Reading archive 2026-08-09

Democratic voters who used to back Susan Collins aren’t so sure anymore: “When she voted for RFK Jr., I totally lost it,” one former Collins voter said.

Unemployment improved — because thousands of workers disappeared. Where did they go?: The percentage of American workers ages 25 to 54 declined this year, and that’s not a good sign for the economy, experts say.

Why a child’s stuffed bunny is blowing up a political race — and the internet: Many seemed reluctant to take sides in an Ohio congressman’s divorce, but then came the allegation he had withheld his daughter’s sleep buddy.

Trump keeps making threats. The world has stopped flinching.: The president’s bombast has ceased to rattle world leaders, who have seen him fenced in by courts, rebuffed by Congress and strung along by Iran.

How predatory trade schools drained $300 million from the GI Bill and cheated veterans: The institutions defrauded Veterans Affairs while cheating thousands out of career training, with some offering training on how to grow grass and make fake rocks, a Post investigation found.

Ukraine fails to halt Russian barrage as Zelensky blames partners for ‘horrific casualties’: U.S.-made systems are Kyiv’s only means to shoot down ballistic missiles, and Ukraine says it has run out of interceptors. Seventeen Ukrainians died overnight.

Virginia boy’s death comes as more children are getting hurt on e-scooters: Over two days in the D.C. area, a 9-year-old was killed on an e-scooter and a 5-year-old was seriously injured, police said.

Trump officials say public transit is unsafe, but their data says otherwise: A new federal dashboard shows that New York and Washington have relatively low rates of serious crimes.

Now the midterms begin in earnest. Ask candidates three questions.: Those seeking House or Senate seats should be asked by voters to make a trio of vital commitments.

Japan’s guilty pleasure: A tribute to the largest battleship ever built: Why the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Yamato, sunk in 1945, still captures the country’s imagination.

Felony record didn’t stop fraudster from fleecing GI Bill of $1.5 million: The self-described former drug dealer says he faced no background check before he won approval to enroll veterans in his school for police dog handlers.

Veterans in this GI Bill scam played along as trade schools pocketed millions: Prosecutors went after “ghost” school operators but rarely pursued students who enrolled just to collect housing subsidies, a Post investigation found.

Budget battle erupts in D.C. over opioid settlement money

Union Station overhaul takes new direction as Trump administration scraps approved expansion plan

Reading archive 2026-07-31

A new Colorado River plan requires water cuts for three states. Deeper cuts are still possible.: Arizona, California and Nevada will be required to curb their use of the water from the river by a combined 20 percent over the next two years, according to three officials. - "In the Upper Basin, home to the snowcapped mountains and winding tributaries that feed the river, there are few reservoirs to provide long-term water storage, leaving users reliant on natural flows. That means the Upper Basin takes an automatic cut during dry years, officials argue. They say responsibility for restoring water to Lakes Powell and Mead should fall on the Lower Basin states that use them. 

"Yet about three-quarters of the people who depend on the Colorado live in the Lower Basin. The region is also home to major cities and sprawling farms that provide most of the nation’s winter vegetable supply. Officials from these states say they have already curbed their water consumption by millions of acre feet in recent years. Overuse of the river is universal, they argue, and so too is responsibility for saving it."

Airports, nursing homes and schools brace for disruption without Haitian workers: The Trump administration and courts are at odds over whether about 350,000 Haitians have officially lost humanitarian protections, but employers are already letting workers go.

Why 600,000 Mosquitoes Are Being Released in DC This Summer: A Silver Spring pest control company is releasing mosquitoes that don't bite, to stop the ones that do.

Bowser, warning of $837M ‘fiscal cliff,’ declines to sign D.C. budget: It’s not a veto, but it’s the mayor’s way of voicing her disapproval with the D.C. Council.

New report details ‘prolonged, systemic breakdown’ in D.C. crime reporting: The report comes amid internal and external probes into a wide-ranging crime data manipulation scandal.

