Politics

Axios reports: New York Democratic House candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s State of the Union that Medicare for All would act not as “a short-term band-aid,” but as a “generational investment” that would ultimately save the American people money. Ocasio-Cortez and many of the progressive Democratic candidates running in 2018 have made single-payer healthcare, which would cost about $32.6 …

The New York Post reports: Former Vice President Joe Biden Saturday night told the audience at the Human Rights Campaign’s National Dinner that he wished he trashed President Trump sooner. “Barack and I agreed we would be quiet for the first year to let the new administration get up and running,” Biden said. “God forgive me,” he said, making the …

The New York Times reports: Back when their relationship was fresh and new, and President Trump still called his defense secretary “Mad Dog” — a nickname Jim Mattis detests — the wiry retired Marine general often took a dinner break to eat burgers with his boss in the White House residence. But the burger dinners have stopped. In the second …

TechCrunch reports: California plans to launch a satellite to monitor pollution in the state and contribute to climate science, Governor Jerry Brown announced today. The state is partnering with satellite imagery purveyor Planet to create a custom craft to “pinpoint – and stop – destructive emissions with unprecedented precision, on a scale that’s never been done before.” Governor Brown made …

The Huffington Post reports: Former Secretary of State John Kerry delivered a blistering assessment of President Donald Trump’s character on Friday’s broadcast of Real Time with Bill Maher. “He is the first president that I know of who spends more time reading his Twitter ‘likes’ than his briefing books or the constitution of the United States,” Kerry told Maher. “Unfortunately, …

Fortune reports: Get ready to receive a text message from President Donald Trump on Sept. 20. But it won’t be a political message or attack on one of his perceived enemies—or at least, it’s not supposed to be. He plans to message every cell phone in America to test a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) system that will allow …

The Texas Tribune reports: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his Democratic challenger, U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke of El Paso, have agreed to three debates before Election Day. Announced Friday by both campaigns, the schedule calls for debates Sept. 21 in Dallas, Sept. 30 in Houston and Oct. 16 in San Antonio. Each event will be an hour long and …

The Raleigh News & Observer reports: President Donald Trump is planning to visit areas affected by Hurricane Florence next week, though his exact plans are not yet finalized. “The President is expected to travel to areas affected by the storm early to middle of next week, once it is determined his travel will not disrupt any rescue or recovery efforts. …

Vanity Fair reports: Manafort is one of a number of members of Trump’s inner circle who have cut deals with the special counsel’s office, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and Manafort deputy Rick Gates. In recent weeks, it has also become common knowledge among close friends of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, that Cohen is talking to …

“Once he agrees to cooperate, he has to cooperate about everything. There’s no such thing as partial cooperation. There will be no pardon. It will backfire at this point — if he’s given a pardon then he can’t take the Fifth, he would have to testify anyway. He could be called in front of a grand jury. The pardon is …

From the right-leaning Rasmussen Polls: Democrat Andrew Gillum holds a six-point lead over Republican Ron DeSantis in the race to be Florida’s next governor. The first Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey of the race finds that Gillum earns 48% support to DeSantis’ 42% among Likely Florida Voters. Two percent (2%) prefer some other candidate, and eight percent (8%) …

Politico reports: Canadians who work in the marijuana industry — and those who invest in the booming pot sector — risk a lifetime ban on travel to the U.S., according to a senior official overseeing U.S border operations. As Canada prepares to become the world’s only major industrialized nation to legalize retail marijuana sales starting Oct. 17, the Canadian cannabis …

NBC News reports: People born in New York City who don’t identify as male or female will soon be able to select a nonbinary gender category on their birth certificates. The New York City Council and Board of Health voted on Wednesday to include a third gender category, “X,” on birth certificates starting Jan. 1, 2019. Furthermore, the legislation will …

Roll Call reports: Rep. Clay Higgins has an idea for how to get Congress to clean up its act: random drug screenings. “I have observed some behavior that would cause one to wonder,” Higgins, a freshman GOP congressman from Louisiana said, apparently joking. But his legislation to proposal to test senators and House members for drug use once per term …

Politico reports: Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos took aim at President Donald Trump over his criticism of journalists Thursday night, saying his rhetoric calling the media the “enemy of the people” erodes the freedom of the press the nation cherishes. “It is a mistake for any elected official in my opinion … to attack media and journalists. …

The New York Times reports: Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took a decisive step toward a third term on Thursday, quelling a threatened liberal rebellion by turning aside the insurgent challenge of Cynthia Nixon after a bruising battle to claim the Democratic nomination in New York. Mr. Cuomo had marshaled the support of nearly all of the state’s most powerful Democratic …

The Times Of London reports: Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire founder of a business news empire, is preparing to run for president as a Democrat, The Times understands. Mr Bloomberg, 76, a former mayor of New York with a personal fortune of more than $50 billion, has previously considered running as an independent but decided against it in 2012 for fear …

The Daily Beast reports: Gina Loudon, the Republican commentator and author, recently declared that she has scientific evidence that Donald Trump might be the “most sound-minded” president in history. It’s a claim that might carry more weight if her new book didn’t falsely describe her as having a doctorate in psychology. Loudon, who worked as a surrogate for the Trump …

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: What would Jimmy Carter do if he became president of the United States again? Pretty much the opposite of what the current Oval Office occupant is doing. “If I were foolish enough to feel I could be president again, I think the first thing I would do would be to change all of the policies that …

Buzzfeed News reports: Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee have referred a letter concerning Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to the FBI. The contents of the letter have been closely guarded by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as California Rep. Anna Eshoo, who originally received the letter and shared it with Feinstein, …