Trump considering declaring national emergency to secure wall funding: Sources  —  President Donald Trump is seriously considering potential options to circumvent Congress, including declaring a national emergency, to reprogram funds from the Department of Defense and elsewhere to help pay …

While federal workers go without pay, senior Trump administration officials are poised to get $10,000 raises.  —  While many federal workers go without pay and the government is partially shut down, hundreds of senior Trump political appointees are poised to receive annual raises of about $10,000 a year.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Suggests Super Wealthy be Taxed Up to 70% to Fund ‘Green New Deal’  —  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sat with Anderson Cooper for an upcoming 60 Minutes interview set to air this Sunday, a portion of which has been released as a promotion.

First on CNN: Hundreds of TSA screeners, working without pay, calling out sick at major airports  —  Where can't you travel during the shutdown?  —  Washington (CNN)Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration officers, who are required to work without paychecks through …

Kansas Senator Pat Roberts Will Not Seek Re-Election  —  WASHINGTON — Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas announced Friday that he would not seek a fifth term in 2020, ending more than a half-century of service in Washington and setting off what will likely be another fractious Republican primary between …

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand gauges Wall Street executives' interest in backing a potential 2020 presidential run  — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has been reaching out to Wall Street executives about supporting a potential 2020 run for president.  — The New York Democrat's effort comes …

American detained by Russia was convicted of trying to steal thousands of dollars while deployed to Iraq as a Marine  —  The Marine Corps found Paul Whelan, the American citizen detained by Russia on espionage charges, guilty of attempting to steal more than $10,000 worth of currency …

Bob Brady waves goodbye to Congress and wants to smoke some pot ... if it is legal |  Philly Clout  —  Brady on Thursday ended two decades of service in the U.S. House.  That got us thinking about something Brady told us two weeks ago as we trailed him from Philadelphia to the District of Columbia in the final weeks of his term.

Mueller grand jury gets 6 month extension  —  Washington (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller's federal grand jury has been extended by six months.  —  The grand jury, based in Washington, DC, was seated for an 18-month term that began in July 2017 and was set to expire in the coming days.

US official: airstrike kills terrorist behind USS Cole bombing  —  Washington (CNN)The terrorist behind the 2000 attack on the USS Cole is believed to have been killed in a US airstrike in Yemen on Tuesday, according to a US administration official.  —  Jamel Ahmed Mohammed Ali Al-Badawi …

US employers added a stellar 312,000 jobs in December  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers dramatically stepped up their hiring in December, adding 312,000 jobs in an encouraging display of strength for an economy in the midst of a trade war, slowing global growth and a partial shutdown of the federal government.

Supreme Court to hear cases on partisan gerrymandering  —  The Supreme Court once again will take up unresolved constitutional questions about partisan gerrymandering, agreeing Friday to consider rulings from two lower courts that found congressional maps in North Carolina and Maryland so extreme that they violated the rights of voters.

Mainstream Media Is Blowing Its Coverage Of Elizabeth Warren's DNA Test  —  Tribal leaders and Native people say the senator is an ally — and they support her look at her ancestry.  But hardly anyone asked them.  —  WASHINGTON Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) was positioned to make a strong bid …

Donald Trump Was Never Vetted  —  “When a man becomes president,” said Rudy Giuliani not long ago, “he shouldn't be subject to a review of his entire life.”  Putting aside for the moment whether such a review should or should not take place, Giuliani has correctly identified what is happening.

Evangelicals have hired their own Goliath  —  By all indications, the reluctant support by white evangelical Christians for Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton in 2016 has solidified into something like devotion.  —  In his analysis of the 2018 midterm elections results …

Posing as gay men on Twitter, a troll goes viral with attempts to falsely tie the LGBTQ community to pedophilia  —  Various efforts to tie the LGBTQ community to pedophilia have been linked back to fringe internet message board 4chan.  —  Around Christmas day, Karl Krause …

CREW Files Conflict of Interest Complaint Against Ivanka Trump  —  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  —  Washington — Ivanka Trump appears to have violated federal conflict of interest law by personally and substantially participating in the Trump administration's implementation of a new tax law authorizing …

Leonardo DiCaprio testifies before D.C. grand jury as part of U.S. probe into Malaysian corruption  —  Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio made a secret appearance before a D.C. grand jury in recent months to testify as part of the Justice Department's expansive investigation …

Mark Zuckerberg vs. the Times  —  What's Next: Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives are fed up with The New York Times after weeks of what they see as overtly antagonistic coverage that betrays an anti-Facebook bias, several sources at the social media giant tell me.

The $9 Billion Upcharge: How Insurers Kept Extra Cash From Medicare  —  CVS, UnitedHealth, Humana and other health insurers' bids to manage Part D prescription-drug plans for seniors have been consistently off in ways that benefit the companies at the expense of taxpayers

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie didn't disclose pro-Confederate associations on confirmation paperwork  —  VA secretary praised Confederate president  —  (CNN)Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie did not disclose his associations with Confederate groups on a questionnaire submitted …

Amid a government shutdown, more typos — from Trump and the White House  —  Have the White House copy editors been furloughed?  —  In a new email message Friday to the American people, President Trump is demanding that Congress come to an “agreemnet” to end the partial government shutdown and give him his wall “immediatly.”