In a West Wing in Transition, Trump Tries to Stand Firm on the Shutdown  —  WASHINGTON — President Trump has insisted that he is not going to compromise with Democrats to end the government shutdown, and that he is comfortable in his unbendable position.  But privately, it's sometimes a different story.

Giuliani: ‘I never said there was no collusion’ between the Trump campaign and Russia  —  President Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, said Wednesday that he “never said there was no collusion” between the Trump campaign and Russia.  —  “I never said there was no collusion between the campaign.

‘She wields the knife’: Pelosi moves to belittle and undercut Trump in shutdown fight  —  House Democrats on Wednesday were making plans to undermine President Trump at his Jan. 29 “State of the Union” address.  Just past 8:30 a.m., the leadership's communications arm sent an email …

‘#WheresMitch?’:  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other freshman Democrats are moving blame for the shutdown from Trump to Mitch McConnell  — Freshman House Democrats marched through the halls of Congress on Wednesday to deliver a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, demanding that he hold a vote to reopen the government.

Top HUD official's departure follows disagreements over housing policy and Puerto Rico disaster funds  —  A top Department of Housing and Urban Development official is leaving the agency Thursday following disagreements with other members of the Trump administration over housing policy …

BREAKING: Cumming man threatened to attack White House, authorities say  —  Federal authorities on Wednesday announced a terrorist case against a metro Atlanta resident accused of plotting to destroy the White House and other Washington D.C. government buildings.

EXCLUSIVE: In Closed-Door Testimony, Papadopoulos Identified Alleged Spy in Trump Campaign  —  Former Trump campaign adviser also told lawmakers FBI asked him to wear a wire to record Maltese professor in London  —  George Papadopoulos, the former foreign policy adviser …

Rick Gates Tells Mueller About Trump Team's Dealings With Israeli Intelligence Firm  —  Psy Group delivered plans for ‘social media manipulation’ in 2016 and the special counsel is digging in as part of his probe into Mideast influence.  —  Rick Gates, the former campaign aide to Donald Trump …

FISA shocker: DOJ official warned Steele dossier was connected to Clinton, might be biased  —  When the annals of mistakes and abuses in the FBI's Russia investigation are finally written, Bruce Ohr almost certainly will be the No. 1 witness, according to my sources.

GOP Congressmen Meet With Holocaust-Denying Troll Chuck Johnson  —  The two Republican lawmakers say they didn't know about the alt-right troll's past.  —  Notorious alt-right figure and Holocaust denier Chuck Johnson met with two Republican lawmakers in Congress on Wednesday.

Will We Ever See Mueller's Report on Trump?  Maybe.  —  WASHINGTON — The swirl of speculation surrounding the Russia investigation often assumes that the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, will release a report of his findings that will serve as the definitive explanation …

Most Personality Quizzes Are Junk Science.  Take One That Isn't.  —  Compare your results to those of your friends and family.  —  What's your personality, and what can it tell you about your true self?  Those questions have launched a thousand online personality quizzes.

A lot of big trucks rolling down Pancake Blvd and there aren't any sidewalks.  Gloomy early morning sky in Liberal Kansas.  Snow melt on the side of the road where I'm running.  I find a vacant lot to cut through to another street, also busy and without sidewalks.

Russian security chief warns Ukraine could lose statehood  —  “The Kiev authorities are doing everything to split Ukraine, implementing the West's scenario to break Ukraine away from Russia, while ignoring the interests of its own people,” said Nikolai Patrushev  —  /TASS/.

Senate Democrats fail to stop Trump administration from lifting sanctions on firms linked to Putin friend  — Senate Democrats come up short in a vote to stop the Trump administration from easing sanctions on companies linked to Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire with ties to Russia's president, Vladimir Putin.

North Korean spy chief's visit to Washington shrouded in mystery  —  On Thursday night, North Korea's spy chief will arrive in Washington for his planned meetings with President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, according to South Korean news reports and administration sources.

Federal agency ‘improperly’ ignored constitutional concerns before allowing Trump to keep lease to his hotel, internal watchdog says  —  The General Services Administration “ignored” concerns that President Trump's lease on a government-owned building — the one that houses his Trump International Hotel …

White House Redefines Who Is Essential to Get Parts of Government Moving Again  —  WASHINGTON — As the government shutdown stretches into its fourth week, the Trump administration is reinterpreting longstanding rules to open the federal government piece by piece, forcing thousands of workers …

The Shutdown Is Hurting Trump's Approval Rating.  But Will It Hurt Him in 2020?  —  The partial government shutdown is beginning to drag on President Trump's approval rating, which is at its lowest point in months.  As of early Wednesday evening, his approval rating was 40.2 percent …

Have Aliens Found Us?  A Harvard Astronomer on the Mysterious Interstellar Object 'Oumuamua  —  On October 19, 2017, astronomers at the University of Hawaii spotted a strange object travelling through our solar system, which they later described as “a red and extremely elongated asteroid.”

A Lawsuit Claims Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Retaliated Against A Staffer Who Planned To Sue The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Over An Alleged Rape  —  The woman, identified by a pseudonym, claimed in a lawsuit that she was raped by a former employee of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation.

John Bogle, who founded Vanguard and revolutionized retirement savings, dies at 89.  —  John C. Bogle, 89, who revolutionized the way Americans save for the future, championed the interests of the small investor, and railed against corporate greed and the excesses of Wall Street …

Removing Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior from Russia  —  Today we removed multiple Pages, groups and accounts that engaged in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram.  The two operations we found originated in Russia, and one was active in a variety of countries while the other was specific to Ukraine.

57 percent of voters say they won't support Trump in 2020  —  With the 2020 presidential election already underway, 57 percent of registered voters said they would definitely vote against President Donald Trump, according to the latest poll from the PBS NewsHour, NPR and Marist.

Liberals are reading way too much into Trump news stories  —  Every now and then, as I read supposedly hot news stories and the social media reaction to them, I feel ­myself growing a white goatee and having my white hair curl up on the sides of my head as I turn into Mugatu …

There's Nothing Wrong With Open Borders  —  Why a brave Democrat should make the case for vastly expanding immigration.  —  The internet expands the bounds of acceptable discourse, so ideas considered out of bounds not long ago now rocket toward widespread acceptability.