memeorandum: Golan policy may invite Israel's right to annex West Bank territory. That would spell disaster. (Washington Post)

1:20 AM ET, March 30, 2019

Top Items:

Lucy Flores / The Cut:

An Awkward Kiss Changed How I Saw Joe Biden — In 2014, I was the 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada. The landscape wasn't looking good for my party that year. There were no high-profile national races to help boost turnout, and after the top candidate bowed …

Rebecca Traister / The Cut:

Joe Biden Isn't the Answer — It's still three months before the first Democratic debate, nearly a year before Super Tuesday, and he hasn't even declared yet, but poll after presidential poll continues to show 76-year-old former vice-president Joe Biden leading an enormous, diverse, and talented Democratic field.

Discussion: Axios

Laura McGann / Vox:

Lucy Flores isn't alone. Joe Biden's got a long history of touching women inappropriately. — The media gave Biden a pass for years. It won't in 2020. — Democrat Lucy Flores was preparing to give one of her final stump speeches in a race for lieutenant governor in Nevada when she felt two hands on her shoulders.

Discussion: New York Times, Balloon Juice, Louder With Crowder, Big League Politics and LifeNews.com

Sebastian Murdock / HuffPost:

We Got Alex Jones' Deposition Video. It Was A Predictable Disaster For Him. — For all his dangerous talk about the Sandy Hook school shooting, Alex Jones couldn't even recall the date it happened. — Infowars host Alex Jones was questioned earlier this month for three hours by the lawyer …

Discussion: Law & Crime, Raw Story, YouTube, Talking Points Memo, HillReporter.com and Boing Boing, more at Mediagazer »

Elizabeth Williamson / New York Times:

How Alex Jones and Infowars Helped a Florida Man Stalk Sandy Hook Families — In the world of conspiracy theorists, Alex Jones and Wolfgang Halbig fueled each other's darkest tendencies. — Soon after the Dec. 14, 2012, mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. …

Discussion: The Trace, Daily Kos and Boing Boing

Jonathan Tilove / Austin American-Statesman:

In Sandy Hook deposition, Alex Jones blames ‘a form of psychosis’ for thinking everything is staged — Alex Jones, the Austin-based provocateur embroiled in several lawsuits filed by parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, said in a deposition released Friday …

Discussion: New York Post, KTLA and Mediaite

Sally Yates / Washington Post:

William Barr should release the full Mueller report as soon as possible — The writer served as deputy attorney general from January 2015 to January 2017. — America's justice system is built upon one thing — truth. When witnesses give testimony, they are sworn to tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

Discussion: The Hill

emptywheel:
Pressure Works: After Four Days, William Barr Capitulates and Gives an Estimated Page Count!!

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Common Dreams

CNN:
Justice Dept. expects to release Mueller report to Congress by ‘mid-April, if not sooner’

Discussion: twitchy.com, RedState, Test Feed Using Fields, Raw Story and Fortune

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
Mueller report will be delivered by ‘mid-April, if not sooner,’ attorney general tells Congress

Discussion: The New Civil Rights Movement, Slate and Political Wire

Carrie Johnson / NPR:
Nominee For No. 3 At Justice Department Withdraws After Backlash From GOP Senators

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Monthly, Raw Story, Law & Crime, RedState, Fox News, U.S. Department of Justice and Splinter

Rashaan Ayesh / Axios:
New Barr letter: Mueller report will be sent to Congress by mid-April

Discussion: Breitbart, One America News Network, Politico and Washington Post

New York Times:

After Trump Casts Blame for a Special Olympics Cut, Betsy DeVos Flashes Pique — WASHINGTON — After a two-day thrashing over her department's proposal to eliminate funding for the Special Olympics, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sat before senators on Thursday ready to defend it again.

Discussion: Conservative Review

Michael Warren / CNN:

WH budget office, not DeVos, pushed for proposed Special Olympics cuts, official says — DeVos ignores CNN's questions after budget testimony — Washington (CNN)The Education Department failed to include funding for the Special Olympics in its budget proposal this year after it was rebuffed …

Discussion: IJR and Raw Story

Toluse Olorunnipa / Washington Post:
'It'll happen fast': Trump creates problems and then rushes in to solve them

Discussion: Mercury News

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

AP says the percentage sign now OK when used with a numeral (that's shift+5) — Brace yourselves. — The AP Stylebook says the percentage sign is now acceptable when paired with a numeral in most cases. — On Friday, Stylebook Editor Paula Froke announced the latest round of changes …

Doris Truong / Poynter:
AP Stylebook update: It's OK to call something racist when it's racist

more at Mediagazer »

Christopher Rivas / New York Times:

I Broke Up With Her Because She's White — When it comes to dating, I'd rather not think about race. But that's been hard to avoid. — O.K., let me just get to it. I think I broke up with my last girlfriend because she's white. Actually, no, I definitely broke up with her because she's white.

