Top Items:
New York Times:
John Dowd Resigns as Trump's Lead Lawyer in Special Counsel Inquiry — WASHINGTON — The president's lead lawyer for the special counsel investigation, John Dowd, resigned on Thursday, according to two people briefed on the matter, days after the president called for an end to the inquiry.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Vox, Politico, Washington Post, ThinkProgress, TalkLeft, Mother Jones, RedState, Talking Points Memo, National Review, CNN, Axios, The Hill, Washington Free Beacon, Above the Law, The Root, NBC News, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Politicus USA, The Week, The Daily Caller, AOL, Joe.My.God. and Balloon Juice
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Washington Post:
Trump attorney John Dowd resigns amid shake-up in president's legal team … John Dowd, a personal attorney to President Trump, resigned his position Thursday amid a shake-up in the president's legal team as Trump has sought more firepower to deal with the special counsel's Russia investigation.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Politico, Instapundit, Common Dreams, WSVN-TV, Law & Crime and FOX59
Washington Post:
Trump attorney John Dowd said to resign amid shake-up on legal team for Russia probe — John Dowd, a personal attorney for President Trump handling the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, has resigned, according to three people familiar with the decision.
Discussion:
IJR
Politico:
Massive spending deal clinched despite Trump's misgivings — Lawmakers will have to move quickly to avoid a shutdown on Friday night. — Congressional leaders on Wednesday night formally unveiled a mammoth spending bill that would deliver the largest funding boost to federal agencies in years …
Discussion:
Vox, Breitbart, HuffPost, New York Magazine, Daily Kos, CNN, The Week and The Atlantic
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Seung Min Kim / Washington Post:
‘Trump blew it’: The president missed his best chance yet to get funding for his border wall … President Trump has long promoted and promised a “big, beautiful wall” along the southern border — a pledge he made at the start of his presidential campaign that helped fuel his unlikely rise to the White House.
Discussion:
Axios, Politico, New Republic, Breitbart, NBC News, Gizmodo and New York Magazine, more at Techmeme »
Jonathan Swan / Axios:
Trump's two-front war — President Trump is ending the week with a flop — nowhere close to the border wall funding he wanted in the DACA-less spending bill that congressional leaders released last evening. But he's fulfilling one of his most aggressive campaign promises with his anti-China trade action.
Discussion:
Politico, ABC News, Washington Post, Breitbart, One America News Network and New York Magazine
Wall Street Journal:
Charges Have Been Dropped Against Most Turkish Officers in D.C. Clash — Case had caused a rift between the U.S. and Turkey — WASHINGTON—Federal prosecutors have dropped charges against 11 of 15 members of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's security team who were accused in connection …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller and Outside the Beltway
The Guardian:
Facebook gave data about 57bn friendships to academic — Volume of data suggests trusted partnership with Aleksandr Kogan, says analyst … Before Facebook suspended Aleksandr Kogan from its platform for the data harvesting “scam” at the centre of the unfolding Cambridge Analytica scandal …
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Christian Caryl / Washington Post:
Forget Cambridge Analytica. What about Facebook's role in ethnic strife and genocide?
Discussion:
Washington Free Beacon, The Guardian, BuzzFeed and New Republic
Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
Trump hits China with tariffs, heightening concerns of global trade war — Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump launched the next salvo in his widening war on Chinese trade abuses, this time taking aim at China's unfair seizure of US intellectual property.
Discussion:
New York Times, Investor's Business Daily, The Daily Caller, Mediaite and CNNMoney
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Vivian Yee / New York Times:
He Gambles. He Tips Staff. He Eats Alone. All the While, He's Stocking His Vegas Suite With Guns. — Sometimes we see him as other hotel guests would have seen him: as the tall gambler intent on the video poker machine across the casino floor, or as the customer standing in line in front …
Discussion:
The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and Mediaite
John Hendel / Politico:
House committee will summon Zuckerberg to testify — The House Energy and Commerce Committee will summon Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify, following recent revelations that Trump-linked Cambridge Analytica improperly obtained information on some 50 million Facebook users.
Discussion:
Axios and Wired, more at Techmeme »
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Recode:
Mark Zuckerberg says he's ‘open’ to testifying to Congress, fixes will cost ‘many millions’ and he ‘feels really bad’
Nicholas Thompson / Wired:
Mark Zuckerberg Talks to WIRED About Facebook's Privacy Problem
Discussion:
The Mozilla Blog, CNNMoney, Hit & Run, Fox News, ThinkProgress, Townhall.com, New York Times, Vox, New York Magazine, CNET, Breitbart, Big Think, CNBC, The Guardian, National Review, New Republic, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, CNN, Washington Post, Techdirt, Weekly Standard, Investor's Business Daily, Just Security, Instapundit, AOL, BizNews.com, Gizmodo, The Verge, Engadget, Mashable, The Daily Caller, Balkinization, The Ringer, NBC News, BuzzFeed, The Atlantic, CBS San Francisco, Mediaite, Joe.My.God., TVNewser, Raw Story and Politico, more at Techmeme »
Tim Mak / NPR:
John Bolton's Curious Appearance In A Russian Gun Rights Video — Former U.N. ambassador John Bolton recorded a video used by the Russian gun rights group The Right to Bear Arms in 2013 to encourage the Russian government to loosen gun laws. — The episode, which has not been previously reported …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Raw Story and Political Wire
Patrick Marley / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Judge orders Gov. Scott Walker to hold special elections for open legislative seats in Eric Holder suit — MADISON - Dealing a setback to Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans, a judge ruled Thursday the governor must call special elections to fill two vacant seats in the Legislature.
