Senate health-care draft repeals Obamacare taxes, provides bigger subsidies for low-income Americans than House bill  —  Senate leaders on Wednesday were putting the final touches on legislation that would reshape a big piece of the U.S. health-care system by dramatically rolling back Medicaid …

Intel chiefs tell investigators Trump suggested they refute collusion with Russians  — Coats and Rogers said interactions with Trump about the Russia investigation were odd, uncomfortable  —  (CNN)Two of the nation's top intelligence officials told Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team …

Trump Turns an Iowa Rally Into a Venting Session  —  CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — President Trump said on Wednesday that he was crafting legislation to bar new immigrants from receiving welfare for at least five years.  He announced the proposal in a conquering-hero-returns speech in Iowa …

The Note: Senate's unhealthy start on health care  —  WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY  — Time to show their work: Senate Republicans share their health care draft this morning after negotiating it behind closed doors.  The bill is expected to roll back Medicaid expansions but more gradually …

FBI Fired Sebastian Gorka for Anti-Muslim Diatribes … The inflammatory pundit Sebastian Gorka worked for the FBI while he was a paid consultant to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, lecturing bureau employees on counterterrorism issues.  —  Until the FBI terminated Gorka for his over-the-top Islamophobic rhetoric.

Trumps suggests creating law that has been enacted since 1996  —  President Trump in a rally on Wednesday evening said immigrants who enter the United States should not be eligible for welfare benefits for five years, though such a law has already existed for 20 years.

Jon Ossoff spent six times more than Karen Handel but complains about ‘money in politics’  —  Down south in Georgia last night, a woman overcame the odds to win a seat in Congress and prove that money can't always buy elections.  Unfortunately for Democrats, that underdog named Karen Handel is a Republican.

The GOP's Suburban Nightmare  —  Surveying the Democratic wreckage after a disastrous 1952 campaign, Robert Taft, the typically taciturn Ohio Republican senator, made a bold prediction about the opposition.  “The Democratic Party,” the one-time Senate majority leader asserted …

Trump appointee is a Saudi government lobbyist  —  Richard Hohlt earning six figures from kingdom bent on influencing Trump  —  President Donald Trump talks with Saudi King Salman as they pose for photos with leaders at the Arab Islamic American Summit, at the King Abdulaziz Conference Center …

Kamala Harris Was Silenced.  Then She Silenced Us.  —  Last week, Senator Kamala Harris, a Democrat from California, made headlines when Republican senators interrupted her at a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee while she interrogated Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Op-Ed The case for restricting hate speech  —  Members of the Westboro Baptist Church picket in front of the Supreme Court in Washington on Oct. 6, 2010.  (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)  —  As a sociologist and legal scholar, I struggle to explain the boundaries of free speech to undergraduates.

White House Tries to Get G.O.P. to Water Down Russia Sanctions Bill  —  WASHINGTON — The White House is quietly lobbying House Republicans to weaken a bill overwhelmingly passed by the Senate last week that would slap tough new sanctions on Russia for its meddling in the 2016 election …

Not quite half of American teens have had sex by 18.  That's actually low.  —  American teens may be becoming more conservative about sex.  —  According to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report reflecting data from 2011 to 2015, about 42 percent of girls and about 44 percent …

2 Cosby holdouts prevented guilty verdict, juror says  —  In an exclusive interview with ABC News, a juror in the Bill Cosby sexual assault case said that after dozens of hours of grueling deliberations in a tiny room, 10 of the 12 jurors agreed he was guilty on two counts.

White House shows no sign of reopening Paris talks  —  Three weeks after President Donald Trump pledged to pull the United States out of the Paris climate agreement and negotiate a better deal, foreign allies and U.S. officials alike remain perplexed about the White House's plans going forward.

Column: What to do with a broken Illinois: Dissolve the Land of Lincoln  —  Illinois is like Venezuela now, a fiscally broken state that has lost its will to live, although for the moment, we still have enough toilet paper.  —  But before we run out of the essentials, let's finally admit …

Spicer: Publicity-Hungry Reporters Want to ‘Become YouTube Stars’  —  White House press secretary defends use of off-camera briefings to prioritize ‘substantive discussions’  —  White House press secretary Sean Spicer pushed back on reporters' complaints that on-camera news briefings have been limited …

Judiciary Committee to continue Russia probe after Mueller meeting  —  Top members of the Judiciary Committee indicated Wednesday that they will move forward with their own investigation into Russia's election meddling, after meeting with special counsel Robert Mueller.

Shoreham man jailed for stirring up religious hatred in Facebook posts  —  A man is facing more than a year behind bars for attempting to stir up religious hatred in Sussex.  —  Nigel Pelham was charged with eight counts of publishing threatening written material intending to stir …