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Trump White House reverses course, rescinds freeze on federal grants — The budget office came under immense pressure over the impacts on a sudden pause in key government spending — The White House budget office on Wednesday rescinded an order freezing federal grants …
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White House rescinds Trump's funding freeze after massive backlash — The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rescinded a memo Wednesday that had ordered a “temporary pause” on federal funding and unleashed major confusion across the country.


Trump administration rescinds order attempting to freeze federal aid spending — The move comes just one day after the order was issued and a federal district judge temporarily halted it. — President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday rescinded an order that attempted to freeze …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, IJR, Raw Story, Deseret News, The Gateway Pundit, Block Club Chicago and Social Justice In America


Throw Biden under the bus — Sleepy Joe landed us in this mess with bad, selfish decisions — When Joe Biden stepped aside in favor of Kamala Harris, the overwhelming majority of Democrats praised him for the decision and painted an overall flattering portrait of Biden's presidency and his career.
Discussion:
New Jersey Online
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Trump's First Big Fiasco Triggers Stephen Miller's Rage—Take Note Dems — Admitting failure is anathema to the authoritarian leader, who is perpetually in danger of being diminished by those who are resentful of his glory—which is why White House adviser Stephen Miller is frantically searching …
Discussion:
Axios, Raw Story, Vanity Fair, Digby's Hullabaloo, Alternet.org and Roll Call

Powerless, Democrats Debate Just How Deep in the Wilderness They Are
Discussion:
HotAir


Senate Democrats rip into RFK Jr. — Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee went on offense against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s past statements about vaccines, infectious disease and other health-related conspiracy theories. In a heated exchange, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) …
Discussion:
Fox News, ABC News, New Republic, Alternet.org, The Guardian, STAT, USA Today, CBS News, Deadline, Twitchy, New York Post, New York Magazine and The Gateway Pundit
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Live Updates: R.F.K. Jr. Faces Bipartisan Grilling Over Vaccines and Medicaid
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Fox News, Associated Press, New Republic, Protect Our Care, Forbes, Mediaite, Bloomberg, The Guardian and CBS News

This Is About More Than RFK Jr.
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The Hill, Vanity Fair, Politico, PinkNews, New York Times and The Gateway Pundit

RFK Jr. is in the hot seat
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Washington Examiner, Townhall, RedState, New York Post, The Hill, Axios, Iowa Capital Dispatch, Reuters, E&E News, Roll Call, USA Today, Fox News, FOX 13 Tampa Bay, NBC News, Florida Politics, CBS News and Denver Post


USDA inspector general escorted out of her office after defying White House — Security agents escorted the inspector general of the U.S. Department of Agriculture out of her office on Monday after she refused to comply with her firing by the Trump administration, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Discussion:
Slate, New Jersey Online, RedState and Raw Story


DOJ moves to drop charges against former GOP lawmaker in case criticized by Trump — The step likely ends a legal saga that drove ex-Rep. Jeff Fortenberry from Congress over foreign donations. — The Justice Department has moved to drop its criminal prosecution of former Rep. Jeff Fortenberry …
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Post, Talking Points Memo, Nebraska Examiner, The Gateway Pundit and Raw Story
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DOJ moves to drop prosecution of former Trump co-defendants in classified documents case — The request offered no explanation for the Justice Department's decision to abandon the case against the two Trump allies. — The Justice Department on Wednesday moved to drop its effort …
Discussion:
The Hill, CNN, Axios, Washington Examiner, Fox News, CNBC, CBS News, Scripps News, Reuters, Daily Kos and Alternet.org

Prosecutors Move to Drop Classified Documents Case Against Trump's Co-Defendants
Discussion:
NBC News, USA Today, New York Daily News, New Republic, RedState and NPR


