Summary of Key Changes in OMB's Proposed Federal Financial Assistance Rule  —  https://www.federalregister.gov/ public-inspection/2026-10817/regulation - for-federal-financial-assistance  —  Thanks for reading!  Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

There's No Escaping the Rot in This Justice Department  —  The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois used to be considered one of the best federal prosecutors' offices in the country, but the last week has shown that Donald Trump's administration is driving it off the rails.

A Draft U.S.-Iran Plan Is Said to Be on the Table.  Here's What to Know.  —  U.S. and Iranian officials say they are closing in on the terms of a preliminary agreement.  Yet sticking points, particularly over the Strait of Hormuz, remain.  —  For weeks, mediators between Iran and the United States …

Republicans Approach Summer Still Searching for a Win  —  The slipping calendar adds to doubts about the party passing another major bill this year … Summer Dash  —  Republican lawmakers preparing to return to Washington next week hope to leave their epic meltdown over a key funding bill in the rearview mirror.

Inside Bari's ‘60’ Bloodbath … “They're killing ‘60 Minutes.’”  —  That's how the iconic newsmagazine's former executive producer Bill Owens, who quit last summer citing corporate interference, put it to me by phone on Thursday as news broke about the firings ordered by the widely disliked …

Boat Strikes Have Failed to Curb Flow of Cocaine to U.S., Experts Say … With deadly precision, the Trump administration has launched dozens of attacks on small boats in the waters off South America, killing nearly 200 people in a campaign U.S. officials say is meant to curb the flow of illicit drugs to the United States.

White House Whipsaws Once Again on Iran  —  Plus, President Trump's face could appear on a $250 bill and the U.S. agrees to a deal with Kenya to establish Ebola quarantine center for Americans  —  Good morning.  On Saturday, President Trump said on Truth Social that a deal with Iran was near complete.

Why so much election analysis is basically useless  —  Last Friday, I (reluctantly) wrote a long piece about the Democratic National Committee's finally published “autopsy” of the party's 2024 campaign.  In that post I argued that the single biggest cause of Trump's win was the economy/inflation …

Habeas Flight Watch: New tool helps track ICE flights to your city  —  Activists have been quietly piloting a live map of ICE flights to help immigration attorneys with habeas filings.  Now they say it's ready for everyone to use.  —  A group of activists have built a new online tool …

A court in Kenya blocks U.S. plan to keep American Ebola patients in Africa  —  A facility built by the U.S. military on a Kenyan air base was intended to isolate Americans exposed to Ebola during the growing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  —  Summary

Pam Bondi is set for another Hill grilling — but not the one some lawmakers hoped for … The reversal has frustrated Oversight Committee members who want more information about how DOJ has approached the federal government's Epstein case, which has captivated Americans and spurred a wave of public fury and conspiracy theories.

Vietnam moves its dead for Trump golf course  —  Project has become symbolically important for relations between Washington and Hanoi  —  In a small cemetery nestled between fruit farms in northern Vietnam, farmers who for decades buried their dead near family plantations are digging up the graves.

The 2026 race that's a presidential proxy  —  With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco and Irie Sentner  —  Good Friday morning, this is Adam Wren coming to you from beautiful and crisp Michigan, which feels these days like the center of the midterm universe.  Get in touch.  —  In today's Playbook ...

He hasn't been seen in Congress for months.  Now Republicans are worried.  —  Rep. Tom Kean Jr.'s New Jersey district is among the country's most competitive, and his absence from the House since March has sparked increasing alarm in his party.  —  Summary

Latest Indicator of Political Discontent: 43% of Voters Dissatisfied With Both Parties  —  Persistent frustration over the economy and foreign policy have left many Americans feeling politically homeless, and young voters are particularly frustrated.  —  Forty-three percent of voters …

The Record Divide Between Corporate Profits and Worker Pay  —  Labor's share of economic output just hit an all-time low, while the profit share hit a near record.  It helps explain why consumers feel so glum.  —  To understand why people are so miserable about the economy …

Eleanor Ross Is US Judge Reprimanded for Sex in Chambers  —  Eleanor Ross is the federal district court judge who was subject to a private reprimand for having sex with a police officer in chambers in earshot of law clerks, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Grocery Shoppers Are In For a Summer of Pain  —  The Iran war's effects will keep rippling through the supply chain, even if it ends.  —  As painful as food prices have been over the past several years, there's reason to believe it's only going to get worse from here.

Replacing aging U.S. voting equipment will take years and billions of dollars  —  America's voting systems are getting old.  —  Take Louisiana, for instance, where many Gen Z and Millennial voters cast primary ballots this month using machines that were older than they were.

The Pentagon Knew Enemies Could Track Troops' Phones for Years.  Now They Are  —  The US military has long known that cheap fixes could stop location data from exposing its troops.  It adopted almost none—and now says adversaries are using the data to target soldiers during a war.

Milli Vanilli and Morris Day say they won't perform at Trump-linked Freedom 250's DC shows  —  A day after the President Donald Trump -affiliated Freedom 250 announced the “first wave” of performers for “The Great American State Fair” shows on Washington's National Mall in June and July …

Inside Putin's $26 Billion Quest for Longevity  —  From mini-pigs and organ printing to cryotherapy and genetics, Russia's president has turned antiaging research into a Kremlin priority  —  When Vladimir Putin was captured by a hot mic telling Xi Jinping that humans could achieve immortality …

Suit Says Black Infants Were Subjected to Experimental Vaccine Without Consent  —  The babies were part of a vaccine trial for a respiratory virus in the 1960s and died shortly after.  Their families said they had been unaware of the trial until recently.  —  The families of two Black infants …

Andy Kim: Nothing's Improved Since Minnesota—Except Private Prison Profits  —  We spoke to the Senator pepper-sprayed outside ICE's Delaney Hall detention center.  —  “I certainly didn't see anything at Delaney Hall that gives me a sense that things have changed since Minnesota,” Andy Kim told me.

Why Was the Chief of Staff for a Leading Republican Senate Candidate on a Group Chat With Famous White Nationalists?  —  The chief of staff for Rep. Mike Collins, the front-runner to be Republicans' Senate nominee in Georgia, said he used his congressional position to attempt to free a Holocaust denier from prison.

Brett Kavanaugh just won a surprising victory for racial justice  —  Justice Brett Kavanaugh is a Republican.  He served in a Republican White House, typically votes with the Court's other Republicans, and even sometimes sides with President Donald Trump in major cases that divide the Republican Party.