Cohen drops libel suits against BuzzFeed, Fusion GPS  —  Embattled attorney Michael Cohen has dropped a pair of much-touted libel suits against BuzzFeed and the private investigation firm Fusion GPS over publication of the so-called dossier detailing alleged ties between President Donald Trump and Russia.

Donald Trump  —  President Trump is a flash-bang grenade thrown into Washington by the forgotten men and women of America.  The fact that his first year as Commander in Chief disoriented and distressed members of the media and political establishment is not a bug but a feature.

Inside Rex Tillerson's Ouster  —  The last days of his brief and chaotic tenure as Secretary of State.  —  Rex Tillerson's team was fighting again.  “So, who's going to go in with him?”  Margaret Peterlin, his chief of staff, was saying.  She looked me up and down with an expression …

Cohen Would Turn Against President if Charged, Counselor Warned Trump  —  Former prosecutor Jay Goldberg says he cautioned president that his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, could be compelled to cooperate with prosecutors  —  One of President Donald Trump's longtime legal advisers …

Trump declared he's running again.  Many Republicans aren't ready to back him.  —  Washington (CNN)A wide array of House and Senate Republicans are not yet ready to endorse President Donald Trump's bid for a second term, a reflection of the deep uncertainty on Capitol Hill …

CAMERON KASKY, JACLYN CORIN, DAVID HOGG, EMMA GONZÁLEZ AND ALEX WIND  —  America's response to mass shootings has long followed a predictable pattern.  We mourn.  Offer thoughts and prayers.  Speculate about the motives.  And then—even as no developed country endures a homicide rate like ours …

Men arrested at Starbucks say they feared for their lives  —  PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Rashon Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn't use the restroom because he wasn't a paying customer.  —  He thought nothing of it when he and his business partner …

Scott Pruitt  —  The Environmental Protection Agency has been instrumental in improving our nation's air, land and water quality.  From the inaugural Clean Air Act of 1970 to the Brownfields Program and Great Lakes cleanup, the EPA has established antipollution standards …

POLL: Arizona Senate Race Heating Up - Blue, not Red  —  Trump favorability underwater by 13-points in the desert  —  The GOP has two U.S. Senate seats at risk this election and Arizona's Senate seat is one of those two.  Democrat front-runner, Kyrsten Sinema, has little to no opposition …

Leaked video shows Theranos employees playing the video game they created where you shoot at the reporter who exposed the startup's problems  — Theranos was once valued at $9 billion and backed by big names like venture capitalist Tim Draper, but the startup may be liquidated as soon as this summer, according to an investor email.

Upstate NY farmer says ICE officers stormed his farm without a warrant, cuffed him, threw his phone  —  Rome, N.Y. — John Collins was standing outside the milk house at his dairy farm this morning when he heard yelling coming from inside.  He ran in, he says, and saw his worker …

After calling Barbara Bush an ‘amazing racist,’ a professor taunts critics: ‘I will never be fired’ … In the hours after Barbara Bush died Tuesday, even those who didn't share the former first lady's political views expressed their condolences and recounted warm memories of the Bush family matriarch.

Democrats crush House Republicans in fundraising  —  House Republicans told themselves 2018 would be better after getting swamped by Democratic cash in 2017.  But Republican incumbents are actually in worse financial shape now than at the end of last year.  —  A whopping 43 House Republicans …

SU suspends Theta Tau fraternity after video of ‘extremely racist’ behavior surfaces  —  The Syracuse University chapter of Theta Tau was suspended Wednesday morning after the university confirmed it was involved in the creation of online videos showing fraternity members engaging in behaviors that were …

Pasta Is Good For You, Say Scientists Funded By Big Pasta  —  Facing pressure from the low-carb movement, Barilla and other companies are funding and promoting research that argues pasta is healthy.  —  The headlines were a fettuccine fanatic's dream.  “Eating Pasta Linked to Weight Loss in New Study …

Back to full list  —  ROBERT MUELLER  —  Robert S. Mueller III doesn't seek deferments.  After a classmate died in Vietnam, this well-to-do Princeton athlete traded his lacrosse stick for a military rifle and volunteered for war.  He returned with a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and a gunshot wound.

