Check out Mini-memeorandum for simple mobiles or memeorandum Mobile for modern smartphones.
6:15 PM ET, May 8, 2026

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
David A. Lieb / Associated Press:
Virginia Supreme Court strikes down Democrats' redistricting plan, dimming party's midterm hopes  —  The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved Democratic congressional redistricting plan, delivering another major setback to the party in a nationwide battle against Republicans …
RELATED:
Public Notice:
What the Virginia ruling does — and does not — mean for 2026  —  The news is not good for Democrats, but they can still win the House.  —  On the latest episode of Nir & Rupar, our live weekly video show, David Nir of The Downballot and Aaron Rupar of Public Notice discuss the fallout …
Andrew Solender / Axios:
House Dems despondent over “sickening” Virginia decision  —  House Democrats fell into a state of anguish on Friday after the Virginia Supreme Court struck down a congressional map that would have netted them as many as four seats in the 2026 midterm elections.
New York Times:
In Huge Blow to Democrats, Virginia Court Strikes Down House Map  —  The decision is a major victory for Republicans, wiping away a measure approved by voters to allow Democrats to gain as many as four House seats in the midterms.  —  Virginia's top court on Friday struck down a congressional map drawn …
Ian Millhiser / Vox:
The glaring error in the Virginia Supreme Court's gerrymandering decision  —  By a 4-3 vote, the Virginia Supreme Court just struck down that state's recently enacted congressional maps, which were intended to give Democrats four additional seats in the state's congressional election after the upcoming midterms.
Tim Balk / New York Times:
4 Takeaways From the Virginia Supreme Court Gerrymandering Decision  —  The ruling was a major lift to the G.O.P. efforts to build a structural advantage through redistricting.  —  The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday struck down a voter-approved measure allowing Democratic state lawmakers …
Ari Berman / Mother Jones:
Republicans Don't Need to Win Elections Anymore. They Just Need Their Judges.
Associated Press:
Alabama lawmakers pass plan for new US House primary if courts allow different districts
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
California Republican Incumbents Race to the Right as Redistricting Forces Standoff
Discussion: NBC News
New York Times:
ABC Accuses Government of Violating First Amendment  —  The network's argument, made to the F.C.C., is the most aggressive posture taken yet by a television network toward the Trump administration.  —  ABC has accused the Federal Communications Commission of violating its free speech rights …
Liz Essley Whyte / Wall Street Journal:
Trump Planning to Fire FDA Commissioner Marty Makary  —  The doctor, a MAHA advocate, has had a tumultuous tenure that has included clashes over vaping, abortion and vaccine policy.
RELATED:
New York Times:   Trump Plans to Fire F.D.A. Commissioner Marty Makary
Helene Cooper / New York Times:
Pentagon Releases Files on U.F.O.s  —  The initial files are murky images that show what could be anything.  The government said more would be released on a rolling basis.  —  The Pentagon released what it called “new, never-before-seen” files on U.F.O.s on Friday, hailing the step …
RELATED:
Samuel Chamberlain / New York Post:
Pentagon releases dozens of UFO files offering transparency on ‘alien and extraterrestrial life’
Fox News:
Trump admin releases highly anticipated files documenting UFOs, ‘extraterrestrial life’
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
The simple statistical error Republican Supreme Court justices used to gut the VRA  —  The Court says vote dilution can be proven only after “controlling” racial polarization for partisan polarization.  This is a nonsensical and impossible test … The six Republican-appointed justices …
Discussion: The Downballot
New York Times:
The No-Bid Contract That Is Turning Washington's Reflecting Pool Blue … For a century, the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has captured Washington's history, a vast mirror for moments great and small.  —  Then, this spring, President Trump said he decided to paint it blue …
The Guardian:
Supreme court's Voting Rights Act ruling cited misleading data from DoJ  —  Exclusive: Data in justice department filing quoted by Samuel Alito in his opinion relied on questionable methodology, a Guardian analysis has found  —  The claims Samuel Alito, a supreme court justice …
Reuters:
Exclusive: Kennedy's health officials explored US ban of some widely used antidepressants, sources say  —  U.S. health department officials last week explored whether they could ban certain drugs in a widely prescribed class of antidepressants as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. prepared …
Discussion: NewsMax.com, New York Post and NPR
Julia Angwin / New York Times:
Mark Zuckerberg Is Running Meta Into the Ground  —  There is a moment when internet companies get the stink of death on them.  For AOL, it was 2003, when it became clear that its users were abandoning its clunky dial-up internet service for far-faster broadband.
Discussion: Reason, DNYUZ and Althouse
Jonathan Lemire / The Atlantic:
Trump Is ‘Bored’ With the War He Started  —  He wants out, but Iran could likely keep going for months.  —  President trump really, really wants the war with Iran to end.  He has declared victory many times, including about three weeks ago, when Iran briefly reopened the Strait of Hormuz.
Thomas Frank / Politico:
Trump gets his chance to upend FEMA … That would help the agency meet one of Trump's biggest complaints about FEMA — that it's too slow to deliver money.  The report says payments to states would occur within 30 days of a flood, storm, wildfire or other disaster.
RELATED:
Washington Post:
These blue states aren't getting fire prevention money from Trump
Discussion: New Republic
Alex Nitzberg / Fox News:
US intel community agreed before war 'Iran wasn't developing a nuclear weapon': ex-counterterrorism chief  —  Joe Kent declared ‘the narrative & agenda spun by a foreign government- Israel, won the argument & forced us into this war’  —  Former National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent asserted …
Discussion: WTTG-TV and Responsible Statecraft
The Economist:
Secret document reveals Russia's plans to aid Iran  —  Unjammable drones would be used against American forces, according to proposals seen by The Economist  —  There are many reasons why America's war on Iran has been failing.  One of them is the effectiveness of Iranian drones.
RELATED:
Catherine Bouris / The Daily Beast:
MAGA Rep Accused of Brutally Beating GOP Senator's Daughter  —  FAMILY TRAUMA  —  Rep. Max Miller was elected in 2022 and previously served in the Trump administration.  —  A MAGA congressman has been accused of years of physical abuse against his ex-wife, the daughter of a prominent Republican senator.
Oren Cass / New York Times:
Is Trump About to Invite In the Biggest Predator in the World?  —  “If you look at my old speeches when I was young, very handsome,” President Trump said while announcing his “Liberation Day” tariffs last year, “I'd be on a television show.  I'd be talking about how we were being ripped off.”
RELATED:
Emily Peck / Axios:
Ted Cruz: Trump accounts are personal Social Security accounts  —  At a conference earlier this week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said that the new Trump accounts, the “401(k)s for babies” that launched this year, could be a way to push forward the Social Security privatization effort that failed during the Bush administration.
Discussion: The Hill and Newsweek
The Guardian:
Revealed: The Trump administration arrested the parents of at least 27,000 kids in seven months, ICE records show  —  The Guardian analyzed government data from January-August 2025, as advocates say the family-separation crisis will lead to generational trauma
RELATED:
Julia Ingram / CBS News:   Thousands of asylum-seekers abandon their cases as ICE seeks to deport them to nations they aren't from
Zach Schonfeld / The Hill:
Judge schedules criminal trial for James Comey for July 15  —  A federal judge on Friday set a July 15 trial date for former FBI Director James Comey on his new criminal charges of threatening President Trump.  —  U.S. District Judge Louise Flanagan, who will oversee the trial …
Lisa Needham / Public Notice:
Stephen Miller's closed system of white supremacy  —  PN is supported by paid subscribers.  Become one ⬇️  —  🔁 Subscribe to PN 🔁  —  Working in the Trump administration these days is no doubt a dream come true for Stephen Miller.
 
