AP source: 2nd US official heard Trump call with Sondland  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — A second U.S. embassy staffer in Kyiv overheard a key cellphone call between President Donald Trump and his ambassador to the European Union discussing the need for Ukrainian officials to pursue “investigations,” The Associated Press has learned.

Deval Patrick Announcement Video  —  In a spirit of profound gratitude for all the country has given to me, with a determination to build a better, more sustainable, more inclusive American Dream for everyone:  —  I am today announcing my candidacy for President of the United States.

At Least Three Victims in Shooting at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita  —  Students with arms raised were escorted by deputies from the school about 40 miles north of Los Angeles  —  There are at least three victims in a shooting Thursday morning at a high school in Santa Clarita, where the search continues for the shooter.

Scoop: Erdogan upends Oval meeting to play anti-Kurd film on iPad  —  An Oval Office meeting yesterday with Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took a dark turn when Erdoğan pulled out his iPad and made the group watch a propaganda video that depicted Kurds as terrorists …

Impeachment Is Not a Fair Fight, and on Day One It Showed  —  If it looked like House Republicans were throwing a lot of mud at the wall to see what might stick during the first day of public impeachment hearings, that's because they had settled into a strategy many defense attorneys adopt …

Five Cellphones, Trump Straws, a Lot of Cash—What This Giuliani Crony Was Carrying When the FBI Arrested Him  —  Lev Parnas also had the business card of a top Ukrainian anti-corruption prosecutor with whom Giuliani met this year.  —  BEAST INSIDE  —  When Rudy Giuliani crony Lev Parnas …

Trump lawyers poised to take tax returns fight to Supreme Court  —  The fight over access to President Donald Trump's tax returns is expected to reach the Supreme Court on Thursday via one of two fast-track requests the president plans in a last-ditch bid to keep his financial records secret …

Exclusive: Trump DC hotel sales pitch boasts of millions to be made from foreign governments  —  The hotel's biggest selling point though, according to a copy of the brochure seen by CNN, is the one thing that the Trump family insists it didn't take advantage of: profiting off foreign governments.

Bloomberg's Team Calls His Crude Remarks on Women ‘Wrong’  —  As Michael Bloomberg prepares a presidential run, his history of crude remarks is likely to draw scrutiny.  His team said some were “disrespectful.”  —  It was a cheeky birthday gift for a hard-charging boss …

Italian council is flooded immediately after rejecting measures on climate change  —  (CNN)Veneto regional council, which is located on Venice's Grand Canal, was flooded for the first time in its history on Tuesday night — just after it rejected measures to combat climate change.

Facebook fetes Kavanaugh  —  Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has kept a relatively low-profile since the Senate narrowly confirmed him last year amidst serious allegations of sexual assault.  That will change tonight when Kavanaugh is the keynote speaker at the annual convention …

Nixon WH Lawyer John Dean: First Day of Trump Hearings Yielded More Damning Testimony Than All of Watergate  —  Former Nixon White House counsel John Dean characterized the first day of public impeachment testimony against President Donald Trump as both thorough and damning, saying House Democrats …

RNC plunges into Louisiana gov's race amid signs of trouble  —  The Republican National Committee is pouring another $1 million into the Louisiana governor's race ahead of Saturday's runoff — a move that comes amid mounting GOP concerns about losing a second major election in a conservative state in as many weeks.

A Trump Tax Break To Help The Poor Went To a Rich GOP Donor's Superyacht Marina  —  Wealthy donors Wayne Huizenga Jr. and Jeff Vinik lobbied then-Gov. Rick Scott for the lucrative tax break — and won it.  Poorer communities lost out. … The Rybovich superyacht marina lies on the West Palm Beach …

Trump's Best Defense on Impeachment Undermines His Case for Re-Election  —  Insubordinate bureaucrats may save him from being removed from office, but they also show him to be a weak president.  —  The best defense of President Donald Trump on the first day of the House's public impeachment hearings came …

AP-NORC/USA Facts poll: Americans struggle to ID true facts  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — In a sharply divided country, here's something many Americans agree on: It's hard to know what's a true and honest fact.  —  A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research …

One of the defenses of Trump is — literally — a TV-cartoon joke  —  A former ‘Simpsons’ writer on the ‘Sideshow Bob defense.’ … — Sideshow Bob, “The Simpsons,” Season Six, Episode Five, 1994  —  This rhetorical absurdity, originally intended as joke on a TV cartoon, is now being trotted out in all seriousness by the GOP.

POLITICO Playbook: What Democrats and Republicans are telling us about Wednesday's impeachment show  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  DAY ONE IS OVER, and it's hard to encapsulate six hours of hearings in a single headline.  We spent the evening in the Capitol chatting up lawmakers, aides and reporters …

Why Obama-Trump swing voters like heavy metal  —  Americans' musical tastes mirror their political divides  —  One reason America has become so polarised is that its two big parties are increasingly seen to represent tribes as well as policies.  One study by Lilliana Mason of the University …