Source: Mueller pushed for Gates' help on collusion  —  Ex-Trump campaign aide Rick Gates pleads guilty  —  (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller's team last year made clear it wanted former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates' help, not so much against his former business partner Paul Manafort …

Trump tells aides not to talk publicly about Russia policy moves  —  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's national security advisers spent months trying to convince him to sign off on a plan to supply new U.S. weapons to Ukraine to aid in the country's fight against Russian-backed separatists …

Mueller probing Russia contacts at Republican convention: sources  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Investigators probing whether Donald Trump's presidential campaign colluded with Russia have been questioning witnesses about events at the 2016 Republican National Convention, according to two sources familiar …

TripAdvisor says it will stop ads for right-wing TV host Laura Ingraham after she criticized Parkland shooting survivor  —  Online travel website TripAdvisor said it will stop advertising on right-wing host Laura Ingraham's television show after she attacked a survivor of the February Parkland, Florida school shooting on Twitter.

Privatizing the V.A. Will Hurt Veterans  —  It has been my greatest professional honor to serve our country's more than 20 million veterans.  Almost three years ago, I left my private sector job running hospitals and came to Washington to repay my gratitude to the men and women who put their lives on the line for our country.

Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed  —  Facebook Vice President Andrew “Boz” Bosworth said that “questionable contact importing practices,” “subtle language that helps people stay searchable,” …

EXCLUSIVE: More cabinet trouble for Trump?  EPA chief lived in condo tied to lobbyist ‘power couple’  —  For much of his first year in Washington, President Trump's EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt occupied prime real estate in a townhouse near the U.S. Capitol that is co-owned by the wife …

Pope Francis: ‘There Is No Hell’ … In another interview with his longtime atheist friend, Eugenio Scalfari, Pope Francis claims that Hell does not exist and that condemned souls just “disappear.”  This is a denial of the 2,000-year-old teaching of the Catholic Church about the reality of Hell and the eternal existence of the soul.

FBI looked into Trump plans to build hotel in Latvia with Putin supporter  —  Exclusive: US authorities made inquiries even before 2016 election campaign into Trump property dealings in former Soviet Union … They wanted to build the Las Vegas of the Baltics.

Russia Will Expel 150 Diplomats, as Tensions With West Reach Fever Pitch  —  LONDON — Intensifying Russia's clash with Europe and the United States, the Kremlin on Thursday announced that it would expel 150 Western diplomats and close the American consulate in St. Petersburg.

The Disturbing Secret Behind An Iconic Cartoon  —  Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice were teenage Ren & Stimpy fans who wanted to make cartoons.  They say they were preyed upon by the creator of the show, John Kricfalusi, who admitted to having had a 16-year-old girlfriend when approached by BuzzFeed News.

Crazed girls flood Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz with fan mail  —  Sun Sentinel  —  Mass murderer Nikolas Cruz is getting stacks of fan mail and love letters sent to the Broward County jail, along with hundreds of dollars in contributions to his commissary account.

ICE paves way to detain more pregnant immigrants  —  Who is a target for deportation?  —  Washington (CNN)The Trump administration will no longer seek to automatically release pregnant immigrants from detention — a move in line with the overall efforts by the administration to hold far …

It Took 3 Different Court Orders for Scott Walker To Finally Hold Constitutionally Required Elections  —  After months of delay and Republican attempts to defy court orders, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker finally agreed to schedule special elections to fill vacant two state legislative seats.

The Fascist Right Is Bloodied and Soiled  —  Recently, on a cold, gray Monday afternoon in East Lansing, Michigan, about 500 militant anti-fascists gathered in a parking lot with the intention of stopping Richard Spencer, the high-profile white nationalist, from speaking at Michigan State University.

Trouble in candy land  —  How Peeps, pensions and a lawsuit threaten to upend the American retirement system  —  On April 1, hundreds of millions of marshmallow chicks and bunnies called Peeps will peer out from Easter baskets at American children.  —  They are a pastel symbol of Easter joy …

Fake Kirsten Gillibrand flap reveals double standard in our politics  —  Here's a sentence I never thought I would need to write: Kirsten Gillibrand is not involved in a sex scandal.  —  Now I've got your attention, right?  —  That I even need to devote a blog post to this topic is evidence …

Exclusive: Russian ambassador pleads for help in securing Washington meetings  —  Congressional leaders won't meet with him.  Neither will the vice president or the White House chief of staff.  —  And the Russian ambassador says he is at his wit's end.  —  In a letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch …

Media vs. Facebook: This time it's personal  —  Facebook and Google execs privately complain about the barrage of critical coverage they face, charging that media companies have a financial incentive to attack them and that media execs are settling scores.  They're right.

More than 200 former diplomats are alarmed at the state of American diplomacy … More than 200 former U.S. ambassadors and veteran diplomats have signed a letter expressing alarm over the slide in U.S. leadership in the world and urging senators to grill Mike Pompeo about his plans to reverse …

The House Exodus  —  How the historically high number of open seats affects the November calculus  —  KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE  — As of this writing, just 379 of 435 House districts will have incumbents running in them this November.  That's the second-lowest total of the post-World War II era.

Kathy Griffin Is Returning to TV, and Still Taking on Trump  —  Almost a year after Kathy Griffin appeared in a widely condemned photograph that depicted her holding the severed head of President Trump, this comedian and actress is making a TV comeback of sorts.

Sacramento Home For Sale, But Not To Trump Supporters  —  SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A Sacramento area home is up for sale, but it comes with a catch.  —  The homeowner has a political preference in mind for the next owner of her house, which has been in her family for decades.

E.P.A. Prepares to Roll Back Rules Requiring Cars to Be Cleaner and More Efficient  —  The Trump administration is expected to launch an effort in coming days to weaken greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy standards for automobiles, handing a victory to car manufacturers and giving …