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8:15 AM ET, December 12, 2025

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Washington Post:
Trump seeks to cut restrictions on marijuana through planned order  —  The president is expected to direct agencies to reclassify marijuana as a Schedule III drug, similar to some common prescription painkillers.  —  Just now … President Donald Trump is expected to push the government …
RELATED:
Mychael Schnell / MS NOW:
Marjorie Taylor Greene's farewell gift to Mike Johnson: a longshot plot to oust him  —  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has been gauging whether there's enough support among her GOP colleagues to remove Rep. Mike Johnson from the speakership.  —  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene may be resigning …
Discussion: Townhall, Mediaite and Raw Story
Punchbowl News:
12/12/25 ☀️ AM: … If House Republicans were counting on redistricting to save their endangered majority, it isn't working. … This loss is the latest in a series of stinging redistricting defeats and setbacks for Republicans in Ohio, Utah, Kansas and potentially Missouri.
Discussion: Axios, Washington Monthly and France 24
Chris Geidner / Law Dork:
The Trump administration's authoritarian house of cards is starting to fall down  —  It's not over.  Not by a long shot.  It could — and likely will — still get worse on many fronts in many ways before this is all over.  —  But, on Thursday, a series of developments only connected insofar …
Adam Wren / Politico:
Indiana GOP rejects Trump's map in major blow to his gerrymandering push … The members held out in spite of pipe bomb threats, unsolicited pizza deliveries to their homes, and swattings of their homes.  —  It's a major setback for the president as well and a blow to his party's hopes …
Adam Wren / Politico:
Hoosier daddy  —  With help from Eli Okun, Bethany Irvine, Ali Bianco and Rachel Umansky-Castro  —  Happy Friday.  This is Adam Wren, filing today's Playbook from the Indiana Statehouse.  We made it to the end of the week.  Get in touch.  —  FRIDAY LISTEN: Bill Gates is this week's guest on …
Arika Herron / Axios:
Indiana Senate rejects Trump's redistricting effort
Mitch Smith / New York Times:
Indiana Senate Republicans Reject Trump's Redistricting Effort
Washington Post:
Senate blocks Democrats' bill to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies
Jacob Knutson / Democracy Docket:
Judge Orders Abrego Garcia's Immediate Release from Immigration Custody
Dylan Scott / Vox:
Blame Republicans for our health insurance mess
Christa Dutton / NOTUS:
Indiana Republicans Reject Redistricting Despite Trump's Primary Threats
Mary Clare Jalonick / Associated Press:
Senate rejects extension of health care subsidies as costs are set to rise for millions of Americans
Drew Friedman / Federal News Network:
House passes bill to restore collective bargaining for federal employees
New York Times:
A Grand Jury Again Declines to Reindict Letitia James  —  It was a striking rejection of the administration's retribution campaign.  —  A grand jury in Alexandria, Va., on Thursday rejected the Trump administration's effort to bring new charges against Letitia James, the New York attorney general …
RELATED:
NBC News:
Justice Department fails in its 3rd attempt to indict New York Attorney General Letitia James  —  The Justice Department also tried and failed last week to secure a new indictment against James in Norfolk, Virginia.  —  ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia …
Discussion: HotAir and CBS News
Washington Post:   Administration fails again to indict N.Y. Attorney General Letitia James
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Trump Moves to Stop States From Regulating AI With a New Executive Order  —  The order would create one federal regulatory framework for artificial intelligence, President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.  —  President Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that aims …
RELATED:
President Donald J. Trump / The White House:
Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence  —  By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:  —  Section 1.  Purpose.  United States leadership in Artificial Intelligence (AI) …
The Hill:
Trump signs order to fight state AI laws
Discussion: Fox News and Axios
New York Times:
U.S. Issues New Sanctions Targeting Maduro's Family and the Oil Sector  —  The United States is escalating its pressure campaign on Venezuela's leader, Nicolás Maduro, after seizing an oil tanker off the coast.  —  The United States on Thursday issued new sanctions on Venezuela's oil sector …
RELATED:
Reuters:
Exclusive: US preparing to seize more tankers off Venezuela's coast after first ship taken, sources say
Christian Paz / Vox:
3 theories that explain Trump's collapsing support  —  The second Trump administration started off with a bang: riding the high of 2024's historic levels of new multiracial and working class support, bullying law firms and universities, flinging out executive orders and DOGE restructurings like nobody's business.
RELATED:
Washington Post:
The minority voters who powered Trump to a second term are drifting away
Discussion: The Hill
Gabriela Aoun Angueira / Associated Press:
Federal judge orders FEMA to restore billions in canceled disaster mitigation funding  —  A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore billions of dollars in canceled FEMA disaster mitigation funding, siding with 22 states and the District of Columbia …
RELATED:
Rachel Frazin / The Hill:
Highly anticipated meeting on the future of FEMA abruptly canceled
Joe Heim / Washington Post:
Military admits ‘mistake’ in viral arrest of U.S. civilian in Japan  —  Kareem El, a civilian from Washington, D.C., visiting Okinawa, was held by U.S. military police for declining to provide identification. … Kareem El was standing outside of a bar in Okinawa, Japan …
ProPublica:
The Shakedown: Trump's DOJ Pressured Lawyers to “Find” Evidence That UCLA Had Illegally Tolerated Antisemitism  —  Co-published with The Chronicle of Higher Education  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.
Andrew Prokop / Vox:
Why America gave up on economists  —  Key takeaways  — Economists used to have a sort of special status in US policymaking; they were the consummate technocratic experts.  — But over the past decade, both parties have increasingly been less enamored of economists — and economic thinking in general.
Discussion: NPR and Bloomberg
Lisa Needham / Public Notice:
We're the baddies now.  Our new Security Strategy shows it.  —  PN is supported by paid subscribers.  Become one ⬇️  —  🌍 Subscribe to PN 🌍  —  The Trump administration recently dropped its National Security Strategy and, like all things Trump, it's equal parts nonsense and vitriol.
Paul Krugman:
Donald Trump, Security Threat  —  The call is coming from inside the White House  —  To update Samuel Johnson, these days national security is the last refuge of a scoundrel.  According to Donald Trump, anything he doesn't like is a threat to national security.  Question his clearly illegal tariffs?
Discussion: USA Today and MS NOW
Politico:
Democrats think they've found their 2026 message — and Miami just backed it up … To party officials, the through line is unmistakable — and increasingly central to how Democrats want to frame the midterms.  —  “This is going to help the Democratic Party and continue to make our case …
Matthew Yglesias / Slow Boring:
Gavin Newsom is the 2028 front-runner and that's bad  —  Plus the SPEED Act, the Pope's pricing strategy, and some Dutch politics takes  —  The Searchlight Institute recently released some polling on corruption that shows incredibly high levels of public support for a range of anti-corruption measures …
Axios:
Trump embraces great power cooperation with China and Russia  —  President Trump's first term opened the age of “Great Power Competition” with China and Russia.  — His second is actively working to end it. … - Trump is challenging that entire foundation, envisioning a new world order …
Discussion: Washington Times
Washington Post:
Trump asserts he has pardoned county clerk convicted in Colorado case  —  Impact of Trump's claim is unclear since Tina Peters was convicted in state, not federal, court.  —  Just now … President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has pardoned Tina Peters, a former county clerk in Colorado …
Dasha Burns / Politico:
'Nobody Wants to Take Responsibility for the Tragedy That's Going on Here' … To this day, Bill Gates remains a relatively mild-mannered, non-political guy.  But he's also not going to ignore reality. … And it's not a coincidence, he says, that it's coming after the Trump administration …
Catherine Rampell / The Bulwark:
The Sleeper Issue That Could Destroy the Economy  —  THERE ARE MANY ITEMS on President Trump's agenda that are hurting the U.S. economy: the pointless trade wars, the socialization of the private sector, the mass deportations, and much more.  —  But in the long run, the most damaging policy …
Discussion: Raw Story, NewsMax.com and MS NOW
 