Inside the deal to clinch Lindsey Graham’s ‘sanctions bill from hell’: The late senator pushed for a bipartisan financial bill that could curb Russia’s main source of income.

Will Maine uproot Susan Collins? I went to a potato festival to find out.: The Senate race pits seniority against a working-class playbook.

What’s tucked inside the Senate’s Russia sanctions bill: Its tariff proposals could affect other countries more than Russia. - "In sum, the legislation gives Trump an awful lot of authority to impose massive tariffs on a number of countries, notably India and China, if they don’t cut off all Russian energy imports. They are unlikely to do so, because both India and China are heavily reliant on Russian energy — all the more since the U.S.-Iran war has reduced oil exports from the Persian Gulf. Trump’s efforts to use 25 percent tariffs to wean India from Russian energy imports already failed last year.

"The problem is that there is nothing to stop Trump from imposing tariffs on any of those countries for some other reason and using the Graham bill as legal justification. He might even use the legislation to go after U.S. allies in Europe and Asia."

Reading archive 2026-02-05

Washington Post Lays Off More Than 300 Journalists: The layoffs cut into The Post’s local, international and sports coverage, and reduced its entire work force by about 30 percent. - "Much of [Weill Lewis's] tenure has been tumultuous, including a shake-up of newsroom leadership and scrutiny of his ties to a phone-hacking scandal while he worked for News Corp. Just before the 2024 presidential election, Mr. Lewis announced a new policy from Mr. Bezos ending presidential endorsements by The Post’s editorial board, which blocked a drafted endorsement of the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris. Hundreds of thousands of Post subscribers canceled their subscriptions in response. 

"In a staff meeting in 2024, Mr. Lewis warned that The Post was in trouble. 'We are losing large amounts of money,' he said. 'Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff.'"

House rejects D.C. tax changes, potentially costing the city $600M in revenue: If passed by the Senate, the measure could lead to a months-long suspension of the city’s tax filing system.

No, Billie Eilish, Americans are not thieves on stolen land: Civilization depends on secure property titles, not sincere apologies. - "It is easy to call land stolen, but what about the innocent purchasers who acquired in good faith in the interim? Are they thieves? Is Eilish a thief because, as the Tongva tribe recently asserted, her $3 million mansion in Los Angeles sits on its ancestral homeland?"

What to know about the rare condition Catherine O’Hara had: The late actor and comedian was born with a condition called situs inversus. Here’s what that means.

As West goes after Russia’s oil fleet, Moscow fears for its war funding: New European measures to crack down on Russia’s shadow fleet could severely hurt its economy at a time when it is looking increasingly vulnerable.

Democrats have an early front-runner: Gavin Newsom’s bet on joyful combat and coiffed charisma is paying dividends.

Gavin Newsom is very similar to Kamala Harris: Two San Francisco local elected officials who successfully ran statewide in CA - "My point, though, is that going from holding statewide office in California to running in a national election is not like the A.F.C. champion going to the Super Bowl. 

"It is hard to win these jobs, and getting them involves a real display of political skill. But that skill is not beating Republicans in elections. It’s catering to Democratic Party insiders and affiliated advocacy groups and generating media buzz and endorsements. And this environment is a bad training ground for developing politicians who are good at beating the opposition party. It’s as if you took the winning team from the Champions League and then sent those players to the N.B.A. Finals on the theory that they’re top-notch athletes. You’re selecting on the wrong thing. And it shows."

Our 2024 Wins Above Replacement (WAR) Models: The races where fundamentals pointed to one outcome, but candidate quality led to another

He lost a pinkie trying to kill a man. From prison, he made things worse.: A case in Maryland involving a former high school wrestling star challenged a judge with a difficult question: Who deserves mercy?

Why this vegan environmentalist thinks meat is the future: A new book argues that people will never give up meat — and that plant-based and lab-grown meat will be the “next agricultural revolution.”

D.C.’s largest office-to-residential conversion is officially underway: A former office in Dupont Circle will become a 15-story, 532-unit apartment building, the kind of transformation that D.C. officials see as key to downtown’s future.

