memeorandum: Bakers Who Were Fined $135,000 for Gay Wedding Cake Refusal Deliver a Major Surprise … (Billy Hallowell/TheBlaze.com)

5:35 PM ET, August 21, 2015

Top Items:

Ellen Page Confronts Ted Cruz on Gay Rights at Iowa State Fair — While Sen. Ted Cruz was grilling pork chops at the Iowa State Fair today, actress Ellen Page, wearing a hat and sunglasses, snuck her way up to the grill and asked the GOP presidential candidate about “the persecution of gays in the workplace and LGBT rights.”

Discussion: Politico, Advocate, OnPolitics, Business Insider and The Week

Katie Glueck / Politico:

Cruz: Jeb is ‘confused’ about my citizenship — DES MOINES, Iowa— Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Friday fired back at Jeb Bush, who a day earlier suggested the senator, who was born in Canada to a son of a Cuban immigrant and American-born mother, was the beneficiary of birthright citizenship.

Discussion: SOOPERMEXICAN, ABC News and PoliticusUSA

John McCormick / Bloomberg Business:
Ted Cruz Criticizes Carter Day After Wrenching Talk on Cancer

Discussion: Daily Kos and New York Times

ABC News:
Watch: Ellen Page Grills Ted Cruz at Iowa State Fair

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Guardian and TMZ.com

Jonathan Allen / Reuters:

Exclusive: Dozens of Clinton emails were classified from the start, U.S. rules suggest — For months, the U.S. State Department has stood behind its former boss Hillary Clinton as she has repeatedly said she did not send or receive classified information on her unsecured, private email account, a practice the government forbids.

Discussion: Fox News, Guardian, Slantpoint, Bloomberg Business, Power Line, NBC News, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Hot Air, Kyle Wingfield, Townhall.com, National Review, Politico, New York Times, Washington Post, Daily Mail, Washington Free Beacon and Wall Street Journal

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

A View From the Clinton Scandal Nonsense Mill — There's no question that the Clinton email ‘scandal’ has become a major issue for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Not that it should necessarily but it has. It's the focus of negative press stories that appear clearly to have at least helped pull down her favorability numbers nationwide.

Discussion: New York Times, Hot Air and The Daily Caller

Brent Budowsky / The Hill: Hillary vs. media malpractice

Daily Mail:

U.S Marines ‘take down’ armed Moroccan gunman onboard a French train — A suspected Moroccan terrorist opened fire with a Kalashnikov on board a high speed train in northern France — Eyewitnesses said two U.S. Marines on the train disarmed the 26-year-old gunman and pinned him to the ground

Discussion: Power Line and The Daily Caller

James Rothwell / Telegraph:
Gunman injures three after firing Kalashnikov on Amsterdam-Paris train: latest

Discussion: Washington Times and Washington Free Beacon

Norm Ornstein / The Atlantic:

Maybe This Time Really Is Different — Historical context is a great asset. But is history always an accurate guide? Does past performance always give us the best predictor of future outcomes? — This election season provides a fascinating frame to see if the polarization in politics …

Washington Post:
Inside the GOP field's new strategies to ride out the Trump tornado

Discussion: Daily Kos, Booman Tribune, National Review, Politico and Los Angeles Times

Ed Kilgore / Washington Monthly:
Ornstein's Warning — Us old folks remember a time when AEI's …

Discussion: Democratic Strategist

John Harwood / CNBC:

Scott Walker talks birthright citizenship — Walker: ‘no position’ on birthright citizenship — Gov. Scott Walker ducks on Trump's call for ending birthright citizenship — MANCHESTER, N.H.—Days after seeming to echo Donald Trump's call for ending birthright citizenship …

Discussion: Politico, Talking Points Memo, US News, Guardian, Daily Kos, AMERICAblog News, Hullabaloo and ThinkProgress

Katie Glueck / Politico:

GOP insiders to Trump: Enough already — Seven out of 10 early-state Republicans want the Donald to move on from his immigration plan and his tough talk about ending birthright citizenship. — Politico Illustration—Getty — Donald Trump may have the whole Republican field talking about immigration …

Discussion: Jay Bookman and Daily Kos

Nick Gass / Politico:
Trump calls O'Malley a ‘disgusting, little, weak, pathetic baby’

