Judicial activist directed fees to Clarence Thomas's wife, urged ‘no mention of Ginni’  —  Leonard Leo told GOP pollster Kellyanne Conway to bill nonprofit, then use money to pay spouse of Supreme Court justice  —  Conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo arranged for the wife …

Dianne Feinstein Has to Act  —  Without Senator Dianne Feinstein, there might never have been an assault weapons ban in 1994.  Or the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994.  Or the revelatory report on the C.I.A.'s torture program in 2014.  She has had a distinguished career in the U.S. Senate …

Boys Be Not Proud  —  I wrote a song about seditious conspiracy  —  Good Evening.  —  A reminder to you all that just because I am not on Twitter any more doesn't mean you shouldn't be tweeting footpics at Ric Grenell.  —  The more a person tweets footpics at Ric Grenell, the more is he or she to be praised.

Trump deposition in E. Jean Carroll rape defamation case released in court  — The deposition of former President Donald Trump by a lawyer for E. Jean Carroll, the writer who accuses him in a civil lawsuit of raping and defaming her, was released in a court filing.

Things Keep Looking Worse for Justice Thomas and his Billionaire Buddy  —  Another blockbuster story has thrust embattled Justice Clarence Thomas back in the national spotlight.  ProPublica reported on Thursday morning that billionaire Harlan Crow had paid the hefty private school tuition bill for Thomas's great nephew, Mark Martin.

Wagner chief says mercenaries will leave Bakhmut, blasts Moscow  —  Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said he will withdraw his mercenaries from the embattled town of Bakhmut, Ukraine, saying his fighters are “doomed to senseless death” because Russia's Defense Ministry is depriving them of ammunition.

Justice Dept. Intensifying Efforts to Determine if Trump Hid Documents  —  Prosecutors investigating the former president's handling of classified material have issued a wave of new subpoenas and obtained the confidential cooperation of a witness who worked at Mar-a-Lago.

U.K.'s ruling Conservatives punished by voters on ‘terrible’ night  —  A bleak set of local election results were emerging for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak Friday after a year of political scandals, surging inflation and stagnant economic growth.  —  British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives …

America's Lowest Standard  —  Try to imagine anyone like Trump surviving in any other segment of our society—business, entertainment, sports, the military.  —  In one of his rare moments of naivete, Alexander Hamilton imagined that the Electoral College would afford “a moral certainty” …

Americans split on who they'd blame if U.S. defaults, Post-ABC poll finds  —  As the debate over raising the debt ceiling continues, 39 percent say they would blame congressional Republicans, while 36 percent say they would blame President Biden  —  A Washington Post-ABC News poll finds Americans divided …

Scoop: Inside Hunter Biden's clash with the White House  —  Top aides to President Biden have clashed with Hunter Biden's team over strategies for dealing with the legal battles and Republican attacks that surround the president's son. … - Hunter's team also is moving toward creating a legal defense fund …

How Rep. James Clyburn Protected His District at a Cost to Black Democrats  —  The meeting was arranged in secret.  On Nov. 19, 2021, the chief of staff for South Carolina's Senate Judiciary Committee texted Dalton Tresvant, a key aide to Rep. Jim Clyburn, the state's most powerful Democrat.

WHO downgrades COVID pandemic, says it's no longer emergency  —  The World Health Organization said Friday that COVID-19 no longer qualifies as a global emergency, marking a symbolic end to the devastating coronavirus pandemic that triggered once-unthinkable lockdowns, upended economies worldwide …

DeSantis courts evangelicals with strict abortion law; opponents counterpunch in his backyard  —  A multi-million-dollar initiative would roll back one of DeSantis' signature policies by allowing abortion until a fetus is viable at about 24 weeks of pregnancy.

How Gov. Ron DeSantis deploys state police to enforce political agenda  —  The mission was a tightly held secret as two agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement traveled to a remote Texas town, hundreds of miles away on the U.S.-Mexico border.  —  They worked for a statewide …

‘No other way to do it’: Biden about to go big on power plants  —  Historically strict EPA regulations on coal- and gas-fired power plants are due out next week.  They face legal and political peril.  —  The Biden administration is poised to unveil its most ambitious effort yet to roll …

Kari Lake's lawyers slapped with $2,000 sanction for pushing election conspiracy theories in court  —  Lawyers for failed pro-Trump Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake have been hit with sanctions by the Supreme Court of Arizona for pushing a conspiracy theory that 35,000 extra ballots …

Donald Trump departs Ireland to ‘confront’ accuser in New York case  —  Mr Trump said he would “probably attend” the hearing as he spoke to reporters while golfing at his resort outside the village of Doonbeg, Co Clare  —  Former US president Donald Trump said he cut his trip to Ireland short …

Trump, looking to regain 2016 magic, moves away from the Republican brand  —  The former president is still selling an us-vs.-them brand of politics.  But, in a callback to his 2016 campaign, it's not just about the party divide.  —  Former President Donald Trump has all but dropped a key word from his vocabulary: Republican.

Former Trump campaign staffer subpoenaed by DOJ is now working for House committee on elections  —  Thomas Lane's home was searched by the FBI.  He now works on the House Administration Committee.  —  A former Trump campaign staffer who was subpoenaed by the Department of Justice as part …

Massachusetts blast site where 1 died moves to cleanup phase  —  Authorities in Massachusetts on Friday identified the worker who died after a powerful explosion tore through a pharmaceutical chemical plant with a history of problems.  Acting Newburyport Fire Chief Stephen Bradbury III …