News

From the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal: With Democrats in Congress refusing to appropriate $5.7 billion for a border wall, President Trump now says he may declare a national emergency. He’s probably right that he has the legal authority, but it would set a bad precedent that conservatives who believe in the separation of powers could live to …

Roll Call reports: Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is lobbying his former colleagues to do more to study unidentified flying objects. “I personally don’t know if there exists little green men other places, I kind of doubt that, but I do believe that the information we have indicates we should do a lot more study,” the Nevada Democrat said. …

The Week reports: Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed that America’s southern neighbor would stump up the money for the steel barrier. Between his announcement speech and the 2016 election, he declared 212 times that Mexico would pay for the wall, according to Factbase, which tracks all of Trump’s interviews, speeches and tweets. He then went on to argue that …

Law & Crime reports: President Donald Trump recently reinforced the White House legal team by substantial numbers–hiring 17 additional lawyers to fend off congressional and special counsel investigators–according to the attorney in charge of that effort. The Independent reports that White House Counsel Pat Cipollone made the new hires in response to a slate of anticipated inquiries from House Democratic …

The Seattle Times reports: A staffer at local FOX affiliate Q13 has been fired after the station aired what appears to be a doctored video of President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night speech from the Oval Office. The video was changed to make it look as if Trump was sticking his tongue out languidly between sentences. In addition, the colors in …

The Rising reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Thursday apologized to women who allege they were sexually harassed while working on his 2016 presidential campaign. “To the women in our campaign who were harassed on the street I apologize — our standards, our procedures, our safeguards were clearly inadequate,” the potential 2020 contender told reporters Thursday at a press conference …

Politico reports: The White House is reaching out to political allies and conservative activist groups to prepare for an ailing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s possible death or departure from the Supreme Court — an event that would trigger the second bitter confirmation battle of President Donald Trump’s tenure. The outreach began after Ginsburg, 85, on Monday missed oral arguments at …

Politico reports: Air traffic controllers, who are working through the government shutdown, won’t be getting a paycheck for their last two weeks of work, their union confirmed Thursday morning. Pay stubs reading a net pay of zero dollars were distributed Thursday morning, including one for a controller at a major air traffic control hub outside of Washington, D.C. shared with …

Talking Points Memo reports: “Fox and Friends” co-host Brian Kilmeade told viewers on Thursday that “big picture” the use of an emergency declaration to get President Trump’s border wall funding would be a “disaster” and set a “terrible precedent” for the future. “It would just be a disaster in the big picture and just show us being inept at govern …

Deadline reports: Some folks just never get over their former employer. President Donald Trump threw some evening shade on NBC and its cable news outlet late last night, tweeting that both “are going crazy” and “are truly the Opposition Party.” The former host of NBC’s The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice even threw in a slam at an MSNBC rival …

Science News reports: Astronomers have spotted a second repeating fast radio burst, and it looks a lot like the first. The existence of a second repeating burst suggests there could be many more of the mysterious signals in the cosmos. The burst, called FRB 180814.J0422+73, is one of 13 newly discovered fast radio bursts, or FRBs — brief, bright signals …

Variety reports: With a 29.3/47 in metered markets results on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox News Channel and MSNBC, Pelosi and fellow Democrat and Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer’s live rebuttal topped Trump’s Oval Office speech on the government shutdown and his demand for a wall on the southern border. Across the seven nets and down 4 from the opposition, …

The Hill reports: President Trump considers the declaration of a national emergency to circumvent Congress and begin construction on a border wall to be on the table, his top spokesperson said Wednesday. Though Trump didn’t mention the possibility of a declaration during a primetime address to the nation Tuesday night, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told Fox News that …

Bloomberg reports: Google’s battle against French proponents of a worldwide “right to be forgotten” enters a decisive phase at the European Union’s top court on Thursday, in a case that highlights the growing tensions between privacy, freedom of speech and state censorship. Ahead of a ruling later this year, an adviser at the EU Court of Justice will on Jan. …

The New York Post reports: “Becoming,” the memoir by former first lady Michelle Obama, has emerged as the bestselling hardcover book in 2018, with 3.4 million copies sold, despite its November release. According to stats released by NPD Bookscan, which tracks about 80 percent of the retail market, Obama’s book surged, with 712,000 sold in the week before Christmas. That …

The Daily Beast reports: Airport security screeners forced to work without pay during the government shutdown have been calling out sick. But now the mad-as-hell workers are actually quitting their jobs. “Some of them have already quit and many are considering quitting the federal workforce because of this shutdown,” Hydrick Thomas, head of the American Federation of Government Employees’ TSA …

CNN reports: Patience is beginning to wear thin among Senate Republicans for a prolonged government shutdown, with a growing number at risk of revolting if the fight over funding President Donald Trump’s border wall drags out indefinitely. “I think we can walk and chew gum,” GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said on Tuesday, adding she’s “amenable to a process …

“Anybody who honestly looked at what was said tonight, this was a win for the president, and on several fronts. The president did something he doesn’t do very often, and I thought he did it, for him, very well, which was to show a softer side, to make a more compassionate argument, and to tone down the rhetoric. We need …

ABC News reports: Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to leave his role in the coming weeks, multiple sources familiar with his plans told ABC News. Rosenstein has communicated to President Donald Trump and White House officials his plan to depart the administration around the time William Barr, Trump’s nominee for attorney general, would take office following a Senate …

Charles Pierce writes at Esquire: In Tuesday’s Washington Post, Max Boot, the former imperialist cheerleader now d/b/a Never Trumper extraordinaire, addressed one of the nation’s pressing problems: the popularity of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, rookie congresswoman from New York and subject of a current conservative obsession bordering on a full-on manic episode. I admit, I was dubious about AOC. But then, for …