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Exclusive: IRS shares information with special counsel in Russia probe — Washington (CNN)The IRS is now sharing information with special counsel Robert Mueller about key Trump campaign officials, after the two entities clashed this summer over both the scope of the investigation …
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Axios, Mediaite, Business Insider, Washington Free Beacon and Raw Story
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Blumenthal: ‘99 percent sure’ of Russia indictments — Criminal charges against two former top advisers to President Donald Trump are virtually certain, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Tuesday. — Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort are almost sure to be indicted as a result …
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The Daily Caller, Business Insider, Axios and Political Wire


Special counsel probing flow of Russian-American money to Trump political funds — WATCH: One of the FBI's top investigators, tapped by special counsel Robert Mueller just weeks ago to help lead the probe of Russian meddling in last year's presidential election, has left Mueller's team, sources tell ABC News.
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Politicus USA and Raw Story

U.S. denies request for Puerto Rico shipping waiver — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Tuesday denied a request to waive shipping restrictions to help get fuel and supplies to storm-ravaged Puerto Rico, saying it would do nothing to address the island's main impediment to shipping, damaged ports.
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Trump defaulted on payments for his Puerto Rico golf course, leaving the territory with a $33 million tax debt — On Monday night, Donald Trump finally broke his near-deafening silence on the devastating situation in Puerto Rico with a series of tweets that tried to switch the narrative away …
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Shareblue, Raw Story, ABC News, Washington Post, Salon, The Daily Caller, NPR, Hullabaloo, IJR, Politico, ThinkProgress, Mashable, emptywheel, CBS New York, Associated Press and Business Insider

The Law Strangling Puerto Rico
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Grist, The Guardian, Fox News, The Atlantic, Splinter, Raw Story and Big Think


Trump delivering aid to Puerto Rico: ‘This is a thing called the Atlantic Ocean, this is tough stuff’

Here's what Trump could actually do to help Puerto Rico
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Washington Post, Politico, FiveThirtyEight, The Daily Caller, ThinkProgress, Shareblue, twitchy.com, Axios, Raw Story, Business Insider, ABC News and IJR

Nearly Half of Americans Don't Know Puerto Ricans Are Fellow Citizens
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Washington Post, BillMoyers.com, CNN, Splinter, The Daily Caller, Informed Comment and Marginal REVOLUTION

US won't waive shipping restrictions for Puerto Rico relief
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mccain.senate.gov

Trump defends response to devastation in Puerto Rico, promises visit
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New York Times, TalkLeft and US News

The White House Is Not Ignoring Puerto Rico
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Power Line, Bloomberg, Jezebel, HuffPost, The Daily Caller, KECI, FEMA.gov, Washington Free Beacon, PBS NewsHour, New York Times, Hullabaloo, The Atlantic and twitchy.com

San Juan mayor to Trump: Hurricane relief, debt crisis are ‘two different issues’
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Talking Points Memo, DCist, IJR, Common Dreams, Splinter and Associated Press

Mayor Describes ‘Near-Death Conditions’ In Puerto Rico's San Juan
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CNN, twitchy.com, Daily Kos and Vox


Head of Drug Enforcement Administration to Leave, Alluding to Dismay Over Trump — WASHINGTON — The acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration will resign at the end of the week, according to law enforcement officials, who said he had become convinced that President Trump had little respect for the law.
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Mother Jones, NBC News, CNBC, Mediaite, Politicus USA and Washington Free Beacon
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McConnell Says Republicans Are Giving Up on Health Bill — WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday officially pulled the plug on the latest plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act, scrapping a planned vote on the measure and effectively admitting defeat in the last-gasp drive …
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Shareblue, CNN, The Last Tradition, Outside the Beltway, Splinter, Jezebel, ECHIDNE OF THE SNAKES, Forbes and Common Dreams
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Senate won't vote on last-ditch Obamacare repeal bill
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Axios, Business Insider, New York Magazine, RedState, Mother Jones, The Week, The Daily Caller and Joe.My.God.

Senate Republicans Pull Their Last Obamacare Repeal Bill Before The Vote
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Business Insider, Vanity Fair, The Ringer - All, Politicus USA, Daily Kos and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Trump rips ‘so-called Republicans’ over ObamaCare repeal
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Political Wire


Jared Kushner's lawyer, fooled by ‘email prankster,’ offers window into private email controversy — Abbe Lowell, a top Washington lawyer, exchanged emails on Monday with a prankster posing as his client Jared Kushner, at one point telling the prankster he needed to see “all emails” …
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The Atlantic, HuffPost, Above the Law, Splinter, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Little Green Footballs, Mediaite and Raw Story
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Sean Spicer Lawyers Up As Russia Probe Heats Up … Sean Spicer has lawyered up. — The president's former press secretary has tapped Chris Mead, a high-powered criminal defense attorney based, to handle issues related to the special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, The Daily Beast has learned.
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Talking Points Memo, Axios and Political Wire

