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:
The Gateway Pundit, New Republic, NewsMax.com, Raw Story, Modern Diplomacy and Reuters
RELATED:
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:
Breitbart, New York Post, New Republic, NewsMax.com, Jewish Insider, emptywheel, Mediaite, Raw Story, CNN, Middle East Monitor, Digby's Hullabaloo and IJR
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, Modern Diplomacy, Raw Story and Originally Reported …
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, Techdirt, Lawyers, Guns & Money, MS NOW, Mother Jones, SCOTUSblog, Fox News, Washington Examiner, Raw Story, Eschaton and Public Notice
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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
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, New Republic, Politico, 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 — If a U.S.-Iran peace deal actually happens this time — and that's still a big if— consumers have a long road ahead before filling up returns all the way to the good old days of early 2026. … - U.S. retail prices are tethered …
Discussion:
Euronews, NewsMax.com, The Daily Caller and Foreign Affairs
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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Lisa Lerer / New York Times:
Platner and Collins Begin Their Duel in the Maine Senate Race — In strikingly different ads, Graham Platner argued that “Susan Collins's charade is over” while Senator Collins highlighted the economic benefits she has brought to Maine. — One of the country's most fiercely contested midterm races is fully underway.
Discussion:
The Hill, Semafor, Fox News and The Daily Caller
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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:
Associated Press, Blaze Media, The Guardian, Newsweek, The Maine Wire, IJR and Raw Story
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, New Republic and Mediaite
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
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 …
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
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
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.
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
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:
WFAE 90.7, Washington Examiner, The Hill, Fox News, Townhall, IJR, NewsMax.com and The Daily Caller
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
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 Republic:
Transcript: Angry Trump Spirals as Poll Shows Him Losing to Pope Badly — The following is a lightly edited transcript of the May 7 episode of The Daily Blast podcast. Listen to it here. — Greg Sargent: This is The Daily Blast from The New Republic, produced and presented by the DSR Network.
Discussion:
New York Post and Washington Post
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
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
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
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 …
Robert Jimison / New York Times:
House Republican Proposes Bill to Wind Down the Iran War — Representative Tom Barrett, a Michigan Republican facing a tough re-election race, introduced a bill to impose limits on the use of military force in Iran and end the fighting this summer. — A first-term House Republican facing …
Discussion:
Jewish Insider, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Signal and Washington Times
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
Jonathan V. Last / The Bulwark:
Platner 2028? — Call me crazy, but Graham Platner has a chance to be the Democratic nominee. — ∙ Paid — Tomorrow we'll have a Secret show for you and a Jasmine + JVL video mailbag. (With transcript!) — 1. Golden Grahams — Right now, today, I give Graham Platner a 1-in-3 chance to be the next Democratic nominee.
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, Associated Press, Straight Arrow News, CNN, RedState, Charleston Daily Mail, Townhall, Althouse, Reuters, UNILAD, archive.ph, CBS News, Axios, BizPac Review, Breitbart, Los Angeles Times, KTLA, New York Post, NewsMax.com, HotAir, Bloomberg, Raw Story, UPI, The Post Millennial, Washington Post, Mediaite, Forbes, MS NOW, GV Wire, The Hill and The Daily Caller
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Inside a MAGA influencer's turn against the right-wing machine — Ashley St. Clair, the mother of one of Elon Musk's children, has renounced her life as a pro-Trump provocateur. — Summary — Few MAGA influencers were as committed to the digital cause as Ashley St. Clair.
Punchbowl News:
Senate shelves SAVE as filibuster debate rages — Senate Republican leaders are unlikely to hold additional votes on the SAVE America Act, the voter ID and proof of citizenship bill many Republicans say has done more harm to the party than good. … We all want to maintain the filibuster, honestly," Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said.
Discussion:
New Republic and Raw Story
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 …
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 …
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
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 …