On Greenland, Europe stood up, Trump blinked, and the E.U. learned a lesson: For some in the often fractured E.U., Trump’s retreat on the Arctic territory proves that retaliation — not conciliation — is the answer to his hardball tactics.

ICE surge creates new headache for Maine’s Susan Collins: The most vulnerable Republican in the Senate would not say whether she supported the federal enforcement effort.

On a paradise island in the Pacific, meth and HIV epidemics rage: International criminal syndicates have been using Fiji as a transshipment point for drugs originating in Southeast Asia and Latin America. - "Law enforcement officials, customs agencies, U.N. officials and others who investigate drug syndicates believe that the groups operating in and around Fiji are working with each other, bringing together Chinese triads, Mexican cartels, Australian biker gangs and other syndicates with connections as far away as Nigeria."

Reading archive 2025-09-11

‘Prolific alien invaders’ threaten waters in the West: Zebra mussels are now in the upper Colorado River system, and the minuscule mollusks can wreak massive damage. - "The mollusks’ westward sweep recently crossed a feared Rubicon when Colorado discovered zebra mussels in its portion of the Colorado River system, an imperiled lifeline to 40 million people. 'This news is devastating,' a water manager on the state’s arid western side said. 'From irrigation to drinking water, the ramifications cannot be underestimated or overstated.'"

Poland downs drones in its airspace, becoming first NATO member to fire during war in Ukraine

National Guard documents show public ‘fear,’ veterans’ ‘shame’ over D.C. presence: Internal documents reviewed by The Post show how domestic missions rooted in politics risk damaging Americans’ trust in the military. - "In another update, the Guard indicates troops 'continue efforts to restore and beautify public spaces across the District” and have “cleared 906 bags of trash, spread 744 cubic yards of mulch, removed five truckloads of plant waste, cleared 3.2 miles of roadway, and painted 270 feet of fencing.' 

"Those statistics may be among the most consequential takeaways of Trump’s use of the military in D.C., Dempsey said, and should prompt scrutiny of whether this mission was ever necessary in the first place.

 "'That is such a suboptimal use of military training that we should all be asking, 'Why are they here?'' Dempsey said. 'If they’re picking up trash, they’re not here for a security emergency. There’s no clearer metric than that.'"

I’ve battled backyard wasps for two years. Guess who won?: I’ve tried pesticides both natural and synthetic, as well as DIY remedies, but nothing has worked. So I turned to the experts for advice. - "'I wish organic insecticides were safe and more effective, but the truth of the matter is, snake venom and ricin are organic, and both are highly deadly,' Lamp’l says. Vinegar can be lethal to frogs, toads and lizards, he adds. 'Organic gives people peace of mind, but it’s really a misconception.'

...

"'People think anything laboratory-made is bad and anything natural is good, but that’s not necessarily true,' Brown says. 'Water is a chemical, and naturally derived products from plants like pyrethrins are chemicals too. A pesticide is a pesticide, whether it’s made in a laboratory, comes from a plant, or is soap and water.'"

Democrats fight over how to defeat Republican Sen. Susan Collins: The emerging Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate in Maine embodies a stark choice in a party trying to remake itself.

On the brink of a devastating canal collapse, a GOP district waits for Trump’s help: In an era of federal staffing and spending cuts, a small Washington state irrigation district is desperate for a lifeline.

Texas’s Pete: James Talarico is young, well spoken, and eager to talk with Republicans—exactly what some Democratic dreamers think they need to finally turn the state blue.

Just How Bad Would an AI Bubble Be?: The entire U.S. economy is being propped up by the promise of productivity gains that seem very far from materializing. - "Generative AI would not be the first tech fad to experience a wave of excessive hype. What makes the current situation distinctive is that AI appears to be propping up something like the entire U.S. economy. More than half of the growth of the S&P 500 since 2023 has come from just seven companies: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. These firms, collectively known as the Magnificent Seven, are seen as especially well positioned to prosper from the AI revolution.

...

