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By David Wright, CNN

(CNN) — An already massive gap between Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee finances widened in February, according to new reports filed with the Federal Election Commission.

The RNC out-raised the DNC in February, $18.5 million to $10.3 million. And entering March, the RNC reported nearly seven times as much cash on hand, $109 million to $15.9 million.

The DNC has more outstanding debt, $17.4 million, than cash on hand, keyed to a $15 million loan the committee took out last October.

A DNC official noted that the committee was committed to deep investments in core infrastructure, especially staff, to build party capacity.

Other national party committees focused on House and Senate races reported more comparable fundraising numbers, but the huge disparity between DNC and RNC finances could have consequences in 2026.

The Supreme Court is weighing a move to raise caps on how much money political parties may spend in coordination with candidates, which would enable the RNC to leverage its massive cash stockpile to more directly aid Republicans on the ballot. A decision is expected before the end of June.

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The post The RNC has nearly a 7-to-1 money advantage over the DNC, which has more debt than cash on hand appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Ella Nilsen, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration announced it will pay nearly $1 billion to French energy giant TotalEnergies in exchange for the company abandoning plans to build offshore wind farms in the Atlantic Ocean and instead pursue fossil fuel projects in the US.

The current administration has thrown up roadblocks at every turn for offshore wind projects; a type of energy that President Donald Trump has personally reviled for years. After trying and failing to block construction on more mature projects, this announcement is the first sign of a new strategy: The federal government is paying to stop wind farms before they begin.

Last year, the Trump Interior Department took the step of stopping the approval of federal permits for renewable energy projects, a move that effectively killed offshore wind projects in early development. Monday’s deal builds on that, by trying to ensure companies can’t continue building under a future administration friendlier to offshore wind.

The government is paying back TotalEnergies for federal leases it purchased under the Biden administration to develop two offshore wind farms off the coasts of New York and North Carolina. The Justice Department will use nearly $1 billion in taxpayer funds to reimburse the company for money it spent to purchase leases under the Biden administration.

Together, those two projects could have generated more than 4 gigawatts of electricity for US households and businesses, according to developers.

Instead, TotalEnergies will now spend the money on the development of a new liquified natural gas plant in Texas that will help export US LNG overseas to Europe, CEO Patrick Pouyanné said in a statement. The money will also go towards the company’s development of oil drilling operations in the Gulf of Mexico and shale oil projects elsewhere in the US.

“Considering that the development of offshore wind projects is not in the country’s interest, we have decided to renounce offshore wind development in the United States, in exchange for the reimbursement of the lease fees,” TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné said in a statement. “These investments will contribute to supplying Europe with much-needed LNG from the US and provide gas for US data center development.”

US Interior Sec. Doug Burgum in a statement repeated prior claims that offshore wind is “one of the most expensive” forms of energy and is too unreliable because energy is only produced when the wind is blowing. While offshore wind is more expensive than other forms of renewable energy because of its unique supply chain constraints, wind has no fuel costs and states negotiate set power price agreements with developers that don’t fluctuate — unlike natural gas and oil.

“We welcome TotalEnergies’ commitment to developing projects that produce dependable, affordable power to lower Americans’ monthly bills while providing secure US baseload power today—and in the future,” Burgum said in the statement.

But the move could worsen the growing electricity crunch in the US, as power-hungry data centers and home and vehicle electrification collide headlong into a lack of available power. That dynamic has sent prices spiking in mid-Atlantic states in particular.

The move “will actually cause a further energy deficit in our country and increase the cost of energy certainly along the East Coast,” said Elizabeth Klein, former director of the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management under th

By Sharif Paget, Aaron Cooper, Soph Warnes, Alex Leeds Matthews, Gillian Roberts, Curt Merrill, Byron Manley, CNN

NEW YORK CITY (CNN) — New York’s LaGuardia Airport closed for about 14 hours after an Air Canada plane collided with a firetruck just after landing Sunday night. The pilot and copilot were killed, while dozens of plane passengers and two people in the truck were injured, according to law enforcement officials.

CNN is piecing together what occurred during the deadly collision in a timeline, maps and photos.

The airport reopened on Monday at 2 p.m. ET after a ground stop had been issued following the crash. Though one runway could remain closed for several more days, one expert said.

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The post A visual timeline of the collision between an Air Canada plane and firetruck at LaGuardia Airport appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Tierney Sneed, John Fritze, Devan Cole, CNN

(CNN) — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority appeared dubious of state laws that allow the counting of mail ballots that arrive at election offices after Election Day as justices heard oral arguments in a challenge to Mississippi’s five-day grace period for mail ballots.

Over the course of more than two hours, justices raised an assortment of reasons why they saw those policies as problematic, seemingly embracing Republicans’ arguments that the state laws run afoul of statutes passed by Congress establishing Election Day in November for federal offices.

The lawsuit against Mississippi’s practice was brought by the Republican National Committee in 2024 and puts into jeopardy the mail ballot deadlines of several other states. Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia also set mail ballot receipt deadlines after Election Day, and 29 states, plus DC, count ballots that arrive after Election Day that are cast by military families and citizens living overseas in certain circumstances, according to the National Conference of State Legislature.

The Trump administration is supporting the RNC in the case, but it argues those overseas ballots can be carved out of a ruling against Mississippi.

It’s not clear how a ruling striking down Mississippi’s law would play out in November’s election. The risk that such a ruling could cause confusion during the midterms was only touched on briefly during the hearing.

The case is one example of how Trump and his allies have continued to try to curb mail voting, which was a frequent target of his false claims that the 2020 election was rigged against him. A ruling is likely to come by the end of June.

Here’s what to know from Monday’s arguments:

Conservative majority appears dubious of mail ballot grace periods

The six GOP appointees who make up the court’s majority put forward a host of reasons they were concerned about laws like Mississippi’s.

Several, including Justice Amy Coney Barrett, often seen as a possible swing voter – latched on to a line of questioning put forward by Justice Clarence Thomas – implying that permitting Mississippi’s law would also allow a voter have his ballot counted if he simply handed his ballots to his neighbor by Election Day.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, another sometimes-swing vote on the court, also leaned into the arguments against grace periods for mail ballots. He raised the possibility that those regulations erode confidence in elections if late-arriving ballots determine the outcome and pointed to the fact that the practice expanded greatly during the Covid-19 pandemic, suggesting that undermined the idea that it has a long-established history.

When Paul Clement, the lawyer from the RNC, was up, he fielded mostly softballs from the conservatives. Justice Samuel Alito gave Clement the opportunity to respond to a Maryland law, cited by Mississippi’s defenders, that allowed for post-Election Day receipt in the early 1900s.

Barrett had some tough questions for Clement and US Solicitor General D. John Sauer. However, it wasn’t clear whether her sharp queries signaled she was inclined to uphold the Mississippi law or if she was grappling with how to write an opinion in the RNC’s favor that dealt with those historical complications.

Justices worry about impact on early voting

When the majority of the court begins drafting its opinion, it’s clear that another popular election practice will be firmly on the justices’ minds: E