Mueller Expands Probe to Trump Business Transactions  —  Special counsel examines dealings of Kushner, Manafort, Trump  —  Trump has warned Mueller against going beyond Russia in probe  —  The U.S. special counsel investigating possible ties between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia …

Trump's blast of Sessions has ‘chilling’ effect inside West Wing  —  Trump: ‘I love getting even with people’ (1992)  —  STORY HIGHLIGHTS  —  Washington (CNN)For President Donald Trump, loyalty in Washington is a one-way street.  —  Trump's trashing of several of his administration's …

Inspiring Little Fear in Senators, Trump Struggles to Sell Health Bill  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump thought he could sell balky Republican senators like Ron Johnson of Wisconsin on the Senate health care bill through pleasantries, cajoling and, ultimately, some Oval Office muscle.

Linkin Park Singer Chester Bennington Dead, Commits Suicide by Hanging (UPDATE)  —  12:32 PM PT — Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Bennington was home alone at the time of the suicide.  We're told his family was out of town and he was found upstairs by an employee.

Team Trump Used Obamacare Money to Run PR Effort Against It … The Trump administration has spent taxpayer money meant to encourage enrollment in the Affordable Care Act on a public relations campaign aimed at methodically strangling it.  —  The effort, which involves a multi-pronged social media push …

H.R. 1628, the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017: An Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute  —  CBO and JCT estimate that enacting this legislation would reduce federal deficits by $420 billion over the coming decade and increase the number of people who are uninsured by 22 million in 2026 relative to the number under current law.

During ‘Made in America Week,’ President Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club applies to hire 70 foreign workers  —  President Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida has asked permission to hire 70 foreign workers this fall, attesting — in the middle of the White House's “Made in America Week” …

Interior Dept. ordered Glacier park chief, other climate expert pulled from Zuckerberg tour  —  Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg flew to Glacier National Park on Saturday to tour the melting ice fields that have become the poster child for climate change's effects on Montana's northern Rockies.

NYC law that makes dog-sitting illegal without kennel license triggers rage from pet lovers  —  Pet lovers are barking mad over a little-known city rule that makes dog-sitting illegal in New York.  —  Health Department rules ban anyone from taking money to care for an animal outside a licensed kennel …

Two of six African teens who went missing from robotics competition are in Canada, D.C. police say … Two of the six teenage members of the Burundi robotics team who went missing from Washington this week have crossed into Canada and are safe, D.C. police said on Thursday.

White County Inmates Given Reduced Jail Time If They Get A Vasectomy  —  Inmates in White County, Tennessee have been given credit for their jail time if they voluntarily agree to have a vasectomy or birth control implant, a popular new program that is being called “unconstitutional” by the ACLU.

Billionaire GOP donor out of politics calls Trump ‘abortion of a human’  —  TALLAHASSEE — Billionaire health care mogul and GOP megadonor Mike Fernandez has one message to Republicans who don't stand up to President Donald Trump: Grow a pair.  —  “All the Republicans who hide behind the flag …

Kamala Harris and Rand Paul: To Shrink Jails, Let's Reform Bail  —  Kalief Browder, a 16-year-old New Yorker, was arrested on charges of stealing a backpack in 2010.  To ensure he would show up for trial, and because of a previous offense, the judge set bail at $3,000.  But his family could not afford to pay.

Hill investigators, Trump staff look to Facebook for critical answers in Russia probe  —  STORY HIGHLIGHTS  —  (CNN)Top Democrats on the House and Senate Russia investigations and a top digital staffer from the campaign of President Donald Trump split sharply on whether the campaign colluded with Russia …

Lawyer blasts court ruling allowing abortion for 12-year-old who was raped  —  Lawyer slams ruling allowing abortion for 12-year-old rape victim  —  A former state court official and a counselor for pregnant women today criticized an Alabama court ruling allowing a 12-year-old girl who was raped …

Louise Mensch's Destructive Fantasies  —  Mensch, a former British MP, is now the purveyor of fantastical conspiracy theories about Donald Trump and Russia.  —  A few years back, my father and I voluntarily submitted ourselves to an episode of Question Time, a long-running program on the BBC …

IQ costs Oregon parents their kids, but is that fair?  (Column)  —  Gallery: Redmond couple fights for custody of their children  —  The nursery in Amy Fabbrini and Eric Ziegler's home is filled with unread children's books and unworn baby clothes.  A Winnie the Pooh blanket lies untouched inside …

Cancer isn't silencing McCain in career's latest chapter  —  John McCain couldn't bring himself to vote for Donald Trump — so he talked about writing in his best friend's name for president.  After the election, he's been the leading Senate Republican critic of Trump's posture toward Russia.

Column Bill Nye on the terrifying ascendancy of American ‘dingbatitude’  —  From the Emmy-winning “science guy on” the PBS children's television program to the lab-coat crusader who “saves the world” on Netflix, Bill Nye is a longtime science-is-entertaining educator, a onetime mechanical engineer and a perpetual science lover.

‘Is this still off-camera?’  Press mocks Sarah Huckabee Sanders for bringing visual aids to audio-only briefing  —  White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday befuddled members of the press corps when she shared visual aids at a briefing where video cameras had been banned by the Trump administration.

USA Today Complains About Lack of ‘Women’ and ‘No Lead Actors of Color’ in Movie ‘Dunkirk’  —  USA Today's Brian Truitt describes himself as a “shameless geek,” but oddly enough omits the fact that he is also just as shamelessly ignorant when it comes to the signaling of his own CorrectThink virtue.

Lessons Learned From Roger Ailes One Year After His Fox Firing  —  On the anniversary of the ouster of the most influential man in conservative politics, who died in May, a legacy is revealed in Trump's anti-media venom, Rupert Murdoch's unrest and a vision that has jumped cable news to become the dominant historical current.

Christie's last big move could be filling Menendez's seat  —  Gov. Chris Christie is the most unpopular governor in the country, but in his last days in office he may get to exercise enormous influence nationally: Choosing a successor to embattled U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez …

For House Republicans, Past Performance Is No Guarantee of Future Results  —  What recent midterms tell us about how members of the presidential party fare  —  As they dig their trenches to try to withstand what may (or may not be) a Democratic wave, Republicans may take heart in the performance …

Why not turn the White House cameras on?  —  With each day cameras at the White House briefing room are banned from filming, the White House is chipping away at decades of tradition.  Should networks and journalists ignore the White House's press restrictions?

Donald Trump said 414 false things in his first six months.  Here's what we've learned  —  Big lies, needless lies, above all else unrelenting lies.  With some exceptions, this is not sophisticated deceit.  —  The totals in this story have been updated to reflect Trump's Wednesday interview with the New York Times.