TrumpTantrum spreads on Twitter after impromptu press conference  —  Calls for President Trump to resign began circulating on Twitter on Thursday morning, mocking the president for throwing a “#TrumpTantrum” and walking out of a meeting with Democratic leadership this week.

Bank CEO Stephen M. Calk Charged With Corruptly Soliciting A Presidential Administration Position In Exchange For Approving $16 Million In Loans  —  Ms. Strauss said: “As alleged, Stephen M. Calk abused the power entrusted to him as the top official of a federally insured bank by approving millions …

Women Rise in Dem 2020 Field  —  Biden maintains lead, but it's not as large among early state voters  —  West Long Branch, NJ - Former Vice President Joe Biden maintains his front-runner status among Democratic voters nationwide, but some female candidates - namely Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren …

Are More Moderate Democrats More Electable?  —  I have a dilemma for you, dear reader.  I have a righteous little bulletpoint-sized rant to make about ill-informed media coverage of polling in the recent Australian election.  But this column, Silver Bulletpoints, promises to give you three items …

How Trump Broke the Freedom Caucus  —  Back in February 2018, I sat down with two leaders of the House Freedom Caucus to discuss, among other things, whether fiscal conservatism had gone extinct.  —  A few days earlier, with encouragement from his budget director, Mick Mulvaney …

My Rapist Apologized  —  I still needed an abortion.  —  My 12-year-old daughter recently asked me what I think about abortion.  She walked into the kitchen, poked around the refrigerator, then spun around and blurted it out: “I can't decide what I think about abortion.  I want to know what you think.”

Putin out-prepared Trump in long, freewheeling meeting, Rex Tillerson told House panel  —  Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Russian President Vladimir Putin out-prepared President Trump during a key meeting in Germany …

U.S. Seeks to Avoid Planting Distortions With New Farm Aid  — Payments to be based on county-level farm production: USDA  — Program will include $14.5 billion in market facilitation  —  The Trump Administration unveiled its latest package to help farmers hurt by the trade war with China …

Pro-Gun Parkland Teen Kyle Kashuv Apologizes for ‘Inflammatory’ Racial Comments  —  Kyle Kashuv, an ex-Turning Point USA star, says he's sorry for ‘idiotic comments’ he made in text messages circulating among right-wing activists and Parkland students this week.

TurboTax Uses A “Military Discount” to Trick Troops Into Paying to File Their Taxes  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom based in New York.  Sign up for ProPublica's Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox as soon as they are published.

FBI has seen significant rise in white supremacist domestic terrorism in recent months  —  (CNN)The FBI has seen a significant rise in the number of white supremacist domestic terrorism cases in recent months, a senior FBI counterterrorism official said Thursday.

The Truth Behind Trump Tower Moscow: How Trump Risked Everything For A (Relatively) Tiny Deal  —  It's getting late, and Felix Sater—a onetime Trump partner, two-time convicted felon and longtime federal informant—sits in the back of a New York City restaurant, ready for a drink.

Syria: Sky News witnesses horrors of Idlib as crew shelled by regime  —  Sky's Alex Crawford says the crew was attacked with tank shells, as an activist they were travelling with was hit by shrapnel.  —  Created with Sketch.  —  Sky News has gained exclusive access to the bombardment of Idlib …

Report reveals new details about DOJ's seizing of AP phone records  —  With its latest leak indictment last week, the Department of Justice under Donald Trump is now on pace to break the previous record for prosecutions of journalists' sources, just two and a half years into its administration.

Here Are the GOP's Secret Talking Points Defending Alabama's Abortion Law  —  WASHINGTON — In the days since Alabama's passage of the most restrictive abortion law in the nation, national Republicans have tried to distance themselves from its most controversial provisions that would outlaw abortion even in the case of rape or incest.

What Rod Rosenstein Knew When He Helped Trump Fire Comey  —  In May 2017, then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein agreed to assist President Trump in an effort to fire James Comey as FBI director despite Rosenstein's knowing beforehand that the president had devised a false cover story …

Dem Coalition Calls Out Trump For Harassing Americans Like Master Trolls  —  For a man who relishes representing the image of the tough guy, Donald Trump sure does spend a lot of time whining.  On Thursday, the Democratic Coalition reminded Trump that bullies don't get to whine about harassment.

Trump and Deutsche Bank: It's Complicated  —  Whispers of money laundering have swirled around Donald Trump's businesses for years.  One of his casinos, for example, was fined $10 million for not trying hard enough to prevent such machinations.  Investors with shady financial histories sometimes popped up in his foreign ventures.

Documents detail how Jerry Falwell Jr. went into South Beach venture with ‘pool boy’  —  New court documents offer a peek into how evangelist Jerry Falwell Jr. wound up in the South Beach hotel business with a former Fontainebleau Hotel pool attendant  —  The latest twist involves a top aide …

Democrats ramp up pressure on Trump for answers on ‘outrageous’ $64M bailout to meatpacker controlled by Brazilian crooks  —  Sen. Tammy Baldwin called on President Trump Thursday to explain why more than $64 million meant for struggling American farmers ended up in the hands …

Are investigations of Trump the new McCarthyism?  —  When I came of age during the 1950s, liberals and civil libertarians were deeply concerned about the abuses of congressional investigations to expose communists and “fellow travelers.”  Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy was using congressional committees to do his dirty work.