Top Items:


It's crunch time for Mike Johnson and the GOP's ‘big, beautiful bill’ — The House speaker is set to put a budget resolution up for a floor vote on Tuesday but is facing a potential revolt from swing-district Republicans. — Republicans' push to enact President Donald Trump's tax …
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Capitol agenda: Big, beautiful budget on life support — Mike Johnson has about 12 hours to get his conference behind his plan for enacting the president's sweeping agenda. It's not looking good. The speaker insists he's not changing the budget resolution, which would set parameters …


Warren Davidson is the latest Republican to oppose the House budget — He joins at least three other Republicans who are leaning against Speaker Mike Johnson's plan. Still others are undecided. — Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio on Tuesday became the latest Republican to oppose Speaker …
Discussion:
The Hill


Conservatives threaten to tank House budget vote needed to advance Trump agenda
Discussion:
Axios, Scripps News, The Hill, New York Times, Punchbowl News, Deseret News, New York Daily News, CBS News, NOTUS, The Independent, Politico, The Daily Caller and Roll Call

Slashing Medicaid to Pay for Trump's Tax Cuts Could Lead to Vast State Shortfalls
Discussion:
ACA Signups, KFF Health News, Washington Examiner and Politico

Johnson brushes off Musk, but GOP budget holdouts stand firm
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Examiner and Washington Times

House Speaker Mike Johnson tries to push Trump's ‘big’ agenda forward, but GOP votes are in jeopardy
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters, Washington Post, Forbes, Raw Story, CBS News, Axios, Fox News, Blaze Media, New York Daily News, Bloomberg and Politico

The House GOP's Medicaid holdouts are coming around
Discussion:
Blaze Media, The Daily Caller and Washington Examiner


21 federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE slash size of government — More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”
Discussion:
The Information and The Independent
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How to Make the GOP Pay a Price for DOGE — Trump made a huge mistake by putting Musk in charge of implementing deeply unpopular policy — I have seen this movie before, beat for beat. — In August of 2010, in the middle of the effort to pass the Affordable Care Act, Congress went home for a month-long recess.


Live updates: 21 employees resign from DOGE, refusing to ‘dismantle critical public services’
Discussion:
MeidasTouch News


Big, Big Scandal Brewing at DC US Attys Office … There's a big, big scandal brewing beneath the already big scandal of the alleged assault by Florida congressman Corey Mills (R). But as yet no one seems inclined to pull on the dangling thread. As you've probably already seen …
Discussion:
HuffPost, Politico and The Status Kuo
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RED ALERT: Now Is the Moment, Folks … Over recent weeks I've told you several times that while Democrats are shut out of power in Washington and few means of arresting the Trump-Musk spree of criminal conduct across the executive branch they do have two points of leverage: the need for a new …
Discussion:
Bread & Circus


Government funding deal ‘very close’ as negotiations hinge on Trump power struggle — The fight over curbing President Donald Trump's ability to freeze cash is now the make-or-break dispute as leading lawmakers close in on a deal to avert a government shutdown next month.
Discussion:
Good Politics/Bad Politics, E&E News and The Hill


Trump allies circulate mass deportation plan calling for ‘processing camps’ and a private citizen ‘army’ — The group, led by Blackwater veteran Erik Prince, has close Trump ties. — A group of prominent military contractors, including former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince …
Discussion:
The National Pulse and Mediaite


Nearly 40% of contracts canceled by Musk's DOGE are expected to produce no savings — Nearly 40% of the federal contracts that President Donald Trump's administration claims to have canceled as part of its signature cost-cutting program aren't expected to save the government any money, the administration's own data shows.
Discussion:
The Guardian, Fox News, The Hill, Axios, Gizmodo, Daily Kos, WNYW-TV, The Independent, Digby's Hullabaloo and Poynter


This Shocking Moment at a GOP Town Hall in Idaho Is a Foreboding Sign — Teresa Borrenpohl later told the Coeur d'Alene Press that, as it happened, she didn't know if it was an arrest or a kidnapping. She was seated in a nearly-full town hall hosted by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee on Saturday.
Discussion:
Bonner County Daily Bee, Associated Press, OPB and Coeur d'Alene Press
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White House official pushes to axe Canada from Five Eyes intelligence group — Peter Navarro wants to increase pressure on country that Donald Trump has threatened to annex — A top White House official has proposed expelling Canada from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network …
Discussion:
The Hill and Patterico's Pontifications


Trump Administration Highlights: Personnel Officials Say Musk's Directive Is ‘Voluntary’ — Where Things Stand — Musk's ultimatum: Federal personnel officials walked back Elon Musk's demand that government workers justify their jobs in an email or face termination, saying that his request had been “voluntary.”
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Elon's Email Demand Is Being Met With ‘Very Rude’ Flood of Spam
Discussion:
Fortune, NBC News, Washington Post, Daily Caller News Foundation, The Independent, Associated Press, New York Times, WUSA, The Hill, TechCrunch, The Daily Wire, Daily Mail, Fox News, GovExec.com, Scripps News, Mother Jones, USA Today, CNBC, Mediaite, Daily Kos, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, New Republic, The Information and Slate, more at Techmeme »


