In major shift, White House privately backing earlier rollback of Medicaid expansion  — Such a move, however, could blow up the already fragile efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act  —  Washington (CNN)The White House is privately lining up behind conservative calls to roll …

Sources: FBI investigation continues into ‘odd’ computer link between Russian bank and Trump Organization  —  (CNN)Federal investigators and computer scientists continue to examine whether there was a computer server connection between the Trump Organization and a Russian bank, sources close to the investigation tell CNN.

EPA chief Scott Pruitt says carbon dioxide is not a primary contributor to global warming  —  EPA takes aim at CAFE standards: Scott Pruitt  —  Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming.

Is Trump Being Investigated?  ‘No Comment,’ Justice Dept. Says  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump's weekend Twitter message asserting that former President Barack Obama had tapped his phones forced the White House into ever more verbal contortions on Thursday as aides struggled to defend the president's charge.

Expect the CBO to estimate large coverage losses from the GOP health care plan  —  Editor's Note:  —  This analysis is part of The Leonard D. Schaeffer Initiative for Innovation in Health Policy, which is a partnership between the Center for Health Policy at Brookings and the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics.

Nigel Farage Just Visited The Ecuadorian Embassy In London  —  Asked by BuzzFeed News if he'd been visiting Julian Assange, the former UKIP leader said he couldn't remember what he'd been doing in the building.  —  Nigel Farage visited the Ecuadorian embassy in west London on Thursday …

AG SUGGESTS OPENNESS TO REVIEW OF PREDECESSORS' ACTIONS  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions suggested Thursday that he would be open to the appointment of an outside counsel to review actions taken by the Justice Department during the Obama administration.

Inside The Investigation To Get To The Bottom Of Russia's Role In The Election  —  The Senate Intelligence Committee has been given sweeping powers, unseen since the Watergate era, to investigate Russian meddling in the US election.  As its scope grows to include suspected ties between …

Malik Obama shares photo of brother Barack's Kenya ‘certificate of birth’  —  An Obama has joined the birther movement.  —  Malik Obama, Barack Obama's half-brother, tweeted image of what appears to be Barack's birth certificate.  —  Except it's not from Hawaii, but rather Kenya.

Schwarzenegger for Senate?  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — the “Terminator” action hero who made “I'll be back” one of filmdom's most iconic phrases — may be mulling a political comeback, according to several GOP political insiders in California.

Steve Bannon Helped Preserve DACA But Democrats And Activists Aren't Celebrating  —  They're bracing for what's coming: millions of deportations and further crackdowns on both legal and illegal immigration.  —  WASHINGTON — The Trump administration doesn't want to talk about it.

First on CNN: After lobbying from Trump, Orrin Hatch plans to run again  —  (CNN)Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the longest-serving GOP senator, told CNN he is planning to run for re-election next year, abandoning his plans to quit the chamber after four decades of service.

Widespread frustration  —  U.S. officials, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information, said there is widespread frustration among intelligence professionals who have watched in horror as a normally secretive process has been distorted by media leaks …

Bill Clinton: Resurgent nationalism ‘taking us to the edge of our destruction’  —  Don't buy what purports to be nationalism that's engulfed politics in America and all over the world, former President Bill Clinton said Thursday; what's actually at play, he argued, is more insidious and interconnected than that.

President Mike Pence Doesn't Sound Quite So Bad, Some Top Democrats Say  —  “I'd sleep easier with almost any other human being as president than Donald Trump,” said a former Obama speechwriter.  And they won't say so publicly, but several elected Democrats told BuzzFeed News they would much prefer …

Feud breaks out during health care hearing as Republican whines that men have to pay for prenatal care  —  DON'T MISS STORIES.  FOLLOW RAW STORY!  —  Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) got into a battle with Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) Thursday during a House Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing for the healthcare bill.

Cruz: Let's overrule Senate officer to expand ObamaCare bill  —  (R-Texas), emerging as a key player in negotiations to repeal and replace ObamaCare, says Vice President Pence should exert his power over the Senate to significantly expand the scope of the House healthcare reform bill.

The Marine Corps' nude-photo-sharing scandal is even worse than first realized  —  The scandal that prompted an investigation into hundreds of Marines who are accused of sharing naked photographs of their colleagues in a private Facebook group is much larger than has been reported, Business Insider has learned.

Hillary debuts a new bob in Snapchat video urging women to ‘Stand Up.  Resist.  Run for office’  — She declared 'every issue a woman's issue,' although Clinton directed her followers to Planned Parenthood, education health care and jobs  — Also attended the 16th anniversary …

Union tips off Border Patrol in immigration crackdown  —  Federal agents are not the only ones trying to remove people from the Buffalo area who have entered the country illegally.  —  If Bill Bing, a carpenters union official, discovers workers at local construction projects suspected …

The political lexicon of a billionaire populist  —  From the start of his presidential campaign, Donald Trump pledged “total change,” delivering his promises with a scorched-earth political vocabulary — “Lyin' Ted,” “Crooked Hillary,” “drain the swamp,” “lock her up.”

Sex Columnist Dan Savage Calls Melania Trump ‘Ugly on the Inside’  —  Savage says first lady gets a pass from some liberals because of her looks, but “is as ugly on the inside as she is pretty on the outside”  —  Author and sex columnist Dan Savage says many liberals are giving first lady Melania …

Trump's in the White House bubble, and he loves it  —  President Donald Trump is sticking to his comfort zone.  —  Trump has spent each of the 48 nights of his presidency either at the White House or at his private Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.  He has dined out in the nation's capital just once …