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.

Laura Ingraham Apologizes to Parkland Survivor as Advertisers Ditch Her Show … After right-wing star Laura Ingraham publicly mocked Parkland school-shooting survivor David Hogg for being rejected by multiple colleges, several companies have pulled their ads from her primetime Fox News show.

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 …

ICE Now Detaining Pregnant Women, Thanks to Trump Order … Immigration and Customs Enforcement is ending its practice of automatically releasing pregnant women from detention, according to internal communications reviewed by The Daily Beast.  —  This is because of President Donald Trump's executive order …

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.

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.

Trump Rings Up Roseanne Barr After Her Show Is a Ratings Winner  —  President Trump made a personal phone call on Wednesday to a political supporter with a huge megaphone — Roseanne Barr.  —  Mr. Trump called Ms. Barr to congratulate her on the revival of her comedy, “Roseanne,” and to thank her for her support.

Jeff Sessions Is Winning for Donald Trump.  If Only He Can Keep His Job  —  Sessions greets law-enforcement officers in Kentucky.  “The fundamental question is, Who rules the streets?” the U.S. Attorney General says.  “The government or the outlaws?”  Philip Montgomery for TIME

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.

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.

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 …

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.

A Partisan Combatant, a Remorseful Blogger: The Senate Staffer Behind the Attack on the Trump-Russia Investigation  —  Jason Foster, chief investigative counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, once blogged under the handle “Extremist,” expressing worry about a Muslim takeover and whether Joe McCarthy got a bum rap.

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.

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.

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 …

Cuomo, in Writing, Reinterprets Fund-Raising Ban on Appointees  —  After seven years as governor of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo has rewritten the disclaimer language on his campaign website that describes which of his appointees are banned from donating to his campaign, potentially opening the door for more appointees to contribute.

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.

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.

Larry King Says the Second Amendment Was Created to Fight Off Slave Uprisings  —  Larry King has an interesting tidbit for why the Second Amendment should be repealed — and it's got to do with what he says is the real reason it was created ... to fight off slaves.

More than half of Americans think Trump will lose in 2020.  But that hasn't doomed past presidents from getting reelected.  —  Kasich: ‘Big lift’ from Schwarzenegger 2020 support  —  Washington (CNN)A majority of Americans think President Donald Trump will lose his re-election bid in 2020 …

Father crashes daughter's proposal, holds up sign reading ‘Say no’  —  It was a moment Allison Barron and Levi Bliss would remember for the rest of their lives.  —  No, we're not talking about Levi's proposal — although that was certainly memorable, too.  We're talking about the moment Allison's dad …

Wes Anderson's ‘Isle of Dogs’: Is Cultural Appropriation Hollywood's Next Big Battleground?  —  Who gets to make what art?  And where should we draw the line between ripping off and paying homage to another culture, asks a Hollywood Reporter columnist.  —  I grew up on a steady diet …

‘Kiss Up, Kick Down’: Those Recalling Bolton's U.N. Confirmation Process Say He Hasn't Changed  —  WASHINGTON — The last time — perhaps the only time — John R. Bolton inspired bipartisan agreement, it was over the shared conclusion that he was perhaps the least diplomatic personality …

Extreme vetting: State Dept. to demand tourists' social media history  —  New application will warn immigrants against female genital mutilation  —  The State Department will publish new rules this week that would require most visitors and immigrants to the U.S. to turn …

Russian News Service RT to Go Off the Air in the Washington Area  —  Broadcast stations' closing will also knock RT off local cable  —  U.S. intelligence calls RT part of Russia ‘propaganda machine’  —  Russia's English-language broadcasting network RT, described by U.S. intelligence agencies …