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Trump lawyer ‘paid by Ukraine’ to arrange White House talks — Donald Trump's personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, received a secret payment of at least $400,000 to fix talks between the Ukrainian president and President Trump, according to sources in Kiev close to those involved.


Trump's FBI Spy Theory Is Completely Insane — In the face of widening evidence of Trump campaign culpability in the Russia investigation, Republicans have churned through a frequently mutating series of conspiracy theories to defend him. The latest, and possibly final, such theory …
Discussion:
Washington Post, Mother Jones, ThinkProgress and ABC News
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Comey Rips Trump's ‘Attacks’ on the FBI: ‘How Will Republicans Explain This to Their Grandchildren?’ — Former FBI Director James Comey came to the agency's defense this morning as President Trump continues to attack it over the informant used during the election.
Discussion:
Politico, CNN, Axios and Washington Post


5 Key Takeaways From Tuesday's Primaries — It was a night for upsets and breakthroughs: In Georgia, a black woman was nominated for governor by a major party for the first time in any state. In Kentucky, a math teacher defeated a Republican power broker.
Discussion:
Washington Post, ThinkProgress, NBC News, WFAA-TV, Shareblue Media, FiveThirtyEight and ABC News
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Poll: Trump reelection bid begins in a hole — Just 36 percent say they would vote to reelect the president in 2020, compared with 44 percent who would pick the Democrat. — The 2020 presidential election is still two and a half years away, but President Donald Trump's path to a second term …
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Breitbart, Vox, Axios, Political Wire and ABC News
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What Are They Hiding? — Americans Want Answers on Mueller Investigation, Cabinet Scandals, Congressional Oversight, and #MeToo — Welcome to NAVIGATOR — a project designed to better understand the American public's views on the issues of the day and help advocates, elected officials …
Discussion:
Vox


Trump demands housecleaning on White House communications team — Chief of staff John Kelly has signed off on a plan to dismiss mid-level and junior aides in an effort to limit leaks. — President Donald Trump has demanded changes to his communications team - long seen …
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine and Mediaite
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Top Senate Republicans ask White House for entry into meeting on classified information
Discussion:
Lawfare, Hullabaloo and NPR


Philip Roth, the Seminal American Novelist, Has Died — Philip Roth, the seminal American novelist whose book “American Pastoral” won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, in 1998, has died, at the age of eighty-five. His great subjects, as Claudia Roth Pierpont wrote in this magazine, in 2006 …
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NPR
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Philip Roth, Towering Novelist Who Explored Lust, Jewish Life and America, Dies at 85
Discussion:
Vox, Outside the Beltway, New Republic, The Week and Front Page Magazine


Michael Cohen's Business Partner Agrees to Cooperate as Part of Plea Deal — A significant business partner of Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's personal lawyer, has quietly agreed to cooperate with the government as a potential witness, a development that could be used as leverage to pressure …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, National Review, NPR, Washington Post, Above the Law, Weekly Standard, CNBC, The Week, Lawyers, Guns & Money, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, Washington Press, Vox, Breitbart, Hit & Run, AOL, Axios, New York Magazine, CNN, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story, Washington Monthly, The Mahablog, Daily Kos, Balloon Juice and Joe.My.God.


Exclusive: U.S. Government Can't Get Controversial Kaspersky Lab Software Off Its Networks … Federal agencies are so far unable to comply with a law banning Kaspersky Lab software from U.S. government networks by October, The Daily Beast has learned. Multiple divisions of the U.S. government …
Discussion:
Political Wire and archive.fo


State Department warns U.S. citizens in China after employee suffers possible sonic attack — BEIJING — The U.S. State Department is warning U.S. citizens in China that a government employee reported unusual “sensations of sound and pressure” and was later diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury …
Discussion:
New York Times, Politico, Bloomberg, U.S. Embassy & Consulates …, The Guardian and Daily Caller News Foundation
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Giuliani's New Stance On Russian Collusion: So What? It's Not Illegal. — “It was sort of like a gift,” Giuliani said of the Clinton campaign material stolen by Russia. “And you're not involved in the illegality of getting it.” — WASHINGTON His client insists there was “NO COLLUSION” …
Discussion:
Splinter, MSNBC, Wall Street Journal and Mediaite
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Would you wear this muzzle around the office for private calling? — A new accessory called Bloxvox muffles your phone conversations in an open office. Just don't share it. — Enlarge Image — Back in January of 2017 I discovered a product at CES called HushMe that I described as …


The Risky Business of Speaking for President Trump — Flacks in this White House press office are getting enormous exposure — but potentially at a long-term cost to their credibility. — It was getting late on a Wednesday, and by 2018 standards the evening's news cycle felt almost serene.


