton County bench were recused, a judge in neighboring DeKalb County took up the matter and held a hearing Thursday on Johnson’s petition.

At the end of the hearing, DeKalb Superior Court Judge Stacey Hydrick upheld the decision that said Johnson is not eligible, news outlets reported. A representative for Johnson’s campaign did not immediately respond to an email Friday seeking comment.

The ruling leaves McAfee with a single challenger, civil rights attorney Robert Patillo, in the nonpartisan race for his seat.

With early voting set to begin Monday for the May 21 election, it’s likely too late to remove Johnson’s name from the ballot. The law says that if a candidate is determined not to be qualified, that person’s name should be withheld from the ballot or stricken from any ballots. If there isn’t enough time to strike the candidate’s name, prominent notices are to be placed at polling places advising voters that the candidate is disqualified and that votes cast for her will not be counted.

Georgia law allows any person who is eligible to vote for a candidate to challenge the candidate’s qualifications by filing a complaint with the secretary of state’s office within two weeks of the qualification deadline. A lawyer for Sean Arnold, a Fulton County voter, filed the challenge on March 22.

Arnold’s complaint noted that the Georgia Constitution requires all judges to “reside in the geographical area in which they are elected to serve.” He noted that in Johnson’s qualification paperwork she listed her home address as being in DeKalb County and wrote that she had been a legal resident of neighboring Fulton County for “0 consecutive years.” The qualification paperwork Johnson signed includes a line that says the candidate is “an elector of the county of my residence eligible to vote in the election in which I am a candidate.”

Administrative Law Judge Ronit Walker on April 2 held a hearing on the matter but noted in her decision that Johnson did not appear.

Walker wrote that the burden of proof is on the candidate to “affirmatively establish eligibility for office” and that Johnson’s failure to appear at the hearing “rendered her incapable of meeting her burden of proof.”

Walker concluded that Johnson was unqualified to be a candidate for superior court judge in the Atlanta Judicial Circuit. Raffensperger adopted the judge’s findings and conclusions in reaching his decision to disqualify her.

A lawyer Johnson, who said in her petition that she has since moved to Fulton County, argued that Johnson failed to show up for the hearing because she did not receive the notice for it.

Without addressing the merits of the residency challenge, Hydrick found that Johnson had been given sufficient notice ahead of the hearing before the administrative law judge and concluded that the disqualification was proper.

NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden said Friday that he is willing to debate his presumptive Republican opponent, Donald Trump, later this fall – his most definitive comment yet on the issue.

Trump said he was ready, though he questioned Bidens’s willingness.

Biden’s comment came during an interview with the Sirius XM radio host Howard Stern, who asked him whether he would participate in debates against Trump.

“I am, somewhere. I don’t know when,” Biden said. “But I’m happy to debate him.”

Until now, Biden’s reelection campaign had declined to commit to participating in the debates, a hallmark of every general election presidential campaign since 1976.

Biden himself had also been vague, saying in March that whether he debated Trump “depends on his behavior.” The two men debated twice during the 2020 general election — a campaign year constrained significantly by COVID-19 restrictions — and Biden was notably irritated by Trump’s antics in the chaotic first debate that year.

“Will you shut up?” Biden told Trump at one point during the first debate.

Trump campaign officials have said for some time that the former president is prepared to debate Biden anytime, and Chris LaCivita, Trump campaign senior adviser, quickly responded to Biden’s remarks on the social media site X: “OK let’s set it up!”

Later Friday, Trump reacted to Biden’s new public willingness to debate by saying “everyone knows he doesn’t really mean it” but suggested either next Monday evening, Tuesday evening or Wednesday evening, when Trump will be campaigning in Michigan. The former president is suggesting evenings because he is otherwise attending proceedings for his hush money criminal trial in New York.

Trump is required to be in court every day but Wednesdays. In a statement on his own social media platform, Trump also challenged Biden to debate at the Manhattan courthouse on Friday night, since both men were in New York at the same time. Biden has since returned to Washington.

Yet Friday is also Melania Trump’s birthday, and the former president had already said earlier in the day that he was flying back to Florida to spend the day with his wife once his trial had wrapped for the day.

As Trump left court for the day in New York on Friday afternoon, he repeated his challenge and said: “We’re ready. Just tell me where. I will do it at the White House. That would be very comfortable, actually.”

Trump did not participate in any of the Republican primary debates this cycle.

The Commission on Presidential Debates has already announced the dates and locations for the three general election debates between the presidential candidates: Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas; Oct. 1 in Petersburg, Virginia; and Oct. 9 in Salt Lake City. The lone vice presidential debate is slated for Sept. 25 in Easton, Pennsylvania.

A dozen news organizations, including The Associated Press, wrote to the Biden and Trump campaigns earlier this month to urge both candidates to participate in the debates.

Biden engages in relatively fewer press interviews than his predecessors, and his aides tend to choose outlets and media avenues outside the traditional press corps that covers the president in Washington. His interview with Stern on Friday, which ran well over an hour, took on an informal and introspective tone and spanned topics that included Biden’s upbringing, family, and his favorite president (Thomas Jefferson, Biden said).

The interview also occurred the day after The New York Times issued a statement criticizing Biden for shunning formal interviews and conducting fewer news conferences than his predecessors. The newspaper said that its publisher, A.G. Sulzberger, has urged senior Biden officials to agree to presidential interviews not just with the Times but with other news outlets.

Still, the timing of the Stern interview was coincidental; a person familiar with the plans said the White House has been working with the Sirius XM host for weeks to arrange the conversation. The person was granted anonymity to discuss internal planning processes.

