Dems threaten to oppose short-term spending bill if GOP pushes healthcare vote  —  House Democrats will oppose a short-term spending bill if Republican leaders attempt to expedite an ObamaCare repeal bill this week, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) warned Thursday.  —  Hoyer, the Democratic whip …

The education of Donald Trump  —  The 70-year-old leader of the free world sat behind his desk in the Oval Office last Friday afternoon, doing what he's done for years: selling himself.  His 100th day in office was approaching, and Trump was eager to reshape the hardening narrative of a White House veering off course.

Are Trump voters ruining America for all of us?:  Tom Nichols  —  First 100 days suggest our democracy is more likely to die in dumbness than in darkness.  —  President Trump's record in his first 100 days, by any standard of presidential first terms, is one of failure.

Pentagon warned Flynn in 2014 against taking foreign payments; IG launches investigation  —  (CNN)Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was warned by the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 against accepting foreign payments as he entered retirement, according to new documents obtained by the House oversight committee.

Urgent trip to restroom gets man kicked off Delta flight  —  The way Kima Hamilton sees it, his urgent need to visit the restroom as a Milwaukee-bound Delta jet awaited takeoff was a misunderstanding blown all out of proportion.  —  In fellow passenger Krista Rosolino's view …

Is a Management Shake-up Looming at Fox News?  —  As Fox News is roiled by lawsuits and the ouster of Bill O'Reilly, the network's co-president Bill Shine has retained the backing of the Murdochs.  On Monday, Rupert Murdoch took network co-presidents Shine and Jack Abernethy to lunch at Marea …

Organizers cancel 82nd Avenue of Roses Parade, after protesters threaten to shut it down  —  A threatening email has derailed one of the Portland Rose Festival's signature events, and spurred new debate about the ongoing political protests in Portland.  —  Organizers of the 82nd Avenue …

This photo of Donald Trump and kids is epic  —  (CNN)Thursday, as you likely know by now, is “Take Our Daughters and Sons To Work” day.  The White House, like CNN and virtually every other company, celebrates this day with a special program of activities.  Except, at the White House …

Trump's Tax Plan Is a Reckoning for Republican Deficit Hawks  —  WASHINGTON — As President Trump's top economic advisers faced a barrage of questions on Wednesday about the tax plan they had just unfurled, there was one that they struggled most to answer: how to keep the “massive tax cuts” …

Warren ‘troubled’ by $400,000 Wall Street speaking fee for Obama  —  WASHINGTON — Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren gently criticized former president Barack Obama Thursday for his decision to accept $400,000 from a Wall Street firm to speak at a health care conference this fall.

North Korea puts out new video showing the White House in crosshairs and carriers exploding  —  SEOUL — A North Korean propaganda outlet released a video clip on Thursday showing a simulated attack on the White House and declaring that “the enemy to be destroyed is in our sights.”

Fox News Host Jesse Watters Finally Gets In Trouble For Something  —  Insulting Asian-Americans and homeless people is fine, but making a joke about Ivanka Trump is too much.  —  Over the years, Fox News personality Jesse Watters has mocked Asian-Americans in New York City's Chinatown …

Cruz: Breaking up 9th Circuit Court ‘a possibility’  —  (R-Texas) says that breaking up the 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals is “certainly a possibility.”  —  “The 9th Circuit is the largest federal court of appeals,” he said Thursday on “The Jack Riccardi Show.”

The Hungarian Rise And Fall Of Sebastian Gorka  —  Before Sebastian Gorka was an adviser to President Donald Trump, he was a man with a dream to rise to the top of Hungarian politics.  It didn't quite work out.  —  Reporting From  —  Budapest  —  BUDAPEST — Sebastian Gorka …

NBC News President on Megyn Kelly's New Show, Trump and Fox News Turmoil  —  “I would never allow a culture like that to exist,” Noah Oppenheim says of the recent Bill O'Reilly allegations.  —  Noah Oppenheim's career in TV news (with a stop in Hollywood along the way) began back in 2000, when he was a senior at Harvard.

After emotional debate, Texas House tentatively passes “sanctuary” legislation  —  The 93-54 vote fell along party lines and came after one of the slowest moving but most emotional legislative days at the state Capitol.  —  Editor's note: This story has been updated throughout.

Neandertal and Denisovan DNA from Pleistocene sediments  —  1Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.  —  2Research Group for Ancient Genomics and Evolution, Department of Molecular Biology …