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7:00 PM ET, July 31, 2025

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 Top Items: 
The White House:
The White House Announces White House Ballroom Construction to Begin  —  Washington, D.C. — For 150 years, Presidents, Administrations, and White House Staff have longed for a large event space on the White House complex that can hold substantially more guests than currently allowed.
RELATED:
Zolan Kanno-Youngs / New York Times:
White House Unveils $200 Million Plan for Enormous Ballroom Long Sought by Trump  —  Officials said a 90,000-square-foot addition to the East Wing would be paid for by President Trump and other donors.  —  The Trump administration announced plans on Thursday for a major renovation …
Brett Samuels / The Hill:
Karoline Leavitt details $200M ballroom plans at White House
Discussion: Axios, Bloomberg and ABC News
Matt Stieb / New York Magazine:
Alan Dershowitz Takes on His Greatest Challenge Yet: A Farmers' Market  —  It was an unusually warm day on Martha's Vineyard on Wednesday, and Alan Dershowitz just wanted to enjoy some hot dumplings.  —  As he tells it, Dershowitz, the 86-year-old attorney for some of America's …
Bolts:
A New Cycle of Texas Gerrymandering: Your Questions Answered  —  A redistricting expert answers questions from Bolts readers about the effort to redraw Texas' congressional map, and its effects on communities of color and political representation.  —  The Texas legislature began meeting …
RELATED:
Alex Shephard / New Republic:
Everybody Hates Trump Now
Discussion: Raw Story
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:
Trump extends Mexico's 25% tariffs for 90 days as talks continue … President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would not raise U.S. tariffs on Mexican goods beyond their current levels for 90 days, in order to give the neighboring countries time to strike a trade deal.
RELATED:
Reuters:
Trump escalates trade war with Canada following Palestine stance
Ashleigh Fields / The Hill:
Axelrod: Harris ‘setting herself up’ for 2028 presidential run  —  Democratic strategist David Axelrod on Wednesday said former Vice President Kamala Harris appears to be preparing for another White House bid after last year's November loss, following her announcement that she will not run for California governor.
RELATED:
Barnini Chakraborty / Washington Examiner:
Kamala Harris announces new memoir 107 Days that details ‘drama’ of White House run
Ashleigh Fields / The Hill:
Harris to give Colbert her first interview since 2024 election
Politico:
Trump's tariffs get frosty reception at federal appeals court … Judge Timothy Dyk, a Clinton appointee, said “it was hard for me to see” that Congress intended to give the president the authority to essentially rewrite the entire U.S. code when it passed the legislation.
Michelle L. Price / Associated Press:
Trump plans to revive the Presidential Fitness Test for American schoolchildren  —  President Donald Trump on Thursday plans to reestablish the Presidential Fitness Test for American schoolchildren, a program created in 1966 to help interest young people in following healthy, active lifestyles.
RELATED:
CNN:
Trump set to revive the Presidential Fitness Test while hosting professional athletes at White House
Reuters:
Trump's war on Big Law leads firms to retreat from ‘pro bono’ work for underdogs  —  Interviews with over 60 lawyers and 30 nonprofits show legal aid groups now have fewer resources to defend the vulnerable.  —  When the Texas Civil Rights Project needed lawyers to help dozens …
Discussion: Reason, New Republic and Above the Law
Washington Post:
‘Welcome to hell’: Inside the megaprison where the U.S. deported migrants  —  Interviews with 16 former detainees of El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center offer the most complete view yet of conditions at the notorious prison.  —  One detainee was beaten unconscious.
Rebecca Robbins / New York Times:
Trump Demands That Drugmakers Lower Some of Their U.S. Prices by September  —  The administration has not put forward a clear legal authority to compel drugmakers to reduce their prices.  —  President Trump on Thursday sent letters to 17 of the world's biggest drugmakers demanding …
RELATED:
ProPublica:
“We'll Smash the Fucking Window Out and Drag Him Out”  —  This story contains videos and descriptions of violent arrests.  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.
Discussion: ABC News and Raw Story
Sarah Fitzpatrick / The Atlantic:
Virginia Giuffre's Family Was Shocked That Trump Described Her as ‘Stolen’  —  The siblings of one of Jeffrey Epstein's most prominent accusers wonder what the president knows.  —  When Donald Trump told reporters yesterday that Jeffrey Epstein “stole” a young woman named Virginia Roberts Giuffre …
Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Justice Brett Kavanaugh is probably reading this … Kavanaugh also made clear he closely follows press coverage, podcasts and social media posts about the Supreme Court, what he described as “an ocean of criticism and critiques out there.”  —  “I'm aware of it.  I definitely pay attention to it.
Discussion: Newsweek
RELATED:
Adam Liptak / New York Times:
Kavanaugh Defends Supreme Court's Terse Emergency Orders
Discussion: NBC News, Reason and CBS News
Lindsey Holden / Politico:
Blue-state Democrats want immigration agents to show their faces … “People wearing ski masks are grabbing people, throwing them into unmarked cars and sending them to Alligator Alcatraz or El Salvador or Libya,” said California state Sen. Scott Wiener, who authored a bill to ban certain kinds of face coverings for law enforcement.
