memeorandum: US Defense Secretary Mattis arrives in Afghan capital (Robert Burns/Associated Press)

7:25 AM ET, March 13, 2018

Top Items:

Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:

Despite Mueller's Push, House Republicans Declare No Evidence of Collusion — WASHINGTON — Even as the special counsel expands his inquiry and pursues criminal charges against at least four Trump associates, House Intelligence Committee Republicans said Monday they have found no evidence …

Discussion: Shareblue Media, The Hill, Politicus USA, HeraldScotland, Raw Story, The Moderate Voice, Splinter, Jamie Dupree - AJC, Towleroad, Mother Jones, Politico, Little Green Footballs, IJR, Vox, Mediaite and Joe.My.God.

CNN:

House Republicans say no evidence of collusion as they end Russia probe — (CNN)Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee announced Monday they found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and that they are shutting down their yearlong investigation.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Shareblue Media, Jamie Dupree - AJC, Mediaite, The Root, Joe.My.God., VICE News and Politicus USA

Rick Wilson / The Daily Beast:

The Walls Are Closing In on Trump … The Fox and Trump media enterprise today launched into a spasm of complete ecstasy as the House Intelligence Committee declared their investigation of Russian interference in our elections and their contacts with and collaboration with the Trump campaign over, done, solved.

Discussion: CANNONFIRE, Politico and The Daily Caller

Sara Carter / Sara A. Carter:
Former DNI James Clapper Allegedly Leaked to CNN, investigation revealed

Discussion: Breitbart and The Gateway Pundit

Fox News:
House Intel finds ‘no evidence of collusion’ between Trump campaign and Russia

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

CNN:
House Intelligence Committee to announce they are done with Russia probe interviews

Discussion: The Hill, Raw Story, Mother Jones, Common Dreams, The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, Daily Wire and Balloon Juice

Karoun Demirjian / Washington Post:
Republicans find no evidence of collusion or Russian preference for Trump

Discussion: Bangor Daily News, Mediaite and Political Wire

Mary Clare Jalonick / Associated Press:
Draft GOP report: No coordination between Trump and Russia

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and The Talking Dog

Carolyn Kaster / Washington Examiner:
House Intel releases verdict in Russia probe: No collusion

Discussion: RedState, Power Line and ThinkProgress

Kate Briquelet / The Daily Beast:

EXCLUSIVE: Stormy Daniels' Pal on Trump: ‘He Would Call All the Time’ … Stormy Daniels turned on the speakerphone when President Trump called. — So says Keith Munyan, one of the four people Stormy Daniels included in the nondisclosure agreement she signed with Donald Trump's lawyer.

Discussion: Mediaite, Raw Story and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »

Dallas Morning News:

Texas notary's failure to sign Stormy Daniels' hush agreement is under investigation — Updated at 4:38 p.m. to include comment from Daniels' attorney Michael J. Avenatti. — Texas officials are investigating whether a Dallas-area notary properly signed off on Stormy Daniels' agreement …

Discussion: Fortune, The Hill, New York Times, HeraldScotland, Talking Points Memo, Daily Wire, fox8.com, Washington Monthly, Daily Kos and NBC News

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:
Is The Stormy Story More Damaging Than We Thought?

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog and Hullabaloo

Kyle Olson / The American Mirror:

VIDEO: Hillary slips down stairs in India — despite two men holding her up — Even though Hillary Clinton had help going down a set of stairs in India today, she still nearly fell down. — While visiting Jahaz Mahal in Dhar's Mandu, Clinton was attempting to descend about 15 stairs.

Discussion: NTK Network, The Daily Caller, twitchy.com and Grabien News

YouTube:

Bitter Hillary Clinton Trashes America's Heartland, Calls States That Didnt Vote For Her “Backwards” … Dismissing America's Heartland to a foreign audience, Hillary Clinton says states that didn't vote for her are “backwards.” Clinton brags she won the coasts & places that are “moving forward.”

Discussion: Weekly Standard, The Federalist, WPIX 11 New York and Mediaite

Derek Hunter / The Daily Caller: Watch: Hillary Nearly Falls Down Stairs Twice In India

Dan Simon / CNN:

ICE spokesman in SF resigns and slams Trump administration officials — Trump, California battle over immigration — STORY HIGHLIGHTS — San Francisco (CNN)James Schwab, a spokesman for the San Francisco Division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has resigned …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Raw Story

Hamed Aleaziz / San Francisco Chronicle: ICE spokesman quits over officials' claim of 800 eluding arrest

Monmouth University Polling Institute:

Dem Gains in CD18 Special — Voters divided on steel tariffs, but negligible impact on vote — West Long Branch, NJ - Democrat Conor Lamb has taken a lead over Republican Rick Saccone in the special election for Pennsylvania's 18th Congressional District.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Politico, CNBC, ABC News, Rewire.News, New York Times, The Daily Beast, News & Guts Media, Outside the Beltway, Politicus USA, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Shareblue Media, Vox, Raw Story, Washington Times, Axios and Joe.My.God.