Discussion: Hot Air

Miriam Jordan / New York Times:

Former Trump Family Driver Has Been in ICE Custody for 8 Months — When Donald Trump's children and campaign staff arrived in South Florida during the 2016 presidential campaign, they were often greeted at the airport by Zoltan Tamas in a black Cadillac Escalade.

Discussion: Splinter and NY State of Politics

Rob Price / Business Insider:

Years of Mark Zuckerberg's old Facebook posts have vanished. The company says it ‘mistakenly deleted’ them. — Some old Facebook posts by CEO Mark Zuckerberg have disappeared, and the company says it “mistakenly deleted” them. — “A few years ago some of Mark's posts were mistakenly deleted due to technical errors.

Kim Foxx / Chicago Tribune:

Commentary: Kim Foxx: I welcome an outside review of how we handled the Jussie Smollett case — Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx prepares to speak to the media on Jan. 8, 2019. (Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune) — Let's talk about the Jussie Smollett case.

Washington Post:

Guatemalan girl in U.S. custody died of bacterial infection, autopsy shows — EL PASO — A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who collapsed in Border Patrol custody in December — one of two child deaths that month — died of a bacterial infection that spread to her bloodstream and caused multiple organ failure …

Discussion: The Guardian, The Gateway Pundit and twitchy.com

Kayla Melson / KTSM-TV: Autopsy report: Detained Guatemalan girl died of ‘rapidly progressive’ infection

Matthew Sheffield / The Hill:

Poll: Americans more likely to say Ocasio-Cortez is ‘bad’ than ‘good’ for Democrats — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hurts the Democratic Party more than she helps it, according to a Hill-HarrisX poll released Friday that also found many voters are undecided when it comes to the first-term New York Democrat.

Discussion: Breitbart

Sydney Ember / New York Times:
Bernie Sanders Says ‘No’ to Incrementalism, Highlighting Divide Among Democrats

Discussion: Breitbart, Common Dreams, Vox and Mother Jones

Daily Mail:

TIMELINE OF BUSH'S DECADE-LONG AFFAIR WITH JENNIFER FITZGERALD — Early 1970s — Bush is introduced to Jennifer by a mutual friend. They have flirtatious calls that lead to a romance that carries on for at least 12 years. — 1974 — President Gerald Ford appoints Bush to Chief of the Liaison Office in China.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

David Ignatius / Washington Post:

How the mysteries of Khashoggi's murder have rocked the U.S.-Saudi partnership — It has been nearly six months since Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered inside Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul, but the aftershocks continue. The U.S.-Saudi defense and intelligence partnership has been rocked.

Discussion: Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:
Pompeo meets Saudi prince who lured Jamal Khashoggi to his death

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Vanity Fair

Paul Waldman / Washington Post:

Spare us the lectures from Democratic candidates about how Democratic voters are the problem — If you thought we were past the tiresome “How can Democrats appeal to Trump-loving Trump voters in Trump Country?” conversation, I'm going to disappoint you. And I'd like to use some recent comments …

Linda Qiu / New York Times:

Trump's Inaccurate Claims on Mueller, Health Care and the Great Lakes — At a rally in Michigan, President Trump misstated the findings of the special counsel investigation, misleadingly promised to protect patients with pre-existing conditions and falsely described funding for a restoration program for the Great Lakes.

Discussion: Mediaite

Sahil Kapur / Bloomberg: GOP Sees Political Peril as Party Scrambles for Health-Care Plan

Ian Buruma / Financial Times:

Editing in an age of outrage — Until recently Jian Ghomeshi, a former CBC broadcaster and rock musician, was not much known outside Canada. I now rather wish it had stayed that way. But last September I decided, as editor of the New York Review of Books, to publish Ghomeshi's story …

Discussion: Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality

Associated Press:

Trump issues new permit for stalled Keystone XL pipeline — WASHINGTON — In an apparent bid to kick-start the long-stalled Keystone XL oil pipeline, President Donald Trump on Friday issued a new presidential permit for the project — two years after he first approved it and more than a decade after it was first proposed.

Discussion: Public Pool, One America News Network and Axios

Washington Post:

Golan policy may invite Israel's right to annex West Bank territory. That would spell disaster. — Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute. David Makovsky is the Ziegler …

Christopher Ingraham / Washington Post:

The share of Americans not having sex has reached a record high — You can blame young people for this dry spell, data show — The share of U.S. adults reporting no sex in the past year reached an all-time high in 2018, underscoring a three-decade trend line marked by an aging population and higher numbers of unattached people.

Discussion: The Hill, The Stranger, RedState, Liberty Unyielding and Althouse

John Bowden / The Hill:

Flake: Better for a Dem to win in 2020 than Trump — Former Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Thursday that he would rather see a Democrat win in 2020 than have President Trump elected to a second term. — Flake made his comments at a debate in New York hosted by the nonprofit Intelligence Squared.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit, Hot Air and IJR

Daniel Lippman / Politico:

Linda McMahon to leave Cabinet for Trump 2020 PAC — Linda McMahon is stepping down as head of Small Business Administration to chair the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action, according to three people familiar with the move. — Trump allies have spent weeks searching for someone …