 
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 More Items: 
Straight Arrow News:
Judge considers closing courtroom in high-profile Charlie Kirk murder case
Adam Edelman / NBC News:
Redistricting fight shifts to Wisconsin, where judicial panels may pick new maps
Associated Press:
US national park gift shops ordered to purge merchandise promoting DEI
Cory Doctorow / Pluralistic:
Pluralistic: Instacart reaches into your pocket and lops a third off your dollars (11 Dec 2025)
Mickey Djuric / Politico:
Surprise defection leaves Carney's Liberals just one seat short of majority
Discussion: Bloomberg and Associated Press
Susan B. Glasser / New Yorker:
The Curse of Trump 2.0  —  What does it say that the President doesn't even feel he needs …
Discussion: Raw Story and CNN
 Earlier Items: 
Luke Goldstein / The Lever:
Google Bankrolled Secret Summit For Key State Lawmakers
Josh Funk / Associated Press:
Senator says FAA administrator failed to sell multimillion-dollar airline stake as promised
Hassan Ali Kanu / Politico:
White House raises concerns about Trump's ‘image’ in lawsuit over sign language interpreters
Discussion: NewsMax.com
 

 
From Techmeme:

Reuters:
President Trump signs an executive order aimed at preempting a growing number of state AI laws, saying “we want to have one central source of approval”

Nina Bambysheva / Forbes:
Kalshi integrates its event trading platform into the popular crypto wallet Phantom; Dune: in November, Kalshi's trading volume hit $5.8B vs. Polymarket's $3.7B

Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Newsletter:
GPT-5.2 models have a 400K context window and 128K max output tokens, like GPT-5 and 5.1, but have an August 31, 2025, knowledge cutoff, vs. September 30, 2024
 
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