memeorandum: Study: Taxpayers spend 17 hours on average preparing their returns (Tim Devaney/The Hill)

8:05 AM ET, April 19, 2017

Top Items:

Fox Is Preparing to Cut Ties With Bill O'Reilly — Popular host has been implicated in a sexual-harassment scandal — Fox News is preparing to cut ties with its biggest star, Bill O'Reilly, according to people close to the situation. — A final decision on Mr. O'Reilly's fate could come …

Discussion: Morning Consult, Vox, Business Insider, The Hill, Politico, New York Magazine, Mashable, RedState, Deadline, TVNewser and Mediaite

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Sources: The Murdochs Are Turning Against Bill O'Reilly — With only six days remaining in Bill O'Reilly's vacation, the pressure on the Murdoch family to decide the embattled commentator's fate is intensifying. Three sources with knowledge of the discussions said that …

Discussion: sandiegouniontribune.com, New York Times, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, TVLine, Mediaite, KTLA, IJR, twitchy.com, Variety, Business Insider, AOL, Axios, RedState, Joe.My.God. and Balloon Juice, more at Mediagazer »

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

Source: Fox News and Bill O'Reilly are talking exit — Fox News will no longer even respond to questions about whether Bill O'Reilly will return to his show. — A well-placed source said Tuesday afternoon that representatives for Fox and O'Reilly have begun talking about an exit.

Discussion: Mediaite, Media Matters for America, Washington Post, Politicus USA, RedState, Refinery29, Media Matters for America, The Hill, Political Wire and Axios, more at Mediagazer »

Ashley Cullins / Hollywood Reporter:
New Bill O'Reilly Accuser Says He Called Her “Hot Chocolate” and Leered

Discussion: Mediaite, NBC News, Variety, AOL, Business Insider, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, Joe.My.God. and ThinkProgress, more at Mediagazer »

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Fox considers future without O'Reilly as advertisers flee

Discussion: Mediaite

Matthew Sheffield / Salon: Roger Ailes' fake news empire: Former Fox News head presided over a panoply of phony “sock puppet” blogs

CNNMoney:
His job in jeopardy, Bill O'Reilly's team fights back

Discussion: Power Line, TVNewser and Washington Post

New York Times:

Live Election Results: Georgia's Sixth Congressional District — Democrats hope Jon Ossoff will win them the House seat vacated by Tom Price, the new health and human services secretary. If no candidate wins a majority of the vote, the top two will advance to a June 20 runoff.

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, The Root, Political Insider, Mother Jones, Daily Kos and Joe.My.God.

Andre Pollard / Decision Desk HQ:

Write In (Unaffiliated) 0.0% — Fulton County is *slow*. We're expecting a precinct dump from there soon. With the other two counties more or less all in, Ossoff is at 50.3%. Seems clear he drops into the 40s, but the question is how far. — Almost all of Cobb in, and Ossoff is down to 50.8%.

Discussion: Mediaite, Daily Wire and RRH Elections

Eric Bradner / CNN:

Georgia special election goes to runoff as GOP gets wakeup call — Atlanta, Georgia (CNN)Republicans were served another reminder of President Donald Trump's unpopularity Tuesday as Democrat Jon Ossoff nearly captured a House seat in a region that for decades has been a conservative stronghold …

Discussion: Mediaite, Breitbart, NPR, Daily Wire, Forbes, Refinery29, Balloon Juice, Vox, IJR, twitchy.com, RedState, Politicus USA, Power Line, The Hill and Political Insider blog

Erick Erickson / The Resurgent:
The Truth About What Happened in the GA-06 Special Election is Different From Either Party's Spin

Discussion: RedState

Tamar Hallerman / Political Insider blog:
Georgia's 6th District race heads to runoff following drama-filled night

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Politicus USA, New York Magazine, Business Insider, Hot Air, The Hill, Washington Free Beacon, Balloon Juice, twitchy.com, Zpolitics, New York Times and Political Insider

Adam Kelsey / ABC News:
Democrat Ossoff finishes first in Georgia primary but falls short of threshold to avoid runoff

Discussion: USA Today, Politico, Axios, Politicus USA, CNN and The Guardian

Gabriel Debenedetti / Politico:
Democrats begin to wonder: When do we win?

Discussion: Fox News, ABC News and alicublog

AP News:

The Latest: Fresno suspect faces 4 murder charges — FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — The Latest on a fatal shooting in downtown Fresno, California (all times local): — An official says a man suspected of killing a motel security guard and three people he targeted for being white is being charged with four counts of murder.

