Joe.My.God. LGBT News

Raw Story reports: President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos appeared on Wednesday before a House appropriations subcommittee to testify on behalf on Trump’s new budget proposal, which makes drastic cuts to public education funding and diverts “critical resources” to for-profit and religious charter schools. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) asked DeVos if she would consider sending her own children …

The Verge recaps: We’re only a few short months away from the return of Game of Thrones, and after months of speculation and teasers, HBO has finally released a full trailer showing off some of what we can expect from the new season. In short: Queen Cersei is rallying troops for battle, Jon Snow is preparing for war in the …

Business Insider reports: “Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin and star of the HBO series Kit Harington don’t think highly of President Donald Trump. In a new profile of Harington for Esquire, the two men weighed in on comparisons between the HBO hit fantasy drama and today’s politics. “I think Joffrey is now the king in America,” Martin told …

CNN reports: Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, during an appearance on CNN Wednesday morning, offered what seemed to be a wink and nod to the debunked conspiracy theories surrounding the murder of former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich. Here’s the exchange with CNN’s Poppy Harlow and John Berman: FARENTHOLD: “My fear is our constant focusing on the Russians is deflecting …

NBC News reports: Just before taking office, President Donald Trump promised to donate all profits earned from foreign governments back to the U.S. Treasury. But MSNBC has learned the Trump Organization is not tracking all possible payments it receives from foreign governments, according to new admissions by Trump representatives. By failing to track foreign payments it receives, the company will …

The Charlotte Observer reports: The NBA and Charlotte have finalized a deal to bring the 2019 All-Star Weekend to the Queen City, the Observer has learned. The three-day event will be held on a Friday through Sunday, Feb. 15-17, climaxing in Sunday night’s All-Star Game. Most events, including the game and various skills competitions, will be held uptown at the …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump congratulated his Filipino counterpart, Rodrigo Duterte, during a phone call last month for doing “an unbelievable job on the drug problem” in the Philippines, where the government has sanctioned the extrajudicial killing of suspects. A transcript of the April 29 conversation published online by The Intercept and reported by multiple media outlets, including The New …

The Houston Chronicle reports: So why is [Texas Lt. Gov. Dan] Patrick rejecting the business community’s pleas for restraint? Why is he ready to waste millions of dollars in taxpayer money for a special session to address a bill most Texas lawmakers want nothing to do with? The answer can be found in a blog post written by Patrick’s close …

The Hill reports: Pope Francis on Wednesday gave President Trump a copy of his 2015 encyclical letter on the environment and climate change. Trump responded to the gifts by saying: “Well, I’ll be reading them,” according to pool reports. The Trump administration has been pushing to roll back Obama-era regulations on the environment. At the beginning of the meeting, the …

The Guardian reports: Mushrooms are the safest of all the drugs people take recreationally, according to this year’s Global Drug Survey. Of the more than 12,000 people who reported taking psilocybin hallucinogenic mushrooms in 2016, just 0.2% of them said they needed emergency medical treatment – a rate at least five times lower than that for MDMA, LSD and cocaine. …