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With a House map full of potential Democratic pick-up opportunities, Minnesota’s 8th District presents a rare bright spot for Republicans.

President Donald Trump is headed to the sprawling northeast Minnesota district, home to the mining region known as the Iron Range, for a Wednesday night rally in Duluth. Republican candidate Pete Stauber’s campaign said he’ll be speaking too.

The Trump administration on Tuesday finalized a rule expanding the availability of alternative insurance plans that do not meet the 2010 health care law’s requirements despite objections from consumer advocates and the industry.

The rule will extend so-called association health plans, which allow insurance companies to skirt benefit requirements and other parts of the 2010 law. President Donald Trump heralded the new rule in a speech Tuesday to the National Federation of Independent Business trade group, or NFIB.

Former Arizona Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick does live in Tucson, a judge ruled Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging her residency in the 2nd District. The lawsuit, financed by one of her Democratic primary opponents, had attempted to remove her from the primary ballot.

Former state Rep. Matt Heinz, the losing 2016 Democratic nominee for the seat, helped fund the lawsuit that alleged Kirkpatrick falsely claimed in campaign documents that she lived in Tucson. Candidates are not required to live in the districts they are running in, but the plaintiffs alleged Kirkpatrick violated state law that required candidates to accurately reflect their residency on nominating papers.

Arizona Republican Jeff Flake halted an appeals court nominee last week and he’s not publicly saying why, a behind-the-scenes move that takes aim at one of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s top priorities this year.

The Senate Judiciary Committee scuttled a planned vote June 14 on the nomination of Britt Grant, a pick from Georgia for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Flake’s hold throws a wrench in what has been the Senate GOP’s smoothly operating judicial confirmation machine.

As the National Children’s Museum seeks to relaunch a half-block from the Mall, the Federal Triangle metro stop could get a rebranding of its own.

The museum — after years of nomadism and financial struggles — is slated to open in March, and a D.C. councilman says he will push to rename the stop.

Illinois Democrat Brad Schneider hosted a rather unconventional town hall this weekend as he and a group of constituents biked 15 miles around his district and chatted about policy issues.

“It was a great opportunity to combine my passion for cycling with the ability to connect with constituents” Schneider said. “We continue to look for creative ways of making those connections.”

Updated 3:03 p.m. | Senior White House officials worked with House Republicans for weeks on a compromise immigration measure, but were careful to avoid saying anything publicly that would sink the measure. That changed Friday morning when President Donald Trump walked out to the White House’s North Lawn.

House Republicans reached agreement on a sweeping immigration overhaul measure after conservatives, moderates and leaders negotiated behind closed doors for weeks — with White House legislative affairs director Marc Short also involved. Members said Thursday they had reached a deal to vote on two measures: a measure favored by conservatives and a compromise version in which all sides gave some ground.

President Donald Trump suggested Friday outside the White House that former FBI Director James B. Comey should be jailed and his summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un averted “nuclear war.”

Trump broke with decades of protocol and ventured out to the executive mansion’s North Lawn to do a live interview with Fox News. He stayed outside with Secret Service agents scanning nearby Pennsylvania Avenue and Lafayette Park for nearly an hour, taking a half hour of questions from a Fox anchor then another 30 minutes of questions from White House correspondents.

The White House on Friday announced it is slapping tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods in response to alleged intellectual property theft, another escalation in President Donald Trump’s trade-related acts against allies and rivals alike.

“This situation is no longer sustainable. China has, for example, long been engaging in several unfair practices related to the acquisition of American intellectual property and technology,” President Donald Trump said in a statement released Friday morning that formally announced 25 percent import penalties on some Chinese-made products.

Rep. Pete Olson tries to make sure his staffers get home at a reasonable hour because he remembers long nights on the Senate floor, endless debates and the chaos of 9/11.

Before he ran for Congress in 2008, the Texas Republican worked for Sen. Phil Gramm and his successor John Cornyn, now the majority whip.