Less the “shock jock” of old, Stern still commands a loyal audience. And he’s become known for his conversational interviewing skills. He can turn talks with celebrities into revealing discussions, often by asking things others might be afraid to, but not in confrontational ways.

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Associated Press writers David Bauder and Michelle Price contributed to this report. Kim reported from Washington.

BEIJING (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Friday in the latest high-level contacts between the superpowers aimed at keeping tense relations under control.

The visit brought little progress on contentious issues, including China’s support for Russia in Ukraine, tensions over Taiwan and the South China Sea and U.S. complaints about cheap Chinese exports. However, there was some effort to ease the mood by emphasizing educational and other cultural exchanges. Following are details of some of the issues:

UKRAINE AND CHINA’S SUPPORT FOR RUSSIA

Blinken raised concerns about China’s support for Russia’s military, saying its supply of so-called dual-use goods was “having a material effect in Ukraine” and raising the threat Russia poses to countries in Europe.

“China is the top supplier of machine tools, microelectronics, nitrocellulose, which is critical to making munitions and rocket propellants, and other dual-use items that Moscow is using to ramp up its defense industrial base,” Blinken told a news conference.

He did not respond when asked whether Washington would impose sanctions over China’s support for Russia, which U.S. officials warn risks hurting the broader bilateral relationship, even as ties stabilize.

China says it has not provided weaponry to any party and that it is “not a producer of or party involved in the Ukraine crisis”. However, it says that normal trade between China and Russia should not be interrupted or restricted.

TAIWAN

China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said the U.S. must not step on “red lines” covering sovereignty, security and development interests – an apparent reference to Taiwan, the democratically governed island China claims as its own, and the disputed South China Sea.

Russia’s Ukraine invasion has raised fears China might be emboldened to move against Taiwan, which the U.S. is required by law to provide with the means to defend itself.

President Joe Biden, who met Xi Jinping in November in San Francisco, says Washington does not support Taiwan’s independence, but has upset Beijing by appearing to suggest it would defend the island if it were attacked.

Underscoring the discord, hours before Blinken landed in China on Wednesday, Biden signed a bill that included $8 billion to counter China’s military might, as well as billions in defense aid for Taiwan and $61 billion for Ukraine.

ECONOMIC RELATIONS

China and the United States are the world’s two largest economies and still have robust trade ties. These have been hit by U.S. concerns about the size of its trade deficit with China, Washington’s imposition of restrictions on trade in goods that could bolster China’s military, and efforts to diversify supply chains away from China since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wang said the U.S. had taken “endless” measures to suppress China’s economy, trade, science and technology, equating such steps to containment. Xi reiterated Beijing’s concerns that the U.S. was suppressing its economic development.

“This is a fundamental issue that must be addressed, just like the first button of a shirt that must be put right, in order for the China-U.S. relationship to truly stabilize, improve and move forward,” Xi said.

DRUGS AND OTHER ISSUES

Curbing China’s supply of the chemicals used to make fentanyl, a killer drug having a devastating effect among American youth, has been a top U.S. priority.

During his three-day trip, Blinken met China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, to discuss the issue.

He said China has made some progress dealing with what he called the number-one killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45, but “more needs to be done.”

Blinken also said the countries also agreed to hold their first talks on artificial intelligence in coming weeks.

PEOPLE-TO-PEOPLE TIES

To lighten the mood after days of serious engagement, Blinken popped into a Beijing record store and bought an album by Chinese rocker Dou Wei and Taylor Swift’s “Midnights.”

One of the aims of his trip has been to emphasize the importance of “people-to-people ties” in improving relations.

Blinken, a keen musician and guitar player, described music as “the best connector, regardless of geography.”

He also said Xi had said he wanted to “significantly increase” the number of American students in China. Blinken said there were more than 290,000 Chinese students in the United States, but fewer than 900 Americans studying in China.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis, Antoni Slodkowski and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)

By Jarrett Renshaw

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday that he would participate in a debate with Donald Trump, his Republican opponent in November’s election.

“I am, somewhere. I don’t know when,” the Democratic president said in an interview with broadcaster Howard Stern. “I’m happy to debate him.”

The remarks were Biden’s clearest yet on the prospect of a presidential debate. Biden had not previously committed to debate Trump, saying last month it would depend on the former president’s behavior.

Trump, who refused to debate his rivals before winning the Republican primary race last month, has in recent weeks been challenging Biden to engage in a one-on-one match-up with him, offering to debate the incumbent Democrat “anytime, anywhere, anyplace.”

Earlier this month, Trump’s top two campaign advisers sent a letter to an independent commission that normally sanctions such events calling for an accelerated debates timetable, holding more than the usual three and starting them earlier in the campaign cycle.

A dozen leading U.S. news organizations have also urged the candidates to publicly commit to debating each other.

Their statement suggested that debates for the current race be sponsored, as they have every election cycle since 1988, by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates.

Biden’s camp has been concerned that once on stage Trump will not abide by rules set by the Commission, and some Biden advisers say they would prefer not to elevate Trump by putting him on the same stage with the Democratic incumbent.

Biden has a lead among registered voters of 41% to 37% over Trump, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found earlier this month.

Asked during a trip to Las Vegas in early February about Trump calling for Biden to debate him, Biden said, “If I were him, I would want to debate me too. He’s got nothing to do.”

Biden and Trump faced each other in two televised presidential election debates during the 2020 campaign.

(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw; Writing by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Bill Berkrot)