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 …

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 …

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.

North Carolina House approves measure banning abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy  —  The North Carolina state House passed a bill on Wednesday that would ban abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, sending it to the state Senate for approval.  —  The House vote came just a day after Republicans …

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 …

Donald Trump's Rape Trial Goes From One Disaster to Another  —  It goes from bad to worse for Donald Trump, which on Wednesday saw the re-emergence of the infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ tape. … May 3 was the latest very bad day for Donald Trump at his trial for allegedly raping E. Jean Carroll.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

Barstool Sports Fires Host for Saying Racial Slur in Rap  —  ‘UNFORGIVABLE’  —  Barstool Sports fired its host Ben Mintz after he used a racial slur while reading rap lyrics during a livestream, company founder Dave Portnoy announced Wednesday.  Mintz said the slur out loud while reading …

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 …

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.

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 …

Behind Trump's musical tribute to some of the most violent Jan. 6 rioters  —  Most nights at 9 p.m., defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol flicker the lights in their D.C. jail cells to signal to supporters outside that it's time to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” together.

Gianforte signs 5 anti-abortion bills, plans to sign more  —  Gov. Greg Gianforte signed into law five bills aimed at restricting abortion access in Montana on Wednesday, triggering a legal request from Planned Parenthood of Montana later in the day to block one of the bills.

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.