Democrats set to unveil stopgap bill to prevent shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are preparing a temporary spending bill that’s needed to avert a government shutdown at the end of the month. It’s a lowest-common-denominator, bare-minimum measure that befits a deeply polarized Congress. Even so, it took intense effort at the highest levels of Washington to finish the package. It was set to be released Friday afternoon after a last-minute negotiating flurry. Republicans denied Democratic requests involving the census and elec