Todd Blanche says he can't meet directly with Epstein victims  —  Todd Blanche fended off questions about his handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files at his confirmation hearing Wednesday morning, telling members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that “when it comes to victims of his horrible man …

They Don't Care If ICE Kills People  —  Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has his first day of hearings for his nomination to the top Justice Department job today.  He'll spend most of the day answering questions—or, more precisely, not answering questions, because the rules the Republicans …

U.S. Mint to produce $1 coin with Trump's face on it, treasury secretary says  —  The U.S. Mint will soon begin producing a new $1 gold-hued coin with President Donald Trump's face on it.  —  Summary  —  The U.S. Mint will soon begin producing a new $1 gold-hued coin with President Donald Trump's face …

Testosterone-Fueled Troops?  Hegseth Says Military to Begin Testing Hormones.  —  The Pentagon will begin annually testing service members 30 and over for testosterone deficiencies, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Tuesday.  —  Hegseth said in a video posted to social media …

New frontiers in sanewashing  —  One of the keys to understanding the current catastrophe enveloping this country because it chose to make Donald Trump president (twice, so far) is that for no doubt complex sociological and psychological reasons lots of elite actors have to pretend to themselves …

Trump intel pick Jay Clayton questioned about election security, journalist subpoenas  —  His appearance comes weeks after the president scrapped his originally scheduled confirmation hearing.  He is nominated to replace acting DNI Bill Pulte.  —  Summary

FBI Has Looked at Using Questionable AI Tech to Review Signatures on Seized Mail-In Ballots  —  The FBI has explored using artificial intelligence to assess the validity of signatures on tens of thousands of mail-in ballot envelopes seized from Fulton County, Georgia, the latest push …

FCC Officials Took Pricey Gifts From Paramount as the Company Needed Approval for Billion-Dollar Deals  —  The rich and famous who filed into the Kennedy Center's opera house in December were there to enjoy one of the nation's most exclusive celebrations of the performing arts: the center's annual honors gala.

In Iran, Trump Has Found an Opponent He Cannot Easily Dominate  —  The president is accustomed to forcing other countries to bend to his will.  But he is struggling to come up with a strategy to extract Iranian concessions as the cease-fire he brokered collapses.

Why we still don't know what foods are the source of the cyclospora outbreak  —  Government cuts have contributed to an information vacuum on foodborne illness  —  As of Tuesday, a parasite called cyclospora has  —  so far this summer.  On Monday, Michigan health officials announced their first potential source:

Tehran threatens to halt all Middle East energy exports after US reimposes its blockade on Iran  —  The U.S. military reimposed a naval blockade on Iran and intensified its airstrike campaign early Wednesday, hitting an Iranian army barracks and killing at least seven troops …

Exclusive: Officials asked to turn over phones at the White House as Wiles, Patel lead intensifying leak probe  —  Chief of staff Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump's closest aide, and FBI Director Kash Patel helped personally orchestrate a sprawling investigation last week at the White House aimed …

DRL NOFO Developing Civilizational Bonds, Democratic Resilience, and Rule of Law in Europe  —  Developing Civilizational Bonds, Democratic Resilience, and Rule of Law in Europe  —  A. Basic Information  —  1. Overview  —  Developing Civilizational Bonds, Democratic Resilience, and Rule of Law in Europe

Ossoff predicts Trump's primetime address will be a ‘pretext for an abuse of federal power’  —  Sen. Jon Ossoff told MS NOW that he thinks the president will “lay the groundwork for some kind of potential challenge to the results” of November's midterms.  —  Ahead of the president's primetime address …

'I'm staying out of Maine': Chuck Schumer sidelines himself with the Senate majority on the line … And Chuck Schumer, known for working every possible angle to give his party's campaigns an edge, is largely helpless to do anything about it.  —  The sidelines are an unusual place for the longtime Senate Democratic leader.

America's Death Squads Are Real  —  Sometimes you can't see the world clearly from the inside.  —  ∙ Paid  —  1. Roving Death  —  Over the last week, agents of the federal government have killed two people on the streets of America.  We should say their names: Lorenzo Salgado Araujo; Johan Sebastián Guerrero.

Amy Coney Barrett reveals insane threats against SCOTUS  —  Enough is enough — it is wrong that public officials are receiving an unprecedented level of threats on their lives and now require significant security measures to guarantee their safety.  —  Supreme Court Justices Amy Coney Barrett …

New York offers Democrats a roadmap for data center fight  —  New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's first-in-the-nation data center moratorium could provide a playbook for other Democrats confronting one of the midterms' most heated issues. … - Until now, no governor had imposed a statewide data center moratorium.

The Forever War Gets Scary  —  But I'm not talking about bombs and drones  —  For all my interviews and more, subscribe on YouTube.  —  Transcript  —  The war with Iran has just reached a very scary phase, and I'm not talking about the bombs and the drones.

Exclusive / Baltimore Sun owner threatens to sue Moore over Epstein comments  —  THE SCOOP  —  The owner of The Baltimore Sun is threatening to sue Maryland Gov. Wes Moore over comments the governor made linking him to Jeffrey Epstein.  —  During an appearance on MS NOW on June 16 …

CDC nominee struggles to convince senators she'll stand up to RFK Jr.  —  Donald Trump's nominee to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Erica Schwartz, struggled during her Wednesday confirmation hearing to convince senators she'd stand up to her boss, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., like her predecessor did.