Politics

The Hill reports: White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will answer questions from reporters on Thursday afternoon after President Trump signed an executive order on health care. Trump’s order seeks to expand the ability of small businesses and other groups to band together to buy health insurance through what are known as association health plans. It also lifts limits …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump is trying to do with the stroke of a pen what Republicans in Congress could not — bring about the end of the Obamacare markets. Trump is expected to sign an executive order on Thursday directing an overhaul of major federal regulations that would encourage the rise of a raft of cheap, loosely regulated health …

UNESCO’s mission statement: “Contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through educational, scientific, and cultural reforms in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter.” The Associated Press reports: U.S. officials have told the Associated Press that the United States is pulling …

The Washington Examiner reports: Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., is questioning whether President Trump is still committed to preserving the First Amendment after he repeatedly floated retribution against the media for publishing stories he doesn’t like. “Mr. President: Words spoken by the President of the United States matter. Are you tonight recanting of the oath you took on January 20th to …

The Associated Press reports: Embracing a historic change, the Boy Scouts of America announced Wednesday plans to admit girls into the Cub Scouts starting next year and to establish a new program for older girls using the same curriculum as the Boy Scouts. Under the plan, Cub Scout dens — the smallest unit — will be single-gender, either all-boys or …

The Week reports:  President Trump skewered the free press on Wednesday, telling reporters that “it is frankly disgusting that the press is able to write whatever it wants to write.” The comments followed Trump’s tweets Wednesday morning, which reacted to an NBC News story that claimed the president had called for the nuclear arsenal to be increased “tenfold.” “With all …

The New York Times reports: The rapper Eminem struck out at President Trump in a video that played at the BET Hip Hop Awards on Tuesday, accusing the president of racism, hypocrisy, disrespect of military veterans and more in almost five minutes of furious freestyle rap. He also excoriated Mr. Trump for his responses to the recent violence in Charlottesville, …

Andy Humm reports at Gay City News: What should have been a celebration dedicating the raising of the Rainbow Flag at the Stonewall National Monument in Greenwich Village on October 11 at noon turned into another attack on LGBTQ people by the Trump administration in a week full of such attacks. The National Park Service’s Barbara Applebaum, who arranged the …

Politico reports: A new organization aiming to step up the legal pressure on President Donald Trump’s business empire is launching this week with the backing of several liberal icons, including the lawyer who scored the first big Supreme Court win for same-sex marriage and a TV producer best known for a hotly-disputed story about President George W. Bush’s National Guard …

The New York Times reports: The leader of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, said on Tuesday evening that his region had earned the right to independence from Spain, but he immediately suspended the process to allow for talks with the central government in Madrid. “I ask Parliament to suspend the declaration of independence so that in the coming weeks we can undertake …

The guy who once advocated that Missouri legalize anti-LGBT discrimination (even though no statewide protections currently exist) today announced his run for the US Senate. The Associated Press reports: Republican Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley has made it official: He’s running for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Democrat Claire McCaskill in 2018. Hawley, a 37-year-old in his first year of …

The Guardian reports: Jimmy Carter has reportedly said he is willing to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in a bid to defuse tensions over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programmes, and bring “permanent peace” to the Korean peninsula. In an intervention that is likely to irritate Donald Trump, the 93-year-old former president told a South Korean academic that he was …

According to interviews with multiple insiders, whenever Trump comes up with another insane idea, staffers often distract him with other items until he forgets about his original plan. Politico reports: Trump would impulsively want to fire someone like attorney general Jeff Sessions, create a new wide–ranging policy with far–flung implications like increasing tariffs on Chinese steel imports or end a …

Bloomberg reports: President Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged to take executive action on health care, saying he would go around Congress to provide new insurance options for Americans. Trump didn’t provide additional detail on what executive action he would take and the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that …

The Miami New Times reports: This past Sunday, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross abruptly changed his tune on the NFL player protests. Ross, who’d previously supported players kneeling to raise awareness of police violence and racial inequality, told the Miami Herald‘s resident Kaepernick-basher, Armando Salguero, that since President Donald Trump had made the protests “about patriotism,” he now disagreed with …

The Daily Beast reports: According to the YouTube page for “Williams and Kalvin,” the Clintons are “serial killers who are going to rape the whole nation.” Donald Trump can’t be racist because he’s a “businessman.” Hillary Clinton’s campaign was “fund[ed] by the Muslim.” These are a sample of the videos put together by two black video bloggers calling themselves Williams …

Business Insider reports: White House senior adviser Stephen Miller once jumped into a women’s track meet to make a point about masculinity. In a lengthy profile published on Monday, The New York Times reported that Miller “jumped, uninvited, into the final stretch of a girls’ track meet, apparently intent on proving his athletic supremacy over the opposite sex.” The White …

Fortune reports: Columbus Day has become a fraught holiday in the United States, but you wouldn’t know it from President Trump’s official proclamation. Published on the official White House website, the statement heralds Christopher Columbus for “setting the stage for the development of our great Nation” and “inspiring countless others to pursue their dreams and convictions—even in the face of …

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein announced on Twitter this morning that she will run for reelection in 2018. For the last few weeks there’s been considerable speculation that Feinstein might retire in the face of a potential primary challenge from a progressive Democrat. Just yesterday Feinstein hedged somewhat during an appearance on Fox News. Feinstein, who had a pacemaker implanted in …

Newsweek reports: John Oliver gave an elaborate—and sometimes stinging—explanation as to why statues of Confederate leaders should not remain standing Sunday night. The British comedian dedicated the large majority of his HBO comedy show Last Week Tonight to a comprehensive history lesson about the divisive monuments that critics say celebrate America’s dark past. “If the Confederacy was not about slavery, …