Discussion: RedState, twitchy.com, Mediaite, Patterico's Pontifications, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Gateway Pundit, CBS Sacramento, The Resurgent and IJR

Anna Hopkins / Daily Mail:
Fresno shooting ‘solely based on race,’ police say

Discussion: Associated Press, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and KRON4.com

Peter Hasson / The Daily Caller:
AP Changes Fresno Shooter's Words From ‘Allahu Akbar,’ Removes Islam Reference

Discussion: RedState

Veronica Rocha / Los Angeles Times:
Man kills 3 people in shootings in downtown Fresno

Discussion: twitchy.com, Breitbart, MichelleMalkin.com, TheBlaze, YOURCENTRALVALLEY, Infowars, IJR and Power Line

Fox News:
Fresno shooting spree: 3 people killed, suspect who yelled ‘Allahu Akbar,’ says he ‘hates white people’ in custody

Discussion: New York Post, WBRC-TV and Red Alert Politics

Jim Guy / Fresno Bee:
Three dead in central Fresno shooting spree; suspect caught, linked to Motel 6 slaying

Discussion: WBRC-TV, CBS Sacramento, NPR, Daily Wire, Washington Post, The Root, Bearing Arms, Business Insider, New York Magazine, The Other McCain and Vox Popoli

New York Times:

Aircraft Carrier Wasn't Sailing to Deter North Korea, as U.S. Suggested — WASHINGTON — As worries deepened last week about whether North Korea would conduct a missile test, the White House declared that ordering an American aircraft carrier into the Sea of Japan would send a powerful deterrent signal …

Andrew Kaczynski / CNN:
Donald Trump: ‘You always have to be concerned’ about thermonuclear war with North Korea

Discussion: Political Wire

Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:
Trump companies don't always follow his ‘buy American, hire American’ pledge

Discussion: ABC News, New York Times, Joe.My.God., Washington Post, Politicus USA and NPR

USA Today:

First protected DREAMer is deported under Trump — Federal agents ignored President Trump's pledge to protect from deportation undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children by sending a young man back to his native Mexico, the first such documented case …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, The Hill, Mediaite, NBC News, The Guardian, New York Times, New York Magazine, twitchy.com, RedState, IJR, USA TODAY College, Business Insider and The FADER

CNN:

FBI used dossier allegations to bolster Trump-Russia investigation — Washington (CNN)The FBI last year used a dossier of allegations of Russian ties to Donald Trump's campaign as part of the justification to win approval to secretly monitor a Trump associate, according to US officials briefed on the investigation.

Discussion: Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo and Political Wire

Olivia Beavers / The Hill:
FBI used Trump dossier to help get warrant to monitor ex-aide: report

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

John Binder / Breitbart:

H-1B Experts on Trump's Order: ‘This Is What We Elected Him For’ — President Donald Trump is getting praise from experts on the H-1B foreign guest worker visa for his ‘Hire American’ Executive Order which calls for a review into the system's abuse at the expense of American workers.

Discussion: Politico and The Hill

Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Planned Trump Order Will Discourage Hiring of Low-Wage Foreign Workers

Discussion: The White House, Bloomberg, ImmigrationProf Blog, Mashable, USA Today, Media Matters for America, Business Insider, NPR, CNBC, Chicagoist, CNN, The Guardian, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal

Glenn Thrush / New York Times:
Trump Signs Order That Could Lead to Curbs on Foreign Workers

Discussion: Mediaite, more at Techmeme »

Patricia Mazzei / miamiherald:

Miami state senator curses at black lawmaker — and refers to fellow Republicans as ‘niggas’ — TALLAHASSEE — Miami Republican Sen. Frank Artiles dropped the n-word to a pair of African-American colleagues in private conversation Monday night — after calling one of them a “f**king a**hole …

Discussion: Florida Times Union, Florida Politics, The Root, Politico, Raw Story and Naked Politics

Sari Horwitz / Washington Post:

A month after dismissing federal prosecutors, Justice Department does not have any U.S. attorneys in place — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is making aggressive law enforcement a top priority, directing his federal prosecutors across the country to crack down on illegal immigrants and …

New York Times:

Hunt for Facebook Killer Ends With McDonald's Sighting and a Suicide — Two days after an extraordinary crime, a murder that the killer recorded on video and posted to Facebook, it was a hankering for something as reassuringly normal as a McDonald's meal that tripped him up on Tuesday …

Discussion: Erie Daily Times-Morning News, CNN, Facebook, TheBlaze, Cleveland Division of Police, Washington Post, KFOR-TV, Business Insider, CBS New York, KTLA, Axios, The Daily Caller, IJR and Facebook, more at Mediagazer »

Ryan Lizza / New Yorker:

The Continuing Fallout from Trump and Nunes's Fake Scandal — Recently, several members and staffers on the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russia's role in the Presidential election, visited the National Security Agency, in Fort Meade, Maryland.

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story and The Daily Caller

Jonathan Swan / Axios:

Local, state tax deductions on Gary Cohn's list — Gary Cohn has privately said he's warming to the idea of eliminating the local and state tax deduction to pay for tax cuts and simplify the code, according to sources familiar with the thinking of president's top economic advisor.

Discussion: Bloomberg and New York Magazine

Rebecca Savransky / The Hill:

Sanders on Clinton's 'I'm with her' slogan: 'It's so phony' — (I-Vt.) called former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton — 's “I'm with her” slogan “phony,” according to a new book. — In “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign,” The Hill's Amie Parnes …

Discussion: Business Insider, The Daily Caller, RedState, IJR and Washington Free Beacon