Scott running for Senate in epic showdown with Nelson  —  TALLAHASSEE — Florida Gov. Rick Scott made his long-awaited Senate candidacy official Monday, setting up an epic battle against incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson and testing the limits of whether a close alliance with President Donald Trump …

Tammy Duckworth gives birth to girl: First senator to have baby while in office  —  WASHINGTON — Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., on Monday gave birth to a daughter, Maile Pearl Bowlsbey, becoming the first sitting senator to have a baby while in office.  —  Duckworth, who turned 50 on March 12 …

Trump family hotel business asked Panama president for help  —  PANAMA CITY (AP) — Lawyers representing U.S. President Donald Trump's family hotel business appealed to Panama's president for help days before an emergency arbitrator declined to reinstate the Trump management team to a luxury waterfront hotel.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak says he's left Facebook over data collection  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak told USA TODAY he's leaving Facebook out of growing concern for the carelessness with which Facebook and other Internet companies treat the private information of users.

In Letter to E.P.A., Top Ethics Officer Questions Pruitt's Actions  —  WASHINGTON — The federal government's top ethics official has taken the unusual step of sending a letter to the Environmental Protecting Agency questioning a series of actions by Administrator Scott Pruitt and asking the agency to take …

Cynthia Nixon Wants to Legalize It  —  What would you say is harder: appearing in two concurrent Broadway shows when you were a full-time college student, or running for governor of New York State when most people know you only from “Sex and the City”?  I think that running for office …

Israel blamed for missile strike in Syria; 14 reported dead  —  BEIRUT (AP) — Russia and the Syrian military blamed Israel for a pre-dawn missile attack Monday on a major air base in central Syria, saying Israeli fighter jets launched the missiles from Lebanon's air space.

Russian Stocks Take Worst Hit Since Crimea on Sanctions, Syria  —  Ruble falls most globally; stocks drop most since 2014  —  Analysts warn other companies could be next for penalties  —  Russian stocks headed for their biggest drop in four years and the ruble slumped the most in the world …

White House has no plan for countering Comey  —  Former FBI Director James Comey is about to return to the national spotlight with the release of his memoir next week — but the White House is doing little to prepare for the onslaught, according to two officials.

To hell with it: Trump increasingly weary of staff advice  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The speech was written.  A cast of relatable Americans with emotional stories was standing by to reinforce the message.  But President Donald Trump was in no mood to play along.

The Silence: The Legacy of Childhood Trauma  —  “I never got any help, any kind of therapy.  I never told anyone.”  —  X—  Last week I returned to Amherst.  It's been years since I was there, the time we met.  I was hoping that you'd show up again; I even looked for you, but you didn't appear.

MSNBC's Joy Reid: What If Trump Refuses To Be Arrested By Federal Marshals?  —  Sunday on her weekend morning program, MSNBC's Joy Reid seriously discussed a situation where President Trump refused a subpoena and would have to be arrested and put in jail until he testified before a grand jury.

Cardi B's Money Moves  —  The rapper responsible for last year's most unexpected hit emerged from a singular New York City story of strip clubs, gangs, and below-board basement butt injections.  Navigating new fame and a new record, Invasion of Privacy, Cardi B is fighting to stay true …

The Sam Harris debate  —  Ezra and Sam Harris debate race, IQ, identity politics, and much more.  —  There's a lot of backstory to this podcast, which is covered in more detail in this piece.  —  The short version is that Sam Harris, host of the Waking Up podcast, and I have been going back and forth …

Univision Forces Out Gizmodo CEO as Company Weighs Deep Cuts … Gizmodo Media Group's top executive is exiting the company—a sign that parent Univision plans to get more directly involved with its flagship digital media property as it weighs deep cuts.  —  The Daily Beast has learned …

Bots in the Twittersphere  —  The role of so-called social media “bots” - automated accounts capable of posting content or interacting with other users with no direct human involvement - has been the subject of much scrutiny and attention in recent years.  These accounts can play a valuable part …

Federal Budget Deficit Projected to Top $1 Trillion in 2020  —  WASHINGTON — The federal government's annual budget deficit is set to widen significantly in the next few years, topping $1 trillion in 2020 despite healthy economic growth, according to new projections from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Trump Has Lost the Confidence of Investors  —  Equities, bonds and the dollar are showing anything but trust in the president's stewardship.  —  President Donald Trump likes to equate the rally in stocks since the November 2016 elections with confidence in him and his policies.

