Furious Trump's Firing of Fed's Lisa Cook May Be About to Backfire  —  To execute his authoritarian takeover, President Donald Trump requires the devoted service of willing accomplices.  He needs loyalists in strategic positions who will bend or break the law to carry out his designs …

DOGE Put Critical Social Security Data at Risk, Whistle-Blower Says  —  DOGE team members uploaded a database with the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans to a vulnerable cloud server, according to the agency's chief data officer.  —  Members of the Department …

Trump Is Leaning in on Crime.  Democrats Need a Better Response — and Fast. … To many Washington insiders, President Trump's early August Beltway crime crackdown seemed like an opportunistic and hamhanded pivot after getting walloped for weeks over the Jeffrey Epstein affair.

She Pushed to Overturn Trump's Loss in the 2020 Election.  Now She'll Help Oversee U.S. Election Security.  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  Heather Honey, a high-profile denier …

Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Maryland-based judges over handling of immigration cases  —  The Trump administration alleged that the court had no authority to issue a standing order that imposes an automatic, two-day pause in deportation cases.  —  WASHINGTON — A federal judge …

‘The most illegal search’: Judges push back against D.C. criminal charges  —  Veteran defense lawyers and law enforcement experts have been warning about the potential for overreach since the federal government muscled its way into policing decisions in the nation's capital nearly three weeks ago.

Republican Told to Take His 'Head Out of Trump's A**' in Town Hall Trainwreck  —  MIC DROP  —  Other constituents complained about the president's support for Russia and booed his mass-deportation policy.  —  Voters at a town hall meeting in Missouri demanded that their Republican congressman …

Donald Trump's Big Gay Government … The Washington Monument as seen from the Ned, a private club where many Trump officials socialize.Caroline Gutman for The New York Times  —  It was the last Wednesday in July, and many of Washington's top players were hanging out at the Ned, a private club around the corner from the White House.

Trump to put Dan Scavino in charge of hiring at White House … Gor endeared himself to the president and his family for adopting a zero tolerance policy toward job-seekers who had been critical of Trump in the past, often scouring their social media posts and occasionally intervening to block hirings.

Vanity Fair staff erupt in fury over proposed Melania Trump cover with foul-mouthed meltdown  —  Raging Vanity Fair employees have vowed to quit their jobs and work at a supermarket if First Lady Melania Trump is granted a spot on its cover.  —  'I will walk out the motherf***ing door …

America's leading physician groups are now openly defying RFK Jr.  —  For decades, the American public, the federal government, and the medical community have been nearly unanimous: Vaccines are important because they save lives.  Today, after years of escalating attacks, that consensus has irrevocably shattered.

Jack Smith's Legal Team Fires Back Against Ethics Complaint  —  For months, the former special counsel has remained silent as the president and his advisers have publicly attacked him.  —  Lawyers for Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Donald J. Trump …

Trump Pentagon weighing equity stakes in defense contractors like Lockheed, says Lutnick … Top officials at the Pentagon are “thinking about” whether the U.S. should acquire equity stakes in leading defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday.

A Teen Was Suicidal.  ChatGPT Was the Friend He Confided In. … A photograph of Adam Raine taken not long before his death.  His baby blanket, which his mother found in his bed, hangs over a corner.  Mark Abramson for The New York Times  —  When Adam Raine died in April at age 16, some of his friends did not initially believe it.

Exxon Held Secret Talks With Rosneft About Going Back to Russia  —  Resuming business in Russia would mark a dramatic rapprochement after Exxon's messy breakup with Moscow when Putin attacked Ukraine in 2022  —  After huddling with President Trump in Alaska, President Vladimir Putin told reporters Russia …

Trump's Unconstitutional Plan to Penalize States that Allow Cashless Bail  —  President Trump recently issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to penalize jurisdictions that allow cashless bail, by withholding federal funds from them:

Fast Times at Immigration and Customs Enforcement  —  In a video produced by the Department of Homeland Security this month, two tricked-out ICE vehicles roll around on the National Mall to “Toes” by rapper DaBaby: “My heart so cold I think I'm done with ice (uh, brr) / Said if I leave her, she gon' die / Well ... you done with life.”

The case against Kilmar Ábrego García is a study in sadistic absurdity  —  In its allegations against the Maryland man, the Trump administration is claiming authority over reality itself  —  In a way, you could think of the brief stint that Kilmar Ábrego García spent …

Canceled wind project puts thousands of jobs at risk  —  Thousands of jobs are in jeopardy after the White House halted construction on a nearly complete wind farm in Rhode Island, the latest volley by the Trump administration against wind power.  —  Danish clean energy company Ørsted …

Blue States That Sued Kept Most CDC Grants, While Red States Feel Brunt of Trump Clawbacks  —  The Trump administration's cuts to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of a state, according to a KFF Health News analysis.

Democrats lead the U.S. House generic ballot by 8; voters back fair maps and oppose Trump's tariffs  —  This article reports results from the August Strength In Numbers/Verasight poll.  You can read our previous poll releases here.  —  Summary of main poll findings:

Judge orders Kari Lake to answer questions about Voice of America under oath  —  A senior federal judge ordered Trump administration official Kari Lake to submit to questioning under oath in ongoing litigation over her efforts to effectively dismantle Voice of America despite Congressional mandates that it be maintained.

Our guardrails are failing us  —  But with discipline, Democrats can get the message out.  —  The military invasion of Washington, D.C.—with masked troops from several red states occupying the city, grabbing residents off the street and out of vehicles while hiding their identities …