Clarence Thomas Had a Child in Private School.  Harlan Crow Paid the Tuition.  —  Crow paid for private school for a relative Thomas said he was raising “as a son.”  “This is way outside the norm,” said a former White House ethics lawyer.  —  In 2008, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas decided …

Emails Reveal ‘Jaw-Dropping’ Herschel Walker Money Scandal  —  Emails show Herschel Walker solicited hundreds of thousands of dollars for his own business from a billionaire donor, with the donor believing he was giving to Walker's campaign. … Pay Dirt is a weekly foray into the pigpen of political funding.

Judge Tosses Trump's Lawsuit Against NY Times, Orders Him to Pay All Legal Fees  —  Trump sued the paper, along with his niece Mary, alleging an “insidious plot” to grab his tax records and publish them in a Pulitzer-winning report. … A New York judge has tossed out Donald Trump's lawsuit …

Exclusive: Special counsel probing Trump Organization's handling of Mar-a-Lago surveillance footage  —  Prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith have been asking questions in recent weeks about the handling of surveillance footage from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort …

Ex-FBI agent feds say urged Jan. 6 rioters to kill police worked terrorism task force  —  Jared Wise was part of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force and served as supervisory special agent in charge of the Homegrown Violent Extremism unit.  —  NEW YORK — An ex-FBI official who allegedly urged rioters to …

Florida Republicans pass bill targeting transgender bathroom use  —  “You can't think past your hatred, and you can't think past your discrimination,” said one Democrat.  —  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Republicans passed legislation Wednesday that would make it a misdemeanor trespassing offense …

May 3, 2023  —  “No one should assume that the Fed can really protect the economy and the financial system and our reputation globally from the damage that [a U.S. default] might inflict,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said today.  “We shouldn't even be talking about a world in which the U.S. doesn't pay its bills.

Russia says U.S. was behind Kremlin drone attack, drawing quick denial  —  Russia accused the United States on Thursday of being behind what it says was a drone attack on Moscow's Kremlin citadel intended to kill President Vladimir Putin.  —  A day after blaming Ukraine for what it called …

Trump Will Offer No Defense in Rape Trial, His Lawyer Says  —  The lawyer said he would call no witnesses to rebut E. Jean Carroll's account of being assaulted at Bergdorf Goodman.  The case could go to a jury early next week.  —  A lawyer defending former President Donald J. Trump …

7 people found dead in Oklahoma were shot in the head in apparent murder-suicide, authorities say  —  Jesse McFadden, 39, is believed to have gunned down five teenagers and his wife during a sleepover at his family's house.  —  A convicted rapist on trial for child pornography charges …

Unhappy meals  —  This week, a federal investigation found that three Kentucky-based McDonald's franchises illegally employed at least 305 children, including some as young as 10 years old.  The three franchises — Bauer Food LLC, Archways Richwood LLC, and Bell Restaurant Group I LLC …

Goodbye Twitter: Techdirt Will Soon End Our Automated Posting  —  Over the last few months we'd been wondering if it was worth pulling Techdirt posting from Twitter altogether, but had been too busy with other stuff to make a decision, and now it looks like Twitter has made the decision for us.

Dem Senator: Scalia accepted over 70 undisclosed gifts similar to Clarence Thomas  —  U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has revealed the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia also accepted and did not disclose dozens of trips paid for by special interest advocates …

Atlanta mass shooting live updates: 1 killed, 4 hurt; suspect at large  —  Police are looking for the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Deion Patterson.  —  Atlanta police are searching for the gunman who killed one and wounded four others in a mass shooting in a medical center waiting room on Wednesday, police said.

A debt ceiling crisis could cripple Corporate America, but so far business isn't in the fight  —  K-Street and the titans of Washington lobbying no longer enjoy the same influence in Republican circles.  —  WASHINGTON — For decades, American business leaders have been reliable standbys …

About Half in U.S. Worry About Their Money's Safety in Banks  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Amid turbulence in the U.S. banking system, nearly half of Americans are anxious about the safety of the money they have in accounts at banks or other financial institutions.

Total Wine magnate makes his bid for open Maryland Senate seat official  —  Rep. David Trone has been staffing up for months in anticipation of Sen. Ben Cardin's retirement.  —  Rep. David Trone officially launched his bid on Thursday for the Democratic nomination to replace retiring Sen. Ben Cardin in Maryland.

Trumps Fail To Turn Over Documents In Fraud Case, New York Attorney General Claims  —  Donald Trump, his three eldest children and the Trump Organization failed to turn over emails and other communications in a fraud lawsuit, the New York attorney general's office claimed in a letter submitted in court last week.

Tucker Carlson helped broker the deal that made Kevin McCarthy House speaker after 14 failed votes, text messages show  — Tucker Carlson won concessions from Kevin McCarthy in a deal that made him House speaker, per his texts.  — Carlson said McCarthy agreed to put Rep. Thomas Massie on a committee …

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 3, 2023  —  Click here to see ISW's interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  This map is updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report.  —  Click here to access ISW's archive of interactive time-lapse maps of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Today in America  —  I have been planning on writing about gun laws all week.  There's an idea I've been working on for a while, a legal argument taken to sort of silly extremes to illustrate a point about the ridiculous construction of the Second Amendment that is currently the law in this country.

Top Senate GOP recruit privately casts doubt on power of Trump endorsement  —  Frank LaRose, Ohio's Secretary of State, offered some candid assessments about the value of the Trump backing during closed door remarks.  —  Former President Donald Trump's endorsement is widely viewed among Republican candidates …

Biden races to come up with AI plan  —  President Biden, racing to upgrade the government's artificial-intelligence expertise and role, is calling the leading architects of generative AI to Washington today to discuss guardrails for the powerful technology.