SPONSORED POST from Open To All: In the context of a nation rocked by racial discrimination at levels unseen in decades, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on December 5th in a case that could gut not only state nondiscrimination laws but also erode the Civil Rights Act—and turn back the clock to a time when businesses could tell …

The Today Show reports: TIME has named The Silence Breakers, the individuals who set off a national reckoning over the prevalence of sexual harassment, as its 2017 Person of the Year. The magazine’s editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal revealed the selection Wednesday on TODAY along with the cover, a composite group photo that includes actress Ashley Judd, singer Taylor Swift and former …

CNBC reports: Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon ripped into one-time presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his lack of military service during the Vietnam War in response to Romney’s denunciation of Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore. “By the way, Mitt, while we’re on the subject of Vietnam and honor and integrity, you avoided service, brother,” Bannon told a crowd …

Penn Live reports: A conservative state lawmaker on Tuesday affirmed he was a heterosexual as he took issue with being touched in the arm by a male colleague. Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, chairman of the state House State Government Committee, during a meeting castigated ranking Democrat Matt Bradford after the latter touched his arm while addressing him. In a terse tone, …

The Associated Press reports: Lawyers for President Donald Trump argued on Tuesday that a defamation lawsuit filed by a former contestant on his reality TV show “The Apprentice” who accused him of unwanted sexual contact should at least be blocked while he’s in office because he’s too busy and important. Summer Zervos was a contestant on the show in 2006 …

The Birmingham News reports: The Roy Moore-Steve Bannon rally south of Fairhope is free and open to the public, and attendees are not required to bring a ticket to get in. That’s a change in plans from a week or so  ago. According to Moore’s campaign strategist Dean Young, “We had a bunch of liberals who got on Eventbrite and …

The New Yorker reports: This morning, Twitter released its top timeline statistics for the year: the most-retweeted and most-liked tweets of 2017, and the most frequently cited accounts. The list is fascinatingly strange. The big news is that none of the year’s ten most-retweeted tweets are by Donald Trump. Instead, three are by Barack Obama—and two of the top three …

This morning the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop Vs Colorado Civil Rights Commission, a case which has the potential to upend decades of public accommodation laws that offer business discrimination protections to numerous classes of American citizens. As noted in my earlier posts about today’s proceedings, all eyes will be on Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose questions …

Patch reports: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is scheduled to deliver a briefing for reporters Tuesday afternoon at 2:30 Eastern. Sanders’ briefing comes the day after President Trump officially endorsed Roy Moore for the Alabama Senate seat up for a special election on Dec. 12. Moore, who has been accused of child molestation and sexual assault, as well …

The Hill reports: Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is urging the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. to testify publicly before the panel. The Democratic senator, a member of the committee, sent a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday asking him to “immediately issue a subpoena for public testimony and documents from Donald Trump, …

The New York Times reports: Russia’s Olympic team has been barred from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The country’s government officials are forbidden to attend, its flag will not be displayed at the opening ceremony and its anthem will not sound. Any athletes from Russia who receive special dispensation to compete will do so as individuals wearing …

Last night Sean Hannity appeared on Breitbart’s SiriusXM radio show where he and Steve Bannon agreed that they both might end up in prison if Obama’s double-super-secret deep state forces get their way. Kyle Mantyla reports at Right Wing Watch: “I think they’re coming after Trump because they understand they have to destroy Trump, because to destroy Trump is not …

The Washington Post reports: The Supreme Court seemed closely divided Tuesday over whether the First Amendment protects a Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, with Justice Anthony M. Kennedy likely to cast the deciding vote. Kennedy, during a nearly hour-and-a-half oral argument, gave both sides reason for hope and concern. He worried that …

The Associated Press reports: Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is suggesting skepticism of the arguments of a Colorado baker who defended his refusal to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple by citing the First Amendment’s free speech clause. During the first half of oral argument in the case Tuesday, the justices questioned Kristen K. Waggoner, an attorney for …

The New York Times reports: Representative John Conyers Jr., who faces allegations that he sexually harassed former employees, announced Tuesday that he will leave Congress immediately, and he endorsed his son, John Conyers III, to replace him. Mr. Conyers, the longest-serving current member of the House and the longest-serving African-American in history, called into a local radio show on Tuesday …

The boy does not appear in the clip, presumably because he was a juvenile. Oklahoma City’s ABC affiliate reports: Police have released body-camera footage of the March night when officers found former state Sen. Ralph Shortey in a motel room with an underage boy. Before police entered Shortey’s room at the Super 8 along Interstate 35 near Northeast 12th Street, …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon channeled Bruce Springsteen on Monday night to address the recent guilty plea by Michael Flynn to lying under oath to the FBI special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation. Sporting mirrored shades, a red bandana, and no sleeves, Fallon sang a festive, politically-charged version of Springtsteen’s “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” …

The Washington Post reports: When is a wedding cake not just a cake, but a statement of profound religious beliefs? That’s the question being debated today at Supreme Court as it hears oral arguments about LGBT rights yet again. This fight is much different than the one settled two years ago in Obergefell v. Hodges, which declared that states cannot …

Bloomberg reports: Special prosecutor Robert Mueller zeroed in on President Donald Trump’s business dealings with Deutsche Bank AG as his investigation into alleged Russian meddling in U.S. elections widens. Mueller issued a subpoena to Germany’s largest lender several weeks ago, forcing the bank to submit documents on its relationship with Trump and his family, according to a person briefed on …

The Los Angeles Times reports: A fast-moving, wind-fueled wildfire swept into the city of Ventura early Tuesday, burning 31,000 acres, destroying homes and forcing 27,000 people to evacuate. About 150 structures — including at least one large apartment complex — were consumed by flames, and many more were threatened as the fire crept about a quarter mile away from City …