LUMBERTON — More than 1,500 voters in Robeson, Bladen, Columbus and Scotland counties had their votes challenged in the disputed election for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court.

LUMBERTON — More than 1,500 voters in Robeson, Bladen, Columbus and Scotland counties had their votes challenged in the disputed election for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court.

The Congressional Budget Office forecasts that annual deficits will top $21 trillion over the next decade.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals issued a stay Friday in Republican groups’ lawsuit challenging more than 60,000 ballots cast in the Nov. 5 election. The court order arrived as GOP state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin pursues a separate legal action challenging the same ballots. Election officials requested the stay in Kivett v. North Carolina State Board of Elections, a suit filed on Dec. 31 by the Wake County and North Carolina Republican Party organizations, the Republican National Committee, and two individual voters.

It’s a specific, popular, bipartisan bill.

The US government is on track to surpass record debt levels set after World War II in just four years, the Congressional Budget Office warned on Friday — even as it lowered somewhat its deficit projections for the next decade.

Surging long-term interest rates and stubborn inflation are inflaming divisions among congressional Republicans over paying for the sweeping tax cuts Donald Trump promised, complicating the path to passage with the party’s already tenuous majority.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House promises a powerful presidency, but can his influence hold as internal divisions grow?