Trump pressed aides on Venezuela invasion, US official says  —  BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — As a meeting last August in the Oval Office to discuss sanctions on Venezuela was concluding, President Donald Trump turned to his top aides and asked an unsettling question: With a fast unraveling Venezuela …

Black Oregon legislator says campaigning in own district triggered 911 call  —  A black Oregon state representative says one of her constituents called police on her Tuesday while she was canvassing alone in a neighborhood she represents.  —  Rep. Janelle Bynum, a Democrat who is running …

In a Fox-Inspired Tweetstorm, Trump Offers a Medley of Falsehoods and Misstatements  —  WASHINGTON — The string of insults, misstatements, exaggerations and outright falsehoods emanating from the White House began just after sunrise.  —  In the space of a few hours, President Trump …

I left the Republican Party.  Now I want Democrats to take over.  —  “Should I stay or should I go now?”  That question, posed by the eminent political philosophers known as The Clash, is one that confronts any Republican with a glimmer of conscience.  You used to belong to a conservative party with a white-nationalist fringe.

Lawyers for Ohio State contradict Jim Jordan's claim he's not been contacted  —  Jennifer Smola The Columbus Dispatch @jennsmolaJessica Wehrman Dispatch Washington Bureau @JessicaWehrman  —  Congressman Jim Jordan denied hearing about Dr. Richard Strauss' alleged sexual abuse while Jordan …

USCIS is Starting a Denaturalization Task Force  —  The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is creating a new task force.  Its goal: to examine what they say are bad naturalization cases, according to Director L. Francis Cissna's June announcement.

‘Our most fundamental values are under attack’: Democrats issue bleak July Fourth statement  —  Happy Fourth of July - or maybe not.  —  The Democratic National Committee's annual Fourth of July statement reflects its long-standing tensions with President Donald Trump.

Counter-terror police investigate Amesbury substance after pair fall ill  —  Counter-terror police are investigating a “major incident” in Amesbury after two people were exposed to an unknown substance which left them in a critical condition.  —  Samples of the substance are being sent …

Watch: Immigrant Kids Forced to Defend Themselves in Court  —  The Immigration Counseling Service produced a short film called Unaccompanied, meant to depict the experiences of unaccompanied children defending themselves in court-armed without parents or lawyers.

Donald Trump's talking points on Crimea are the same as Vladimir Putin's  —  A few days ago, reporters on Air Force One asked President Trump if he would accept Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.  They had good reason to do so.  As Trump prepares for his July 16 summit meeting …

The Fourth of July White House concert used to be a sea of stars.  For Trump, it's a drought.  —  He could barely contain himself.  Jimmy Fallon, then just a few months into his new gig as host of “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” stood on the South Lawn for the Obama administration's first Independence Day celebration in 2009.

“What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?”  —  Mr. President, Friends and Fellow Citizens:  —  He who could address this audience without a quailing sensation, has stronger nerves than I have.  I do not remember ever to have appeared as a speaker before any assembly more shrinkingly …

Two Judges Exemplify the Choice Trump Faces in a Supreme Court Pick  —  WASHINGTON — One is a creature of Washington with two Yale degrees, a ticket-punching résumé that includes stints in the Justice Department, the Bush White House and a federal appeals court, where he has written some 300 opinions.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinds guidance safeguarding the right of refugees, asylum seekers to work in the U.S.  —  Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Tuesday rescinded a 2011 Justice Department guidance mandating that asylum seekers and refugees have a “right” to work in the U.S.

Swiss Re limits thermal coal coverage  —  Swiss Re Switzerland Asbestos & Environmental Disaster Management Reinsurance More + Less -  —  Swiss Re Ltd. will not provide insurance or reinsurance to businesses with more than 30% thermal coal exposure starting Monday.

Democracy Dies in the Blinding Light of Day  —  Despite being one of the United States's founding statesmen and its second president after independence from Britain, John Adams was quite skeptical of democracy.  “Democracy never lasts long,” Adams reflected in an 1814 letter.

Vote Leave broke electoral law, Electoral Commission expected to say  —  The official Brexit campaign is expected to be found guilty of four charges of breaking electoral law, the BBC has been told.  —  The draft of an investigation into Vote Leave concludes it broke spending limits and failed to comply with some of the rules.

Merkel warns against trade war as Trump takes aim at cars  —  Berlin (AFP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday warned US President Donald Trump against unleashing an all-out trade war after he threatened to impose steep tariffs on cars from the European Union.

Results Matter: PRESIDENT TRUMP Tops Obama in Approval Numbers at Same Point in His Presidency  —  President Trump's approval rating on his second Independence Day is at 48% with likely voters.  —  And that is with 90% negative coverage from the far left mainstream media.

Some Contractors Housing Migrant Children Are Familiar to Trump's Inner Circle  —  Many of the nonprofits, corporations and religious groups watching over migrant children detained at the southwest border have been in this business for years — and they have a history of political connections …

Rare US independence declaration found in UK archive  —  London (AFP) - A rare parchment copy of the US Declaration of Independence found at a British archive among the papers of an aristocrat who supported the rebels has been authenticated, officials said.  —  The manuscript was discovered …

The patriotism gap  —  Gallup conducts an annual poll on American patriotism.  Participants are asked how proud, if at all, they are to be Americans.  —  This year's poll found a low ebb in patriotism, with 47 percent of Americans checking the “extremely proud” box.  That's down from a high of 70 percent in 2003.

On Martha's Vineyard, a Frosty Summer for Alan Dershowitz  —  CHILMARK, Mass. — For years, Alan Dershowitz, the lawyer and professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, has been a garrulous fixture in this handsome, gray-shingled town on Martha's Vineyard.  He holds court from a rocking chair …