Media Matters reports: Conspiracy theorist and radio host Alex Jones was pressured to air an apology for his role in spreading the false “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which led to a Jones listener firing a gun inside a Washington, D.C. pizzeria. Jones aired a pre-taped video in which he acknowledged that he made commentary about the pizzeria owner that “in hindsight …

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports: The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga fired a reporter this week at WUTC, the National Public Radio affiliate, after local lawmakers complained about how she reported on the transgender bathroom bill. Jacqui Helbert, 32, reported and produced the story for WUTC, which followed a group of Cleveland High School students as they traveled to …

The vote is expected to happen some time around 3:30PM. Via Talking Points Memo: House Democrats warned their Republican colleagues against voting for the American Health Care Act on Friday, pointing to the speed with which it was pushed through the chamber and its unpopularity in a recent poll. “What is happening today is a lose-lose situation for the Republicans,” …

Holy cow. For once some good news out of Oklahoma: Twenty-five Oklahoma State Senators took a historic stand against anti-LGBTQ discrimination today. SB 694 and SB 197 were both called onto the senate floor for a vote. The former would have stripped employment and public accommodation protections form municipalities around the state, the later was a North Carolina “license to …

The Hill reports: The White House said Friday the House will vote on the Republican healthcare plan despite serious doubts it has the votes to pass. “The House will be voting on the American Health Care Act, the current vote is scheduled for 3:30,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters. He spoke as President Trump met with Speaker …

The New York Times reports: House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, facing a revolt among conservative and moderate Republicans, rushed to the White House Friday afternoon to inform President Trump he did not have the votes to pass legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act and to decide whether to pull the bill from consideration. The president and the speaker faced …

The ongoing Trumpcare implosion will surely dominate today. Questions about the bill’s progress were the main topic of public debate all day, but the unfolding drama of fractures with the House Intelligence Committee’s investigations continues to loom of the administration. Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Devin Nunes, the top two committee officials, are clearly at odds over the progress of …

Tulsa World reports: State representatives have voted to allow monuments to “historically significant documents” — primarily the Ten Commandments — to be displayed on public property. House Bill 2177, by Rep. John Bennett [photo] is offered as an antidote to a state Supreme Court decision that removed such a memorial from the Capitol grounds and a vote of the people …

CBC Miami reports: Gay marriage has been a hot topic in and out of courtrooms for the past several years. Another issue is being fixed to help those who lost loved ones before the epic court ruling. Florida widows and widowers whose spouses died before the U.S. Supreme Court declared state bans on same-sex marriage unconstitutional can have the death …

The BBC reports: Canada’s largest school board is cancelling new school trips to the United States until further notice. The Toronto District School Board announced the decision citing “uncertainty” with regards to who may be affected by US President Donald’s Trump’s latest travel restrictions. Twenty-five already scheduled trips will go ahead as planned. The school board joins the Girl Guides …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, has offered to testify before the House Intelligence Committee in its investigation of Russian meddling in the US election, committee chairman Devin Nunes announced Friday. Nunes said House investigators are still negotiating when Manafort will testify and whether he will testify in an open hearing or in a closed briefing. …

Newsweek reports: The CIA allegedly developed tools to infect Apple Macs and iPhones in order to spy on them, according to documents released by WikiLeaks on Thursday. The Dark Matter leaks are the second tranche of the whistleblowing organization’s Vault 7 cache of classified documents, which WikiLeaks claims to have obtained from a former CIA contract worker. Projects undertaken by …

Mediaite reports: One day after Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said that there was “more than circumstantial evidence” pointing to collusion between the Donald Trump campaign and the Russian government prior to the election, another Democratic congressman affirmed that account, saying there is “damning evidence” on the horizon. Appearing on the The Michelangelo Signorile Show …

The Hill reports: President Trump on Friday morning directly challenged the House Freedom Caucus to support his ObamaCare repeal plan, warning that they would be inadvertently supporting Planned Parenthood if they opposed his bill. “The irony is that the Freedom Caucus, which is very pro-life and against Planned Parenthood, allows P.P. to continue if they stop this plan!” Trump tweeted. …

The New York Times reports: Republican senators moved Thursday to dismantle landmark internet privacy protections for consumers in the first decisive strike against telecommunications and technology regulations created during the Obama administration, and a harbinger of further deregulation. The measure passed in a 50-to-48 vote largely along party lines. The House is expected to mirror the Senate’s action next week, …

Reuters reports: Twitter is considering whether to build a premium version of its popular Tweetdeck interface aimed at professionals, the company said on Thursday, raising the possibility that it could collect subscription fees from some users for the first time. Like most other social media companies, Twitter since its founding 11 years ago has focused on building a huge user …

USA Today reports: A bus spreading a message against transgender culture was vandalized near United Nations headquarters early Thursday evening while it was parked, according to the head of one of the three groups organizing the bus tour. The “Free Speech Bus,” as it is called by organizers, was parked near the UN for a scheduled event when two people …

Via PolitiFact: Confronted by his most flagrant falsehoods, President Donald Trump finally faced the question of why he makes so many unsubstantiated claims. “What have I said that is wrong?” Trump asked. Trump said his instinct is usually right, and he usually finds evidence supporting his claims that the media and his critics ignore — even as he continued to …

Breitbart is thrilled with the “chaos” surrounding the bill they’d rather call “Ryancare.” They write: Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R.-WI) cancelled the anticipated vote on the American Health Care Act — RyanCare — the latest sign that the bill is in a death spiral. As conservatives gain concessions in the RyanCare negotiations, more liberal Republicans have been dropping …

Kyle Mantyla reports at Right Wing Watch: End Times radio host and crackpot conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles speculated on his “Trunews” program yesterday that the terrorist attack in London was orchestrated to distract Americans from Republican Rep. Devin Nunes’ statement that some communications involving members of Trump’s transition team had been “incidentally collected” during legal U.S. government surveillance of foreign …