Top Items:
Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
First on CNN: Secret Service concludes cocaine investigation, no suspect identified — The Secret Service has concluded its investigation into the small bag of cocaine found at the White House and has been unable to identify a suspect, two sources familiar with the investigation told CNN.
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Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:
Secret Service briefs House Oversight Committee on cocaine found at White House — The bag of powder was found in a cubby near the White House's West Executive entrance in an area that's heavily trafficked, not the formal West Wing lobby, NBC News reported last week.
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Politico, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, Just The News, Deadline, The Guardian, The Post Millennial, Breitbart and The Daily Caller
United States Secret Service:
Official Statement on the Investigation of a Substance Found in the White House — Published By U.S. Secret Service Media Relations — WASHINGTON - On the evening of July 2, officers from the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division found an unknown substance inside a vestibule leading …
Discussion:
NPR, New York Times, New York Daily News and NewsNation
Yvonne Wingett Sanchez / Washington Post:
Arizona escalates probe into alleged efforts to swing election for Trump — PHOENIX — Arizona's top prosecutor is ramping up a criminal investigation into alleged attempts by Republicans to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state by signing and transmitting paperwork …
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
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Norman L. Eisen / Just Security:
Trump on Trial: A Model Prosecution Memo for Federal Election Interference Crimes — This model prosecution memorandum (or “pros memo") assesses federal charges Special Counsel Jack Smith may bring against former President Donald Trump for alleged criminal interference in the 2020 election.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Washington Post and Raw Story
Pam Belluck / New York Times:
F.D.A. Approves First U.S. Over-the-Counter Birth Control Pill — The price of the pill, which has not been announced, will determine how affordable it will be when it becomes available in early 2024. — Pam Belluck has covered reproductive health for more than a decade.
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Mara Siegler / Page Six:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. press dinner explodes in war of words and farting — Page Six regrets to report that a press dinner to boost Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign devolved into a foul bout of screaming and polemic farting on Tuesday night. — The White House hopeful attended …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Insider, Fox News, Jezebel, New Republic, The Daily Caller, HuffPost, Althouse and Mediaite
ProPublica:
Close to 100,000 Voter Registrations Were Challenged in Georgia — Almost All by Just Six Right-Wing Activists — On March 15, 2022, an email appeared in the inbox of the election director of Forsyth County, Georgia, with the subject line “Challenge of Elector's Eligibility.”
Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
New York Is Ordered by Appeals Court to Redraw House Map — The decision, if upheld, could allow Democrats to shift as many as six G.O.P.-held seats in their direction. Republicans vowed to appeal. — The Latest — A New York appeals court on Thursday ordered the state's congressional map …
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Examiner, Joe.My.God., Daily Caller News Foundation and New York Magazine
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
The FTC is investigating whether ChatGPT harms consumers — The agency's demand for OpenAI's documents about AI risks mark the company's greatest U.S. regulatory threat to date — The Federal Trade Commission has opened an expansive investigation into OpenAI, probing whether the maker …
Discussion:
New York Times, NBC News, Politico, The Hill, TechCrunch, Deadline, Reuters, Financial Times, Just The News, The Messenger, Los Angeles Times, KTVZ-TV, Semafor and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »
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Washington Post:
Trump reveals new details about $1 billion in earnings in revised filing — In a revision to an earlier filing, the Republican presidential hopeful showed specific income from foreign ventures, speaking fees and real estate — Former president Donald Trump disclosed new details …
Discussion:
The Messenger
Eric Bazail-Eimil / Politico:
Biden slams Tuberville's blockade of Pentagon nominees — Speaking in Helsinki on Thursday, Biden called the ongoing hold “ridiculous” and “bizarre.” — President Joe Biden on Thursday criticized an ongoing hold on votes for military promotions and nominations led by Sen. Tommy Tuberville …
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Examiner, CNN, MSNBC, The Daily Caller, Wall Street Journal, al.com, Insider and HotAir
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Sarah Dean / CNN:
US defense secretary says Tuberville holds are ‘national security issue’
US defense secretary says Tuberville holds are ‘national security issue’
Discussion:
Reuters, NBC News, The Guardian and KTVZ-TV
Declan Harty / Politico:
Former crypto CEO arrested on fraud charges — The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission also filed charges. — U.S. authorities on Thursday arrested Alex Mashinsky, the former CEO of failed crypto lending platform Celsius Network …
Politico:
Top donors start giving Tim Scott a look after souring on DeSantis — Billionaire Ronald Lauder met with the South Carolina senator. Others in the check-writing class are also showing interest. — With Ron DeSantis stalling in the Republican presidential primary, some wealthy donors …
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Sally Goldenberg / Politico:
DeSantis is hoping Iowa evangelicals can make his campaign born again
DeSantis is hoping Iowa evangelicals can make his campaign born again
Discussion:
Political Wire, New York Times, Bloomberg, Digby's Hullabaloo, Reuters, Raw Story, Slate, Rolling Stone and TIME
Annie Karni / New York Times:
Democrats Try a Novel Tactic to Revive the Equal Rights Amendment — Proponents of the measure to enshrine a guarantee of sex equality into the Constitution are using a creative legal theory to try to resurrect the long-stalled amendment. — Reporting from Capitol Hill
Discussion:
Digby's Hullabaloo and Daily Caller News Foundation
July 4th Holiday Closure:
SAG-AFTRA Television, Theatrical and Streaming Contracts Expire Without a Deal — Negotiating Committee Votes Unanimously to Recommend a Strike SAG-AFTRA National Board to Meet Thursday to Vote on a Strike — SAG-AFTRA's Television/Theatrical/Streaming contracts have expired without a successor agreement.
