Politics

The Guardian reports: Donald Trump is a “racist” who has used the “N-word” repeatedly, Omarosa Manigault Newman, once the most prominent African American in the White House, claims in a searing memoir. The future US president was caught on mic uttering the taboo racial slur “multiple times” during the making of his reality TV show The Apprentice and there is …

NBC News reports: Rapper Kanye West isn’t known for holding his tongue, but at one point in a meandering interview on TV’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Thursday, one question brought silence. Kimmel, a near nightly critic of President Donald Trump, hammered the performer over his support for Trump, whom West once described in a tweet as “my brother.” Kimmel asked, “I …

The Wichita Eagle reports: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said in a cable news interview Thursday night that he plans to recuse himself from the vote tally process in the face of pressure from Gov. Jeff Colyer and mounting confusion over vote totals. Kobach said that he would recuse himself in an interview with CNN hours after Colyer had …

Roll Call reports: Sen. Ted Cruz has admitted his race against Democratic challenger Rep. Beto O’Rourke will be a tough one. The Republican told ABC13 that his re-election bid is a “real race” because of energy on the “hard left.” “The anger on the left is real. And so I think the urgency for conservatives, the urgency for Texans who …

The New York Daily News reports: An online petition advocating for LeBron James to replace Betsy DeVos as the United States Secretary of Education is garnering a wave of public support. More than 16,000 people have signed the plea, which was published to the Care2 Petitions website less than two weeks after the new Los Angeles Laker opened a public …

CBNC reports: Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., used campaign funds to pay legal bills while he faced investigation for alleged insider trading for more than a year. A federal criminal investigation culminated in his arrest Wednesday, but before that he was under scrutiny by congressional ethics investigators. Since July 2017, Federal Election Commission records show Collins’ campaign has been paying up …

The Daily Mail reports: First lady Melania Trump’s parents were sworn in as U.S. citizens in New York City on Thursday. Viktor and Amalija Knavs have been living in the United States on as permanent residents on green cards. They arrived and departed from a Manhattan federal building escorted by Homeland Security police. They got no special treatment during the …

The Wichita Eagle reports: Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said Thursday that he has no plans to recuse himself from a recount process in the race for governor because any counting of ballots would take place at the county level. “The recount thing is done on a county level, so the secretary of state does not actually participate directly …

The New York Times reports: In the not too distant future, Representative Chris Collins will likely have his day in court to answer the insider trading charges that were leveled against him on Wednesday, but the Republican lawmaker may well be judged sooner — by voters in November. A spokeswoman for the campaign arm of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, …

Heavy reports: Conservative commentator and provocateur Ben Shapiro wants to take on Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic nominee for Congress from New York. In a tweet, Shapiro said that he would donate to Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign if she agreed to hold a debate with him. There’s been no reaction from the Ocasio-Cortez twitter account as yet. The relationship between Ocasio-Cortez has been …

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports: The tight race between Democrat Danny O’Connor and Republican Troy Balderson just got tighter. Election officials in Franklin County found 588 previously uncounted votes in a Columbus suburb. The result: O’Connor had a net gain of 190 votes, bringing the race’s margin down to 1,564. “The votes from a portion of one voting location had not …

The New York Daily News reports: The City Council voted Wednesday to stop issuing new licenses for most for-hire vehicles for a year in an effort to regulate e-hail apps like Uber, Lyft and Via, whose rapid growth has thrown the city’s taxi industry into chaos. “This is about supporting and uplifting drivers, making sure they are paid enough to …

The San Jose Mercury-News reports: Amid a tense battle over rent control in California, real-estate interests are writing big checks to defeat a November ballot measure that would give cities more power to regulate what landlords can charge tenants — and the initiative’s backer responded this week with a $10 million cash infusion. “We know we will be significantly outspent …

Politico reports: A former Republican congressional staffer is launching an independent write-in campaign in the Chicago-area district where an avowed Nazi will be on the ballot in November representing the party. Lawyer and former congressional aide Justin Hanson, of LaGrange, Ill., said he decided to throw his hat in the ring as a write-in candidate for the 3rd Congressional District …

CNN reports: WikiLeaks announced in a tweet Wednesday the Senate Intelligence Committee called on its founder Julian Assange to testify on Russian interference in the 2016 election. The tweet also included a copy of the letter delivered to Assange. It requests Assange make himself “available” for a closed interview with the committee “at a mutually agreeable time and location,” and …

The Topeka Capital-Journal reports: Secretary of State Kris Kobach maintained a minute lead — less than 200 votes — over Gov. Jeff Colyer Wednesday as the final election results in the Republican race for governor were counted. Delays in Johnson County pushed the unofficial final result of Tuesday’s primary into Wednesday morning. Just before 8 a.m., results on the Kansas …

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports: The West Virginia House Judiciary Committee approved 14 articles of impeachment against the four sitting justices of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals on Tuesday. “It’s a sad day, and it certainly isn’t a cause for celebration,” Judiciary Chairman John Shott, R-Mercer, said Tuesday as the articles were distributed to the 24 committee members present …

ProPublica reports: Last February, shortly after Peter O’Rourke became chief of staff for the Department of Veterans Affairs, he received an email from Bruce Moskowitz with his input on a new mental health initiative for the VA. “Received,” O’Rourke replied. “I will begin a project plan and develop a timeline for action.” O’Rourke treated the email as an order, but …

The New York Times reports: After a succession of political setbacks in onetime strongholds and a landmark defeat in the Supreme Court, organized labor has notched a hard-won victory as Missouri voters overrode a legislative move to curb union power. A measure on the ballot on Tuesday asked voters to pass judgment on a prospective law barring private-sector unions from …

The Associated Press reports: With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Republican Troy Balderson has declared victory over Democrat Danny O’Connor in Tuesday’s 12th Congressional District special election. Balderson is ahead of O’Connor by roughly 1,700 votes or 0.8 percent. Though all precincts are reporting, there has not been an official winner declared. According to the Associated Press, there are at …