Supreme Court orders new trial for death row inmate Richard Glossip — The Oklahoma case has attracted broad support after the state's top law enforcement official revealed prosecutorial misconduct. — A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday took the extraordinary step of ordering a new trial …
Discussion:
The Hill, New York Post, CBS News and The Independent
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Supreme Court throws out Oklahoma death row inmate's conviction over flawed trial — In an unusual case, death row inmate Richard Glossip was backed by the state's Republican attorney general, who agreed the conviction was unsound. — WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday threw …
Discussion:
ABC News, Washington Examiner, Scripps News, USA Today, Fox News, Reuters, New York Times, New York Magazine, NPR, Associated Press and SCOTUSblog


The Trump 50 per cent doctrine — With ruthless purges of the US government, the president is tipping the scales towards autocracy — If you could condense the Democratic party's plan into one line, it would be: “Just wait until the midterm elections.” Faith that the economy under …
Discussion:
Raw Story
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America's Food Safety Is Now in the Hands of Don Jr.'s Hunting Buddy — As federal health agencies are gutted with abandon, a Florida attorney with a history of hunting with the president's son has been put in charge of food safety at the FDA, overseeing the nation's food supply, infant formula, and more.
Discussion:
The Guardian


EU offers its own ‘win-win’ minerals deal to Ukraine — “The added value Europe offers is that we will never demand a deal that's not mutually beneficial,” top official Stéphane Séjourné says. — The European Union offered its own agreement on “critical materials” …
Discussion:
Agence France-Presse, The Kyiv Independent, Euromaidan Press, The Bulwark and E&E News
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Trump's New Deputy F.B.I. Director Has It Out for the ‘Scumbag Commie Libs’ — When a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty on 34 felony counts last year, the conservative podcaster Dan Bongino made a veiled threat on social media. “The irony about this for the scumbag commie libs …
Discussion:
Wired, RedState, CNN, USA Today, ABC News, NPR, The Hill, Axios, Washington Examiner, Daily Mail, The Guardian, Zeteo, NBC News, Associated Press, BBC and Washington Times, more at Mediagazer »
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The Best Thing Democrats Can Do in This Moment — The Republican Party is all too often effective at campaigning and winning elections, but there's another fact about it that a lot of Americans forget: The Republican Party flat out sucks at governing. Even Tucker Carlson agrees with this.
Discussion:
Newsweek, No More Mister Nice Blog, Sanity Clause, Raw Story and Fox News


Top Committee Dem goes after Trump's interim US attorney — Rep. Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, plans to investigate Washington's top prosecutor for making threats against the Trump administration's political adversaries — including one of his own members.
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Examiner and Rolling Stone, more at Mediagazer »


DOGE's Latest Cut: Glenn Youngkin's Balls — However bad you think DOGE's decapitation of USAID was, this report from the Washington Post's Matt Bai suggests it was even worse: … Happy Tuesday. — Glenn Youngkin to Fired Federal Workers: Time to Be Productive For a Change — by Andrew Egger
Discussion:
Axios


US threatens permanent visa bans on trans athletes based on sex markers — Exclusive: State department memo directs officers to bar those deemed to misrepresent birth sex on applications — The US state department has ordered officials worldwide to deny visas to transgender athletes attempting …


Goya Foods CEO, Bob Unanue, Announces Next Chapter — 50-Year Food Industry Veteran Releases Statement After Being Left in “Limbo” by the Company's Board — Today, Robert “Bob” Unanue, with over 20 years as President & CEO of Goya Foods, is releasing a statement about his status …
Discussion:
Fox Business


Invasive frisks, suicide attempts: Three migrants describe Guantánamo detention — The men said they were denied calls to loved ones, subjected to humiliating searches and left in isolation for prolonged periods. — He couldn't tell when the days started and ended within the windowless …


He Left CNN to Start a Newsletter. It's Now a Must-Read. — Oliver Darcy's media newsletter, launched in August, is poaching a CNN editor and on track to top $1 million in annual recurring revenue — Oliver Darcy left CNN, one of the most recognized news outlets in the world, to start a newsletter.


The idiot wind now howling through the US offers Ireland a transformative windfall — Fintan O'Toole: Trump is complaining that we pick America's pocket. Fair enough - we should instead pick America's brains — America's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity.


Consumer Confidence Drops as Americans Brace for Inflation — Fresh off the worst inflation shock in decades, Americans are once again bracing for higher prices. — Expectations about future inflation have started to move up, according to metrics closely watched by officials at the Federal Reserve.