"Many experts believe that a major reason the U.S. economy has been able to weather tariffs and mass deportations without a recession is because all of this AI spending is acting, in the words of one economist, as a "massive private sector stimulus program." An AI crash could lead broadly to less spending, fewer jobs, and slower growth, potentially dragging the economy into a recession. The economist Noah Smith argues that it could even lead to a financial crisis if the unregulated "private credit" loans funding much of the industry's expansion all go bust at once."

The Abundance Delusion: I mean, what even is a Democrat at this point? - "Wonks who value the existence of the subway understand that more revenue-like, say, the millions of dollars annually that come from rider fares-means more resources for ride improvement and policing, which increases ridership, which in turn keeps the entire system alive. More honest wonks will even admit that a slight barrier of entry improves the ride dramatically for most people. But the far left fundamentally does not care about this. Ideologically, its adherents do not believe that an amazing transit system that only an overwhelming majority of people can afford is preferable to a grossly degraded system that everyone, technically, can access. This belief extends to roads, housing, schools, everything." [ed. note: a glimmer of a compelling argument in what otherwise boils down to "you need an authoritarian to get things done"]

The Epstein Letter Is Real, and It’s Bad: The president’s initial strategy of denying that the document exists leaves him with few options now that it has been made public.

Fear of Losing the Midterms Is Driving Trump’s Decisions: The specter of investigations and impeachment has fueled many of the president’s most dramatic actions.

New York NIMBYs Turn Against Democracy: Local lawmakers want to preserve their power to block housing. Does what voters think matter at all? - "An official at the city's Department of Housing Preservation & Development noticed that the members of one Queens community board habitually asked residents testifying at its meetings how long they had lived in the neighborhood, especially if they appeared to be of a different race or social standing. As a result, newcomers were implicitly discouraged from attending any meetings at all."

Kamala Harris explains why it wasn’t her fault: In an excerpt from her new memoir, she casts plenty of blame, including at the Biden White House. - "The Atlantic published an excerpt from Harris’s memoir on Wednesday morning, and the section suggests that the subtitle of her forthcoming book should be 'Why Nothing that Happened Last Year Was My Fault.'"

FBI leaders allege in lawsuit they were unlawfully fired over political loyalty: The former acting director says a Trump administration official asked a series of questions, including “Who did you vote for?”

FBI leaders allege in lawsuit they were unlawfully fired over political loyalty: The former acting director says a Trump administration official asked a series of questions, including “Who did you vote for?”

Reading archive 2022-06-28

Gen Z is influencing the abortion debate — from TikTok - "Savannah, who has a background in musical theater, has initiatives of her own, including writing and performing conservative rap songs. Last year, her music video 'Be Like Candace' caught the attention of right-wing commentator Candace Owens. Soon after, Savannah said, she was invited to be part of the organization Owens co-founded, the Blexit Foundation, which states a vision 'to change the narrative that surrounds America’s minority communities.'"

Opinion  Rudy Giuliani gets caught in another lie — at a supermarket

GOP Rep. Boebert: ‘I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk’

Frustration, anger rising among Democrats over caution on abortion: A growing number of Democrats are voicing anger at what they see as the passivity of Biden and other party leaders in the face of hard-hitting GOP tactics on abortion and other issues - "Some activists said Democratic leaders’ exhortation to vote for them to save abortion rights echoes the refrain activists heard on police reform in the wake of Floyd’s killing and on protecting voting rights — two major initiatives that have fallen short despite the narrow Democratic majorities in Washington. 

"'It’s very similar to what happened in 2020: 'Go back to the voting booths.' … It always comes back to 'Now you, the individual, do something,'' said Paris Hatcher, executive director for Black Feminist Future. 'But we’ve elected these people who are in office at this very moment to take action on things like this. It becomes a very passive way to pass the buck when we have elected them to make things happen that center on the well-being of the people.'" [ed. note: political power is derived from the individual's vote - that's what democracy is. You elected an official, not a demigod. We need more votes.]

