DeSantis' Reedy Creek board says Disney stripped its power  —  LAKE BUENA VISTA — Gov. Ron DeSantis' handpicked board overseeing Disney World's government services is gearing up for a potential legal battle over a 30-year development agreement they say effectively renders them powerless …

Manhattan Trump grand jury set to break for a month  —  A previously planned hiatus would push back a potential indictment of the former president.  —  NEW YORK — The Manhattan grand jury examining Donald Trump's alleged role in a hush money payment to a porn star isn't expected to hear evidence …

Mixed Signals On Trump: Majority Says Criminal Charges Should Disqualify '24 Run, Popularity Is Unchanged, Leads DeSantis By Double Digits, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds  — mail_outline  —  Americans 57 - 38 percent think criminal charges should disqualify former President Donald Trump …

Rupert Murdoch settles a lot of lawsuits.  Why not Dominion v. Fox News?  —  The two sides met privately but could not reach agreement on the $1.6 billion defamation claim.  Legal experts say a settlement to avert a sensational trial is still possible.  —  Over a tumultuous decade …

We Did It, Y'all!  Texas Observer Will Remain Open! … The board of the Texas Democracy Foundation, the nonprofit parent organization of the Texas Observer, on Wednesday voted unanimously to rescind its earlier plan to lay off the 68-year-old magazine's entire staff and cease publication.

Matt Gaetz's Legislative Aide Is a Convicted War Criminal … Derrick Miller, a former U.S. Army National Guard sergeant who spent eight years in prison for murdering an Afghan civilian in 2010, now serves as a legislative assistant covering military policy for Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Gov. Hobbs' press secretary resigns after controversial tweet following Nashville mass shooting  —  PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — Gov. Katie Hobb's press secretary, Josselyn Berry, has resigned hours after posting a controversial tweet that appeared to encourage gun violence just hours after a mass shooting …

Trump Asks Advisers for ‘Battle Plans’ to ‘Attack Mexico’ if Reelected  —  Trump and his MAGAfied Republican Party are pushing plans for military action against drug cartels in Mexico — with or without the Mexican government's consent  —  DONALD TRUMP IS asking for a plan to wage war in Mexico …

Fetterman set to return to Senate  —  The Pennsylvania Democrat plans to return to the Senate the week of April 17 after more than a month of inpatient treatment for depression, according to two people with direct knowledge of his plan.  —  Sen. John Fetterman plans to return to the Senate …

GOP lawmakers override veto of transgender bill in Kentucky  —  Republican lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday swept aside the Democratic governor's veto of a bill regulating some of the most personal aspects of life for transgender young people — from banning access to gender-affirming health care …

‘Trans Day of Vengeance’ protest to take place after Nashville school shooting  —  A transgender activist group is planning a “Trans Day of Vengeance” rally outside the US Supreme Court this Saturday — just days after mass shooter Audrey Hale slaughtered six people inside a Nashville school.

D.C. U.S. Attorney declined to prosecute 67% of those arrested.  Here's why.  —  'I can promise you, it's not MPD holding the bag on this,' D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said.  'That's B.S.'  —  As the District grapples with rising crime and increasing attention from federal lawmakers …

He came to D.C. as a Brazilian student.  The U.S. says he was a Russian spy.  —  Johns Hopkins graduate Victor Ferreira was unmasked as GRU operative Sergey Cherkasov, according to a federal indictment and Western security officials  —  THE HAGUE — Like anyone who gets into his dream college …

Why Does DeSantis Keep Letting Trump Take Shots at Him?  —  How long can the Florida governor absorb blows from Trump before he looks weak?  —  How many times can you let someone punch you before everyone else thinks you're a sucker?  —  Ron DeSantis is about to find out.

Michigan Democrats Rise, and Try to Turn a Battleground Blue  —  With a strong governor, a Legislature passing a raft of liberal measures and a looming early presidential primary, Democrats are testing the promise and pitfalls of complete control of the state.  —  Reporting from Bay City and Birmingham, Mich.

