Top Items:
New York Times:
Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon's Mysterious U.F.O. Program — WASHINGTON — In the $600 billion annual Defense Department budgets, the $22 million spent on the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program was almost impossible to find. — Which was how the Pentagon wanted it.
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Bryan Bender / Politico:
The Pentagon's Secret Search for UFOs — The Pentagon, at the direction of Congress, a decade ago quietly set up a multi-million dollar program to investigate what are popularly known as unidentified flying objects—UFOs. — The “unidentified aerial phenomena” claimed to have been seen …
Discussion:
Axios
New York Times:
2 Navy Airmen and an Object That 'Accelerated Like Nothing I've Ever Seen' — The following recounts an incident in 2004 that advocates of research into U.F.O.s have said is the kind of event worthy of more investigation, and that was studied by a Pentagon program that investigated U.F.O.s.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Washington Post:
CDC gets list of forbidden words: fetus, transgender, diversity … The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation's top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared for next year's budget.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, ThinkProgress, The Guardian, NPR, Shareblue Media, WGN-TV, New York Magazine, Splinter, KTLA, The Root, myfox8.com, AOL, Friendly Atheist, TheBlaze, Al Jazeera English, STAT, Business Insider, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times, Mediaite, WCMH-TV, The Week, Axios, Mother Jones, Mashable, Lawyers, Guns & Money and Balloon Juice
New York Times:
‘Trump, Trump, Trump!’ How a President's Name Became a Racial Jeer — For more coverage of race, sign up here to have our Race/Related newsletter delivered weekly to your inbox. — The high school basketball squad from Eagle Grove, population 3,700, had traveled 60 miles up Highway 69 …
Discussion:
Politicus USA
Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
FBI officials' text message about Hillary Clinton said to be a cover story for romantic affair — Two senior FBI officials who texted each other about President Trump and Hillary Clinton relied on work phones to try to hide their romance from a spouse and made the bureau's probe …
Discussion:
twitchy.com, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Althouse
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New York Times:
World's Most Expensive Home? Another Bauble for a Saudi Prince — A $300 million chateau is one of a string of extravagant purchases for a prince who is cracking down on ill-gotten wealth and preaching fiscal austerity. — LOUVECIENNES, France — When the Chateau Louis XIV sold …
David Sirota / International Business Times:
Donald Trump And GOP Leaders Could Be Enriched By Last Minute Tax Break Inserted Into Final Bill — Republican congressional leaders and real estate moguls could be personally enriched by a real-estate-related provision GOP lawmakers slipped into the final tax bill released Friday evening …
Discussion:
ThinkProgress, Political Wire, Outside the Beltway and Raw Story
Axios:
Rep. Adam Schiff “worried” about GOP working against House Intel — Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, tells MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace: — “Republican House members on our committee ... are taking steps to shut us down.”
Discussion:
Political Wire
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Heather Caygle / Politico:
Why Democrats failed to tank tax reform — The tax fight has all the ingredients that helped Democrats kill Obamacare repeal: party unity on Capitol Hill, energized liberal activists and legislation that polls in the toilet. But this time it doesn't appear to be enough.
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Kathy Lally / Washington Post:
The two expat bros who terrorized women correspondents in Moscow — Matt Taibbi and Mark Ames trafficked in hideous stereotypes and body-shaming. — There's more than one way to harass women. A raft of men in recent weeks have paid for accusations of sexual harassment with their companies, their jobs, their plum political posts.
New York Times:
E.P.A. Contractor Has Spent Past Year Scouring the Agency for Anti-Trump Officials — One of the top executives of a consulting firm that the Environmental Protection Agency has recently hired to help it with media affairs has spent the past year investigating agency employees who have been critical …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Shareblue Media, Raw Story, DeSmogBlog, Media Matters for America, Grist, Mashable, ThinkProgress and Mother Jones, more at Mediagazer »
Dave McNary / Variety:
Anita Hill Chairs Hollywood Anti-Sexual Harassment Commission Formed by Top Execs — Spurred by the multitude of sexual abuse scandals, top Hollywood executives have tapped Anita Hill to chair the newly formed Commission on Sexual Harassment and Advancing Equality in the Workplace.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and Mediaite
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Tara Palmeri / ABC News:
Omarosa Manigault Newman's White House role fraught with tension, sources say — WATCH Omarosa Manigualt recalls last time she spoke to Trump, says he ‘not a racist’ — Before she resigned from the White House earlier this week, Omarosa Manigault Newman, the firebrand antagonist from reality television's …
Discussion:
Business Insider, Raw Story and CBS Los Angeles
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David J. Lynch / Washington Post:
Trump promised ‘America First’ would keep jobs here. But the tax plan might push them overseas. — Delegates hold signs reading “Make America First Again” during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. It was a theme of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
Josh Delk / The Hill:
Roy Moore fundraising for ‘election integrity fund’ ahead of election certification — 's campaign announced Friday that it is seeking donations for an “election integrity fund” following the former judge's unsuccessful bid for an Alabama Senate seat. — Moore has refused to concede the race …
Discussion:
Lawyers, Guns & Money, AOL, Politico, WBRC-TV, twitchy.com and RedState
Caroline Orr / Shareblue Media:
“It just seems wrong.” GOP rep admits tax scam he voted for rips off working people — Rep. Tom Cole knows the GOP tax scheme will hurt working Americans — but his colleagues told him to vote for it anyway. So he did. — There's not much to like about the GOP tax scheme.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast and CNBC
Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times:
As a Must-Pass Republican Tax Bill Headed for the Finish Line, Rubio Saw an Opening — WASHINGTON — As the Republican Party sprinted toward notching its first, and much-needed, significant legislative win in the form of a $1.5 trillion tax cut, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida spied an opening.
Discussion:
Politico
Max Greenwood / The Hill:
Brookings fellow rips Trump: I entered through lottery system — A fellow at the Brookings Institution blasted President Trump — 's derision of the visa lottery system on Friday, putting himself forward as an example of the program's effectiveness. — “I won a green card through …
Discussion:
Althouse and Hullabaloo
Daily Mail:
Jared Kushner's parents are spotted at his D.C. home — Jared's parents Charles and Seryl, both 63, were photographed arriving to Ivanka Trump and Jared's house in Kalorama today — A Secret Service agent let them in; Jared left for work earlier in the day and Ivanka wasn't seen around the family home
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
The Grande Dame of Documentary is Leaving Her Home at HBO — After almost 40 years, she has reels of memorable film, a pile of awards and plenty of perspective on the current battle of the sexes. — When Sheila Nevins first started working in television in the 1970s, she thought …
Associated Press:
AP-NORC Poll: 52 percent say country worse off under Trump — WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are painting a pessimistic view of the country and President Donald Trump as 2017 comes to a close. — That's according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Discussion:
Shareblue Media