Discussion: Business Insider

Peter Sullivan / The Hill:

Pennsylvania becomes fifth state to find no Planned Parenthood wrongdoing — Pennsylvania has found no wrongdoing by Planned Parenthood in the state after a review, according to a letter from the state health department. — That decision makes it the fifth state to announce that they have found …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Nick Gillespie / Hit & Run:
Pro-Choice Group Takes Down Story Slut-Shaming Pro-Life Activist

Discussion: LifeNews.com, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, The Daily Signal, RH Reality Check and New York Magazine

Kevin Cirilli / The Hill:
Planned Parenthood: Videos illegal

Discussion: LifeNews.com, The Daily Caller and RedState

Eliza Collins / Politico: Jindal trolls protesters with undercover Planned Parenthood videos

Christine Byers / St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Man killed by St. Louis police died from gunshot in the back — ST. LOUIS • An autopsy on Mansur Ball-Bey, whose death from police gunfire this week stirred protests, showed that he died from a single wound in the back, police officials said. — Chief Sam Dotson said the wound's …

Discussion: NPR, Daily Mail, Slantpoint, Guardian and FOX2now.com

Caitlin MacNeal / Talking Points Memo:

Trump Goes Off At ABC Reporter Over Questions On Term ‘Anchor Babies’ — Donald Trump lashed out at ABC reporter Tom Llamas on Thursday after the network aired segments critical of the presidential candidate's use of the term “anchor babies” to describe the children of undocumented immigrants.

Discussion: Outside the Beltway, Washington Post, Hot Air, The Hill and ABC News

Gwyneth Kelly / New Republic:
Why “Anchor Baby” Is Offensive—and a Distortion of Truth

Discussion: Slate, CNN, Guardian, ThinkProgress, Talking Points Memo, Washington Monthly, CBS News and Washington Post

Joe Coscarelli / New York Times:

Dr. Dre Apologizes to the 'Women I've Hurt' — For Dr. Dre, the self-proclaimed “first billionaire in hip-hop,” the movie “Straight Outta Compton” and its quasi-soundtrack, “Compton,” his first album in 16 years, were meant to be a victory lap. That biopic, about his hip-hop group, N.W.A. …

Discussion: The Verge, Washington Post, Mediaite, Medium, Mashable, Daily Mail, TMZ.com, UPROXX, LAist and Guardian

Billy Hallowell / TheBlaze.com:

Bakers Who Were Fined $135,000 for Gay Wedding Cake Refusal Deliver a Major Surprise — and a Powerful Message — to 10 Gay Rights Groups — Aaron and Melissa Klein, the owners of Sweetcakes by Melissa, were ordered by Oregon state officials last month to pay $135,000 in damages after they declined …

Discussion: BizPac Review, Red Alert Politics and John Hawkins' Right Wing News

Caitlin Cruz / Talking Points Memo:

Louisiana GOPer: I Used Ashley Madison For ‘Opposition Research’ — The executive director for the Louisiana Republican Party said his email is a part of the Ashley Madison database because he used the cheating website for “opposition research” that “ended up being a waste of money and time,” according to a New Orleans newspaper.

Discussion: Washington Post, AMERICAblog News, Politico and The Week

Cory Bennett / The Hill:
Hundreds of feds paid for Ashley Madison memberships at work

Discussion: Inside Higher Ed, Krebs on Security, Balloon Juice, BizPac Review and Associated Press

David Roberts / Vox:

Carly Fiorina did a 4-minute riff on climate change. Everything she said was wrong. — Katie Couric recently interviewed Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, and the subject of climate change came up. They discussed it for over four minutes, likely marking the longest …

Discussion: Washington Monthly

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Debt Is Good — Rand Paul said something funny the other day. No, really — although of course it wasn't intentional. On his Twitter account he decried the irresponsibility of American fiscal policy, declaring, “The last time the United States was debt free was 1835.”

Discussion: Washington Monthly and The Mahablog

Kyle Daly / Pacific Daily News:

Kmart pulls wipes — Guam's Kmart is removing refill packs of Huggies baby wipes from its shelves after receiving complaints that shards of glass were found in the product. — Daisy Lee, the local Kmart's HR coordinator, said the store has contacted the manufacturer about the complaints.