Politico reports: Special counsel Jack Smith has completed his work on two criminal investigations of President-elect Donald Trump and resigned Friday from the Justice Department. Word of Smith’s departure came in a court filing Justice Department officials submitted to U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon Saturday afternoon, urging her not to extend a court order she issued last week blocking release …

The Washington Post reports: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will take the lead in determining the origin and cause of the Pacific Palisades fire, the agency said Saturday. “Certified fire investigators have been on scene and will continue to work in conjunction with state and local investigators to determine the cause of this tragic event,” ATF said …

Florida Politics reports: U.S. Rep. Cory Mills intends to run for U.S. Senate in 2026 — even if he is not named to the post by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The New Smyrna Beach Republican told the press on Saturday he doesn’t know when DeSantis will appoint a successor to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of …

Politico Europe reports: Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the East German town of Riesa on Saturday in a bid to blockade the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party congress. Protesters chanting “no to Nazis” blocked roads in the town, preventing many of the party’s 600 delegates from reaching the convention venue and ultimately delaying the kick-off of the proceedings. Police …

Panama City’s NBC affiliate reports: A church leader in Okaloosa County, Florida has been arrested and is facing several counts of possession of child pornography after a months-long investigation. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received a tip back in May 2024. Information obtained from the tip and other findings ultimately led law enforcement to a home …

Axios reports: They say it’s hard to turn a battleship around, but Mark Zuckerberg just about-faced his globe-spanning, $1.5 trillion-value, 3 billion-user company — transforming Meta from a bastion of Silicon Valley’s socially progressive neoliberalism into a full-on MAGA hive. After Zuckerberg’s embrace of Trump and Trumpism, Silicon Valley is holding its breath to see whether a whole row of …

The Associated Press reports: The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to move swiftly in reversing a judge’s order that had blocked the agency from releasing any part of special counsel Jack Smith’s investigative report on President-elect Donald Trump. The emergency motion late Friday is the latest back and forth in a court dispute over whether any portion …

“I know they were messing with the water, letting reserves go for one reason or another. They’ve been doing that a while. California has a lot of problems that sort of baffle the mind as far as why they do things. “And then in the events like this, you sort of look, well, is it on purpose? Which, it’s an …

Politico reports: House Republicans are passing around a “menu” of more than $5 trillion in cuts they could use to bankroll President-elect Donald Trump’s top priorities this year, including tax cuts and border security. The early list of potential spending offsets obtained by POLITICO includes changes to Medicare and ending Biden administration climate programs, along with slashing welfare and “reimagining” …

“We included disaster relief for North Carolina and Florida in the wake of hurricanes recently, and east Tennessee. And no doubt, we need to address fires. “But the problem with California is forestry management. If they want the money, then there should be consequences where they have to change their policies. “California wants the money without changing the policies that …

The New York Times reports: The Vatican has approved new guidelines for Italy that say that an applicant for the seminary cannot be rejected simply because he is gay, as long as he remains celibate. The guidelines say that seminary directors should consider sexual orientation as only one aspect of a candidate’s personality. They do not change the Roman Catholic …

“Liberal society’s gone mad. People have been institutionalized for less. California has been trying for years to destroy Western civilization. Well, this is what it looks like. They finally did it. “Primetime is calling for a federal takeover of California. When a state becomes this dangerous and the government becomes this reckless, where the lives of millions of American citizens …

NBC News reports: An FBI background check for Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Defense, was transmitted late Friday to the leading members of the Senate Armed Services Committee, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the report, just days ahead of his Tuesday confirmation hearing. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., the panel’s chairman, and …

PolitiZoom reports: Birds of a feather flock together. On that premise, the fact that the pussy grabber in chief has nominated degenerate Pete Hegseth to lead a huge agency like the Department Of Defense has come as no surprise. It makes complete sense. And when Matt Gaetz was nominated for Attorney General, that also made sense. It was not expected …

Variety reports: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are calling on others to lend their support to the victims of the wildfires raging across Southern California. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who live with their two children in Montecito, Calif., posted a statement Thursday on their official website that reads: “In the last few days, wildfires in Southern California have …

CBS News reports: Macy’s is closing 66 store locations that it has said are underperforming. The closures are part of the storied retailer’s turnaround strategy. The company referred to the brick-and-mortar stores it’s shuttering as “non-go-forward” locations. They include outposts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, …

Ars Technica reports: A British judge ruled against a man who wants to excavate a landfill where he says a hard drive with access to thousands of bitcoins was mistakenly dumped over 11 years ago. Since 2013, James Howells has been hoping to recover a laptop hard drive that he says contains the private key for cryptocurrency which he says …

Media Matters reports: The last full jobs report of the Biden administration showed a gain of 256,000 jobs during December 2024, about 100,000 more than expected, while the unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1%, about where it’s held for the past year. Yet, just seconds prior to the report’s release, Heritage Foundation economist and long-time Trump adviser Stephen Moore was …

NOAA reports: Last year was a record-warm year for the U.S., as the nation was hit by numerous tornadoes and devastating hurricanes, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. The average annual temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 55.5 degrees F — 3.5 degrees above the 20th-century average — ranking as the nation’s warmest year in NOAA’s …

NBC News reports: The Trump Organization on Friday unveiled a new ethics plan that it says will limit President-elect Donald Trump’s involvement in management decisions and other aspects of the business while he is in the White House. Trump will have “limited access” to the company’s financial information, receiving only “general business updates,” according to a five-page white paper on …