Top Items:
Wall Street Journal:
Trump Inaugural Committee Challenged Vendor Requests and Budgeting, Documents Show — In the weeks before his inauguration, top officials on President Trump's inaugural committee repeatedly sounded alarms about the budgets submitted by several vendors, according to correspondence, committee records and draft budgets.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
RELATED:
Trump, Inc.:
Trump Inauguration Chief Tom Barrack's ‘Rules for Success’ — Last year, our Trump, Inc. podcast with WNYC explored the mystery of how Donald Trump's inaugural managed to raise and spend $107 million. A lot has happened since then. — We now know the inaugural committee is the subject of a wide-ranging criminal investigation.
Caleb Melby / Bloomberg:
Trump's Inaugural Team Scrambled to Defend Staff and Record Haul
Discussion:
Raw Story
Jacqueline Alemany / Washington Post:
Power Up: ‘By the Book Bob:’ Prosecutors say Mueller will tightly hug Justice guidelines in report — Greetings, Power Fam. I received a notable complaint today regarding the lack of recipes lately. But that's only because of the lack of submissions! Send me your best concoctions and family secrets, people.
RELATED:
Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
7 Scenarios for How the Mueller Probe Might ‘Wrap Up’ — THE BREAKING NEWS hit a snowy Washington on Wednesday: Newly installed attorney general William Barr appears to be preparing to announce the end of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. — But what would “Mueller wrapping up” actually mean?
Discussion:
Washington Post, CNN, Axios, The Week, emptywheel, Power Line, Raw Story, CNBC and The Daily Caller
Stephen Collinson / CNN:
Analysis: Mueller report might not mean the end of Trump's woes
Discussion:
Washington Post, KBZK, Shakesville, Politico and emptywheel
PRRI:
American Democracy in Crisis: The Fate of Pluralism in a Divided Nation — The 2018 Election — Views of President Trump — After two years in office, the public's view of President Trump remains negative. As of late December 2018, when this survey was conducted …
Discussion:
The Atlantic and Political Wire
RELATED:
Emma Green / The Atlantic:
These Are the Americans Who Live in a Bubble — Most Americans do not live in a totalizing bubble. They regularly encounter people of different races, ideologies, and religions. For the most part, they view these interactions as positive, or at least neutral.
Asawin Suebsaeng / The Daily Beast:
Trump White House Is Forcing Interns to Sign NDAs and Threatening Them With Financial Ruin — Not even the interns are exempt from the legally dubious rite of passage practiced by the Trump White House. — Asawin Suebsaeng — When the Trump White House welcomed its newest batch …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Splinter, Raw Story, The Guardian and BuzzFeed News
CBS News:
Jussie Smollett paid brothers $3,500 to stage attack, police say — “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett paid two brothers $3,500 to stage a violent attack on him, Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson said. Smollett turned himself in to police early Thursday morning and was expected to appear in bond court later in the day.
Discussion:
RedState, Townhall, Bloomberg, The Hill, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, Daily Wire and The New Civil Rights Movement
RELATED:
Brett Murphy / USA Today:
Blackface, KKK hoods and mock lynchings: Review of 900 yearbooks finds blatant racism — In one of the most extensive searches of college yearbooks ever, we found blackface and Ku Klux Klan photos like Ralph Northam's far beyond Virginia. — The old yearbook photos capture the lighthearted moments …
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway, The Week and Splinter
RELATED:
Natalie Allison / The Tennessean:
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says he regrets participating in ‘Old South’ parties at Auburn University
Discussion:
Political Wire
Lynh Bui / Washington Post:
Self-proclaimed white nationalist planned mass terror attack, government says. ‘I am dreaming of a way to kill almost every last person on earth.’ — A U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-identified white nationalist has been arrested after federal investigators uncovered a cache of weapons …
Discussion:
Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Root, Gothamist, The Trace, Shakesville, Lawyers, Guns & Money, AOL, Hot Air, Daily Wire, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, The Resurgent, Balloon Juice, TheBlaze, Daily Kos and Hullabaloo
RELATED:
Dave Philipps / New York Times:
Coast Guard Officer Plotted to Kill Democrats and Journalists, Prosecutors Say
Discussion:
Outside the Beltway
Nina dos Santos / CNN:
This man could shed light on Trump mystery, Senate witness says — London and Moscow (CNN)Senate investigators want to question a Moscow-based American businessman with longstanding ties to President Donald Trump after witnesses told them he could shed light on the President's commercial …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
BuzzFeed News:
Trump Said He Ordered His Administration To Withhold Wildfire Aid To California. FEMA Says He Never Did. — The president tweeted that he was cutting off disaster assistance to wildfire survivors to punish California officials. But no record of such an order exists.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Daily Caller, Shareblue Media and Splinter
Nick Bilton / Vanity Fair:
“She Never Looks Back”: Inside Elizabeth Holmes's Chilling Final Months at Theranos — At the end, Theranos was overrun by a dog defecating in the boardroom, nearly a dozen law firms on retainer, and a C.E.O. grinning through her teeth about an implausible turnaround.
Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times:
Facebook decided which users are interested in Nazis — and let advertisers target them directly — Facebook makes money by charging advertisers to reach just the right audience for their message — even when that audience is made up of people interested in the perpetrators of the Holocaust or explicitly neo-Nazi music.
Alan Blinder / New York Times:
Inside a Fly-by-Night Operation to Harvest Ballots in North Carolina — RALEIGH, N.C. — Kelly Hendrix was recruited into an illicit effort to sway a congressional race by a customer at the fast-food restaurant where she worked. — One day, Ms. Hendrix was serving burgers and biscuits at a Hardee's in Bladen County.
Discussion:
Shareblue Media, ThinkProgress and Law & Crime
RELATED:
Leigh Ann Caldwell / NBC News:
Republican candidate's son shakes up North Carolina hearing with surprise testimony
Jennifer Schuessler / New York Times:
The Obama Presidential Library That Isn't — The Obama Presidential Center promises to be a presidential library like no other. — The three-building, 19-acre “working center for citizenship,” set to be built in a public park on the South Side of Chicago, will include a 235-foot-high …
Discussion:
Axios, Chicago Tribune and AOTUS
Fox News:
Former FBI general counsel thought Hillary Clinton should be prosecuted until ‘pretty late’ in email investigation — The FBI's top lawyer in 2016 thought Hillary Clinton and her team should have immediately realized they were mishandling “highly classified” information based …
Discussion:
RedState
RELATED:
John Solomon / The Hill:
FBI's top lawyer believed Hillary Clinton should face charges, but was talked out of it
Discussion:
The Resurgent
Philip Klein / Washington Examiner:
Government report reveals CBO was scandalously off in Obamacare estimates — A new report from government actuaries has revealed that the Congressional Budget Office was scandalously off in its estimates of the impact of Obamacare's individual mandate, a miscalculation that has had significant ramifications …
Discussion:
RedState and twitchy.com
Alan Gomez / USA Today:
The Trump administration keeps breaking up migrant families. Here's how they do it — Amid public outcry over the thousands of migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to keep families together.
RELATED:
Screengrab / Nogales International:
Town says it's ‘taken action’ after marshal's encounter with young journalist — The Town of Patagonia says it has taken unspecified action after Marshal Joseph Patterson was video-recorded telling a pre-teen journalist that it was against the law for her to put his image on the internet during …
TIME:
The Biggest Field Yet. No Frontrunner. A Divided Base. Welcome to the 2020 Democratic Primary — Almost a year before the first votes of the 2020 -presidential contest, Democratic candidates are all over the map. There's Elizabeth Warren in a drafty warehouse in Des Moines, Iowa …
Alex Linder / shanghaiist:
Uniqlo says its new spring jacket was not inspired by Mao Zedong — Is 2019 the year that the Mao suit makes a comeback!? — Searching for a new look for this spring that's light, simple, and proletarian? Well, Uniqlo has just the thing! — The Japanese fashion brand has introduced a new …
Deconstructed / The Intercept:
Crazy in Gov: Why Won't the Media Discuss Trump's Mental Instability? — Photo illustration: Soohee Cho/The Intercept, Getty Images — Subscribe to the Deconstructed podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, and other platforms. New to podcasting? Click here.
Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
“She Was Pitching Her Intimate Knowledge of the Mueller Probe”: Sarah Isgur Flores, Former Trumper, Talked to MSNBC Before Signing with CNN — The former Jeff Sessions spokesperson is now a power player at a network she once called the “Clinton News Network.” How'd she close the deal?
RELATED:
Indianapolis Star:
Road rage, hate crime or both: Shooting death of Muslim man could draw FBI scrutiny — Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana allows Indianapolis residents to share anonymous tips with law enforcement. Here are a few things Crime Stoppers wants you to know before you call. — CONNECT11 — TWEET11
Discussion:
Advocate and ThinkProgress
Just Security:
Stop Using the Word “Collusion”—How to Frame the Critical Question at the Heart of Trump-Russia — Much of the discussion surrounding the Trump campaign's contacts with Russia in the months leading up to the 2016 election has been mystifying for the American public.
Lauren Hilgers / New York Times:
The New Labor Movement Fighting for Domestic Workers' Rights — Nannies and housecleaners have some of the hardest, least secure jobs in the nation. Now they're organizing to change that. — THE FUTURE OF WORK — WeWorking Class … ON A BEAUTIFUL April day in 2002 …
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