EPA Chief's $50-a-Night Rental Said to Raise White House Angst  —  Pruitt apartment questions follow first-class flight reports  —  Washington lease is compared to an Airbnb-style arrangement  —  Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt's lease at a Washington apartment owned …

Behind the chaos: Office that vets Trump appointees plagued by inexperience … An obscure White House office responsible for recruiting and vetting thousands of political appointees has suffered from inexperience and a shortage of staff, hobbling the Trump administration's efforts …

The ‘Roseanne’ Reboot Is Funny.  I'm Not Going to Keep Watching.  —  It can be very difficult to separate the art from the artist.  In the case of Roseanne Barr and her critically acclaimed television show based on her life, it is nearly impossible.  I wasn't going to watch the reboot …

Trump tells aides not to talk publicly about Russia policy moves  —  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's national security advisers spent months trying to convince him to sign off on a plan to supply new U.S. weapons to Ukraine to aid in the country's fight against Russian-backed separatists …

Growth At Any Cost: Top Facebook Executive Defended Data Collection In 2016 Memo — And Warned That Facebook Could Get People Killed  —  Facebook Vice President Andrew “Boz” Bosworth said that “questionable contact importing practices,” “subtle language that helps people stay searchable,” …

Lexington, more than 15 other districts cancel school over teacher absences after pension vote  —  Kentucky's two largest school districts in Jefferson and Fayette counties were among 26 across the state that closed schools Friday after hundreds of school employees refused to work following the legislature's passage of pension reform.

Affirmative Action for Reactionaries  —  Although I'm a squishy-hearted liberal, I have a soft spot for dyspeptic reactionaries like H. L. Mencken and V. S. Naipaul, men — they're almost always men — who speak to a dark, misanthropic corner of my soul.  Thus I've occasionally read Kevin Williamson …

AP-NORC/MTV Poll: Young people run from Trump  —  NEW YORK (AP) — A majority of young people believe President Donald Trump is racist, dishonest and “mentally unfit” for office, according to a new survey that finds the nation's youngest potential voters are more concerned about the Republican's performance …

Noor Salman Is Acquitted in Pulse Nightclub Shooting  —  ORLANDO, Fla. — Noor Salman, the widow of the man who gunned down dozens of people at the Pulse nightclub two years ago, was found not guilty by a federal jury on Friday of helping her husband carry out a terrorist attack in the name of the Islamic State.

Tarrant County woman sentenced to five years in prison for illegally voting in 2016  —  FORT WORTH  —  A judge sentenced a Rendon woman to five years in prison Wednesday for voting illegally in the 2016 presidential election while she was on supervised release from a 2011 fraud conviction.

David Hogg And Media Matters Team Up For Ingraham Boycott  —  Parkland student and pro-gun control activist David Hogg has teamed up with liberal activist group Media Matters to push a boycott campaign against Fox News host Laura Ingraham.  —  Ingraham knocked Hogg for complaining about colleges that rejected his applications.

Hillary Clinton fires back at critics: No one told a man who lost an election to shut up  —  is striking back at critics telling her to “shut up” following her 2016 loss, saying, “They never said that to any man who was not elected.”  —  “I was really struck by how people said that to me …

Elizabeth Esty Must Resign  —  Elizabeth Esty will likely spend the next several days defending her failure to take strong steps to protect a woman who'd been threatened and bullied — by a member of her own staff — by blaming the system and talking about the good she's done in Congress.

Congressman: FBI Report Says Andrew McCabe ‘Lied Four Times’ About Media Leaks  —  Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe lied four times, including to James Comey, about his authorization of leaks to the media, according to a Republican lawmaker familiar with an internal FBI report recommending McCabe's firing.

FBI questions Ted Malloch, Trump campaign figure and Farage ally  —  American once touted as possible ambassador to EU tells of being detained at Boston airport and subpoenaed by Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia inquiry … A controversial London-based academic with close ties to Nigel Farage …

PLAYBOOK SCOOP: AMAZON SLASHES OUTSIDE CONSULTANTS — ANNA, MARIANNE LEVINE and THEO MEYER are reporting that tech giant Amazon nixed multiple contract lobbying firms recently from its roster, including Squire Patton Boggs and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld.  “This was a specific project …

Source: Mueller pushed for Gates' help on collusion  —  (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller's team last year made clear it wanted former Trump campaign deputy Rick Gates' help, not so much against his former business partner Paul Manafort, but with its central mission: investigating the Trump campaign's contact with the Russians.

The Disturbing Secret Behind An Iconic Cartoon  —  Robyn Byrd and Katie Rice were teenage Ren & Stimpy fans who wanted to make cartoons.  They say they were preyed upon by the creator of the show, John Kricfalusi, who admitted to having had a 16-year-old girlfriend when approached by BuzzFeed News.

A Coup at Veterans Affairs  —  If you're like us, your initial reaction upon hearing that President Trump had picked his personal physician to head the Department of Veterans Affairs was: “What?  You mean the guy who looks like a retired Grateful Dead roadie and said ‘unequivocally’ that Mr. Trump …

Trump-era politics is a surreal nightmare and we can't wake up  —  I spent last week in Madison as “writer-in-residence” at the University of Wisconsin.  While it was hardly an off-the-grid experience, it did take me out of the daily news cycle for the first time in a while.

Federal workers spill on life in Trump's Washington  —  One Health and Human Services employee swore off online dating after potential suitors repeatedly got upset that he worked for the Trump administration.  An Education Department fellow eagerly returned to teaching after listening to Betsy DeVos bash public schools.