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Four senior senators express alarm, push for 'hard' Social Security votes

(The Hill) Four senior senators, two Democrats and two Republicans, are calling on Congress to tackle the “hard” debate over how to extend the solvency of Social Security after the program’s trustees issued a new report this week projecting it will face a significant shortfall at the end of 2032. “It’s clear now that Congress shouldn’t delay any longer. Several of us have been coming together to talk about how we can strengthen Social Security for current and future generations of retirees.

BumRushDaShow

Wholesale prices rose 1.1% in May, more than expected

(CNBC) Wholesale prices rose more than expected in May, indicating that pipeline inflationary pressures are percolating higher, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. The producer price index, a measure of final demand costs, increased a seasonally adjusted 1.1% on the month, putting the 12-month wholesale inflation rate at 6.5%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a monthly move of 0.7%. The annual headline inflation rate was the highest since November 2022.

LetMyPeopleVote

House Dem Says 'Explosive' NY Times Report Shows Todd Blanche 'At the Heart' of Epstein-Trump Cover-Up

(Mediaite) Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) spoke to Capitol Hill reporters on Wednesday following sitting in on a closed-door Oversight Committee deposition of Bill Gates. Gates was called before Congress to testify about his ties to sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein in the ongoing House investigation into Epstein’s illicit activities, which Stansbury said will next look at Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.

riversedge

Trump Moves to Deeply Censor the Entire Internet

(Futurism) The White House and Congress are working on a deal to clamp down on what US citizens are allowed to say online. According to new reporting by Axios, the Trump administration is negotiating with key senators in an effort to shoehorn a massive legislation package which would limit states’ abilities to regulate AI in exchange for placing broad federal limits on digital speech.

KS Toronado

Thursday's Condensed News Cartoons

mahatmakanejeeves

Trump sees 22 medical specialists, appearing to set new bar for presidents

(Washington Post) For George H.W. Bush’s first medical checkup as president in 1989, he was seen by five specialists, the White House said at the time. His son George W. Bush was seen by 12 in his first presidential checkup, White House officials said a dozen years later. President Donald Trump appears to have set a new bar: 22 medical specialists assessed him as part of his latest checkup, according to a medical report recently released by the White House. That figure is nearly double the number of specialists who assessed Trump for his past medical checkups as president, according to a review of publicly available statements by Trump’s doctors.

mahatmakanejeeves

The Supreme Court is in its final stretch this term. Here are the major cases left.

(NPR) The U.S. Supreme Court is heading into its crunch time, the part of the year when the justices are racing to finish decisions and dissents in the cases that remain undecided. There are 23 cases left, out of the 58 that have been argued. Two major cases have already been decided: One essentially gutted what remained of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act, prompting Republicans in a number of Southern states to redraw congressional maps to diminish or eliminate majority-Black districts that have elected Black members of Congress.

BumRushDaShow

USPS proposal could halt ballot deliveries to states that don't share voter lists

(KGW-TV) Oregon leaders are pushing back against a proposed U.S. Postal Service rule that would require states to share voter registration lists and ballot-tracking barcode information with the agency in order to ensure mail ballot delivery. The Postal Service says the proposal is intended to comply with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump in March, ostensibly aimed at strengthening election integrity and oversight of mail voting. But Oregon officials argue election administration should remain under state control. "It's incredibly bizarre to take a postal service — that their job is to deliver mail — and then tell them, 'You can't deliver mail to certain people,'" Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield said.

marmar

Why MAGA can't hear the Trump boos

(Salon) The most revealing moment of Donald Trump’s week was not the boos that rained down on him at Madison Square Garden on Monday night. It was the almost instantaneous insistence, by him and his media ecosystem, that the boos never happened. What we witnessed this week — the feverish, almost liturgical insistence that a crowd loudly booing the president of the United States was actually chanting “USA!” — is something more disturbing and dangerous than ordinary propaganda.

Ocelot II

Event honoring fallen servicewomen was cancelled because it was too DEI for Kegbreath's military

(Task & Purpose) An annual event put on by members of Congress to honor fallen servicewomen was canceled this year after the Navy, Air Force and Space Force bowed out, citing Pentagon and White House policies on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, according to the Democratic members of the caucus leading the event. The Bipartisan Women’s Caucus’ 28th annual wreath-laying ceremony is typically held at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The Democratic Women’s Caucus announced the cancellation on Monday.