Trump already distancing himself from Strange in Alabama race — President Donald Trump began distancing himself from a Luther Strange loss before ballots were even cast, telling conservative activists Monday night the candidate he's backing in Alabama's GOP Senate primary was likely to lose …
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Business Insider, Political Wire, Raw Story and The Daily Caller
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Live Results in the Alabama Senate Republican Primary
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Weekly Standard, TheBlaze, Joe.My.God., Business Insider, ThinkProgress, WHNT-TV and Politico

Ala. Senate candidate pulls out his gun during campaign rally
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Politico, The Hill, Business Insider, National Review, Washington Post, Breitbart, Vox, The Daily Caller and Associated Press


Price's private-jet travels included visits with colleagues, lunch with son — Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price took a government-funded private jet in August to get to St. Simons Island, an exclusive Georgia resort where he and his wife own land, a day and a half before he addressed …
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Axios, Talking Points Memo, Political Wire and Raw Story


Sen. Bob Corker will not seek re-election next year — Sen. Bob Corker said Tuesday he will not seek re-election next year. — “After much thought, consideration and family discussion over the past year, Elizabeth and I have decided that I will leave the United States Senate when my term expires …
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Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, Axios, Washington Free Beacon, Political Wire and IJR
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Corker to retire after 2018 — Senate Foreign Relations …
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ABC News and The Federalist


Republicans agree to raise bottom tax rate, double standard deduction — Top White House and GOP leaders have agreed to raise the lowest individual tax rate from 10 to 12 percent, paired with doubling the standard deduction, 5 senior Republicans tell us. — Why this matters …
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Politico, CNBC, Business Insider, Vox, Common Dreams and Reuters
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GOP Tax Plan to Allow for Top Individual Rate Above 35%
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The Rush Limbaugh Show, ThinkProgress and The Daily Caller

Trump's State-Tax Plan Could Cause Headaches for 52 Republican Lawmakers
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Axios, Daily Kos and Politicus USA


Law Professors Plan To Take A Knee To Protest Jeff Sessions' Speech On Campus Free Speech — Faculty members at Georgetown University Law Center have signed a letter condemning what they say is the “hypocrisy” of Sessions speaking about free speech. The speech is only open to a select group of law students.
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HuffPost, thehoya.com, Reuters, Vox, Common Dreams, Splinter, ThinkProgress, Daily Wire and The Root, more at Mediagazer »
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Trump Again Criticizes Jeff Sessions Over Russia Probe
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Politico, ABC News, Business Insider and Axios

Georgetown Law Professors Kneel in Protest of Jeff Sessions' Speech
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Inside Higher Ed, Washington Post, RedState and Daily Kos


Saudi Arabia Agrees to Let Women Drive — Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that it would allow women to drive, ending a longstanding policy that has become a global symbol of the repression of women in the ultraconservative kingdom. — The change, which will take effect in June of next year …
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Financial Times, BBC, The Guardian, John Hawkins' Right Wing News, RedState, IJR, The Daily Caller, Refinery29, The Verge, Common Dreams, Axios, Mashable, Business Insider, The Week, TheBlaze, Mother Jones and Jezebel


You Are Jonathan Chait's Enemy — New York's Jonathan Chait writes today about the “dangerous consequences” of the left's use of the label “white supremacist” to describe Donald Trump, the alt-right, and American conservatism in general. — In the course of defending his piece on Twitter …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo

North Korea seeks help from Republican analysts: 'What's up with Trump?' — BERN, Switzerland — North Korean government officials have been quietly trying to arrange talks with Republican-linked analysts in Washington, in an apparent attempt to make sense of President Trump and his confusing messages to Kim Jong Un's regime.
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AOL, Raw Story, The Week and Shakesville


Giving you more characters to express yourself — Trying to cram your thoughts into a Tweet - we've all been there, and it's a pain. — Interestingly, this isn't a problem everywhere people Tweet. For example, when I (Aliza) Tweet in English, I quickly run into the 140 character limit and have to edit my Tweet down so it fits.
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Washington Post, Vox, Daily Mail, The Ringer - All, NBC News, ABC News, Business Insider, Mashable, The Daily Caller, Gizmodo, Joe.My.God. and WHNT-TV, more at Techmeme »

EPA spending almost $25,000 to install a secure phone booth for Scott Pruitt — The Environmental Protection Agency is spending nearly $25,000 to construct a secure, soundproof communications booth in the office of Administrator Scott Pruitt, according to government contracting records.
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New York Times, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, TheBlaze and Political Wire