Trump allies try to freeze recount efforts  —  Allies of Donald Trump are trying to freeze recount efforts in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — three states in which the president-elect narrowly beat Hillary Clinton — as they seek to preserve the legitimacy of Trump's win.

Shouting match erupts between Clinton and Trump aides  —  CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The raw, lingering emotion of the 2016 presidential campaign erupted into a shouting match here Thursday as top strategists of Hillary Clinton's campaign accused their Republican counterparts of fueling and legitimizing racism to elect Donald Trump.

Employment Situation Summary  —  Transmission of material in this release is embargoed until USDL-16-2233 8:30 a.m. (EST) Friday, December 2, 2016  —  Technical information:  —  Household data: (202) 691-6378 * cpsinfo@bls.gov * www.bls.gov/cps

Trump's Carrier Shakedown  —  Workers don't prosper when politicians force companies to make noneconomic decisions.  —  A giant flaw in President Obama's economic policy has been the politicized allocation of capital, from green energy to housing.  Donald Trump suffers from a similar …

Paul Ryan: I've discussed Constitution ‘extensively’ with Trump  —  House Speaker Paul Ryan and President-elect Donald Trump have discussed the Constitution “extensively” in their almost daily conversations.  —  In an excerpt of a “60 Minutes” interview to air Sunday, Ryan was asked whether …

Trump's Breezy Calls to World Leaders Leave Diplomats Aghast  —  WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump inherited a complicated world when he won the election last month.  And that was before a series of freewheeling phone calls with foreign leaders that has unnerved diplomats at home and abroad.

Young cancer victim's wish to ‘blow stuff up’ comes true  —  Boy with cancer granted ‘blow stuff up’ wish  —  (CNN)The Make-A-Wish Foundation is in the business of making dreams come true — even when the dream is to blow stuff up.  —  And that was great news for Declan McLean-Pauley, a 12-year-old who is in remission from lukemia.

Reports of a Facebook fake news detector are apparently a plugin  —  Update: The feature appears to be an implementation of the Chrome plugin B.S. Detector, which some users took as a test by Facebook itself.  We'll continue to investigate but for now it looks like this is not a Facebook feature.

Philippines' Duterte gets Trump invite during ‘animated’ call: aide  —  U.S. President-elect Donald Trump spoke on the telephone on Friday with Philippines leader Rodrigo Duterte and invited him to the White House next year during a “very engaging, animated” talk, an aide to Duterte said.

Virginia schools ban ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ‘Huckleberry Finn’ for racial slurs  —  A Virginia school has temporarily banned two American classics after a parent said her high school-age son was negatively impacted by the racial slurs they contain.  —  The decision to remove …

Democrats could block Mattis nomination  —  Gen. James Mattis will need a supermajority to win confirmation from the Senate.  —  Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) will require a vote at a 60-vote threshold to allow Mattis to become the defense secretary, an aide said.

Lewandowski: Times editor Dean Baquet ‘should be in jail’ for publishing Trump tax docs  —  Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump's first campaign manager, said Thursday that New York Times executive editor Dean Baquet “should be in jail” because the newspaper published parts of the president-elect's tax returns during the race.

The Economic Stupidity of the Carrier Bailout  —  It's not conservative, but rather a rejection of economic reality.  —  One particularly tough and indigestible nugget of talk-radio stupidity afflicting the guts of conservatism is the idea that there is some sort of fundamental difference between bribing …

Seduced and Betrayed by Donald Trump  —  Donald Trump won the Electoral College (though not the popular vote) on the strength of overwhelming support from working-class whites, who feel left behind by a changing economy and society.  And they're about to get their reward — the same reward that …

CNN Crew Jokes about Donald Trump's Plane Crashing  —  CNN Correspondent Suzanne Malveauxjoke was covering the Carrier press conference, that featured both Donald Trump and Mike Pence.  —  Carrier was able to negotiate huge tax breaks for their company, if they promised not to move all their jobs to Mexico.

I Served With James Mattis.  Here's What I Learned From Him  —  America knows Gen. James Mattis as a character, Mad Dog Mattis, the font of funny quotes and Chuck Norris-caliber memes.  Those of us who served with him know that he is a caring, erudite, warfighting general.

Trump packs board of CEO advisers with Wall Street names  —  A cadre of Wall Street leaders and corporate CEOs will be regularly advising the Trump Administration through a “Strategic and Policy Forum,” the transition announced Friday.  —  The forum will be led by Stephen A. Schwarzman …

Trump-Inspired Dating Site Gets Post-Election Membership Boost  —  TrumpSingles.com, with the slogan “Making Dating Great Again,” was created in May as a safe space for Trump supporters to find love.  —  When former reality TV coordinator Dave Goss (The Bachelor, The Bachelorette) …

Decline of America's white population accelerating, study finds  —  A rapidly aging white population and fast-growing younger minority groups are speeding demographic changes across the nation, hastening a political divide likely to have long-term ramifications.