Devlin Barrett / New York Times:
Unnoticed Whistle-Blower Document Alarms Justice Department Veterans  —  A complaint concerning a top Justice Department official, Emil Bove III, went unnoticed for more than two months, raising worries that an internal watchdog has gone dormant.  —  The Justice Department's internal watchdog lost …
Nicole Narea / Vox:
The Columbia deal with Trump is a blueprint.  All of higher ed should fear what comes next.  —  One by one, elite universities are signing away some of their autonomy to the Trump administration after it has accused them of civil rights violations and withheld federal funding.
Michael Daly / The Daily Beast:
How Epstein and Maxwell Used Trump's Fame to Groom 13-Year-Old Girl  —  USERS AND ABUSERS  —  “Jane” revealed how the pair used Trump's name and a meeting with him as part of their twisted plan.  —  The first victim to testify in Ghislaine Maxwell's 2021 sex trafficking trial told the jury …
Discussion: Raw Story
Janay Kingsberry / Washington Post:
Smithsonian removes Trump from impeachment exhibit in American History Museum  —  The Smithsonian said it restored the display to an earlier version, which notes that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal.”  —  The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History …
Rolling Stone:
Senators Could Vote Imminently to Remove Their Homes, Travel Info From Internet  —  Watchdogs argue the legislation would block reporters from doing their jobs and limit efforts to hold lawmakers accountable  —  Senators could vote on a bill as soon as Thursday to allow members of Congress …
Glenn Kessler / Washington Post:
The Fact Checker rose in an era of false claims.  Falsehoods are now winning.  —  Longtime Fact Checker Glenn Kessler takes stock as he departs The Washington Post.  —  Just now  —  When 400 fact-checkers from around the world gathered in Rio de Janeiro in June for an annual conference, the mood was tense.
Discussion: Newsbusters, Raw Story and NPR
Adam Wren / Politico:
The shockingly shrunken footprint of a former president … Now, he's on the other side of the mountain.  And his life has entered a new phase that is quieter and smaller.  —  He's staffed by only one or two aides and a small Secret Service detail.  He holes up for hours at a time in Delaware working …
Jennifer Bendery / HuffPost:
Republicans Put Conspiracy Theorist With Far-Right Ties In Top Counterterrorism Job  —  Joe Kent has pushed white nationalist views and fanned conspiracies about the 2020 election being “stolen” and the FBI planning the Jan. 6 insurrection.  —  WASHINGTON ― You can't make it up, folks.
William Kristol / The Bulwark:
The Only MAGA That Counts Is Trump's  —  Earlier this week, we were nonplussed and repulsed at Donald Trump's bizarre description of how Jeffrey Epstein had abused girls he first met in the spa at Mar-a-Lago: Epstein “stole people that worked for me,” Trump said.
Media Matters for America:
Fox News since Monday: 85 minutes talking about Sydney Sweeney, 3 minutes talking about Epstein  —  RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM TYLER MONROE & SAGE HODIL … Fox's focus on Sweeney over Epstein is a notable departure from the stories that other cable news networks have found to be newsworthy this week …
Discussion: HotAir, The Wrap, The Independent and Salon
Chuck Grassley:
Newly Declassified Appendix To Durham Report Sheds Additional Light On Clinton Campaign Plan To Falsely Tie Trump To Russia And FBI's Failure To Investigate  —  WASHINGTON - Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) today is making public the formerly Classified Appendix …
Alan Feuer / New York Times:
Legal Watchdog Files Bar Complaints Against Justice Dept. Lawyers  —  The move represented a rare attempt to seek accountability for rank-and-file lawyers who have represented the Trump administration in court.  —  A legal watchdog group accused three career Justice Department lawyers …
Washington Post:
The federal government is paying more than 154,000 people not to work  —  Early resignation offers and other programs have reduced the workforce, but critics say the moves are also wasting money.  —  Just now  —  The government is paying more than 154,000 federal employees not to work …
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Trump regulatory czar Jeffrey Clark should be disbarred for role in 2020 election plot, disciplinary board rules … “The fight continues,” Clark said in a series of posts on X, shortly after the decision.  —  The D.C. Bar's Board of Professional Responsibility said its ruling was based …
STAT:
STAT+: Senate committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration's proposed 40% cut  —  WASHINGTON — Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million increase to the budget of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday, in an Appropriations Committee vote that represents …
Caitlin Gibson / Washington Post:
Ms. Rachel grew up on Mister Rogers.  Now she's carrying on his legacy. … NEW YORK  —  Many years ago, in a gray wooden house in Maine, there was a little girl who loved to curl up on the living room couch and watch “Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.”  When each episode wound down …
Politico:
Criminal defendant challenging Alina Habba's appointment takes a page from Aileen Cannon's playbook … “As Judge Cannon explained in Trump, when executive officials deliberately engineer an appointment in violation of statutory and constitutional mandates, the only effective remedy is dismissal or …
Discussion: Raw Story
 
