Pence: The United States is ready to talk with North Korea  —  Despite the mutual chilliness between U.S. and North Korean officials in South Korea last week, behind the scenes real progress was made toward a new diplomatic opening that could result in direct talks without preconditions between Washington and Pyongyang.

Twisted: Trump says Porter sick, guilty; defends him publicly  —  President Trump is defending Rob Porter even though, privately, he says he's guilty.  —  Behind closed doors: The president has told multiple people that he believes the accusations about Porter, and finds him “sick.”

In big reversal, new Trump budget will give up on longtime Republican goal of eliminating deficit … President Trump on Monday will offer a budget plan that falls far short of eliminating the government's deficit over 10 years, conceding that huge tax cuts and new spending increases …

He Predicted The 2016 Fake News Crisis.  Now He's Worried About An Information Apocalypse.  —  In mid-2016, Aviv Ovadya realized there was something fundamentally wrong with the internet — so wrong that he abandoned his work and sounded an alarm.  A few weeks before the 2016 election …

Senate Conservatives Offer Immigration Plan Heavy on Border Security, Quick Deportations  —  Package aligns with President Trump's proposal but has uphill battle to 60 votes  —  WASHINGTON—Heading into an open-ended immigration debate, some of the Senate's most conservative members …

GOP candidate and Trump ally faces global backlash for racist attack on Meghan Markle  —  Republican congressional candidate Paul Nehlen's response to the denouncement was just as repugnant as his hateful tweet.  —  Congressional candidate and prominent Trump supporter Paul Nehlen (R-WI) …

Sen. Bob Corker's second thoughts on retiring  —  John King, CNN Chief National Correspondent and Rebecca Schatz, CNN  —  STORY HIGHLIGHTS  — CNN has learned Sen. Bob Corker is mulling over changing his mind on retirement and running for re-election  —  Washington (CNN) …

Woman Dragged Out of West Virginia House Hearing For Listing Oil and Gas Contributions to Members  —  “The people who are going to be speaking in favor of this bill are all going to be paid by the industry.”  —  Lissa Lucas traveled the 100 miles from her home in Cairo …

First-class travel distinguishes Scott Pruitt's EPA tenure … Just days after helping orchestrate the United States' exit from a global climate accord last June, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt embarked on a whirlwind tour aimed at championing President Trump's agenda at home and abroad.

Trump campaign co-chair gets 20 years for sexual abuse and trafficking teens  —  Tea Party leader and former Trump campaign chair Tim Nolan has pleaded guilty and received 20 years in prison for human trafficking, reports Cincinnati.com.  —  According to the report, Nolan, 71, a former judge …

Devin Nunes creates his own alternative news site  —  LOS ANGELES — House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a relentless critic of the media, has found a way around the often unflattering coverage of his role in the Trump-Russia investigation — by operating his own partisan news outlet.

The mysterious oppo researcher working in the White House lawyer's office  —  Michael Roman, best known as a shadowy operative who oversaw a research unit for the Koch network, now occupies an unusual and undefined role in the Trump administration.  —  Few people in or close to the White House …

Trump Shows Us the Way  —  WASHINGTON — Donald Trump slipped into the Oval Office through a wormhole of confusion about the American identity.  —  We weren't winning wars anymore.  They just went on and on and on, with inexplicable and deceptive aims and so many lives and limbs and trillions lost.