Sarah Sanders, Raj Shah planning to depart the White House  —  Two of the most visible members of the Trump administration are planning their departures, the latest sign of upheaval in a White House marked by turmoil.  —  Press secretary Sarah Sanders and principal deputy press secretary Raj Shah …

Comey Broke From FBI Procedures in Clinton Probe, Watchdog Finds  — Inspector general probed an array of FBI, Justice decisions  — The findings may give Trump fresh grounds for criticism  —  Former FBI Director James Comey “deviated” from FBI and Justice Department procedures …

Wolf Blitzer: ‘We Are Not the Enemy of the American People, We love the American People’  —  'Everybody's always criticizing us'  —  CNN host Wolf Blitzer said on behalf of the media “we love the American people” on Wednesday in response to President Donald Trump's latest broadside against the profession.

Republicans embrace the ‘cult’ of Trump, ignoring warning signs  —  Fiercely and undeniably, the Republican Party this week confirmed its rebranding as the party of Trump.  —  Buoyed by a late Tuesday presidential tweet, voters in South Carolina cast out Rep. Mark Sanford …

How to Lose the Midterms and Re-elect Trump  —  Dear Robert De Niro, Samantha Bee and other Trump haters:  —  I get that you're angry.  I'm angry, too.  But anger isn't a strategy.  Sometimes it's a trap.  When you find yourself spewing four-letter words, you've fallen into it.

Inside Casa Padre, the converted Walmart where the U.S. is holding nearly 1,500 immigrant children  —  BROWNSVILLE, Tex. — For more than a year, the old Walmart along the Mexican border here has been a mystery to those driving by on the highway.  In place of the supercenter's trademark logo hangs a curious sign: “Casa Padre.”

New York files suit against President Trump, alleging his charity engaged in ‘illegal conduct’  —  The New York attorney general on Thursday filed suit against President Trump and his three eldest children alleging “persistently illegal conduct” at the president's personal charity …

Higgins says he will no longer back ‘misguided’ Pelosi  —  WASHINGTON - Rep. Brian Higgins of Buffalo said Wednesday that he will not back House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California for another term as the top Democrat in the House.  —  “I will not support her,” Higgins said in an interview with The Buffalo News.

It's All Too Much, and We Still Have to Care  —  As a purely descriptive matter, it's surely true: We are all going numb.  As Donald Trump makes war with Canada and peace with dictators and human rights abusers, the narrative is that everyone's lost all feeling.

Airline says ‘vortex’ sent plane into terrifying nosedive  —  Passengers have described the terrifying moment a vortex sent their Qantas flight into a 10-second “nosedive.”  —  Hundreds of horrified travelers held hands ­believing they were about to die as the aircraft suddenly dropped over the Pacific Ocean on Sunday.

Rep. Steve King Won't Answer Questions About His Neo-Nazi Retweets  —  The Iowa Republican has been endorsing tweets from a guy who rants about Jews and the fall of Western civilization.  —  WASHINGTON Congressman Steve King is normally one of the more talkative members of the House of Representatives …

Pressure on Michael Cohen intensifies as Mueller stays focused on the Trump attorney  —  Michael Cohen, President Trump's personal attorney, is facing mounting pressure from two active federal investigations, contending with skyrocketing legal bills and planning to change lawyers in the near future …

Franklin Graham Blasts Trump's Immigrant Family Separations At Border  —  “It's disgraceful, and it's terrible to see families ripped apart and I don't support that one bit,” the evangelist said.  —  Evangelist Franklin Graham, a staunch backer of President Donald Trump …

Stephen Bannon Buys Into Bitcoin  —  WASHINGTON — Stephen K. Bannon, 10 months removed from the job of chief strategist to President Trump and five months after his ouster from the arch-conservative news site Breitbart News, is betting that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies can disrupt banking …

After years of growth, the use of social media for news is falling across the world  —  But messaging apps are picking up the slack, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism finds in its 2018 Digital News Report.  —  People are becoming disenchanted with Facebook for news.

Scanning immigrants' old fingerprints, U.S. threatens to strip thousands of citizenship  —  The Trump administration is analyzing decades-old fingerprints in an unprecedented effort to rescind American citizenship from immigrants who may have lied or falsified information on their naturalization forms.

Scott Pruitt Should Go  —  When President Donald Trump nominated Scott Pruitt for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, he looked like he would be a bright spot for the administration: a smart and tough advocate for deregulation and the rule of law.

The Daily 202: GOP senator urges love for LGBT youths in Pride Month speech  —  THE BIG IDEA: Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), a socially conservative 84-year-old Mormon, was long one of the most outspoken critics of gay people in Congress.  —  In 1977, as a freshman, Hatch said gay people …

Will Trump's View of the World Outlast His Presidency?  —  In his sledgehammer assault against the cornerstone institutions of the Western alliance, Donald Trump is replaying one of the defining confrontations in the Republican Party's history.  Only this time, the outcome is being reversed …

My Mom's Suicide Was Preventable  —  The deaths of Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain remind us that there is help.  —  I didn't know Kate Spade or Anthony Bourdain but saw familiar threads in their suicides, as my mother took her own life at age 51.  —  Spade had spoken to her father the night …

It's a really big deal that SF elected London Breed as mayor  —  For a week, San Francisco political insiders huddled every afternoon in the bland basement of City Hall to get the latest vote counts in the mayor's race, crunch data and make colorful precinct maps showing who was winning where.

What Went Wrong for Villaraigosa: A California Stalwart Ponders His Loss for Governor  —  The former Los Angeles mayor said wealthy voters rejected his message — and working class voters failed to turn out.  —  LOS ANGELES — Antonio R. Villaraigosa was the high-riding mayor of this city for eight years.

UK to loosen immigration rules to allow more skilled workers: report  —  U.K. Home Secretary Sajid Javid is seeking to soften Britain's rules to attract more skilled migrants into the country before Brexit, the Telegraph reported Wednesday.  —  Javid is expected to announce on Friday …