Opinion  Susan Collins needs to own up to her decision to back Kavanaugh

Harris says she ‘never believed’ Kavanaugh, Gorsuch would uphold Roe

What Ruth Bader Ginsburg really said about Roe v. Wade - "One thing you’ll notice from the above is that Ginsburg calls the court’s decision hasty and “breathtaking,” she suggests it would have been better to go slower and focus on equal protection, and she laments legislators being taken out of the process so quickly and absolutely. But what she doesn’t say is that there is no constitutional right to an abortion or that Roe was wrong. Indeed her comments take issue mostly in how it arrived at a conclusion she supported, and how sustainable it made that right.

"And Ginsburg assured in her 1993 confirmation hearings that she did support it being a right. 

"Abortion 'is something central to a woman’s life, to her dignity,' she said. 'It’s a decision that she must make for herself. And when government controls that decision for her, she’s being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.'"

Yes, Capitol Rioters Were Armed. Here Are The Weapons Prosecutors Say They Used - "At least three people arrested in connection with the Capitol riot are facing gun charges, though the government has not alleged that those three were part of the actual breach of the building. Other defendants are suspected of possessing guns during the riot but, like the vast majority of the estimated 800 rioters, were not searched that day."

Reading archive 2022-05-06

Sen. Collins voices opposition to Democratic legislation that would create statutory right to abortion

How millions of Russians are tearing holes in the Digital Iron Curtain: A tremendous surge in VPN downloads represents a challenge to Putin and his version of the Ukraine war

U.S. provided intelligence that helped Ukraine sink Russian warship

Herschel Walker’s insulting campaign is the worst kind of sports idolatry

A race against time in Ukraine as Russia advances, West sends weapons

Reading archive 2022-05-03

Roberts directs investigation into leaked draft of abortion opinion: The document is authentic but not final, the chief justice said in a news release Tuesday

Collins and Murkowski are put on defensive after leaked Roe draft

Opinion  How Russia’s grim demographics could thwart Putin’s global ambitions

Mass flight of tech workers turns Russian IT into another casualty of war: About 10 percent of the tech workforce is projected to leave Russia before the end of May

Hacking Russia was off-limits. The Ukraine war made it a free-for-all.: Experts anticipated a Moscow-led cyber-assault; instead, unprecedented attacks by hacktivists and criminals have wreaked havoc in Russia

In the capital of Blue State America, a new ferment over homelessness - "But there is something happening here where two major California rivers converge, currents placing Democrats of various shades of blue against each other. One approach is being promoted by the state and local governments, which want to focus more resources on the mentally ill, the most visible and defining characteristic of the crisis. 

"Another is being advocated by business leaders, neighborhood groups and angry voters, who have watched the expanding homeless population fill in the city’s public spaces and now want local officials to force people to accept housing, getting them off the streets. Those who decline an offer of an available bed, of which there are none now, would no longer be allowed to live on the street. The proposal, highly popular with the public, will come before voters in November."

Reading archive 2022-03-30

Will Smith, spit-polished thuggery and disrespect

Opinion: Cawthorn’s ‘orgies’ line shows how right-wing politics can boomerang - "Cawthorn is one of a new breed of Republican representatives who operate in the most fetid gutters of the new political pathways carved by Donald Trump. This class includes worthies like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and Matt Gaetz (Fla.): They’re basically professional media provocateurs who also happen to have gotten elected to Congress."

Collins says she will back Ketanji Brown Jackson for Supreme Court: The moderate senator from Maine becomes the first Republican to announce her support for Jackson, giving the White House at least a minimally bipartisan vote.

Reading archive 2021-05-20

Chris Cuomo took part in strategy calls advising his brother, the New York governor, on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations

A Texas family hunted for a teen vandal. Instead, they killed an innocent neighbor, police said.

Opinion: D.C. should end the felon-in-possession initiative

FBI probing possible illegal donations to Susan Collins PAC and congressional campaign, search warrant indicates - "In the summer of 2019, the U.S. Navy Office of Naval Research awarded Navatek an $8 million contract to develop safer ship hulls. Collins advocated for that funding."

