BALTIMORE (AP) — President Joe Biden took executive action Friday to speed a stopgap measure of financial relief to millions of Americans affected by the coronavirus pandemic while Congress begins to consider his much larger $1.9 trillion package.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden’s nominee for secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, was headed down a smooth path to quick confirmation, pledging to senators on Thursday to work with them to carry out the administration’s ambitious agenda to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed a pair of executive orders Friday aimed at offering a quick dose of relief to an economy still being hammered by the coronavirus. Both measures were largely stopgaps as Congress considers a $1.9 trillion stimulus plan from Biden. The orders aim to increase food aid, make it easier to claim government benefits, protect unemployed workers and point federal workers and contractors toward a $15 minimum wage.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Gov. Gavin Newsom forcefully pushed back Friday on criticisms that California is becoming unfriendly for business, pointing to “all the new billionaires" created by initial public offerings and noting that its richest people are “doing pretty damn well."

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's lieutenant governor is joining the governor and House speaker in saying he supports requiring proof of identity from someone seeking to cast an absentee ballot, but he doesn't want to get rid of no-excuse mail-in ballots, as Republican senators have proposed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Finance Committee approved President Joe Biden’s nomination of Janet Yellen to be the nation’s 78th treasury secretary on Friday, setting up a final vote that would make her the first woman to hold the job.