Florida House votes down motion to take up weapons ban with Douglas students present  —  Final vote was 36-71 on first day of lobbying for students  —  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - On their first full day lobbying Florida lawmakers in Tallahassee to change the state's gun laws …

Kushner Resists Losing Access as Kelly Tackles Security Clearance Issues  —  Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, is resisting giving up his access to highly classified information, prompting an internal struggle with John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff …

Democrat Linda Belcher Takes Deep-Red Kentucky Seat, the 37th Flip Since Trump's Inauguration … Democrat Linda Belcher triumphed in a special election on Tuesday night in a deep-red Kentucky district where President Trump previously won by a whopping 50-point margin.

Senior HHS official placed on leave for promoting unfounded claims and conspiracy theories on social media  —  (CNN)A top official at the Department of Health and Human Services has been placed on administrative leave after a CNN KFile inquiry while the agency investigates social media postings …

Pence was set to meet with North Korean officials during the Olympics before last minute cancellation … PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Vice President Pence departed for a five-day, two country swing through Asia earlier this month having agreed to a secret meeting with North Korean officials …

George and Amal Clooney to attend March For Our Lives  —  Survivor: I'm terrified to return to school  —  (CNN)George and Amal Clooney have stepped up in support of the survivors of the deadly shooting in Parkland, Florida.  —  The superstar couple announced Tuesday that they are donating $500,000 …

Mueller probe: London-based son-in-law of Russian businessman to plead guilty to false statements … The London-based son-in-law of one of Russia's wealthiest men is set to plead guilty Tuesday afternoon in Washington to making false statements in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's probe …

Missouri Fought For Years To Hide Where It Got Its Execution Drugs.  Now We Know What They Were Hiding.  —  The state of Missouri did everything it could to keep secret where it got the drugs it used to put 17 inmates to death.  Now, BuzzFeed News has discovered the supplier …

NC couple pitching dating site for Trump supporters  —  RALEIGH, N.C. — A married couple from Guilford County have become the faces of a new Donald Trump-themed dating website.  —  Barrett and Jodi Riddleberger's smiles, beneath Trump campaign baseball caps, are the first thing greeting visitors at Trump.dating.

You Dumb Motherfuckers, John Kelly Was Always Bad  —  FiveThirtyEight, a website that apparently still exists, has a deeply depressing story out Tuesday on White House Chief of Staff John Kelly by politics writer Perry Bacon Jr. The piece is essentially a mea culpa, where Bacon admits …

Shulkin says he has White House backing to purge VA  —  The White House has given VA Secretary David Shulkin the green light to quash an internal rebellion among conservative foes of his leadership, he told POLITICO late Tuesday.  —  The embattled Cabinet head said he'd begun investigating what he called …

The unwitting: The Trump supporters used by Russia  —  Rosenstein: Russians paid, recruited Americans  —  A Donald Trump supporter who unwittingly helped a Kremlin-linked operation to meddle in American politics says he only learned of his part in the Russian plot when the FBI showed up at his doorstep months later.

The Poison We Pick  —  This nation pioneered modern life.  Now epic numbers of Americans are killing themselves with opioids to escape it.  —  It is a beautiful, hardy flower, Papaver somniferum, a poppy that grows up to four feet in height and arrives in a multitude of colors.

In Emails, Trump's Top General Said The Transgender Military Ban Was “Unexpected” And He Was “Not Consulted”  —  Emails newly obtained by BuzzFeed News reveal the surprise for Joint Chiefs of Staff.  —  Less than 24 hours after President Trump tweeted that “after consultation with my Generals …

Devin Nunes' 10 questions about the Trump dossier  —  House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has sent a series of questions about the Trump dossier to a number of current and former government officials.  The committee did not specify to whom Nunes sent the questions …

‘I was almost a school shooter’  —  That's not a sentence many people ever hear, or read.  It's also not a sentence many people would ever say publicly.  —  Author: Next with Kyle Clark  —  “I was almost a school shooter.”  —  That's not a sentence many people ever hear, or read.

Inside Donald Trump's Twitter-Fueled Weekend Meltdown  —  White House aides prayed for rain.  Inclement weather would mean President Donald Trump would have to take the motorcade to the waiting plane to Florida.  That would mean he couldn't take the helicopter from the South Lawn to Joint Base Andrews …

Natalie Portman Doesn't Want To Live In Oblivion  —  In an interview with BuzzFeed News, Portman discusses Annihilation, Hollywood's Time's Up revolution, learning from Reese Witherspoon, and her regret over signing the Roman Polanski petition.  —  Over the course of Natalie Portman's career …

New York Times Editorial Board: Person Published by Times a Week Ago Is ‘Disreputable’ and Untrustworthy  —  Remember last week, when the New York Times ran an op-ed from the gun ‘researcher’ John Lott, who has been thoroughly and consistently debunked by basically everyone else who researches gun violence?

Exclusive: Inside the Corrosive Workplace Culture of the Dallas Mavericks  — More than a dozen current and ex-employees characterize the Mavs' hostile work environment—ranging from sexual harassment to domestic violence—as an “open secret.”  Sports Illustrated details the allegations in a special investigation.

What my life-threatening experience taught me about giving birth  —  Serena Williams shares scary birth experience  —  Serena Williams is a professional tennis player, businesswoman and UNICEF goodwill ambassador.  The views expressed in this commentary are her own.

Comparing Trump to South American authoritarians reveals a dangerous misunderstanding of democracy  —  Such comparisons fundamentally misunderstand Latin American populism.  —  It's en vogue for enraged liberals to compare Trumpism to Argentine Peronism, wielding the analogy as a warning …

NRA Usually Shuts Up After Mass Shootings.  Not This Time. … Immediately following the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the National Rifle Association did what it always does: It shut up.  —  The biggest gun rights group in the nation didn't put …