A 30-year-old demanded notice for eviction from his parents' house. ‘Outrageous,’ a judge said. — Michael Rotondo refuses to move out of his parents' house. — So much so that the 30-year-old argued for a half-hour with a judge in Upstate New York on Tuesday, saying that while he knew …
Discussion:
CNN, ABC News, IJR and Outside the Beltway
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Parents win suit to kick 30-year-old deadbeat son out of their house


Families of Sandy Hook victims, FBI agent file defamation lawsuit against right-wing radio host Alex Jones — Six families of victims killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting, as well as an FBI agent who responded to the scene, filed a defamation lawsuit today …


Prominent donor threatens GOP over DACA — CHICAGO — An influential, multi-millionaire GOP donor is threatening to choke off campaign resources to Republican congressmen who haven't engaged in the latest immigration battle in Congress. — Former Exelon chairman John Rowe …
Discussion:
RedState, ThinkProgress, The Hill, Daily Caller News Foundation, Shareblue Media, Splinter and New York Magazine


The Privacy Scandal That Should Be Bigger Than Cambridge Analytica — Wireless carriers are sharing your real-time location with shady third parties—and a bug lets anyone use that data to track you. — Stop me if you've heard this before: A giant company that relies on users to trust …
Discussion:
Krebs on Security
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The new AG itching to take on Trump — New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal has jurisdiction over 20 Trump properties and is ready to step into Eric Schneiderman's void. — The man aspiring to be the new face of the resistance is a practicing Sikh who likes to call attention to his turban …
Discussion:
Political Wire


Sources: FBI Agents Want Congress To Issue Them Subpoenas So They Can Reveal The Bureau's Dirt — Sources tell The Daily Caller several FBI agents want congressional subpoenas to testify about the agency's problems. — The sources claim there is a demand within the agency to prosecute former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.
Discussion:
Townhall, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, CNBC, The Gateway Pundit, Raw Story and Joe.My.God.


How the Mueller Investigation Could Play Out for Trump — If Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, finds evidence that Mr. Trump broke the law, he will have decisions to make about how to proceed. We explain them.


Teacher narrowly upsets Kentucky House GOP leader. A sign of things to come? — As upset teachers across Kentucky Tuesday tried to flex their political muscle, Rockcastle County High School math teacher R. Travis Brenda narrowly defeated House Majority Floor Leader Jonathan Shell …
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Vox, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos, Hullabaloo, HuffPost, Splinter, Axios and Political Wire


Stefan Halper is just another middleman — By David Ignatius Opinion writer May 22 at 7:21 PM Email the author Follow @ignatiuspost — In the bizarre double helix that is the Russia investigation, one of the recurring themes is the role of would-be influencers.
Discussion:
National Review, Axios and Breitbart


The ACLU Is Suing To Strike Down Ohio's Congressional Map — The civil liberties group says Ohio's map is so heavily gerrymandered, it violates the Constitution. — The American Civil Liberties Union is suing Ohio to strike down the state's congressional map, saying it was intentionally drawn …


There is no evidence for ‘Spygate’ — but there is a reason that Trump invented it — In the grand tradition of Gretchen Wieners, President Trump has a new catchphrase that he is trying on for size. … “Spygate” made its debut on Wednesday morning during Trump's “executive time,” …
Discussion:
Fox News Insider, AOL and The Gateway Pundit


EPA bars reporters from toxic chemicals summit again — EPA staff Wednesday morning barred POLITICO and reporters from at least two other publications from entering a national summit on toxic chemicals. — The agency at the first day of the event on Tuesday allowed a select group of reporters …

Pompeo: US will fight Russian interference in 2018 elections — WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the Trump administration will not tolerate Russian interference in the 2018 congressional midterm elections. — Pompeo told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday …


The Latest: Pompeo hopeful N. Korea talks will take place — The Latest on the United States and North Korea (all times local): — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says it is ultimately up to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un whether a planned summit with President Donald Trump takes place.
Discussion:
Politico


“That Psychopath Is Going Down”: Inside Trumpworld, a Bizarre Counter-Narrative Takes Hold — People in Trump's orbit have become convinced that anti-Trump forces in the F.B.I. entrapped his advisers using informants to plant evidence about Russian collusion—and that former C.I.A. director John Brennan is somehow behind the plot.
Discussion:
PolitiFact, Shakesville, The Week and The Guardian


A week after controversial head tax passes, Seattle City Council members propose property tax increase … SEATTLE — People who own a home in King County are paying about 17% more in property taxes this year than last year to help pay for the state's funding of public education.
Discussion:
Hot Air, RedState and Daily Wire