Pompeo says State Dept. officials won't show up for scheduled impeachment depositions this week  —  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo fired a broadside at House Democrats on Tuesday, saying State Department officials scheduled to appear this week before committees conducting the impeachment inquiry …

Tense Relationship Between Barr and Giuliani Complicates Trump Impeachment Defense  —  The president's two highest-profile lawyers are struggling to get on the same page  —  WASHINGTON—Attorney General William Barr called President Trump in April with a question: What was Rudy Giuliani doing?

In leaked audio, Mark Zuckerberg rallies Facebook against critics and the US government  —  In two hours of leaked audio, Mark Zuckerberg rallies Facebook employees against critics, competitors, and the US government.  —  July should have been a relief for Facebook.

Trump Has Disqualified Himself From Running in 2020  —  The president's brazen attempt at cheating has taken “decide it at the ballot box” off the menu.  Impeachment is imperative.  —  “I think the American people are going to have a chance to decide this at the ballot box in November 2020 …

Barr Went to Rome to Hear a Secret Tape from Joseph Mifsud, the Professor Who Helped Ignite the Russia Probe  —  The Attorney General William Barr traveled to Italy to meet with Italian secret service agents—and, potentially, undermine the Mueller investigation.  —  Correspondent-At-Large

Current Findings  —  Results of Winthrop Poll released on October 1, 2019 with emphasis on 2020 SC Democratic Presidential Primary.  —  South Carolina Democratic voters strongly support Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee to become the 46th president, according to the latest Winthrop Poll.

US manufacturing survey shows worst reading in a decade  — The ISM U.S. manufacturing purchasing managers' index came in at 47.8% in September, the lowest since June 2009.  —  ISM Manufacturing slips to 47.8 in September, vs. 50.2 expected  —  A gauge of U.S. manufacturing showed …

Giuliani turns on ‘honest’ Ukrainian prosecutor who says Bidens did nothing illegal  —  Rudy Giuliani had nothing but praise for Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko — until he didn't.  —  WASHINGTON — For much of this year, Rudy Giuliani was counting on Ukraine's former chief prosecutor …

Grassley breaks with Trump over protecting whistleblower  —  As President Donald Trump and his allies attack the whistleblower that kicked off the House's impeachment inquiry, the still unidentified person gained a powerful ally on Tuesday: Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley.

Amber Guyger convicted of murder in wrong-apartment killing of innocent man  —  A Texas jury rejected former Dallas police officer Amber Guyer's self-defense claims and convicted her on Tuesday of murder in the fatal 2018 shooting of an innocent man eating ice cream in his own home after mistaking his apartment for her own.

This Is the Moment Rachel Maddow Has Been Waiting For  —  How the MSNBC host staked her show on Trump — and won the largest and most obsessive audience of her career.  —  Rachel Maddow was trying to get to work.  She only had to get from the glass door of her doctor's office …

Impeachment Support Up Slightly But Trump Job Rating Steady  —  Most say request for investigation of political foe is inappropriate  —  West Long Branch, NJ - President Donald Trump's approval rating has remained steady in the wake of an official impeachment inquiry launched last week …

White House ordered top-secret system upgraded to prevent leaks  —  The Trump White House upgraded the security of the National Security Council's top-secret codeword system in the spring of 2018, according to two former Trump White House officials familiar with the matter, as part of an effort to ferret out and deter leaks.

Intelligence Inspector General to GOP: You Know Nothing of My Work  —  Last Thursday, Sean Davis of the conservative news site The Federalist broke an explosive revelation.  The Intelligence Community had secretly changed a requirement in its whistle-blower statute to allow whistle-blowers …

Kamala Harris, Trailing Top Rivals, Raises $11.6 Million in Third Quarter  —  The California senator raised about half of her total funds from digital fund-raising, a campaign spokesman said.  —  Senator Kamala Harris of California has raised $11.6 million in the past three months …

Former Infowars Editor Says Staff Laughed When He Asked Not To Lie About Sandy Hook  —  In a court deposition, Rob Jacobson said he told Infowars staff to stop spreading lies about the Sandy Hook parents.  He says he was laughed at instead.  —  A 13-year veteran of conspiracy website Infowars …

Me and My Whistleblower  —  Deutsche Bank.  North Korea.  The Intelligence Committee's investigation of the president.  Again and again, one man has taken his trove of secret documents — and uncanny nose for scandal — to the center of the news.  —  One sunny Wednesday in February …

The GOP's Texas problem  —  The retirement of six House Republicans from Texas at the end of this term shows their pessimism about winning back the House majority in 2020, GOP strategists tell Axios — and foreshadows bigger Republican fears in the nation's second most populous state.

‘He conned us from day one’: Giuliani's Ukraine ally leaves trail of South Florida debts  —  Over the summer, Dianne and Michael Pues got an ominous phone call from the business partner of a Ukrainian-American entrepreneur who owes the couple more than $500,000 over a movie deal gone bad.

Judge to DOJ: Decide on charging Andrew McCabe by Nov. 15, or face release of FBI records  —  A veteran federal judge on Monday warned U.S. prosecutors either to charge former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe or to drop their investigation into whether he lied to investigators …

Another Devin Nunes lawsuit: Congressman sues magazine over story about family's Iowa farm  —  Rep. Devin Nunes filed another lawsuit this week drawing attention to what he believes was unfair news coverage of him in 2018, this time suing a magazine writer who detailed how the California congressman's family …

Brett Kavanaugh's Washington: A smaller, colder world for a justice under a cloud  —  On a warm fall night at La Ferme, a cozy French restaurant in Brett Kavanaugh's Chevy Chase neighborhood, an elderly woman shouted — something unintelligible but clearly angry and insulting — as the Supreme Court justice and his wife walked out.

Farm-state fury creates pressure for Trump as trade, energy pain collide  —  SIOUX CENTER, Iowa — On a typical day, about 80 tractor trailers full of corn line up to dump their loads at Siouxland Energy Cooperative, the ethanol plant just outside of town.  The air throbs with the noise …

How White Liberals Became Woke, Radically Changing Their Outlook On Race  —  Jeromy Brown, a 46-year-old teacher in Iowa, considers President Trump a white supremacist.  —  “If the shoe fits, then say it, and the shoe fits him,” Brown said, while waiting in a photo line at an Elizabeth Warren rally in August.

GOP defenses for Trump's Ukraine call quickly collapse under scrutiny  — Trump, his aides and select allies in Congress have feverishly sought to redirect a whistleblower's complaints toward Democratic adversaries.  — Yet even cursory scrutiny of evidence that has emerged so far knocks …

Tweets, threats and truth  —  It's easy to get lost in the flurry, but President Trump's threats and attacks against the impeachment inquiry are escalating.  —  Why it matters: It's indicative of a president who is feeling the squeeze as House Democrats move full steam ahead …

The FDA tried to ban flavors years before the vaping outbreak.  Top Obama officials rejected the plan  —  Unicorn Vomit.  Cotton Candy.  Gummy Bear.  Skittles.  —  Some teenagers who tried these playful vaping flavors thought they were just inhaling water vapor — not also nicotine …

What is Trump trying to cover up about his Saudi phone calls and Jamal Khashoggi's murder?  —  From the ridiculous — remember that insane photo op with the glowing orb, and President Trump's bizarre line dance with sword-wielding sheikhs? — to the covert, relations between the United States …

Mark Meadows and the Undisclosed Dinosaur Property  —  A fight among fossil hunters, a dubious documentary, and the conservative congressman from North Carolina.  —  Three years ago, the North Carolina congressman Mark Meadows sold a hundred-and-thirty-four-acre property in Dinosaur, Colorado.