Mediaite reports: White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway took part in a media forum on Wednesday morning, where she defended Donald Trump while shrugging off the notion that she contributed to the negative relationship between the president and the press. Conway spoke with Michael Wolff at the Newseum’s ‘President and the Press’ event, where they brought up The Washington Post‘s …

The New York Times reports: After Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson waited for much of the day, wondering whether he would get to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin, the two men sat down at the Kremlin late Wednesday afternoon in the first face-to-face meeting between the Russian leader and a top official in the Trump administration. Relations between …

The Associated Press reports: Legislators in the nation’s largest conservative state of Texas sought Tuesday to chip away at the landmark Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage, voting to let county judges and other elected officials recuse themselves from issuing marriage licenses if they have personal religious objections. The bill won preliminary approval in the Senate 21-10, with full Republican …

AL.com reports: An Auburn University student organization wants the institution to take a stronger stance against white supremacy after a group claiming to be the “Auburn White Student Union” distributed flyers expressing anti-Semitic messages on campus last week. The group, which identifies as alt-right, said it was created in response to political and racial tension across the nation. “White people …

Billboard Magazine reports: Guitarist J. Geils, born John Warren Geils Jr., has died at age 71. Geils was found dead in his Groton, Massachusetts, home. He had lived in the town for 35 years. Groton police said officers responded to Geils’ home around 4 p.m. ET Tuesday for a well-being check and found him unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at …

Reuters reports: United Airlines will no longer use law enforcement officers to remove overbooked passengers from aircraft in the wake of a video that showed a Chicago passenger dragged from one of its flights on Sunday. “We’re not going to put a law enforcement official… to remove a booked, paid, seated passenger,” United Continental Holdings Inc Chief Executive Officer Oscar …

The Associated Press reports: The Alabama Senate has voted to allow a church to form its own police force. Lawmakers on Tuesday voted 24-4 to allow Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham to establish a law enforcement department. The church says it needs its own police officers to keep its school as well as its more than 4,000 person congregation safe. …

Here’s what really happened in Kansas yesterday: Republican Ron Estes will be the next congressman from the state of Kansas, but his victory Tuesday night did not come as easily as many expected in the deep-red state. GOP strategists warned in recent days that Democrat James Thompson, a civil rights attorney, was in striking distance against Estes, Kansas state treasurer …

The Associated Press reports: Last August, a handwritten ledger surfaced in Ukraine with dollar amounts and dates next to the name of Paul Manafort, who was then Donald Trump’s campaign chairman. Ukrainian investigators called it evidence of off-the-books payments from a pro-Russian political party — and part of a larger pattern of corruption under the country’s former president. Manafort, who …

The New York Daily News reports: Months into a presidency plagued by speculation about Russia connections, and President Trump still isn’t ready to move past his election opponent. Trump, in a sit-down interview with Fox Business Channel airing Wednesday, said FBI Director James Comey could have been tougher on Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server. “Director …

CNN reports: After a review of the same intelligence reports brought to light by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers and aides have so far found no evidence that Obama administration officials did anything unusual or illegal, multiple sources in both parties tell CNN. Their private assessment contradicts President Donald Trump’s allegations that former Obama national …

NBC News reports: An angry crowd in South Carolina chanted “you lie” to Rep. Joe Wilson at a town hall Monday, using the Republican Congressman’s own infamous line against him. Wilson was rebuked after shouting those words at former President Barack Obama during his speech to Congress in 2009, after the president said the health reforms he was proposing would …

Reuters reports: Britain’s Daily Mail agreed on Wednesday to pay Melania Trump an undisclosed sum and issue an apology after it published an article saying the U.S. First Lady had offered “services beyond simply modeling” in her former job. President Donald Trump’s wife, 46, had sued the publisher of the Daily Mail in Britain and also filed a $150 million …

Variety reports: Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News Channel presence in recent days has sparked social-media outrage and advertiser defections. If he goes off the air for a while, will calm return? The popular Fox News Channel host raised that very question when he told viewers during the last few minutes of his “O’Reilly Factor” broadcast on Tuesday night that he would …

The New York Post reports: Washington’s rumor mill is working overtime on the fate of aide Steve Bannon, who is said to be at the center of the rampant White House in-fighting. When I asked the President Tuesday afternoon if he still has confidence in Bannon, who took over the campaign in mid-August, I did not get a definitive yes. …

The Washington Post reports: The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of an adviser to presidential candidate Donald Trump, part of an investigation into possible links between Russia and the campaign, law enforcement and other U.S. officials said. The FBI and the Justice Department obtained the warrant targeting Carter Page’s communications after convincing a …

The Charlotte Observer reports: A bill filed Tuesday by four N.C. House Republicans would direct state government to defy a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and restore the state constitution’s ban on same-sex marriage. House Bill 780 is titled “Uphold Historical Marriage Act,” and is sponsored by some of the House’s most conservative legislators. They frequently file bills that don’t get …

From the anti-LGBT LifeSiteNews: A Brazilian Catholic blogger was ordered to pay a US$6,000 fine after his conviction for hate speech against homosexuals. Roberto Flavio Calvacanti published the offending article on his blog “Catholicism and Conservatism” in 2007. Federal prosecutors characterized it as “clear hate speech and incompatible with human respect and dignity.” His post called for the public to …

CNN reports: White House press secretary Sean Spicer apologized Tuesday after saying Adolf Hitler “didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons” during World War II in an effort to shame Russia’s alliance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his use of chemical weapons. The comment was immediately decried and after a series of attempts to clear up his words, Spicer …

United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz has issued a second apology after yesterday’s attempt only further inflamed anger against his company. Just in from the United communications office: The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies …