Amid renewed scrutiny, Erik Prince to host fundraiser for Russia-friendly congressman  —  (CNN)Blackwater founder Erik Prince will host a fundraiser this month for Russia-friendly Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, as Prince faces new questions over a 2017 meeting currently being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller.

If You Truly Care About Speech, You Will Invite Me to Your Office to Personally Call You a Dipshit  —  Civil society requires the toleration of the expression of opposing viewpoints, no matter how personally discomforting you may find them.  Therefore, it would be profoundly hypocritical …

Exclusive polls: Big warning signs for Senate Democrats  —  Five Senate Democrats would lose to a Republican candidate if the election were held today and three have approval ratings under 50%, according to new Axios/SurveyMonkey polls.  —  Keep reading  —  352 WORDS

Miss Universe in Moscow: How Trump's beauty contest spawned a business deal with Russians and a bond with Putin  —  This is the first of two excerpts adapted from  —  Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin's War on America and the Election of Donald Trump (Twelve Books), by Michael Isikoff …

Trump upset with Sanders over Stormy Daniels response  —  Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump is upset with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders over her responses Wednesday regarding his alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, a source close to the White House tells CNN.

The Grim Conclusions of the Largest-Ever Study of Fake News  —  “Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it,” Jonathan Swift once wrote.  —  It was hyperbole three centuries ago.  But it is a factual description of social media, according to an ambitious and first-of-its-kind study published Thursday in Science.

This Anti-Semitic Term Was Casually Used During A White House Briefing  —  Its use came a day after it was used to describe a Jewish White House official, sparking concern on social media.  —  There's perhaps never a bad time to stretch or rethink one's vocabulary.

Russian Trolls Tried to Torpedo Mitt Romney's Shot at Secretary of State  —  Online campaign targeted the ex-GOP nominee as Donald Trump considered him in late 2016  —  Weeks after Donald Trump was elected president, Russia-backed online “trolls” flooded social media to try to block Mitt Romney …

A team asked Derrius Guice if he likes men  —  The calendar says 2018.  Some NFL locker rooms remain trapped in 1960.  —  Running back Derrius Guice said in a Wednesday night appearance on SiriusXM NFL Radio that a team asked him at the Scouting Combine if he likes men.

Russians released anti-Clinton video game weeks before election  —  Russians created an anti-Hillary Clinton video game called “Hilltendo” and tried to make it go viral in the weeks before the 2016 U.S. presidential election, CNN has determined through a review of internet records and computer code.

Women We Overlooked in 167 Years of New York Times Obituaries  —  The poet Sylvia Plath and the novelist Charlotte Brontë.  Ida B. Wells, the anti-lynching activist.  These extraordinary women — and so many others — did not have obituaries in The New York Times.  Until now.

House 2018: 26 Ratings Changes, All in Favor of Democrats  —  PA-18 special now a Toss-up; Democratic incumbents in strong position; and what about Paul Ryan?  —  KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE  — With less than a week to go, the PA-18 special election moves from Leans Republican to Toss-up.

Now we know why defense attorneys quit the USS Cole case.  They found a microphone.  —  Lawyers for the alleged USS Cole bombing mastermind quit the capital case after discovering a microphone in their special client meeting room and were denied the opportunity to either talk about or investigate it, the Miami Herald has learned.

Kushner Meets With Mexican President, Underscoring Shift in U.S. Diplomacy  —  MEXICO CITY — Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, met with Mexico's president on Wednesday, arriving just weeks after a planned meeting between the nations' leaders fell apart …

Several White House staffers terminated or reassigned for security clearance issues: Sources  —  Several White House staffers have been terminated or reassigned for issues related to their security clearances — with at least one individual employed in the Office of the First Lady relieved of duty …

Exclusive: Snap Plans Biggest Round of Layoffs Yet Totaling 120 Engineers  —  Snap Inc. is preparing its largest round of layoffs to date, Cheddar has learned.  —  The Snapchat-maker plans to announce the cuts internally in the next couple days, according to people familiar with the matter …

Huffman High School shooting: Courtlin Arrington killed; Birmingham police question injured teen  —  A Huffman High School senior was killed and another injured when gunfire erupted inside a classroom at the east Birmingham school Wednesday afternoon.  —  Killed was a 17-year-old girl …

House Republicans effectively kill anti-child marriage bill, cite possible case against gay marriage  —  Donna Pollard describes getting married at 16 to a 29-year-old man who was her counselor.  She is behind Senate Bill 48 to raise the legal age of marriage in Kentucky to 18 years old.

Poisoned Russian spy Sergei Skripal was close to consultant who was linked to the Trump dossier  —  A security consultant who has worked for the company that compiled the controversial dossier on Donald Trump was close to the Russian double agent poisoned last weekend, it has been claimed.

Macroeconomic effects of the 2017 tax reform  —  DOWNLOAD  —  Editor's Note:  —  This paper is part of the Spring 2018 edition of the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, the leading conference series and journal in economics for timely, cutting-edge research about real-world policy issues.

Eleven nations - but not U.S. - to sign Trans-Pacific trade deal  —  SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Eleven countries are expected to sign a landmark Asia-Pacific trade agreement in Santiago on Thursday as an antidote to the increasingly protectionist bent of the United States, which pulled out of the pact last year.

Trump's video game violence panel features police trainer who says lethal force leads to ‘the best sex’  —  President Donald Trump is hosting a discussion on violence in video games on Thursday — and it features a controversial police trainer who encourages cops to be more willing to use lethal force.

Kamala Harris On Immigration: Sessions Wants To Roll Back The Clock, “California Represents The Future”  —  Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) appeared on MSNBC's All In with host Chris Hayes Wednesday night to discuss Attorney General Jeff Sessions' speech on California ignoring the nation's immigration laws and likening it to nullification.

David Chase Revives ‘The Sopranos’ With New Line Prequel Movie ‘The Many Saints Of Newark’  —  EXCLUSIVE: David Chase is finally ready to return to the New Jersey turf of his iconic creation The Sopranos.  New Line has purchased the screenplay The Many Saints of Newark …

Dems: Uranium One informant provided ‘no evidence’ of Clinton ‘quid pro quo’  —  A confidential informant billed by House Republicans as having “explosive” information about the 2010 Uranium One deal approved during Hillary Clinton  —  's tenure as secretary of State provided …

Trump Tweet on China Trade Understates U.S. Demand — by $99 Billion  —  President asked Beijing to cut U.S. trade deficit with China by $1 billion—less than 0.3% of the countries' annual trade gap  —  BEIJING—President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that Washington had asked Beijing …

Why a white town paid for a class called ‘Hispanics 101’ … BRANSON, Mo. — In a ballroom with antlers on the wall and hoof prints on the carpet, diversity coach Miguel Joey Aviles asked whether anyone knew how to merengue.  —  “Lord have mercy,” he said, counting hands.  “Only two?”

Criminal Investigation Sought into Sanders Campaign for Collusion During a Federal Election With a Foreign Entity  —  Charges Raised Against Sanders Campaign Are Similar to Charges in “Russian Collusion” Scandal  —  Former Speaker of the NH House of Representatives William O'Brien is Also Asking for an Investigation*

Judge in Virginia schedules Manafort trial on bank, tax charges for July 10  —  A judge in Virginia on Thursday set a July 10 trial date for former Donald Trump aide Paul Manafort on charges including bank and tax fraud.  —  A judge in Washington had previously set a trial date for Sept. 17 …

Senate Claims to Fix Its Wall Street Bill, but a Look at the Text Says It's Still a Giveaway  —  Earlier this week, the Senate got 50 Republicans, 16 Democrats, and one Democratic-leaning independent to move forward on S.2155, the bipartisan bank deregulation bill.