 
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 More Items: 
Will Sommer / The Bulwark:
Candace Owens Is in Some REAL Trouble
Discussion: Raw Story
Stephanie Taube / Free Law Project Blog:
Oral Argument Transcripts are Now on CourtListener!
Noah Lanard / Mother Jones:
How a Nazi-Obsessed Amateur Historian Went From Obscurity to the Top of Substack
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
The Boy Genius Who Killed 14 Million Poor People
Discussion: Statecraft
United States Department of State:
Sanctioning Officials of the Palestinian Authority and Members of the Palestine Liberation Organization
Washington Post:
The Post exposed this farmer's struggle. Then the USDA called.
Discussion: Grist
 Earlier Items: 
Colin Wright / Wall Street Journal:
Cornell University Discriminated Against Me
Discussion: Fox News
Alanna Vagianos / HuffPost:
What Happens To The Women ICE Detains?
Paul Krugman:
The Media Can't Handle the Absence of Truth
Ross Andersen / The Atlantic:
How Scientific Empires End
Discussion: E&E News
 

 
From Techmeme:

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta is considering deep budget cuts to its metaverse efforts in 2026, potentially as high as 30% and most likely including layoffs as early as January

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple says general counsel Kate Adams and policy chief Lisa Jackson will retire, and Jennifer Newstead, Meta's former chief legal officer, will replace Adams

Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Two studies suggest AI chatbots can shift political views more effectively than TV campaign ads, especially by presenting many claims, regardless of accuracy

 
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