Scott Pruitt asked to use sirens in D.C. traffic and was told no for non-emergency  —  Several weeks after taking the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency, Administrator Scott Pruitt was running late and stuck in Washington, D.C., traffic.  Sources tell CBS News that he wanted to use …

Phil Bredesen holds double-digit lead over Marsha Blackburn in US Senate race, new MTSU poll shows  —  Former Gov. Phil Bredesen has a 10-point lead over U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn in the race to succeed U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, according to a new poll from Middle Tennessee State University.

Trump's Most Influential White Nationalist Troll Is A Middlebury Grad Who Lives In Manhattan  —  Twitter troll “Ricky Vaughn” had a bigger influence on the 2016 election than NBC News and the Drudge Report.  Here's who he really is.  —  Who is Ricky Vaughn?

Atlantic Fires Kevin Williamson After Suddenly Realizing He Believes The Things He Says  —  “I have come to the conclusion that The Atlantic is not the best fit for his talents, and so we are parting ways,” Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg wrote.  —  In an email to his staff Thursday afternoon …

EXCLUSIVE: Robert Mercer backed a secretive group that worked with Facebook, Google to target anti-Muslim ads at swing voters  —  As the final weeks of the 2016 elections ticked down, voters in swing states like Nevada and North Carolina began seeing eerie promotional travel ads …

Presidential whiplash stokes immigration crisis to justify troop surge  —  Trump orders National Guard troops to border  —  (CNN)President Donald Trump's aides are caught in a never ending game of catch-up, trying to translate his sudden, impulsive demands into instant policy.

Former Trump aide approved ‘black ops’ to help Ukraine president  —  Exclusive: Paul Manafort authorised secret media operation that sought to discredit key opponent of then Ukrainian president … Donald Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort authorised a secret media operation …

Here's Don Jr. Talking About How It Sucks To Be At The Playboy Mansion With A Pregnant Wife  —  Has the president's son ever contemplated killing his dad for the money?  He once talked about that on the radio!  —  In January 2007, Adam Carolla broadcast his radio show, “The Adam Carolla Show …

Ex-fiancee says Las Vegas GOP campaign adviser made her his slave  —  GOP consultant Benjamin Sparks (Photo obtained by Las Vegas Review-Journal)  —  GOP consultant Benjamin Sparks is pictured in this undated photo obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.  Sparks is accused of sexually enslaving and battering his ex fiancee.

Stuck in Third Place, Should CNN Abandon Its “Food Fight” Formula?  —  Despite its down-the-middle news brand, the network trails rivals Fox News and MSNBC in viewers and weathers daily attacks from the White House as critics bemoan a “clash model” of staging partisan debates that's now “outmoded.”

The case for extreme worry  —  To White House insiders, this is the most dangerous phase of Donald Trump's presidency so far, from the brewing trade war with China that he denies is a trade war, to the perilously spontaneous summit with North Korea.  —  The big picture: Checks are being ignored …

Number of women running for US House seats sets record  —  CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — The number of women running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives set a record Thursday, the vast majority of them Democrats motivated by angst over President Donald Trump and policies of the Republican-controlled Congress.

These Messages Show Julian Assange Talked About Seeking Hacked Files From Guccifer 2.0  —  DMs tie Assange to a Russia-linked hacker — and raise new questions about his Seth Rich conspiracy theory.  —  Twitter DMs obtained by BuzzFeed News show that in the summer of 2016 …

“You Don't Attack a Kid”: Inside the Laura Ingraham Nightmare at Fox News  —  Ingraham may have erred terribly in assailing a Parkland survivor, but she has the support of the man in charge of Fox News.  “Rupert has been annoyed by what he perceives as cowardly behavior by his executives,” says one person close to the mogul.

The woman who got fired for flipping off President Trump just sued her former employer … Juli Briskman, the Virginia cyclist who flipped off the presidential motorcade and lost her job last fall, doesn't think we should be afraid to speak our minds.  —  That's why she went to court Wednesday …

Everyone Got The Pulse Massacre Story Completely Wrong  —  And another, smaller injustice was obscured: the sadistic prosecution of Noor Salman.  —  Every mass tragedy begets a frantic search for answers, for a common understanding of what happened, for a narrative, and the 2016 Pulse massacre was no different.

Rex Tillerson's $12 million army of consultants  —  It was one of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's core goals: radically reshaping the State Department to make it leaner, cheaper and modernized to the standards of a former private-sector CEO.  —  Now that Tillerson has been fired …

Land for the Taking  —  The day after the meeting, Mr. Hamoud, a Sunni, returned to work and found that his department was now staffed 100 percent by Sunnis, the sect of Islam practiced by the militants.  The Shia and Christian colleagues who previously shared his office had all fled.

‘Have you ever seen luxury like this?’:  Trump moonlights as dinner host  —  It turns out that President Donald Trump loves to throw a good dinner party.  —  The president is known for his after-hours cellphone calls and his late-night cable news habit, but several times a month …

Jezebel Regrets Its Decision to Hire Cannibal Witch as Writer-at-Large  —  It is not easy to admit our mistakes, particularly now, given the current media climate and general culture of intolerance on college campuses.  Still, we feel that we owe our readers an apology.

Statement issued on behalf of Yulia Skripal  —  BST  —  Statement issued on behalf of Yulia Skripal, aged 33 years:  —  “I woke up over a week ago now and am glad to say my strength is growing daily.  I am grateful for the interest in me and for the many messages of goodwill that I have received.