In a Private Dinner, Trump Demanded Loyalty.  Comey Demurred.  —  WASHINGTON — Only seven days after Donald J. Trump was sworn in as president, James B. Comey has told associates, the F.B.I. director was summoned to the White House for a one-on-one dinner with the new commander in chief.

Sessions issues sweeping new criminal charging policy  —  Attorney General Jeff Sessions overturned the sweeping criminal charging policy of former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and directed his federal prosecutors Thursday to charge defendants with the most serious, provable crimes carrying the most severe penalties.

Conventional Artillery and Nuclear Missiles in North Korea  —  A Game Theory Approach to Credible Threats  —  There has been much discussion of what a Second Korean War might look like.  I think it is misguided.  I am just a game theorist with a bit of Japan expertise …

Aetna CEO in private meeting: “Single-payer, I think we should have that debate”  —  A top insurance executive signals openness to government-financed health care.  —  The chief executive of one of the country's largest health insurance companies says he is open to having a single-payer debate.

HHS Secretary Dr. Tom Price On The Senate Negoitations Ahead  —  HHS Secretary Dr. Tom Price joined me this morning to discuss the ongoing collapse of Obamacare and the negotiations with and within the Senate:  —  Audio:  —  05-12hhs-price  —  Transcript:

Why James Comey Had to Go  —  The FBI head's sense of perfect virtue led him to ignore his own enormous conflicts.

Republicans misstate, again and again on TV and at town halls, what's in their health-care bill  —  The American Health Care Act that narrowly passed out of the House earlier this month cuts $880 billion from Medicaid — but that won't affect anyone's coverage.

Trump lawyers claim his tax returns show no income from Russia with few exceptions  —  President Trump's lawyers on Friday said that a review of his last ten years of tax returns do not reveal “any income of any type from Russian sources” with some exceptions, but refused to release copies of his tax returns to verify such conclusions.

EPA will stop blocking giant Pebble Mine project  —  The EPA and mining firm Pebble Limited Partnership have reached a settlement in their legal dispute over the proposed Pebble Mine near Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska:  — Quick take: Pebble can file permit applications for the project to move forward …

High school takes back yearbooks with ‘Build that wall,’ other inappropriate quotes  —  ROCKINGHAM, N.C.  —  All of the yearbooks that had been distributed at the Richmond Early College High School near Rockingham have been taken back by the school after some senior quotes were deemed controversial, the school system says.

New Zealand Population Surges Most Since World Turmoil of 1974  —  Record immigration drives 2.1% jump in year through March  —  ‘New Zealand is an island of calm in troubled waters’: Eaqub  —  The last time New Zealand's population grew this much, the world was reeling from an oil crisis …