Top Items:


Dozens at White House lack permanent security clearances … Dozens of White House employees are awaiting permanent security clearances and have been working for months with temporary approvals to handle sensitive information while the FBI continues to probe their backgrounds, according to U.S. officials.
Discussion:
emptywheel and Lawyers, Guns & Money
RELATED:


Trump White House Fingered Corey Lewandowski in Rob Porter ‘Smear Campaign’ … Late Tuesday night, senior White House officials reached out to Sen. Orrin Hatch's (R-UT) office with an urgent request. They needed the Utah Republican to put together a statement praising his former chief …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, New York Times, Mediaite, No More Mister Nice Blog, Joe.My.God., Daily Kos, ABC News, Axios, The Guardian, Breitbart, Political Wire, NBC News, Mother Jones, The Week and Splinter


Top White House officials knew of abuse allegations against top aide for months — White House Counsel Donald McGahn knew one year ago that Staff Secretary Rob Porter's ex-wives accused him of domestic violence but allowed him to serve as an influential gatekeeper and aide to President Trump …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, Splinter, thecut, Axios, The Week, Mediaite, fox13now.com, Politico, Boing Boing, Women in the World, Raw Story and Vox


“He Was F—ing Pissed”: With Rob Porter Gone, the Heat on John Kelly Is Increasing — Trump is not happy with the chaos; Jared and Ivanka are trying to right the ship; and even Hope Hicks, one of the president's closest confidants, is in trouble. — A day after White House Staff Secretary …
Discussion:
Business Insider, Daily Kos, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Shareblue Media, Esquire, Hullabaloo, The Mahablog, Mediaite and Lawyers, Guns & Money


Unwelcome Attention for John Kelly, the Man Enlisted to Bring Calm — WASHINGTON — Among the many people agitated this week over John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff, was President Trump. And among the people the president called to express dissatisfaction, according to those close to him …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Weekly Standard, Joe.My.God., CBS News, The Week, NBC News, Mediaite, Axios and Balloon Juice


John Kelly crisis engulfs the West Wing — The Rob Porter crisis has become a John Kelly crisis, and it has now totally engulfed the West Wing. White House staff — especially Porter's close friendship circle —are shell-shocked by the allegations of domestic abuse by the departing aide.
Discussion:
Raw Story, The Week and Washington Post


Omarosa says she wouldn't vote for Trump again ‘in a million years’ … She claimed to be looking forward to “staying away from the media,” but that didn't stop Omarosa from dropping as many headline-making statements as she could during Thursday night's episode of “Celebrity Big Brother.”
Discussion:
Washington Times and Political Wire


Inside Hope Hicks' Troubled Romances with Ousted Top Trump Aides Rob Porter and Corey Lewandowski — President Trump's communications director Hope Hicks has now been romantically linked to not one but two ousted Trump aides who have been accused of violence against women.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, CNNMoney, Business Insider, The Rush Limbaugh Show, Women in the World and The Federalist


Kelly knew before abuse reports that Porter would be denied security clearance
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Associated Press

Rob Porter's History of Domestic Abuse Wasn't a Secret. It's Just That No One Cared.
Discussion:
Axios, CNN, The Week, Politico, The Guardian, Business Insider, Mediaite, Vox, The Gateway Pundit, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, VICE News, The Nation, Talking Points Memo and The Hill

Email to FBI: Porter's friend ‘actively working to quell’ background check issues
Discussion:
Business Insider

McGahn, Kelly knew of Porter allegations for months: report
Discussion:
RedState and Washington Post

‘Your story is mine’: Rob Porter's ex, Jennie Willoughby, inspires outpouring from abuse survivors
Discussion:
NBC News, Althouse, thecut and The Daily Beast


Sources: Porter fallout won't cost Kelly his job — for now
Discussion:
The Week and Washington Post


Democratic Sen. Mark Warner texted with Russian oligarch lobbyist in effort to contact dossier author Christopher Steele — EXCLUSIVE - Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee who has been leading a congressional investigation into President Trump's alleged ties to Russia …
RELATED:


Steele's Back Channel To Democratic Senator Was Lobbyist For Russia's Foreign Minister
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit and Mediaite