How Paul Mooney made SNL a cultural phenomenon with one legendary Richard Pryor-Chevy Chase sketch

Opinion: Why Republican opposition to a Jan. 6 commission could be a blessing in disguise - "This will play well on Fox 'News' but, like much of what the right says these days, it simply isn’t so. The bill to establish a January 6 commission was negotiated in good faith between Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, and the ranking Republican member, Rep. John Katko (N.Y.).

...

"In 2014, the Republican House majority voted to create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack — a terrorist assault that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. Republicans treated this as a scandal akin to Iran-contra or Watergate — largely, as McCarthy later boasted, because they wanted to hurt the presidential prospects of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

Body-cam video shows Louisiana troopers stunned, hit and dragged Black man before his death

65-year-old woman fatally shot in Southeast Washington

Russell Moore’s departure from the Southern Baptist Convention’s leadership prompts questions over its future

Reading archive 2020-10-14

Susan Collins Goes on the Attack With few options left, the normally reserved senator is going aggressively negative as she tries to save her seat.

Prosecutors allege White woman charged with calling 911 on Black birdwatcher in Central Park also falsely claimed the man tried to ‘assault’ her

Justices Thomas and Alito lash out at the decision that cleared way for same-sex marriage

GOP has been aggressively trying to pack supreme courts at state level, study says Court-packing has a surprisingly rich recent history, with efforts documented in 11 states, including two that succeeded.

Biden reaches out to Catholics like himself, embracing a key group in big 2020 states

Northeast Ohio turned red in 2016. I asked five of my high school classmates why.

Pittsburgh-area mail carrier under investigation is apparent QAnon conspiracy theorist

An explosive New York Post story that sent Trumpworld into a frenzy is riddled with holes and red flags

Man Who Reportedly Gave Hunter’s Laptop to Rudy Speaks Out in Bizarre Interview: John Paul Mac Isaac gave conflicting stories to reporters on Wednesday. He also said he feared for his life, citing the Seth Rich conspiracy.

Reading archive 2018-12-17

It’s the beginning of the end for the gun lobby’s power

I voted for Trump. Now his wall may destroy my butterfly paradise.

‘You are a foul, disgusting liar’: Weekly Standard editors blast Steve King for celebrating magazine’s demise

Susan Collins and Republicans better have better answers on Obamacare

New report on Russian disinformation, prepared for the Senate, shows the operation’s scale and sweep: The report, a draft of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the first to analyze the millions of posts provided by major technology firms to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Michael Flynn’s business partner charged with illegally lobbying for Turkey

The signs are mounting: Trump has been badly weakened. It will get worse for him.

Reading archive 2017-12-20

The Year’s Best Late Night Moments Weren’t Funny at All: In a year when comedy shows were struggling to keep up with news, the sharpest hosts were the ones who embraced sincerity

The Republican Tax Bill Doesn’t Actually Simplify The Tax Code - "By cutting down on the opportunities to wiggle out of paying an annual contribution to the Treasury, governments can reduce the burden of most taxpayers while making the system more fair. The government refers to these benefits as “tax expenditures.” The Treasury’s latest annual roundup lists hundreds of them. According to the TAS, forgone revenue from expenditures ($1.4 trillion) was greater than what Congress budgeted for discretionary spending ($1.2 trillion) in the 2016 fiscal year. But while the Republicans talked about broadening the base and getting rid of many of these expenditures, they never got serious about it. The original Senate bill would have eliminated only one of the 10 most expensive expenditures: the state-and-local-tax deduction. Then Republicans lost their nerve when politicians and supporters from states such as New York, New Jersey and California complained about losing the benefit.

A Brief, Infinite History of Saturn Return: The astrological turning point affects all late 20-somethings. But what does it mean, and why has it become a powerful guide for so many young people?