Louis Nelson / Politico:

Pennsylvania GOP chairman says Tuesday special election is in ‘Democrat district’ — The chairman of Pennsylvania's Republican Party said Monday the special election in which Democrat Conor Lamb is running neck-and-neck with Republican Rick Saccone is in a “Democrat district,” …

Discussion: Washington Post, RRH Elections, Roll Call, NPR, Fox News, Victory Girls Blog, NBC News, CNN, Booman Tribune, Mother Jones, Washington Monthly, The Daily Beast, TYT Network, Political Wire, FiveThirtyEight and New York Magazine

Alex Roarty / McClatchy Washington Bureau:
Inside the DCCC's stealth effort to help Conor Lamb

Discussion: Politico, New York Times and Real Clear Politics

Daily Mail:

EXCLUSIVE: Top Arab spy and prince's conduit to the Kremlin were at the Seychelles meeting between Trump donor Erik Prince and Russian oligarch which Mueller is probing — Erik Prince, the billionaire Blackwater founder and Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker close to the Kremlin met in the Seychelles in January 2017

Discussion: RedState

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo:
Papadopoulos says that Trump personally encouraged him to arrange meeting with Putin, new book reports

Discussion: Raw Story

Mother Jones:
George Papadopoulos Claimed Trump Encouraged His Efforts to Establish a Russian Back Channel

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit

USA Today:

Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general, says Robert Mueller is ‘not an unguided missile’ — Special Counsel Robert Muller may delay the obstruction of justice portion of the 2016 election probe, potentially shifting focus to other parts of the case like collusion for the time being.

Discussion: Politico, Taylor Marsh, Balloon Juice, Shareblue Media, Mediaite and News & Guts Media

Tom Hamburger / Washington Post:

Roger Stone claimed contact with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in 2016, according to two associates … In the spring of 2016, longtime political operative Roger Stone had a phone conversation that would later seem prophetic, according to the person on the other end of the line.

BBC:

Russian spy: Highly likely Moscow behind attack, says Theresa May — Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia, Theresa May has told MPs. — The PM said the government concluded it was “highly likely” Russia was responsible for the Salisbury attack.

Discussion: The Intercept, Vox, Daily Wire, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, Hullabaloo, Washington Post, RedState, Joe.My.God., Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Little Green Footballs

Will Englund / Washington Post: What a brave Russian scientist told me about Novichok, the nerve agent identified in the spy attack

Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:

Cramer: Larry Kudlow is the leading contender to replace Gary Cohn as Trump's top economic advisor — Larry Kudlow is the leading contender to replace Gary Cohn as National Economic Council director, CNBC's Jim Cramer reports. — Larry Kudlow is the leading contender …

Discussion: TVNewser

Susan Goldberg / National Geographic Magazine:

For Decades, Our Coverage Was Racist. To Rise Above Our Past, We Must Acknowledge It — We asked a preeminent historian to investigate our coverage of people of color in the U.S. and abroad. Here's what he found. — It is November 2, 1930, and National Geographic has sent a reporter …

Discussion: Splinter, NPR, Axios, The Root, theGrio, Boing Boing and Politico, more at Mediagazer »

Jesse J. Holland / Yahoo:
National Geographic acknowledges past racist coverage

Discussion: Power Line

BuzzFeed:

How A Player In The Trump-Russia Scandal Led A Double Life As An American Spy — Felix Sater has been cast as a Russian mafioso, a career criminal, and a key business associate of President Donald Trump — but he spent more than two decades as an intelligence asset who helped the US government track terrorists and mobsters.

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Politico and Talking Points Memo

Michelle Goldberg / New York Times:

Will Betsy DeVos Expand the School-to-Prison Pipeline? — On Sunday evening, CBS's “60 Minutes” broadcast an interview that Lesley Stahl conducted with Betsy DeVos, Donald Trump's education secretary and one of the richest members of his very rich cabinet. It was overwhelmingly seen …

Discussion: CNN, ThinkProgress and Mediaite

CNN:
White House officials alarmed at education secretary's ‘60 Minutes’ performance

Discussion: Washington Post, RedState, ThinkProgress, NWLC, Mediaite, NewsHounds blog, Media Matters for America, The Progressive Pulse, Political Wire, Washington Free Beacon, Joe.My.God., Shareblue Media and KTLA

CNN:

3 deadly package explosions in Austin appear connected, police say — (CNN)Three explosions that occurred when people picked up packages outside their residences appear to be connected, Austin, Texas, city Police Chief Brian Manley said Monday at a news conference.

Discussion: Associated Press, Austin American-Statesman, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, twitchy.com and ThinkProgress

CBS News:
Police: “Similarities” indicate link in deadly Austin package explosions

Caleb Parke / Fox News:

College student kicked out of class for telling professor there are only two genders — A religious studies major was barred from Christianity class at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for saying during class that there are only two genders. — Lake Ingle, a senior at the university …

Discussion: The Stream, Breitbart, Daily Wire, FOX 61 and IJR