Orbán poised to tighten grip on power  —  BUDAPEST — Viktor Orbán's critics are bracing for another tough four years.  —  Having secured a third straight term with a landslide election win, the Hungarian prime minister is arguably more powerful at home than any other head of government in the European Union.

2018 campaigns are not ready for Robert Mueller  —  WASHINGTON  —  Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation could upend the 2018 midterm elections — whether it reveals wrongdoing at the highest levels or exonerates the president.  And yet campaign officials and party insiders on both sides are unprepared for it.

Sophomoric and substantial: The college journalism career of James Comey  —  WASHINGTON — His vivid tales of Oval Office meetings have captivated Washington.  His writings — contemporaneous memos from meetings with President Trump — are Exhibit A in an investigation into potential obstruction of justice.

Interior Official Compared Parkland Students To Nazis, Promoted Conspiracies  —  A high-ranking official at the Interior Department's Bureau of Reclamation has repeatedly shared conspiracy theories on his personal Facebook page, a review by TPM found, including posts calling the students …

Kremlin aide: Russia's centuries-long romance with West over  —  MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin's adviser says Russia has abandoned its centuries-long aspirations of integrating into the West and is bracing for a new era of “geopolitical loneliness.”

'They Didn't Have To Kill Him': The Death of Lance Corporal Brian Easley  —  This article was published in collaboration with the editorial team at Longreads.  —  The thing that everyone remembered about the man in the light gray sweatshirt was how composed he was, how polite and respectful.

Facebook Launches New Initiative to Help Scholars Assess Social Media's Impact on Elections  —  By Elliot Schrage, Vice President of Communications and Public Policy, and David Ginsberg, Director of Research  —  Today, Facebook is announcing a new initiative to help provide independent …

Sarah Palin Would Run For Office Again ‘In A Heartbeat’  —  Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, who ran with Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) in 2008, said Sunday she would fun for office “again in a heartbeat.”  —  Palin was asked about her 2008 bid by Fox News host Mark Levin during his show …

How the Assad Regime Tracked and Killed Marie Colvin for Reporting on War Crimes in Syria  —  It is a horrifying artifact of our digital era: a jumpy 18-minute-and-49-second cellphone video of a Skype call.  Glimpses of an Arabic-language keyboard and laptop screen can be seen as the audio plays through tinny speakers.

Clarence Thomas' Wife Posts Memes Trashing Parkland Kids and Comparing Gun Control to Holocaust  —  In a stunning demonstration of what Facebook is for now, Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, is using her account to post memes attacking survivors …

Donald Trump is standing up for American interests  —  When China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, it promised to abide by the rules of the international trading order.  Instead, it has broken every rule in the fair trade book on the way to expanding its annual gross domestic product from $1.3tn to $11.2tn.

How ObamaCare is failing blue states  —  ObamaCare is still kicking.  Despite President Trump's cancellation of certain insurer subsidies, his sharp cutback in enrollment advertising, and the destruction of the individual mandate as part of the Republican tax plan, ObamaCare even appears to be fairly stable.

‘The Simpsons’ Responds to Criticism About Apu With a Dismissal  —  At the end of 2017, Hank Azaria, the voice behind Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, a convenience-store owner on “The Simpsons” with a thick Indian accent, responded to a recent groundswell of criticism that the character was racist.

Alan Dershowitz: Robert Mueller is ‘A Zealot’  —  Alan Dershowitz has made no secret to his blatant opposition of the appointment of a special counsel to investigate possible links between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.  Now, he's going after the man charged with heading the probe.