Palantir Knows Everything About You  —  Peter Thiel's data-mining company is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens.  The scary thing?  Palantir is desperate for new customers.  —  High above the Hudson River in downtown Jersey City, a former U.S. Secret Service agent named …

Trumpism Without Trump  —  A little more than six months from now, on November 7, the sun will rise on a political landscape wrecked by President Donald Trump's first midterm election.  Thanks to a map that puts more Democratic than Republican seats at risk, our party will still cling …

Former Trump advisor's father's death in Philadelphia labeled ‘suspicious’: multiple agencies investigate  —  According to sources, the Philadelphia police homicide unit, the Philadelphia district attorney, the Attorney General's office and the health department are all investigating the death …

Smearing Robert Mueller  —  Sean Hannity and others are blaming the special counsel for one of the F.B.I.'s worst scandals.  But there is no evidence to back up their charges.  —  Was Robert Mueller, the special counsel, complicit in one of the worst scandals in the F.B.I.'s history …

No Sign of ‘Trump Bump’ In National Enquirer Publisher's Finances  —  Tabloid owner American Media's debt has mushroomed while newsstand sales of its print publications are shrinking  —  The National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., has said the tabloid's plentiful …

Exclusive: Facebook to put 1.5 billion users out of reach of new EU privacy law  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - If a new European law restricting what companies can do with people's online data went into effect tomorrow, almost 1.9 billion Facebook Inc users around the world would be protected by it.

Poll: Cruz running neck and neck with Dem challenger  —  (R-Texas) is in a statistical dead heat with Rep. Beto O'Rourke (Texas), his Democratic challenger, a poll released Wednesday showed.  —  The first Quinnipiac University poll of the race deemed it too close to call.

Raqqa  —  The Trump administration has signaled its waning interest in Syria's future, with the president urging this month that U.S. troops be withdrawn as soon as possible.  After U.S.-led airstrikes against Syria last weekend in retaliation for an alleged poison-gas attack …

Manafort Suspected of Serving as ‘Back Channel’ to Russia, DOJ Says  —  Prosecutors defend Mueller's actions in pursuing Manafort  —  Judge weighing whether Mueller exceeded his authority  —  Special Counsel Robert Mueller's interest in former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort stemmed …

Across Midwest, Farmers Warn of G.O.P. Losses Over Trump's Trade Policy  —  China's proposed tariffs on soybeans would hit hard in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota and other states with highly competitive House and Senate races.  —  CASSELTON, N.D. — Here in the largest soybean-producing county …

Trump Judicial Nominee Appears to Have Called Undocumented Immigrants “Maggots”  —  Next week, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the nomination of Michael Truncale, whom Donald Trump selected to sit on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Ex-Playboy Model, Let Out of Tabloid Contract, Can Freely Discuss Alleged Trump Affair  —  The tabloid news company American Media Inc. agreed to let a former Playboy model out of a contract that had kept her from talking freely about an alleged affair with Donald J. Trump, her lawyer said.

Nazi Links of Hans Asperger, Autism Research Pioneer, Prompt Consternation  —  A new study has shed more light on the revelations that Hans Asperger, the Austrian pediatrician for whom a form of autism is named, had collaborated with the Nazis and actively assisted in the killing of disabled children.

Underestimate Trump's Reelection Odds at Your Own Peril  —  This is part two of a back-and-forth between Crystal Ball Managing Editor Kyle Kondik and veteran reporter and presidential historian Paul Brandus assessing President Trump's reelection odds in 2020.  See the piece from Brandus here.

Sexual Harassment Was Rampant at Coachella 2018  —  Trigger Warning: This article contains multiple stories describing sexual assault.  —  The annual Coachella music festival always promises a few things for my social media feeds: selfies in front of a ferris wheel, an array of photogenic …

The Democrats' Gentrification Problem  —  The nation's largest cities and metropolitan areas — home to a majority of Democratic voters — are at the forefront of the party's most vexing racial, ethnic and class conflicts.  —  Last week, in an essay for CityLab, Richard Florida …

‘Life is boring and lonely’  —  Li Weibin has never had a girlfriend.  Boys outnumbered girls in the isolated mountain village where he grew up, in the factories where he worked as a teenager, and on the construction sites where he now earns a modest wage.  —  Today, 30 years old …

Leaders worldwide are falling for a ‘deadly illusion’  —  ALTHOUGH HIS audience was the European Parliament, French President Emmanuel Macron articulated truths on Tuesday that resonate for the entire globe.  Nationalism and authoritarianism are on the march.  Democracy as an ideal and in practice seems under siege.

NJ taxpayers to pay more for Chris Christie's portrait than they have for any governor  —  We asked people about him Chris Christie before his final day as governor.  Are people just tired of this guy?  Is anyone sad to see him go?  And what do people make of his legacy...?  Mitsu Yasukawa/Northjersey.com

L.A. Fitness fires 3 workers after black men get kicked out of N.J. gym  —  L.A. Fitness has fired a manager and two employees at a New Jersey gym where two black men were kicked out Monday night in an incident captured on video and shared on social media, according to a salesman there.

Luke Messer didn't disclose DUIs when he replaced lawmaker killed by drunk driver  —  In U.S. Senate candidate Luke Messer's first successful run for public office, he had to persuade a caucus of local party insiders that he was the right man to replace state Rep. Roland Stine …