National poll: Trump nearly even with Clinton  —  Donald Trump has nearly pulled even with Hillary Clinton, according to the results of the NBC News/SurveyMonkey weekly tracking poll released Tuesday.  —  While Clinton is looking to wrap up the Democratic nomination with a strong performance …

Mitch McConnell on endorsing Trump, battling Obama and playing ‘the long game’  —  LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who learned an early lesson about the value of patience and persistence during a childhood bout with polio, has some advice for Republicans alarmed …

Racist meme posted by hacker on Facebook, Delta Republicans say  —  An overtly racist Internet meme — comparing President Barack Obama to 1950s movie chimpanzee Bonzo — that appeared to be shared on the personal Facebook page of the chairwoman of the Delta County Republican Central Committee …

GOP convention no-shows threaten to undercut Trump unity push  —  Even as Donald Trump and Republican Party bosses diligently work Capitol Hill in hopes of bringing the party together after a fractious presidential primary, convention planners could still be looking at a block of empty seats for the July convention.

Campaign Chairman: Clinton Knows Email Setup Was A “Mistake”  —  In a memo to top supporters, Hillary Clinton's top official sought to clarify the campaign's response to a new report from the State Department inspector general and move past a controversy that has dogged the candidate now for 15 months.

Hillary Clinton's Campaign Was Never Going to Be Easy.  But Did It Have to Get This Hard?  —  In a locker room at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut, people are waiting in line to get their pictures taken with Hillary Clinton before a rally in the school's gym.

Shady accounting underpins Trump's wealth  —  NEW YORK — Donald Trump claims a net worth of more than $10 billion and income of $557 million.  But he appears to get there only by over-valuing properties and ignoring his expenses.  —  POLITICO spoke with more than a dozen financial experts …

Donald Trump is a ‘vulgar, demented, pig demon’ says Hillary Clinton's ex adviser  —  Donald Trump is a ‘vulgar, demented, pig demon’ who only appeals to ‘emasculated’ middle-aged men, the former innovation adviser to Hillary Clinton has said.  —  Alec Ross, who was senior aide to Clinton during …

Sessions to GOP: Adapt to Trump or die  —  Sen. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, Donald Trump's friendly but fierce Alabama ally, has a message for Republicans still queasy about their party's nominee: Tide's about to roll over you.  —  Sessions, a 69-year-old former state attorney general …

New video footage of Harambe shows the 400-pound gorilla HOLDING HANDS with the boy who fell into the zoo enclosure as witnesses say the animal was ‘acting protectively’  — Harambe was fatally shot after a four-year-old boy crawled past the railing and fell 10ft into the gorilla exhibit moat, authorities said

The Seven Broken Guardrails of Democracy  —  A long time ago, more than 20 years in fact, the Wall Street Journal published a powerful, eloquent editorial, simply headlined: “No Guardrails.” … Twenty years later, that same newspaper is edging toward open advocacy in favor of Donald Trump …

The Untold Story Behind Saudi Arabia's 41-Year U.S. Debt Secret  —  Photographer: Dirck Halstead/Liaison via AP Photo  —  President Nixon walks with Saudi King Faisal in Saudi Arabia in June 1974.  —  Failure was not an option.  —  It was July 1974.  A steady predawn drizzle had given …

Police ID gunman in west Houston shooting spree as military vet  —  Paris Nichols saw the bare-chested man with a crew cut stride calmly up to his wife Sunday morning as she chatted with a longtime customer at their family-owned car wash off Memorial Drive.  He reached around her …

Clinton gives Trump the Mitt Romney treatment  —  He's too rich and out-of-touch to understand the problems facing average Americans.  He's hiding something in his tax returns.  He's a cold-blooded capitalist predator — and there's a recording to prove it.

Search Underway for Yamato Tanooka, 7, Who Was Left in Woods by Parents as Punishment  —  TOKYO — Rescuers were searching Monday for a young boy whose parents abandoned him in bear-inhabited woods as a form of punishment.  —  Police said Yamato Tanooka, 7, has been missing for two days on northern Hokkaido island.