Ohio race just got closer after county finds hundreds of uncounted votes  —  A special election in Ohio's 12th Congressional District was too close to call early Tuesday.  It could produce an automatic recount for Democrat Danny O'Connor and Republican Troy Balderson, who was backed by President Donald Trump.

Secret recording shows GOP's Nunes saying Rosenstein impeachment would delay Supreme Court pick  —  “Do you want them [the Senate] to drop everything and not confirm the Supreme Court justice?”  Rep. Devin Nunes said at a recent fundraiser.  —  Hard-line conservative Republicans …

Puerto Rico concedes Hurricane Maria deaths more than 1,400  —  SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico has conceded that Hurricane Maria killed more than 1,400 people on the island last year and not just the 64 in the official death toll.  —  The government acknowledged the higher death toll …

Tribune Terminates $3.9 Billion Sinclair Merger, Sues Broadcast Rival  —  FCC Chairman Ajit Pai had concerns about Sinclair's submissions and sent it to an administrative-law judge, a blow to the merger's approval chances  —  Tribune Media Co. TRCO .99% terminated its merger agreement …

Rules Won't Save Twitter.  Values Will.  —  The platform won't ban the dangerous liar Alex Jones because he “hasn't violated our rules.”  Then what's the point of these rules?  —  This week, Alex Jones, the persistently mendacious conspiracy-theory spouter — yeah, that's a real job in 2018 …

Rudy's Mueller demand: No questions on Flynn, Comey  —  With his constant commentating and public negotiating, Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani is setting up unmeetable expectations for special counsel Robert Mueller — a kind of insurance policy with the president's base.

Omarosa Secretly Recorded Trump and Played the Audio to Others, Sources Say … Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal attorney and fixer, isn't the only one with secretly recorded audio of the president.  —  Multiple sources with direct knowledge of the situation tell The Daily Beast …

Hope Hicks getting sucked back into Trump's orbit  —  Hope Hicks had no intention of traveling on Air Force One when she arrived at President Donald Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club to hang out with White House friends including Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump.

Prosecutor: Man at N.M. compound trained kids for school shooting  —  AMALIA, N.M. (AP) — The father of a missing Georgia boy was training children at a New Mexico compound to commit school shootings, prosecutors said in court documents obtained Wednesday, as authorities waited to learn …

Why the Left Is So Afraid of Jordan Peterson  —  Two years ago, I walked downstairs and saw one of my teenage sons watching a strange YouTube video on the television.  —  “What is that?”  I asked.  —  He turned to me earnestly and explained, “It's a psychology professor at the University of Toronto talking about Canadian law.”

Emails show 2016 links among Steele, Ohr, Simpson — with Russian oligarch in background  —  Emails in 2016 between former British spy Christopher Steele and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr suggest Steele was deeply concerned about the legal status of a Putin-linked Russian oligarch …

The Demography of the Alt-Right … Divorce does seem to increase the likelihood a respondent will believe whites suffer discrimination and the likelihood that a white person will agree with all three of the basic premises of white identity politics.  —  Higher incomes are associated …

Dozens dead after school bus carrying children hit by airstrike  —  (CNN)Dozens of children, most believed to be under the age of 10, have been killed after a Saudi-led coalition airstrike hit a school bus in northern Yemen Thursday.  —  The bus was hit as it was driving through a market …

Chinese leadership is facing a rare backlash for its handling of the US trade dispute  — Some critics saying that an overly nationalistic Chinese stance may have hardened the US position.  — President Xi Jinping still has a firm grip on power, but an unusual surge of criticism …

Don Lemon: Trump told me I couldn't be a fair reporter because I'm black  —  Don Lemon, a black CNN anchor, has accused President Trump of telling him in 2011 that Lemon's race made him incapable of unbiased reporting.  —  Lemon made the claim as he attempted to explain how a years-long feud between …

Judge in Manafort Trial Is a ‘Caesar’ in His Own Rome  —  ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Judge T. S. Ellis III had dismissed the jury for the day, but he was not quite finished opining about what he saw as irrelevant and repetitive questioning of a witness in the financial fraud trial of Paul Manafort.

Bill Nelson: The Russians have penetrated some Florida voter registration systems  —  Nelson amplified concerns about the 2018 midterms.  —  Russian operatives have “penetrated” some of Florida's election systems ahead of the 2018 midterms, Sen. Bill Nelson said Wednesday, adding new urgency about hacking.

Media boost security as Trump ramps up ‘enemy’ rhetoric  —  TV networks are employing security guards at the president's high-octane rallies.  —  Notebooks, mics, cameras, hairspray — those are all things TV reporters are used to having with them at political rallies.

The Whole Republican Party Seems to Be Going to Jail Now  —  The entire Trump era has been a festering pit of barely disguised ongoing corruption.  But the whole sordid era has not had a 24-hour period quite like the orgy of criminality which we have just experienced.  The events of the last day alone include:

The Marines Didn't Think Women Belonged in the Infantry.  She's Proving Them Wrong.  —  MOUNT BUNDEY TRAINING AREA, Australia — First Lt. Marina A. Hierl watched a dozen Marines charge toward human silhouettes made of paper atop a nearby hill.  Despite the early hour …

Regardless of Trial, New Britain Is Keeping ‘Paul Manafort Drive’  —  New Britain has no plans to change the name of Paul Manafort Drive, according to city officials.  It is named after a former mayor, Paul Manafort, whose son, also named Paul, is making national headlines in his tax fraud trial this week.