Axios reports: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is facing new demands from Democrats to include humanitarian aid for a variety of global hot spots in a foreign aid package, Axios has learned. “He’s a bit boxed in,” one House Democrat said of Johnson. “He goes one way, he loses votes, he goes another way, he loses votes, and he’s got …

Reuters reports: A Georgia judge on Thursday rejected Donald Trump’s bid to dismiss criminal charges in the state’s 2020 election interference case against him, which the Republican former U.S. president argued violate his free speech rights. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee found that the indictment alleges statements by Trump and 14 others charged in the case were made …

“How’re you doing? I’m here at Mar-a-Lago supporting Kari Lake and it was a fantastic evening and our Trump is here, being the DJ, and I’ve just danced and everyone’s amazed. So I’m just going to say to you, please drop out of college because it’s going to ruin your lives. Do me a favor, drop out, they don’t teach …

From the Justice Department: United States Attorney Henry Leventis for the Middle District of Tennessee and Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division announced that a federal judge returned a guilty verdict yesterday for defendants Eva Edl, Eva Zastrow, James Zastrow, and Paul Place on criminal charges arising out of their blockade of a reproductive …

Bloomberg News reports: Apple Inc. has teams investigating a push into personal robotics, a field with the potential to become one of the company’s ever-shifting “next big things,” according to people familiar with the situation. Engineers at Apple have been exploring a mobile robot that can follow users around their homes, said the people, who asked not to be identified …

CNN Business reports: Some people go to Costco for its $1.50 hot dogs, others for its $179 Ozempic prescriptions. The warehouse retailer is now offering its US members access to prescriptions for GLP-1 weight loss drugs through its low-cost health care partner Sesame. Costco first partnered with Sesame, a direct-to-consumer health care marketplace that connects medical providers nationwide with consumers, …

“You have so many Democrats who seem hostile to religion, I think it’s partly why they’re losing voters of color because if you go into any Catholic Church – you and I are both Catholic – in any suburb in this country on a Sunday, it’s multi-generations of Hispanics and Asian Americans filling up those pews in some of those …

Politico reports: The Biden administration put the finishing touches Thursday on a plan to restrict presidents from unilaterally nixing civil service protections from large swaths of the federal workforce, as former President Donald Trump renews his vow to uproot a perceived “deep state” if he is returned to the White House. While a future president could take steps to squelch …

Reuters reports: The election campaign of former U.S. President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee said on Wednesday they raised over $65.6 million in March, more than three times the amount raised in February. The March figures released by Trump and the RNC showed a rise in Trump’s fundraising after his last rival for the Republican nomination, former South …

The New York Times reports: Former President Donald J. Trump spoke recently with Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, their first publicly disclosed conversation since Mr. Trump left office in January 2021, according to two people briefed on the discussion who were not authorized to speak publicly about it. If President Biden manages to clinch a trilateral …

The Associated Press reports: Elon Musk’s X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has named a new head of safety nine months after the last executive to hold the position departed from the social media company. X said that company veteran Kylie McRoberts will oversee the global safety team. The platform also announced that Yale Cohen, who previously worked for …

NBC News reports: New York state police filed charges against a man whom they allege sent threatening messages to Judge Arthur Engoron and New York Attorney General Letitia James, a person with direct knowledge of the matter told NBC News. Engoron presided over former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial, in which Trump and executives at his company were hit …

Yahoo Finance reports: Anti-trans advocates failed to pass a measure at Disney’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday amid the company’s largest, most expensive and contentious proxy contest in recent history. Today, Chloe Cole, a 19-year-old who has spent much of the last two years testifying in support of legislation to ban gender-affirming care for minors, urged Walt Disney Co. shareholders to …

“What those people did when they violently attacked the Capitol, in order to stop a constitutionally-mandated meeting of the Congress to accept the results of the Electoral College, is a stain on our history. And every one of those sons a bitches who did that, we oughta find them, try them, and send them to jail. “And one of the …

“Mike Johnson has has made a complete departure of who he is, and what he stands for, and to the point where people are literally asking, is he blackmailed? What is wrong with him because he’s completely disconnected with what we want? I can’t comprehend, Tucker, what radically changes a man. I mean, if we break down the the second …

From the Family Research Council’s website: The hour is late, and open war rages across the United States. No sword is drawn, no shot is fired, yet lives, souls, and civilization itself all hang in the balance. This present war is not a political one — though politics and government are the weapons used in this combat — but a …

NBC News reports: Nebraska legislators on Wednesday night blocked a late effort to change how the state allocates its Electoral College votes, despite public pressure from former President Donald Trump to shift to a winner-take-all system that would likely benefit him in the fall. The measure fell short, 8-36, in a procedural vote. While it’s possible supporters could take another …

Law & Crime reports: The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday arrested 25-year-old Brad Markey-Perez after he allegedly shot his pal by mistake, authorities said. Deputies found the victim suffering from a gunshot wound to the jaw. Markey-Perez told deputies he and the victim like to have “drills” where they “practice with each other the importance of being vigilant of …

Via email from hate group leader Monica Cole: Hillshire Farm’s smoked sausage and lunchmeat commercials include a double entendre that is inappropriate and unnecessary. Foul language (or the implication of it) is not needed in this or any commercial, but that is obviously what Hillshire Farm intended with their play on words. The ad praises their food, of course, bragging …

Ars Technica reports: Amazon is giving up on the cashier-less “Just Walk Out” technology at its Amazon Fresh grocery stores. The Information reports that new stores will be built without computer-vision-powered surveillance technology, and “the majority” of existing stores will have the tech removed. In the early days, Amazon’s ambitions included selling Just Walk Out to other brick-and-mortar stores. The …