Transportation Secretary Still Owns Stock She Pledged to Divest  —  Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has retained shares in a construction-materials company more than a year after the date she promised to relinquish them, federal disclosure forms show.

Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump has rolled back environmental regulations, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, brushed aside dire predictions about the effects of climate change, and turned the term “global warming” …

Texas secretary of state resigns after leading botched voter purge that questioned the citizenship of almost 100,000 people  —  Texas's acting secretary of state David Whitley (R) resigned Monday just months after leading the botched voter purge of nearly 100,000 suspected noncitizens …

Senate GOP vows to quickly quash any impeachment charges  —  GOP senators say that if the House passes articles of impeachment against President Trump they will quickly quash them in the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has broad authority to set the parameters of a trial.

Elizabeth Warren Gains Ground in 2020 Field, One Plan at a Time  —  NEWTON, Iowa — To the crowd of Iowans gathered in a school gym on Saturday night, Senator Elizabeth Warren made a request: They should pose a question to the other presidential candidates who come to Iowa seeking their vote.

Ex-defense secretary Jim Mattis has book coming this summer  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has a book coming out this summer, but he warns that it will not be a “tell-all” about President Donald Trump.  —  “Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead” will be published July 16, Random House announced Tuesday.

Mueller drew up obstruction indictment against Trump, Michael Wolff book claims  —  A new book from Fire and Fury author Michael Wolff says special counsel Robert Mueller drew up a three-count obstruction of justice indictment against Donald Trump before deciding to shelve it …

Japan Rolled Out the Red Carpet.  Trump Veered Off Into Personal Fixations.  —  TOKYO — It was just after 6 a.m. on the final day of a state visit to Japan designed to flatter and entertain him, and President Trump was in his comfort space: Twitter.  —  Hours earlier, he had been the honored guest …

Trump HUD official Lynne Patton says she doesn't care if she broke the law  —  A Regional Housing and Urban Development official wrote on Wednesday that she did not care if she had broken a federal law intended to stop government officials from acting in a partisan manner.

Bernie's Pro-Sandinista Past Is a Problem, and His Response Is Not Good  —  A week ago, the New York Times reported on Bernie Sanders's 1980s-vintage foreign-policy stands, which at times crossed over from mere opposition to American policy to outright support for communist governments.

Trump Embraces Right-Wing One America News Network to Make Fox News Jealous  —  The network praises the president, courts him in public, and has even tried to hire his former aides.  It's finally getting his attention.  —  One evening last week, Neil McCabe, a Breitbart veteran who now works …

A private group says it's started building its own border wall using millions donated in GoFundMe campaign  —  Sunland Park, New Mexico (CNN)A group that raised millions of dollars in a GoFundMe campaign says it has broken ground on a project to build its own stretch of border wall on private property.

Joe Biden is the front-runner by every measure — except enthusiasm  —  He's dominating in the polls, his fundraising is going gangbusters and he's showing broad support from key political players in the early presidential states.  —  So where are the big energetic crowds, the lines around the block to get into Joe Biden's events?

‘My Rudy’: Trump's lawyer wants to be the campaign's No. 1 hatchet man  —  Get ready for more Rudy.  —  Done sparring with Robert Mueller, Donald Trump's personal attorney is now training his attacks on the president's reelection rivals.  Giuliani plans to meet with the president …

A Nazi sympathizer pleaded guilty to defacing a synagogue.  His lawyer says conservatives helped radicalize him.  —  After Nolan Brewer pleaded guilty to charges in connection with painting swastikas on an Indiana synagogue's property and setting the yard ablaze, his attorney argued …

EU top job horse race goes green  —  Young voters in the EU's west went green — although that wasn't mirrored in the east.  —  Aggressive policies on tackling climate change turned out to be a vote-winner in the European election — at least in the west of the Continent.

Amid censorship fears, Trump campaign ‘checking out’ alternative social network  —  Parler is like Twitter, but for Trump fans.  —  They've been banned from Facebook, purged from Twitter and blocked from Instagram.  Some of them have been barred from setting foot on the continent of Australia.

Alabama state legislators are wrong about their voters' opinions on abortion.  —  Why would politicians pass abortion bans opposed by their voters?  —  Alabama's law banning abortions even in the case of rape and incest has attracted big headlines.  But the state is not alone in trying to all but eliminate abortion rights.

AOC returning to her bartending roots to advocate for raising minimum wage for restaurant employees and other tipped workers  —  ALBANY — AOC will be waiting tables once again.  —  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is returning to her restaurant roots this week to show support for the federal Raise …

The Abortion Debate Is No Longer About Policy  —  Abortion politics in 2019 is a morality play about what happens when one side has all the political power, yet feels culturally embattled.  In this atmosphere, victories are not satisfying if they leave the other side with a foothold, a vestige of respectability.

There's nothing progressive about strangling charter schools  —  THE MOST enduring — and unforgivable — civil rights offense in our country today is the consigning of so many poor, often minority children to failing schools.  Among the more promising efforts to deal with this urgent issue …

3 forecast modelers predict Trump will win in 2020  —  Steven Rattner, “car czar” and counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration, cites three different modelers in his N.Y. Times commentary, “Trump's Formidable 2020 Tailwind.”  —  The big picture: Trump wins all three modelers.