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Associated Press and Political Wire
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Charlotte Alter / TIME:
The School Shooting Generation Has Had Enough — It's lunchtime on a Tuesday, and the kids are piling into a pizzeria booth in Coral Springs, Fla., to plot a revolution. “The adults know that we're cleaning up their mess,” says Cameron Kasky, an 11th-grader at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School …
Discussion:
RedState, IJR, Joe.My.God., twitchy.com, WSVN-TV and The Daily Caller
NBC News:
Bill Murray The Parkland kids remind me of the students who helped end the Vietnam War — Their most powerful asset in their fight to bring change is their idealism — We are living in interesting times, and people are becoming politically activated who weren't previously.
Discussion:
RedState, Breitbart, Raw Story, Mediaite and Daily Wire
CBS News:
60 Minutes interview with Stormy Daniels to be broadcast Sunday — The adult-film star and director describes the affair she says she had with Donald Trump in her first television interview about the alleged relationship — The 60 Minutes interview with Stormy Daniels …
Discussion:
Washington Times, Talking Points Memo, twitchy.com and TVNewser
Katy O'Donnell / Politico:
Carson's ‘bottom line’: No harm done on furniture — HUD Secretary Ben Carson defended his handling of the uproar surrounding the order of a $31,000 furniture set for his office suite on Thursday, telling senators “the bottom line” is the furniture was never ordered.
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Stephanie Ebbs / ABC News:
Democrats question Ben Carson over $31,000 furniture purchase
Discussion:
Mediaite
Jane Lytvynenko / BuzzFeed:
This Public Relations Firm Has Been Secretly Placing Articles In Conservative Publications — Inside the corporate payola machine. — Conservative media has long been the home for impassioned arguments against the welfare state, gun control, and taxes. — But if you look closely …
Samantha Schmidt / Washington Post:
Austin bomber: ‘Challenged young man’ or ‘terrorist’? … For weeks, the 23-year-old suspected bomber terrorized the city of Austin with a string of explosions that killed two and injured several others. — But should the bomber, identified by authorities as Mark Anthony Conditt, be called a terrorist?
Discussion:
RedState, Refinery29, The Root, No More Mister Nice Blog, Joe.My.God. and CityLab
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Nicole Chavez / CNN:
Austin bomber left behind a confession, but it doesn't say why he did it
Discussion:
Daily Wire, KFOR-TV, Raw Story, Mediaite, Dallas Morning News, FOX59, Splinter, RedState, The Daily Caller and CBS Pittsburgh
Tom Precious / The Buffalo News:
Cynthia Nixon slams Cuomo on Albany's culture of corruption — ALBANY - Gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon said the state's economic development programs overseen by Gov. Andrew Cuomo need an overhaul, which she said will become especially evident this summer during the corruption trial …
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
House panel finds no Trump-Russia collusion, recommends leak crackdown — House Intelligence Committee Republicans voted Thursday to end their investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, declaring that a string of contacts between Donald Trump's associates …
Discussion:
ABC News, The Daily Beast, Axios, Vox, IJR and twitchy.com
Eric Levitz / New York Magazine:
The Radical Proposal That Moderate Democrats Should Be Running On — Last week, a self-styled moderate Democrat won a congressional race in the heart of Trump Country — and the last-surviving “Blue Dogs” promptly declared their vindication. For the Democrats' right flank, Politico wrote …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Alex Horton / Washington Post:
Police shot at a man 20 times in his back yard, thinking he had a gun. It was a cellphone. … Police say they saw an object in Stephan Clark's hand before firing 20 bullets that killed him in his own yard Sunday night in Sacramento, with the disturbing moment made public through body camera footage released Wednesday night.
Discussion:
HuffPost, New Republic, New York Daily News, Vox, NPR, KFOR-TV, Common Dreams, Instapundit and The Root
Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
Citigroup Sets Restrictions on Gun Sales by Business Partners — Citigroup is setting restrictions on the sale of firearms by its business customers, making it the first Wall Street bank to take a stance in the divisive nationwide gun control debate. — The new policy, announced Thursday …
Discussion:
Axios and One America News Network
The Intercept:
Saudi Crown Prince Boasted That Jared Kushner Was “In His Pocket” — Until he was stripped of his top-secret security clearance in February, presidential adviser Jared Kushner was known around the White House as one of the most voracious readers of the President's Daily Brief …
Chloe Melas / CNN:
Frank Avruch, who played Bozo the Clown, dies at 89 — (CNN)Frank Avruch, who was best known for playing Bozo the Clown, died Tuesday at the age of 89, according to his manager Stuart Hersh. — “While it's hard to say goodbye, we celebrate the legacy of joy and laughter he brought to millions …
Jonathan Easley / The Hill:
Foreign Relations Dem: Senate must act on Trump's ambassador nominees — A Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee expressed frustration Thursday over the slow pace of confirmations for President Trump — 's ambassador nominees, saying he would push Senate minority leader Charles Schumer
Discussion:
The Hugh Hewitt Show, The Gateway Pundit and Washington Free Beacon
Bernard Condon / Associated Press:
NYC agency investigating more than a dozen Kushner buildings — NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's buildings regulator launched investigations at more than a dozen Kushner Cos. properties Wednesday following an Associated Press report that the real estate developer routinely filed false paperwork claiming …
New York Times:
Why Is Trump So Afraid of Russia? — The former C.I.A. director John Brennan pulled no punches on Wednesday when he was asked why President Trump had congratulated his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for his victory in a rigged election, even after Mr. Trump's national security staff warned him not to.
Discussion:
Fox News Insider
Rachael Bade / Politico:
House leaders' biggest 2018 fear: The lazy Republican — On paper, Rep. John Culberson (R-Texas) appears to be a shoo-in for reelection. He's served nine terms in what's been a GOP stronghold for decades, hasn't had a serious challenger in years and sits on one of the most powerful committees in Congress.
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