Trump was angry and ‘unglued’ when he started a trade war, officials say  —  WASHINGTON — With global markets shaken by President Donald Trump's surprise decision to impose strict tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, the president went into battle mode on Friday: “Trade wars are good, and easy to win,” he wrote on Twitter.

Days before the election, Stormy Daniels threatened to cancel deal to keep alleged affair with Trump secret … The 2016 election was less than a month away, and Donald Trump's attorney had blown the deadline for paying Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about her alleged affair with the future president.

The Right Can't Fight the Future … It seems axiomatic that the past and the future cannot exist at the same time.  Thanks to the space-time continuum, people from different centuries cannot live simultaneously.  The same goes for a nation, which cannot survive pulling toward the future and toward the past at once.

Week 41: Mueller's Digging Picks Up Speed  —  For the longest time, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation of the Russia mess looked like a backyard drainage ditch.  Into it flowed a regular stream of witnesses, evidence and press speculation.  But when was it ever going to amount to anything real?

Roy Moore pleads for money, saying resources ‘depleted’  —  MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Former U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore is pleading for money to pay for his legal bills as he fights a lawsuit against a woman who says he molested her when she was 14.  —  Moore said on a campaign Facebook …

Amid national controversy, Houston Democrats hustle votes in 7th Congressional District  —  National Democrats set off a national firestorm when they took a shot at one of their own. … HOUSTON — Democratic congressional candidate Lizzie Pannill Fletcher stumped through 102 fever at a River Oaks house party Wednesday night.

Why Italy's Insular Election Is More Important Than It Looks  —  ROME — The campaign before Italy's national elections on Sunday has been self-obsessed and often petty and unedifying.  But it has been instructive about one thing: The political forces that have torn at the global order …

‘All-In or Nothing’: How West Virginia's Teacher Strike Was Months in the Making  —  GILBERT, W. Va — Home from a long day teaching English last month at Mingo Central High School, Robin Ellis told her husband the latest talk among the teachers.  They were tired of low pay and costly health benefits …

Kentucky's ‘child bride’ bill stalls as groups fight to let 13-year-olds wed  —  Donna Pollard describes getting married at 16 to a 29-year-old man who was her counselor.  She is behind Senate Bill 48 to raise the legal age of marriage in Kentucky to 18 years old.  Matt Stone, Courier Journal

California Dems' hard-left turn could be the whole party's future  —  How far left is the Democratic Party headed?  Look to California, where last month's state party convention went off the deep end.  —  The first sign of lunacy was the delegates' refusal to endorse impeccably liberal Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

The Silicon Valley elite's latest status symbol: Chickens  —  Their pampered birds wear diapers and have personal chefs — but lay the finest eggs tech money can buy  —  Excelling at his work, Land said, requires an obsessive focus on it.  But maintaining that passion …

Why Trump is far more likely to cave on gun control than on free trade  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump deviated from the standard Republican line this week on two fronts: gun rights and free trade.  —  On guns, he suggested that he preferred to “take the gun first, go through due process second …

Trump pushes Republicans to oppose crucial New York-New Jersey tunnel project … President Trump is pushing congressional Republicans not to fund a crucial infrastructure project — a long-delayed plan to build a new rail tunnel between Manhattan and New Jersey — setting up a confrontation …

A ‘Bright Light,’ Dimmed in the Shadows of Homelessness  —  Nakesha Williams resisted help from social workers, friends and acquaintances, some who only knew her as a homeless woman, and others who knew of her past.  —  They met on a rainy morning several years ago, at the base of the Helmsley Building in Midtown Manhattan.

Trump Swaps His Beloved Burgers for Salads and Soups in New Diet  —  Two weeks since he's been seen eating burger, one person says  —  But bacon was still on the menu at breakfast this week  —  Donald Trump has traded cheeseburgers for salads in the presidential diet — at least some of the time.

Rick Ross Hospitalized, Machine Keeping Him Alive  —  Rick Ross has been hooked up to a machine that's taking over the function of his heart and lungs ... according to sources connected to the music mogul.  —  Rick is in a Miami area hospital getting treatment in the cardio unit …

“She's in Immense Personal Jeopardy”: Even for Hope Hicks, the West Wing Got Too Hot  —  “Emotionally overwhelmed” by the headlines over Rob Porter, manipulated by Kelly, and interviewed by Mueller and Congress, the president's surrogate daughter is leaving the Trump bunker at one of his toughest moments.