Judge Luttig Has a Warning for America  —  It was called the “tweet heard round the world.”  —  On the morning before the January 6th attack on the Capitol, one of the nation's most prominent conservative jurists, former Federal Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig, posted a message aimed at Vice President Mike Pence.

The Only Realistic Answer to Putin  —  Russia's unprovoked invasion is impossible to justify.  Now is not the time to relent in helping Ukraine.  —  Russia's unprovoked, unjustified invasion of Ukraine last year and, for that matter, its first invasion of its neighbor eight years before are impossible to justify.

Several Face Charges in Killings of Gay Men Who Were Drugged and Robbed  —  Assailants used facial recognition to unlock phones and then looted financial accounts.  The crimes, which occurred in Hell's Kitchen, spread fear in New York's nightlife.  —  Several defendants face charges …

A Federal Judge Couldn't Handle My Criticism.  So He Made Fun of My Tweets.  —  Two decades ago, writing about Bush v. Gore, my friend and former dean Ward Farnsworth suggested that “those who accuse the majority of having partisan motives underestimate the good faith of the justices …

Adidas retracts opposition to Black Lives Matter's three-stripe design  —  Adidas had told the trademark office in a Monday filing that the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation's yellow-stripe design was confusingly similar to its own famous mark.  —  Sportswear maker Adidas …

Reps. Jamaal Bowman, Thomas Massie have shouting match on gun control after Nashville shooting  —  WASHINGTON-The biggest debate on Capitol Hill Wednesday played out in a hallway - not the House floor.  —  After voting wrapped up, Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat, was just getting started.

A new book-ban fiasco in Florida reveals the monster DeSantis created  —  By now, it should be blindingly obvious that many red-state book crackdowns are designed to encourage the impulse toward censorship.  By enabling lone actors to get dozens of titles removed from school library shelves …

Exxon's Climate Opponents Were Infiltrated by Massive Hacking-for-Hire Operation  —  Charity of Rockefeller heirs among groups targeted by hackers; oil giant not accused of wrongdoing  —  In the midst of perpetrating what federal prosecutors say was a massive corporate hacking campaign …

Nicolle Wallace smacks down Ginni Thomas for ‘demented and unethical way’ of funneling money  —  It was reported on Tuesday that Ginni Thomas, the wife to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, raised $600,000 in anonymous donations to her fringe political group over the past few years.

Just say NO and Veto Putin From Taking Over U.N. Security Council  —  It seems like the worst April Fools' joke in history, but an indicted war criminal, Vladimir Putin, is about to take control of the U.N. Security Council—with the implicit blessing of the United States, France, and the U.K …

A Florida School Banned a Disney Movie About Ruby Bridges.  So I Watched It.  —  This month, an elementary school in St. Petersburg, Fla., stopped showing a 1998 Disney movie about Ruby Bridges, the 6-year-old Black girl who integrated a public elementary school in New Orleans in 1960 …

Lawsuit: Defense Contractor Fired Whistleblower for Reporting Accounting Irregularities  —  The allegations against spare-parts conglomerate TransDigm mirror previous claims against the ‘Martin Shkreli of defense contracting.’  —  A lawsuit against defense contractor TransDigm …

Democrats May Be Ready To Tank One Of Joe Biden's Court Picks  —  Abortion rights groups won't even talk about Michael Delaney.  Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee won't weigh in, either.  —  WASHINGTON ― For the first time since becoming president, one of Joe Biden's judicial nominees may be in real trouble.

Trump appeals order directing Meadows, other aides to testify in Jan. 6 probe  —  Former President Trump's legal team has appealed a decision from a judge ordering former chief of staff Mark Meadows and other Trump White House officials to testify in the Justice Department investigation into Jan. 6.

California may end travel ban to states with anti-LGBT laws  —  When North Carolina in 2016 banned transgender people from using the bathroom of their gender identity in public buildings, California retaliated by banning state-funded travel to that state and any other state with laws it deemed discriminatory against LGBTQ people.