Paul Ryan on whether the tax bill will add to the deficit: 'Nobody knows the answer to that question'

Sen. Collins, it’s bogus to blame sexism for tax-bill backlash - "She is the only senator who staked her continued presence in the Senate (forgoing a run for governor) on bridging the divide between the parties and who vowed to protect the Obamacare exchanges. What she got was a promise from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to pass two partial offsets that would mitigate some of the harm done by repeal of the individual mandate. She also at the time stated that she’d have a vote on those bills in hand before voting for the tax bill. She doesn’t have that promised vote and likely won’t get the bills through the House (which objects to anything shoring up Obamacare). Collins nevertheless will vote for a bill that included repeal of the individual mandate without receiving any offset. Her vote in that regard is no different from that of other Republicans who vowed to rip up Obamacare root and branch. Her constituents and local media are understandably very upset with her."

Sen. Collins says she will vote ‘yes’ on Republican tax bill: In remarks from the Senate floor Monday, Collins affirms her support and details several amendments she sought to provide relief to middle-income taxpayers. - "The bill would also increase the national debt by at least $1 trillion over 10 years after accounting for economic growth, according to an official congressional analysis. Tax cuts for individuals would expire after nine years, while corporate tax cuts would be permanent. Maine’s Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, remains a staunch opponent of the tax bill. The bill, which could be voted on as early as Tuesday, wouldn’t eliminate the ACA, but it would repeal its individual mandate, which would lead to 13 million more uninsured Americans and higher health insurance premiums, according to the Congressional Budget Office."

Democrats unlikely to force DACA vote this week, probably averting shutdown

Scientists stunned by massive snowfall increases among Alaska’s highest peaks

Trump just admitted the GOP’s tax cuts were deceptively sold - "Trump's second admission was about the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate being repealed in the bill. Apparently eager to argue that this constituted him having cut taxes and slew Obamacare in one fell swoop (after Congress came up short on Obamacare this year), he argued that repealing the individual mandate was basically the same as repealing Obamacare. But, he said, he told Republicans not to talk about that. Trump said he told allies to 'be quiet with the fake news media because I don't want them talking too much about it.' 'Now that it's approved, I can say that,' he said."

With this tax bill, the GOP has finally killed family-friendly conservatism

Reading archive 2017-11-10

‘I don’t feel wealthy’: The upper middle class is worried about paying for the tax overhaul

‘Love Thy Neighbor?’: When a Muslim doctor arrived in a rural Midwestern town, “it felt right.” But that feeling began to change after the election of Donald Trump.

One of the busiest websites in the U.S. in 2016 regularly linked to Russia propaganda (ed. note: it's Drudge)

Trump judge nominee, 36, who has never tried a case, wins approval of Senate panel - "When Trump took office in January, there were more than 100 vacant seats on the federal courts, thanks to an unprecedented slowdown engineered by McConnell during the final two years of President Obama's term. The Senate under GOP control approved only 22 judges in that two-year period, the lowest total since 1951-52 in the last year of President Truman's term. By contrast, the Senate under Democratic control approved 68 judges in the last two years of George W. Bush's presidency."

Reading archive 2017-04-03

Bill O’Reilly: An awful, awful man

Democrats just took the filibuster off life support

Collins tells the Senate why Gorsuch shouldn’t be filibustered

Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Gorsuch in Party-Line Vote

Our Dishonest President

Why Trump lies

Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel

The left and right agree: Fox News destroyed EPA chief Scott Pruitt over climate change

The looming strategic disaster at Mar-a-Lago this week

Why is Trump flailing? Because Americans hate his agenda, and it’s based on lies.

When the President Is Ignorant of His Own Ignorance

Trump Is Wimping Out on Trade

New details emerge about 2014 Russian hack of the State Department: It was ‘hand to hand combat’

Reading archive 2016-08-09

GOP senator Susan Collins: Why I cannot support Trump

A FULL REVOLUTION

We're Better Off Than When Clint Eastwood Was a Kid

The Sad Last Days of Homo-Hate Queen Phyllis Schlafly

Trump: '2nd Amendment' may be only way to block Clinton's judicial picks

The Polls Aren’t Skewed: Trump Really Is Losing Badly