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5:20 AM ET, May 12, 2026

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 Top Items: 
Andy Craig / The UnPopulist:
The VRA Ruling Might Have Handed Republicans a Weapon to Attempt a Jan. 6-style Midterm Coup  —  An outlandish scenario to refuse to seat newly elected blue state representatives just became more plausible  —  Republicans have been throwing everything they can at the 2026 midterms …
RELATED:
Greg Sargent / New Republic:
Trump Wins Big as Virginia Dems Won't Go Nuclear to Save 4 House Seats  —  Top Virginia Democrats have decided against exercising a controversial procedural end run around last week's state Supreme Court ruling that struck down their redistricting, which wiped away a gain of four House seats …
Nick Corasaniti / New York Times:
Why Republicans Are Still Drawing House Maps, While Democrats Are Stuck
Discussion: Time, CT Mirror and CNBC
Jen Rice / Democracy Docket:
Supreme Court greenlights 11th-hour Alabama redistricting plan for 2026 election  —  The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has allowed Alabama to select a different map for this year's congressional elections in a stunning, last-minute move to interfere with another state primary election that has already begun.
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Supreme Court halts order for Alabama to use US House map with 2 largely Black districts
New York Times:
Virginia Officials Ask Supreme Court to Restore Voting Map Drawn by Democrats
US Department of Justice:
Arcadia Mayor Federally Charged with Acting as Illegal Agent of the People's Republic of China  —  For Immediate Release  —  U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California  —  LOS ANGELES - The mayor of Arcadia has been charged in federal court with acting as an illegal agent …
RELATED:
Marc Sternfield / KTLA:
California mayor accused of working as a covert agent for China  —  The mayor of Arcadia, California, Eileen Wang, abruptly resigned Monday as federal prosecutors announced she had been charged with acting as a covert foreign agent for China.  —  Wang has agreed to plead guilty …
Nancy Cordes / CBS News:
Trump says he aims to suspend gas tax “for a period of time”  —  Add CBS News on Google  —  Washington — President Trump said in a phone interview with CBS News Monday morning that he aims to suspend the federal gas tax “for a period of time.”  —  “I think it's a great idea,” the president said.
RELATED:
Wall Street Journal:
Affordability Brainstorms, Good and Bad
Isaac Arnsdorf / Washington Post:
Trump seeks to pause federal gas tax as prices soar amid Iran conflict
Wall Street Journal:
Trump's Complaints About Iran War Leaks Prompt Aggressive DOJ Investigations  —  President Trump privately complained to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche about media leaks in the wake of the Iran war last month, according to administration officials familiar with the matter …
RELATED:
Devlin Barrett / New York Times:
Justice Dept. Subpoenas Wall Street Journal in Leak Investigation
Discussion: Raw Story
Alex Griffing / Mediaite:
House Republican Agrees With Radio Host Slamming Hakeem Jeffries's ‘Cotton-Picking Hands’  —  Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-VA) went viral on Monday for all the wrong reasons after she agreed with a Virginia radio show host that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) should keep his “cotton-picking hands off of Virginia.”
RELATED:
Samuel Benson / Politico:
This moderate Republican senator is already eyeing the exits 16 months into his term … Curtis, who replaced former Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) last year, has a reputation as a pragmatic dealmaker and moderate voice from his three terms in the U.S. House.  But after seeing Washington grow …
Discussion: Raw Story and NewsMax.com
Minho Kim / New York Times:
Kari Lake, Who Led Effort to Shutter Voice of America, Is Named Ambassador to Jamaica  —  Ms. Lake tried and failed to fire hundreds of Voice of America journalists and to cut funding for other federally funded news groups like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
RELATED:
Aaron Pellish / Politico:
Trump nominates Kari Lake and Doug Mastriano to diplomatic posts
Discussion: NewsMax.com and The Gateway Pundit
The White House:
Nominations and Withdrawal Sent to the Senate  —  NOMINATIONS SENT TO THE SENATE:  —  Francis Brooke, of Virginia, to be Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.  —  Cameron Hamilton, of Virginia, to be Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Homeland Security.
Associated Press:
Survey work begins for contested Trump Triumphal Arch project in Washington  —  Workers began preliminary surveys and testing Monday of the proposed site of a Triumphal Arch sought by President Donald Trump, the latest step in plans for the contentious project in the nation's capital.