Compelling Mass Civil Servant Resignations Will Create Chaos — Elon Musk's role at Twitter represents a Rorschach test for how people think he will fare in restructuring government. For fans, he was able to cut the majority of the employees, and the site continued to run more or less as before.
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Slate, Washingtonian, Al Jazeera, CNN, Washington Post, NPR, Ars Technica, Axios, E&E News, ABC News, New York Times, Semafor, Townhall, Mock Paper Scissors, Daily Mail, ClearanceJobs, USA Today, CBS News, Raw Story and FedScoop
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Trump signs the Laken Riley Act into law — The Laken Riley Act, named for the slain nursing school student who was attacked and killed by a Venezuelan citizen who had entered into the U.S. illegally, is the first legislative win of Trump's second term. — President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed …
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The Hill, New York Times, Axios, ABC News, Washington Examiner, Townhall, CBS News, The Daily Caller and FOX 32 Chicago
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Governor Leaves Indiana's Predominantly Black University Out of Budget — Martin University had a short-lived burst of state funding. But those funds disappeared in Governor Mike Braun's budget proposal, unveiled on the heels of an anti-DEI executive order. One lawmaker calls it racist.
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Which Federal Programs Are Under Scrutiny? The Budget Office Named 2,600 of Them. — A Trump administration memo sent to U.S. federal agencies Monday night ordered temporary freezes in funding for programs across the government. It caused widespread confusion among agency officials …
Discussion:
Punchbowl News, Defense One and Palo Alto Online
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OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us — The narrative that OpenAI, Microsoft, and freshly minted White House “AI czar” David Sacks are now pushing to explain why DeepSeek was able to create a large language model that outpaces OpenAI's while spending orders …
Discussion:
The Hill, The Information, Mashable, Digital Trends, Fortune, Washington Examiner, RTÉ, TechCrunch, Engadget, City A.M., Quartz, Forbes and Technext, more at Techmeme »
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OpenAI says it has evidence China's DeepSeek used its model to train competitor
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Bloomberg, New York Times, Interesting Engineering, Gizmodo, The Daily Caller, Fox News, Forbes, Fortune, Music Ally, Futurism, Benzinga, Tom's Hardware, BGR, The Verge, Semafor and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »


‘Written by children’: Critics slam New York Times' glowing coverage of Trump official — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt received glowing coverage from the New York Times for her press briefing debut despite delivering a performance that other observers have described as an “embarrassment.”
Discussion:
New Republic, Jerusalem Post, PinkNews and Twitchy
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Trump administration to cancel student visas of pro-Palestinian protesters — U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday to combat antisemitism and pledge to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests, a White House official said.
Discussion:
Jewish Insider
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Trump ordering review to identify, punish and deport antisemites — including students on visas
Discussion:
Fox News, freebeacon.com, Townhall, VINnews and Exposing the role …


“Trump is trying to collapse our economy”: War on “woke” revealed as a war on all Americans — Christian nationalists behind the spending shutdown aim to punish everyone, not just imaginary Marxists — Initially, the most striking detail in the White House Office of Management and Budget memo …
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Trump is already acting like a king
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Associated Press, Axios, The Lever, Reason and The Dispatch


Defense secretary revokes Mark Milley's security detail and orders IG review — Pete Hegseth told Milley, a critic of Trump, that he had ordered an investigation to determine whether his rank should be re-evaluated. — WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told former Joint Chiefs …
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Pete Hegseth tells Mark Milley the Pentagon is pulling his security detail and clearance
Discussion:
Politico, The Independent, American Greatness, MeidasTouch News, Associated Press, CNN, Washington Examiner, New Republic, CBS News, IJR, Axios, Daily Mail, HuffPost and Mock Paper Scissors


Fed holds interest rates steady despite Trump's calls for a cut — Policymakers left rates unchanged amid signs that the economy is humming along, defying the president's tradition-bucking pressure on the central bank. — Federal Reserve officials held interest rates steady after emerging …
Discussion:
CNBC, Axios, The Hill, CBS News, USA Today, Forbes, Fortune, New York Post, The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, FOX 13 Tampa Bay, Semafor, Bankrate, Associated Press, Benzinga, Quartz, New York Times and Fox Business


DHS Sec. Noem announces end to temporary protected status for Venezuelan migrants — Newly confirmed DHS Sec. Kristi Noem joins ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss her efforts to crackdown on immigration, including the decision to remove the temporary status directive for Venezuelan migrants and the ICE raids in New York City.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Breitbart, One America News Network and Townhall


RFK Jr. sought to trademark MAHA for vaccine marketing, transferred to ally — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. transferred ownership of the trademark application in December and its abbreviation — MAHA — to an LLC managed by Del Bigtree. — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nominee for the nation's top health post …
Discussion:
Breitbart


Iowa Democrats flip Senate seat in special election to cut into Republican majority — Iowa Democrats have flipped a state Senate seat vacated earlier this year by Chris Cournoyer, who resigned to become the state's new lieutenant governor. — Democrat Mike Zimmer has defeated Republican Kate Whittington …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, The Hill, WQAD-TV, The Downballot, Iowa Capital Dispatch, New York Daily News, Washington Examiner and Iowa Starting Line


SCOOP: RFK Jr. Secretly Recorded Second Wife During Divorce and Acknowledged Being “Polygamous” — One recording might have violated state law. It was part of a messy saga that ended with her suicide. — In the early 2010s, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. went through a contentious divorce with his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy.
Discussion:
Page Six and New York Post


At Gabbard's Confirmation Hearing, Edward Snowden May Loom Large — Senators are expected to ask about her defense of the former government contractor, who released reams of data on U.S. surveillance programs and fled to Russia. — Tulsi Gabbard's past statements on Syria, Russia …
Discussion:
Associated Press, Washington Examiner, The Intercept, American Prospect and Wall Street Journal