Discussion:
Reuters, Deadline, The Root, Mediaite, KTVZ-TV, ABC News, CBS News, Variety, Payday Report, The Messenger, UPI, NBC News, Washington Examiner, Rolling Stone, CNN and Important Notice …, more at Mediagazer »
Philip Bump / Washington Post:
The head of the GOP is still elevating 2020 election skepticism — RNC chair Ronna McDaniel won't say the election was fair because, given her position, she can't — A particularly easy question for a fourth-grade social studies test would be to ask who won the 2020 presidential election.
Discussion:
Raw Story, HuffPost and Joe.My.God.
CNN:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. repeatedly suggested that chemicals in water are impacting sexuality of children — Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has a history of repeatedly sharing unfounded conspiracies that man-made chemicals in the environment could be making children gay …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Political Wire
Sarah Kaplan / Washington Post:
Floods, fires and deadly heat are the alarm bells of a planet on the brink — The world is hotter than it's been in thousands of years, and it's as if every alarm bell on Earth were ringing. — The warnings are echoing through the drenched mountains of Vermont, where two months of rain just fell in only two days.
Discussion:
Los Angeles Times and NBC News
John Hanna / Associated Press:
Trans people's rush to alter their Kansas licenses created a ‘safety concern,’ a judge says — A state-court judge has declared that the nearly 200 transgender people in Kansas who rushed in recent weeks to change the sex listings on their driver's licenses created an immediate “public safety concern.”
Discussion:
The Hill, The Daily Caller, Kansas Reflector, New York Daily News and Fox News
boulderpreston.com:
How Our Efforts to Bring Competition To Television Unknowingly Helped Create the Fox Disinformation Machine — For what little it may, or may not, be worth at this point, Preston Padden, Ken Solomon and Bill Reyner wish to express their deep disappointment for helping to give birth …
Discussion:
The Hill, The Messenger, KTVZ-TV, HuffPost, Mediaite, Joe.My.God. and UPROXX, more at Mediagazer »
Julia Johnson / Washington Examiner:
Gallego rakes in $3.1 million as Kari Lake mulls Senate bid in Arizona — Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) announced on Thursday that his Senate campaign pulled in more than $3 million in the second quarter. — The Arizona Democrat is looking to win the seat currently held by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema …
Discussion:
KGUN-TV, The Hill and The Messenger
Brad Reed / Raw Story:
Trump-supporting Ohio lawyer admits voting twice in past elections: ‘Accidents do happen’ — An attorney in Ohio who has donated money to former President Donald Trump acknowledged this week that he double-voted in past elections, but he says he only did so accidentally.
Discussion:
Plain Dealer
Miles J. Herszenhorn / USA Today:
‘No way in hell’: Rep. Ilhan Omar says she won't attend Israeli president's address in protest — Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., said “there is no way in hell” she will attend Israeli President Isaac Herzog's address to a joint session of Congress next week. — Omar announced she would boycott …
Hannah Natanson / Washington Post:
‘Racist,’ ‘grooming’: Why parents are trying to ban so many picture books — The culture war over what children can read has reached illustrated texts for the youngest readers — “Dangerous.” “Grooming.” “Reckless.” “Racist.” “Lying.” — All are adjectives that adults applied …
Stephanie Saul / New York Times:
Texas A&M Celebrated a New Journalism Director. Then Came the Complaints. — Kathleen McElroy was appointed head of a journalism program at the university. But then her work in D.E.I. seemed to come into question. — Kathleen McElroy, who had recently served as the director of the University …
Discussion:
KBTX-TV, Instapundit and Raw Story