Russian Activist Alleges New Link Between the Kremlin and Paul Manafort
Discussion:
The Moscow Times, Raw Story and Associated Press


The dumbest shutdown ever — Rand Paul and Nancy Pelosi have virtually nothing in common. But on Thursday night, the conservative Kentucky firebrand and San Francisco Democratic leader teamed up to push Washington into what Capitol Hill dwellers are calling the dumbest shutdown fight ever.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Associated Press and Splinter
RELATED:


Rush On The GOP Budget: I Just Don't Worry Much About The National Debt Anymore
Discussion:
Washington Post, Politicus USA, twitchy.com, The Rush Limbaugh Show and Mother Jones

GOP rips Rand for shutdown
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Associated Press, CNBC, Business Insider, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Week, VICE News and Washington Post

McConnell officially tees up immigration debate next week
Discussion:
WPIX 11 New York and WBBH-TV

Federal government shuts down as Rand Paul holds up key vote
Discussion:
Q13 FOX News, Shakesville, KTLA, Reuters, Washington Free Beacon, Business Insider, Splinter, Outside the Beltway and Mediaite

Brief government shutdown ends as Trump signs spending bill
Discussion:
Associated Press, The Week and Power Line


Devin Nunes is investigating me. Here's the truth. — Jonathan M. Winer, a Washington lawyer and consultant, is a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement and former special envoy for Libya. — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, bizpacreview.com, BloombergQuint and Business Insider


California police worked with neo-Nazis to pursue ‘anti-racist’ activists, documents show — Officers expressed sympathy with white supremacists and sought their help to target counter protesters after a violent 2016 rally, according to court documents


Sen. Tim Kaine demands release of secret Trump war powers memo — WASHINGTON — Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine is demanding the release of a secret memo outlining President Trump's interpretation of his legal authority to wage war. — Kaine, a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees …


MeToo movement lawmaker investigated for sexual misconduct allegations — SAN FRANCISCO — California Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia — whose high-profile advocacy of the #MeToo movement earned her national media notice — is herself the subject of a state legislative investigation in the wake …
RELATED:

Assemblywoman at forefront of #MeToo movement accused of sexual misconduct
Discussion:
New York Times, Instapundit, Patterico's Pontifications and Politico


Breaking with tradition, Trump skips president's written intelligence report and relies on oral briefings … For much of the past year, President Trump has declined to participate in a practice followed by the past seven of his predecessors: He rarely if ever reads the President's Daily Brief …


Jill Messick's Family Issues Blistering Statement on Harvey Weinstein and Rose McGowan — “Seeing her name in headlines again and again, as part of one person's attempt to gain more attention for her personal cause, along with Harvey's desperate attempt to vindicate himself, was devastating for her,” the family said.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Jezebel, Breitbart, CBS Los Angeles, Fox News, The Blast and Deadline


Amazon to Launch Delivery Service That Would Vie With FedEx, UPS — The company is preparing to begin the offering in Los Angeles with its ‘third-party merchants’ and then roll it out more broadly — Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -4.68% is preparing to launch a delivery service for businesses …
Discussion:
The Verge, The Daily Caller, AOL, Investor's Business Daily, The Week and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »


San Francisco Bay Area Experiences Mass Exodus Of Residents — SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) - The number of people packing up and moving out of the Bay Area just hit its highest level in more than a decade. — Carole Dabak spent 40 years living in San Jose and now she's part of the mass exodus that is showing no signs of slowing down.


Bad info from Spirit Air led me to flush pet hamster down airport toilet, student says — Before Belen Aldecosea flew home from from college to South Florida, she twice called Spirit Airlines to ensure she could bring along a special guest: Pebbles, her pet dwarf hamster. No problem, the airline told her.
Discussion:
USA Today, Washington Post, Jezebel, JONATHAN TURLEY, NBC News, The Guardian, AOL, KRON4.com, The Daily Caller, WGN-TV, Mashable, KTLA, The Stranger …, Gizmodo, Weekly Standard, twitchy.com, VICE and Mediaite


A man with a plan: Newt's strategy for GOP victory — There are many ways Republicans can lose control of the House and Senate in November. But there's only one way they stand a good chance to hold both chambers. It's to run on the tax cuts. — One reason is that it's the best thing Republicans have done in the Trump era.
RELATED: