Top Items:
Washington Post:
U.S. intelligence says Iran can outlast Trump's Hormuz blockade for months — A confidential intelligence community assessment delivered to the White House also finds that Iran retains a substantial missile and drone arsenal. — Summary — A confidential CIA analysis delivered …
Discussion:
New Republic, NewsMax.com, Raw Story, Modern Diplomacy and Reuters
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NBC News:
Trump's abrupt U-turn on a plan to re-open the Strait of Hormuz came after backlash from allies — Saudi Arabia, a key Gulf ally, suspended the U.S. military's ability to use its bases and airspace to carry out the operation, sources say. The White House said the administration notified Middle East allies in advance.
Discussion:
New York Post, New Republic, NewsMax.com, Jewish Insider, emptywheel, Mediaite, Raw Story, CNN, Middle East Monitor, Digby's Hullabaloo and IJR
Lawrence Hurley / NBC News:
Chief Justice John Roberts says American public wrongly views the justices as ‘political actors’ — In remarks at a judicial conference, Roberts bemoaned what he characterized as the American public's misconceptions about the Supreme Court. — HERSHEY, Pa. — Chief Justice John Roberts …
Discussion:
Law Dork, Politico, The Guardian, Above the Law, Lawyers, Guns & Money, MS NOW, Fox News, Mother Jones, SCOTUSblog, Washington Examiner, Raw Story and Eschaton
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Lindsay Whitehurst / Associated Press:
Chief Justice John Roberts says Supreme Court is not political
Chief Justice John Roberts says Supreme Court is not political
Reuters:
Exclusive: How Trump's Minneapolis immigration blitz hobbled federal crime fighting — The Trump administration blitz that flooded Minnesota with immigration agents also dramatically slowed other federal investigations and prosecutions into an array of serious crimes, a Reuters review of federal court records found.
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Originally Reported …, Raw Story and Modern Diplomacy
Wall Street Journal:
Jet-Fuel Prices Are Spiking and Trump's Advisers Are Worried — Administration officials have spoken to the airline industry, which has voiced concerns about the rising costs — Former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu delivered a warning to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a recent visit …
Discussion:
Forbes, The Hill, Fortune, Raw Story, Reuters, Politico, New Republic, Semafor, KEYT-TV and Al Jazeera
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Ben Geman / Axios:
Gas prices won't return to pre-war levels any time soon
Gas prices won't return to pre-war levels any time soon
Discussion:
Euronews, NewsMax.com, IJR, The Daily Caller and Foreign Affairs
Paul Krugman:
Grand Theft Oil Futures — Source: CNBC, Financial Times, BBC, Reuters — At this point it's almost routine: Almost every time Donald Trump makes a major announcement about the Iran War, that announcement is preceded — sometimes by only a few minutes — by huge and hugely profitable bets in the oil market.
Discussion:
Asia Times and Raw Story
Apoorva Mandavilli / New York Times:
Hantavirus Response Shows How Trump Cuts Have Compromised U.S. Preparedness — The Trump administration has slashed funding for infectious disease research and has far fewer employees, including disease detectives, to respond to outbreaks. — On April 24, nearly two weeks after the first person aboard …
Discussion:
Straight Arrow News, The Hill, STAT, Washington Post and Reuters
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Luke Garrett / NPR:
Campaign staffers tell NPR they make ‘thousands’ betting on their own candidates — It was a tight race, so a campaign staffer doubted the results of an unreleased poll showing their candidate up — by a lot. — The tip about the outside poll didn't match up with the campaign's internal numbers.
Discussion:
The Independent and New Republic
Gabe Kaminsky / CBS News:
Trump pardon recipients face congressional investigation over “pay-to-play” questions — Add CBS News on Google — Senate and House Democrats have launched an investigation into whether pardons and commutations issued by President Trump were driven by “pay-to-play dynamics,” according to letters obtained by CBS News.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, New Republic and Raw Story
Mona Charen / The Bulwark:
Trump's Corruption Is Going to Sink Him — DID YOU CATCH THE STORY ABOUT Trump trying to raid the Treasury to the tune of $10 billion? Last week, a judge paused it, but Trump, in his personal capacity, is suing the IRS for that staggering sum. It's the latest in a string of grasping …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Jill Lawrence / Los Angeles Times:
Which Democrat could repair the damage Trump did? — 7 min Click here to listen to this article — Democrats have a huge opportunity to make a huge difference. But whether they'll grab it is a huge question. — In 2020, I wrote that voters were “weary, anxious and looking for salve” after President Trump's first term.
Isabela Dias / Mother Jones:
ICE Keeps Detaining the Same US Citizen Again, and Again, and Again. He's Fighting Back. — “I only wish to live my life in peace,” Leonardo Garcia Venegas said in a declaration. — On the morning of May 2, Leonardo Garcia Venegas was driving home from a convenience store run in Silverhill …
Discussion:
Eschaton
Sarah Fitzpatrick / The Atlantic:
Kash Patel's Personalized Bourbon Stash — One of J. Edgar Hoover's greatest reforms at the FBI was his embrace of fingerprinting. During the 1930s, visitors to the FBI offices in Washington, D.C., received souvenir fingerprint cards featuring his name. The men who succeeded him as FBI director …
Discussion:
New York Post, Washington Examiner, Washington City Paper, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Times, To the Contrary, Vox, New Republic, Wonkette, MS NOW, Raw Story, The Independent, twitchy.com, All Rise News, New York Magazine, Mediaite, LGBTQ Nation, Straight Arrow News and emptywheel
Mary Ramsey / The Charlotte Observer:
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles announces surprise resignation 6 months after reelection — Longtime Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles plans to step down less than halfway through her latest term leading the nation's 14th-largest city. — The five-term Democrat will resign June 30, spokesperson LaToya Evans said in a statement.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, WFAE 90.7, The Hill, Fox News, Townhall, The Daily Caller, NewsMax.com and IJR
Pema Levy / Mother Jones:
The Roberts Court Takes a Page from Plessy v. Ferguson — In destroying the Voting Rights Act, the justices echo the court's darkest and most racist days. — Nothing is new and history repeats. When the Supreme Court delivered a death blow to the 1965 Voting Rights Act last month …
Katie Glueck / New York Times:
Susan Collins Says She Has Long Had a Benign Tremor — The Republican senator from Maine, running for re-election at age 73 in one of this year's top Senate races, made the disclosure after mounting online scrutiny on the left. — Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a Republican seeking re-election …
RELATED:
Alexander Bolton / The Hill:
Susan Collins, amid tough Maine Senate battle, says she's long had benign tremor
Susan Collins, amid tough Maine Senate battle, says she's long had benign tremor
Discussion:
Blaze Media, The Guardian, Newsweek, The Maine Wire, IJR and Raw Story
Gregory Svirnovskiy / Politico:
Trump calls for Jeffries to be charged with ‘inciting violence’ in social media post … Trump called the seven-term lawmaker “Hakeem ‘Low IQ’ Jeffries” on Thursday. — When asked for comment, Jeffries' office referred POLITICO to a post from the minority leader on X on Thursday.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Al Jazeera, NewsMax.com, Raw Story, The Independent and IJR
William Kristol / The Bulwark:
Whose House? Trump's House. — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was back in the hot seat yesterday, giving closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee over his contradictory statements about his past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. — Ahead of Lutnick's appearance …
Discussion:
YouGov's The Surveyor and Raw Story
ProPublica:
At Least 79 Kids Have Been Harmed by Tear Gas or Pepper Spray During Trump's Immigration Crackdown — The children were walking to school in Broadview, Illinois, or leaving a shopping center in Columbus, Ohio. They were at home in Minneapolis, or sitting in a stroller in Chicago …
New York Times:
Federal and State Officials Consider Closing Florida's ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ — The immigrant detention center in the Everglades, which Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, opened last July, may be too expensive to keep operating. — Florida is in talks with the Trump administration to shut …
Discussion:
NewsMax.com and New Republic
Deborah Fisher / Tennessee Coalition …:
Bill eliminates requirement to notify voters with new polling places in new congressional districts — 11:55 a.m. May 7 update: After this blogpost was made, Tennessee Elections Coordinator Mark Goins contacted me to say that it was not his intention of SB7001 /HB 7001, which he helped write …
Discussion:
Tampa Bay Times
New York Times:
Purported Epstein Suicide Note Is Released — A federal judge released the note on Wednesday, which Jeffrey Epstein's former cellmate said he found in a graphic novel. The New York Times has not authenticated that Mr. Epstein wrote it. — A federal judge has released a suicide note purportedly written …
Discussion:
Politico, Straight Arrow News, Associated Press, CNN, RedState, Charleston Daily Mail, Townhall, Reuters, Althouse, CBS News, archive.ph, UNILAD, Axios, Breitbart, New York Post, BizPac Review, Los Angeles Times, NewsMax.com, KTLA, HotAir, Bloomberg, Raw Story, UPI, The Post Millennial, Washington Post, Mediaite, Forbes, MS NOW, GV Wire, The Hill and The Daily Caller
Jonathan Tamari / Bloomberg:
Affordability Concerns Rise as Trump, GOP's Biggest Headache Grows — The issue that plagued Biden is now threatening to drag down Trump and the GOP … Costs Uncontrolled — Republicans have an affordability problem — and it's threatening to get worse.
Discussion:
PBS NewsHour and Raw Story
Paul Waldman / Public Notice:
The Confederacy rises again — PN is supported by paid subscribers. Become one ⬇️ — 🧠 Subscribe to PN 🧠 — When the Supreme Court smashed the last meaningful vestiges of the Voting Rights Act last week, it took literally a matter of hours …
Anna Louie Sussman / New York Times:
Why So Few Babies? We Might Have Overlooked the Biggest Reason of All. — Raleigh Rivera and her husband had spent five years fine-tuning their parenthood plan: In 2025, they would move from Los Angeles, where they have been living since 2023, back to Ms. Rivera's hometown, Minneapolis …
Discussion:
WBUR
John Avlon / Rolling Stone:
America's Debt Is Soaring Under Trump. Yes, It Matters — The president has put us on a path toward destabilization, with the national debt now eclipsing the size of the entire U.S. economy — Life is a struggle between the urgent and the important. With the accelerating inanity …
Wall Street Journal:
Why Congress Is Struggling to Do the Bare Minimum — Current session is marked by record-long government shutdowns, lawmakers sidelined on the Iran war and a wave of pending departures — WASHINGTON—Congress is struggling to do the bare minimum. — The House recently passed …
Nidal Al-Mughrabi / Reuters:
Israeli attack kills son of Hamas leader negotiating with Trump-led board — An Israeli air strike has killed the son of Hamas' chief negotiator in U.S.-mediated talks over Gaza's future, a senior Hamas official said on Thursday, as leaders of the militant group held talks in Cairo aimed at safeguarding their truce with Israel.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Al Jazeera, VINnews, Middle East Monitor, Algemeiner.com and RTÉ
Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt gives birth to second child — Leavitt is the first White House press secretary to give birth while serving in the role. … She is the first person to give birth while serving in her position. … “On May 1st, Viviana aka ‘Vivi’ joined our family …
Discussion:
Washington Post, The Hill, New York Post, CBS News, Townhall, WALV-TV, TMZ.com, Charleston Daily Mail, The Independent, IJR, KEYT-TV, Fox News, The Daily Wire and LifeNews.com
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Another Well-Timed Oil Trade Ahead of Iran News Raises Eyebrows — Market watchers are drawing attention to yet another move in oil futures that came just before a big development in the U.S. war with Iran. — This time, a burst of selling preceded a Wednesday report from Axios …
Jack Fitzpatrick / MS NOW:
Republicans who slammed Biden's gas prices are preaching patience for Trump — Gas prices have risen by more than $1.50 per gallon since President Donald Trump launched attacks against Iran almost 10 weeks ago, and throughout that time, Republican lawmakers have offered a consistent response …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, WALV-TV and Raw Story
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
‘HELLO BOSS’: Inside the Chinese Realtime Deepfake Software Powering Scams Around the World … “Oh my god. Oh my god,” I yelled as I looked at my own face on someone else's body. It was all there: my five o'clock shadow, my goofy grin, even the bags under my eyes.
New York Focus:
Videos Show Upstate Cops Calling Border Patrol on Drivers … Video — A sheriff's deputy in Oswego County, in north-central New York, pulled over a driver one afternoon in January 2025. The driver and his passenger only spoke Spanish. So the deputy took the driver's phone …