Discussion: Washington Examiner
Erica Orden / Politico:
Top federal prosecutor in New York committed misconduct, watchdog says … A request for comment left with Sarcone's office wasn't immediately returned.  —  Though the letter didn't disclose the conduct in question, a complaint by the watchdog organization, Campaign for Accountability …
Bloomberg:
Navy Plans to Buy 15 Costly Trump-Class Battleships by 2055  —  The US Navy said it plans to buy at least 15 new battleships endorsed by President Donald Trump over the next 30 years, according to its new shipbuilding plan, marking a deeper commitment than previously revealed to what could be the costliest warship ever produced.
Discussion: NOTUS, The War Zone and USNI News
Thomas Frank / Politico:
Trump picks Cameron Hamilton to run FEMA  —  The president nominated the man he fired as leader of the nation's disaster agency a year ago.  —  Cameron Hamilton testifies on Capitol Hill last year before he was fired as acting administrator of FEMA.  President Donald Trump nominated him Monday to lead the agency again.
New York Times:
Kennedy Is Driving a Vast Inquiry Into Vaccines, Despite His New Silence on the Issue … Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said little publicly about vaccines in recent months, at the behest of a White House worried that his unpopular stance will hurt Republicans in November's midterm elections.
Discussion: Techdirt, Raw Story, MS NOW and HuffPost
Wall Street Journal:
The U.A.E. Has Been Secretly Carrying Out Attacks on Iran  —  One strike in April hit an oil refinery on Iran's Lavan Island  —  DUBAI—The United Arab Emirates has carried out military strikes on Iran, people familiar with the matter said, casting the Gulf monarchy as an active combatant …
Brandi Buchman / HuffPost:
Trump Gets 3 ‘Fully Functional’ Arcade Games Erected At D.C. War Memorial  —  See scenes from Secret Handshake's games depicting FBI Director Kash Patel, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the pope and others.  —  Secret Handshake, the group responsible for erecting statues around Washington …
Discussion: Gizmodo, The Independent, MS NOW and Wired
Victor Nava / New York Post:
Pentagon reveals location of secret Navy submarine capable of launching nukes after Trump rejects Iran peace offer  —  The Pentagon revealed the location Monday of one of the US Navy's most secretive vessels - a stealthy, nuclear-armed submarine - a day after President Trump rejected Iran's latest peace offer.
Politico:
Makary keeps working amid questions over his FDA future … The top drug regulator is slated to testify on the Trump administration's fiscal 2027 budget proposal for the FDA on Wednesday, according to Phoebe Keller, a GOP spokesperson for the Senate Appropriations Committee.
NBC News:
Search underway after fatal stabbing of University of Washington student  —  Police say the victim was found Sunday night in the laundry room of an off-campus apartment building.  —  A transgender University of Washington student was found fatally stabbed near campus, touching off a search …
Josephine Walker / Axios:
Trump and Rubio's escalating rhetoric show a Cuba invasion could be imminent … - The U.S. imposed additional sanctions on Havana last Thursday, prompting the country's foreign minister to describe the measures as a “collective punishment of a genocidal nature.”
Elena Moore / NPR:
New poll finds a majority of Americans unsure if attempts on Trump's life were real  —  At a time of historically high political violence in the U.S., a substantial number of Americans doubt the legitimacy of recent attempts against President Trump's life.  —  Trump has been the subject …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
Third federal appeals court rejects ICE's mandatory detention push
Carol Rosenberg / New York Times:
Judge Again Delays Guantánamo's First Death-Penalty Terror Trial
Gideon Rachman / Financial Times:
A weakened Trump arrives at Xi's court
New York Times:
Already Facing a Challenge, a Republican Is Accused of Self-Dealing
Discussion: NewsMax.com
 Earlier Items: 
Associated Press:
Supreme Court temporarily extends women's access to a widely used abortion pill
New York Times:
Reflecting Pool Repairs to Cost $13.1 Million. Trump Had Promised $1.8 Million.
theRighting:
Traffic to Truth Social Soars 45% in April While Other News Websites Decline
 

 
From Mediagazer:

Om Malik / On my Om:
Om Malik, a longtime technology writer, founder of Gigaom, and a partner at True Ventures, died on Wednesday at 59

Wall Street Journal:
Brendan Carr says ABC is running a “campaign of misinformation” about the FCC inquiry into The View and the agency isn't trying to control the show's guests

Washington Post:
Jacqueline Smith, the Stars and Stripes ombudsman who was fired in April, sues the Pentagon, claiming the government violated her First Amendment rights

 
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