PHOTOS: Christie, family soak up sun on N.J. beach he closed to public  —  Gallery: Gov. Chris Christie and family on closed Island Beach State Park in N.J.  —  NJ Advance Media for NJ.com  —  BERKELEY TOWNSHIP — People hoping to visit Island Beach State Park this holiday weekend …

Scoop: Bannon pushes tax hike for wealthy  —  Steve Bannon is causing a stir inside the administration by pushing an idea that's anathema to most Republicans: raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans to pay for steep middle and working-class tax cuts.  (Some officials who've heard Bannon's idea …

Trump Foot Soldier Sidelined Under Glare of Russia Inquiry  —  Just over a decade ago, Donald J. Trump was locked in conflict with a group of apartment owners who had taken control of the condominium board at his new glass tower across from the United Nations.

GOP leaders have few sure votes on debt ceiling  —  Only 16 House Republicans who are currently in office backed the last “clean” debt hike, and few of them will say they are certain to support it this year.  —  If the debt ceiling is raised with a clean hike — a distinct possibility given …

Justice Kennedy Tells October 2018 Clerkship Applicants He's Considering Retirement, Right Before 2018 Midterms  —  Big news hiding in Nina Totenberg's story on Justice Gorsuch voting 100% with Justice Thomas: … This would put Justice Kennedy's retirement right before the 2018 midterms …

Deportation a ‘Death Sentence’ to Adoptees After a Lifetime in the U.S.  —  SEOUL, South Korea — Phillip Clay was adopted at 8 into an American family in Philadelphia.  —  Twenty-nine years later, in 2012, after numerous arrests and a struggle with drug addiction, he was deported back to his birth country, South Korea.

Vagina surgery ‘sought by girls as young as nine’ because of pornography, doctors reveal  —  Girls as young as nine are reportedly seeking surgery on their private parts because of insecurities stemming from adult content such as pornography, according to leading doctors.

A Muslim Comes to Rural Minnesota  —  This morning the Washington Post tweeted a news alert that said: … The tweet linked to this article by reporter Stephanie McCrummen.  It tells the story of Dr. Ayaz Virji, a graduate of Georgetown University medical school who practiced family medicine …

A Reddit user who wrote about stabbing Muslims is claiming credit for Trump's CNN video  —  The user whose screen name is an unprintable corruption of “Han Solo” spent about a year on Reddit before attaining stardom, courtesy of a share from President Trump.  —  Some posts were unpopular.

Independent Press Is Under Siege as Freedom Rings  —  Happy Birthday, America, I guess.  —  You're old enough to know that you can't always have a feel-good birthday.  And let's face it: This Fourth of July just isn't going to be one of them.  —  How could it be when one of the pillars …