Exclusive: Trump asked Rosenstein if he was ‘on my team’  —  Washington (CNN)Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein visited the White House in December seeking President Donald Trump's help.  The top Justice Department official in the Russia investigation wanted Trump's support …

Viewers approve of Trump's first State of the Union address - CBS News poll  —  Views of the speech  —  Three in four Americans who tuned in to President Trump's State of the Union address tonight approved of the speech he gave.  Just a quarter disapproved.  —  How did the speech make you feel?

Exclusive: Controversial FBI agent co-wrote initial draft of explosive Comey letter reopening Clinton email probe  —  GOP Rep.: FBI texts most biased I've ever seen  —  Washington (CNN)Emails obtained by CNN show the FBI agent at the center of a Capitol Hill storm played a key role …

Giving North Korea a ‘bloody nose’ carries a huge risk to Americans  —  Victor Cha is a professor at Georgetown University and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.  —  North Korea, if not stopped, will build an arsenal with multiple nuclear missiles meant …

Josh Hawley blames sex trafficking on ‘sexual revolution’ of 1960s in leaked audio  —  During a speech to pastors in Kansas City in December, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley linked the problem of sex trafficking to the sexual revolution of the 1960s.  —  Hawley, the top Republican prospect …

Justice Department drops corruption case against Menendez  —  The Justice Department reversed itself and dropped its corruption case against Sen. Bob Menendez on Wednesday, removing a huge burden from the senator — and national Democrats — as he prepares for a reelection campaign.

Kellyanne Conway Botched Trump Damage Control Meeting With African Ambassadors  —  But Conway didn't discuss much on Africa at all, leaving participants bewildered.  —  In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump's disparaging comments about immigration from countries he considered undesirable …

Trump Rating Ticks Up; Support for Tax Plan Increases  —  GOP gains on Dems in generic House ballot  —  West Long Branch, NJ - Donald Trump's job approval rating has bounced back from the record low registered in last month's Monmouth University Poll , as more Americans now see the president …

SF will wipe thousands of marijuana convictions off the books  —  San Francisco will retroactively apply California's marijuana-legalization laws to past criminal cases, District Attorney George Gascón said Wednesday — expunging or reducing misdemeanor and felony convictions going back decades.

Michael Wolff: Nikki Haley ‘embraced’ rumors of affair with Trump … Controversial author Michael Wolff is hitting back at Nikki Haley after the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations denied having an affair with President Trump.  —  In an interview with theSkimm, Wolff said Haley “seems to have embraced” the rumor that he started.

Bob Brady is not running for reelection  —  Bob Brady, the larger-than-life leader of Philadelphia's Democratic Party, announced on Wednesday that he is not running for reelection to the U.S. House.  —  He revealed the news in a way that seemed all too perfect for the decades-long party boss …

Donald Trump Just Asked Congress to End the Rule of Law  —  Donald Trump's first State of the Union was a deeply dangerous speech.  —  It was deeply dangerous because he finally followed in the footsteps of European leaders like Hungarian President Viktor Orban who have long ago learned …

EXCLUSIVE: Trump officials discussed “reversing” abortion for undocumented teen  —  The Trump administration official in charge of the Office of Refugee Resettlement discussed trying to use a controversial, scientifically unproven method to reverse an undocumented teen's abortion, according to documents reviewed by VICE News.

Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, resigns amid tobacco stock furor  — Fitzgerald's departure comes less than a day after Politico revealed she bought stock in a tobacco company within a month of taking her job.

White House seeks 72 percent cut to clean energy research, underscoring administration's preference for fossil fuels … The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department's renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72 percent overall …

Florida (Congress)Man Invited Infamous Troll Chuck Johnson to Trump's State of The Union … Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), a conservative Republican firebrand, was the lawmaker responsible for inviting the controversial internet troll Chuck Johnson to Tuesday night's State of the Union address.

Train carrying members of Congress — including House Speaker Paul Ryan — hits a truck  —  (CNN)A train carrying members of Congress — including House Speaker Paul Ryan — to their legislative retreat in West Virginia hit a truck Wednesday, multiple sources told CNN.

The Cabinet Files reveal national security breaches, NBN negotiations, welfare reform plans  —  Hundreds of top-secret and highly classified cabinet documents have been obtained by the ABC following an extraordinary breach of national security.  —  This was not a leak — here's what it took to unlock national secrets

Virginia Tech freshman had assault rifle, attempted to buy 5,000 rounds of ammo, police say  —  Man, 19, had been Tech student for six months  —  BLACKSBURG, Va. - Police have arrested a Virginia Tech student they say illegally had an assault rifle.  —  Virginia Tech police arrested 19 …

A Paper Tears Apart in a City That Never Quite Came Together  —  LOS ANGELES — When an ambitious Civil War colonel from Ohio seized control of a fledgling daily newspaper here in the late 19th century, Los Angeles was a rough-hewed frontier town with no paved streets and a population of a few thousand people.

‘Using his position for private gain’: HUD lawyers warned Ben Carson risked running afoul of ethics rules by enlisting son … Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson allowed his son to help organize a “listening tour” in Baltimore last summer despite warnings from department lawyers …

Twitter Followers Vanish Amid Inquiries Into Fake Accounts  —  Federal and state authorities are investigating the sellers of artificial followers and other fraudulent social media engagement.  —  More than a million followers have disappeared from the accounts of dozens of prominent Twitter users …

Trump Is Making 2018 Much Harder for Republicans … Like colliding storm systems, the three central dynamics shaping the 2018 electoral battlefield converged in President Trump's first State of the Union address on Tuesday.  And control of Congress may turn on which one of these forces voters weigh most heavily.