 
 Archived Page Info: 
This is a snapshot of memeorandum at 6:15 PM ET, May 8, 2026.

View the current page or another snapshot:


 
 See Also: 
memeorandum: site main
memeorandum River: reverse chronological memeorandum
memeorandum Mobile: for phones
memeorandum Leaderboard: memeorandum's top sources
 
 Subscribe: 
memeorandum RSS feed
memeorandum on Mastodon
 
 
 More Items: 
Eric Bazail-Eimil / Politico:
Trump, with no evidence, claims Congo sent prisoners to US border with Mexico
Zachary Basu / Axios:
California dysfunction puts backlash on the ballot
Associated Press:
Trump says Russia and Ukraine have agreed to his request for a 3-day ceasefire and a prisoner swap
Raquel Rutledge / ProPublica:
Puerto Rico Lawmakers Call for Investigation Into Alleged Drugs-for-Votes Scheme After ProPublica Report
Discussion: MS NOW
Mark Olalde / ProPublica:
Trump Exempted Some of the Nation's Biggest Polluters From Air Quality Rules. All It Took Was an Email.
Hannah Knowles / Washington Post:
Anti-woke Vivek Ramaswamy confronts racism in his run for Ohio governor
Discussion: NewsMax.com
 Earlier Items: 
Gillian Tett / Financial Times:
Humans still matter more than AI in finance
Al Jazeera:
Iran says seized tanker in Gulf of Oman, as US ‘disables’ two ships
Julie Bosman / New York Times:
Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Rob Sand Is Worrying Iowa Republicans
Discussion: Raw Story and Radio Iowa
Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Did Amazon just deliver a blow to Josh Shapiro's White House dreams?
New York Times:
We're at the Dawn of the Ozempic Era — and It's Really Weird
Discussion: Deseret News
Alex Roarty / NOTUS:
Thomas Massie Is Really In Danger of Losing His Seat
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
ABC is airing direct appeals to its audience for The View and for stations it owns, asking viewers to comment on FCC actions challenging the show and stations

Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal:
Google invests in independent movie studio A24 as part of a new AI partnership; sources say Google is investing $75M, equal to what Thrive invested in 2024

Max Tani / Semafor:
The Atlantic ramps up its video podcasts, doubling its video team from ~10 to ~20, and says its podcast revenue is up 104% YoY and downloads rose ~50% YoY

 
Sister Sites:

Techmeme
 Top news and commentary for technology's leaders, from all around the web
Mediagazer
 Top news and commentary for media professionals from all around the web
WeSmirch
 The top celebrity news from all around the web on a single page