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US appeals court extends block on ruling against Trump's 10% global tariff

11 min ago - June 11, 2026 4:01 PM EDT Updated 10 mins ago NEW YORK, June 11 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Thursday extended its block on a lower court ruling against the Trump ‌administration's 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade A ... (Reuters)

UAW reaches tentative agreement at Michigan plant, and 4 other major stories

37 min ago - Published: Jun. 11, 2026, 5:00 a.m. Union workers at American Axle’s Three Rivers plant reached a tentative agreement Wednesday that delivers substantial pay increases after nearly two weeks on the picket line in Southwest Michigan. The agreemen ... (M Live)

Enormous etchings of numbers interpreted as threat to Trump appear on National Mall

1 hr ago - Police respond to what appears to be the anti-Trump message “86 47″ etched into the grass near the World War II Memorial. U.S. Park Police, the D.C. fire department and members of the National Guard were seen responding Thursday to what ap ... (Washington Post)

Senate Democrats block short-term extensions of FISA 702 spy powers

1 hr ago - 06/11/26 2:10 PM ET Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked the GOP’s attempt to pass a short-term extension of the nation’s spy powers by unanimous consent. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked the chamber for unanimous consent to extend Section 7 ... (The Hill)

Bus driver in wheelchair faces judge after deadly Virginia I-95 crash: 'This is an unusual case'

1 hr ago - STAFFORD COUNTY, Va. — The bus driver charged in the deadly I-95 crash in Stafford County that killed five people appeared before a judge Wednesday for the first time since the May 29 crash — arriving at the courthouse in a wheelchair and f ... (WTVR Richmond, Virgnia 6 news)

Vance chief of staff Jacob Reses to depart role

1 hr ago - 06/11/26 2:30 PM ET Jacob Reses, Vice President Vance’s chief of staff who has been with him since his Senate campaign, will be leaving the role at the end of the summer. Reses has served in the role since Vance took office with President Trump ... (The Hill)

DC reflecting pool before-and-after photos show Trump's 'beautiful' renovation

2 hrs ago - President steered no-bid contract for project that went from $1.8m to $14.2m to company that worked on his golf resort. The final drops of water have been added, and the nanobubbler switched on. Donald Trump’s “beautiful” makeover of t ... (The Guardian/US)

FDA grants emergency approval for over-the-counter drug to treat screwworm in pets

2 hrs ago - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized the emergency use of a generic over-the-counter tablet to treat Ã¢â‚¬â€¹infestations caused by the New World screwworm in dogs and Ã¢& ... (Reuters)

Trump picks former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton as national intelligence director

3 hrs ago - Published Thu, Jun 11 2026 2:05 PM EDT Updated 2 Min Ago President Donald Trump on Thursday said that he is nominating Jay Clayton to become the next permanent director of national intelligence. Clayton is currently the U.S. Attorney for the Southern ... (CNBC)

Trump says he has called off latest threats to strike Iran

3 hrs ago - Updated 1:56 PM EDT, June 11, 2026 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he has called off new military strikes on Iran, hours after threatening to escalate the war by seizing control of the country's oil indus ... (AP)

Foreign workers say they were paid less than $2 an hour to build a new US Consulate

4 hrs ago - June 11, 2026, 1:25 AM MILAN -- Foreign workers building a sprawling $350 million American Consulate in Milan were paid less than $2 an hour after being promised fair wages, according to Associated Press interviews with five former employees and a re ... (ABC News/AP)

Toronto police officer dead after investigation tied to U.S. consulate shootings: Chief

5 hrs ago - A Toronto police constable, 43, has died after being shot following an exchange of gunfire with a suspect in the northwest end of the city Thursday morning, according to Chief Myron Demkiw. The investigation that occurred prior to the shooting was li ... (CBC)

Pentagon Issues Shelter-in-Place Order Over Air Quality Issue

5 hrs ago - The Defense Department imposed a shelter-in-place order for part of the sprawling Pentagon building over an air-quality issue, according to a statement. Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Pentagon systems “have detected an air quality issue ne ... (Bloomberg)

House rejects last-minute extension for key FISA spy power amid Bill Pulte uproar

6 hrs ago - Updated on: June 11, 2026 / 10:36 AM EDT / CBS News Washington — The House on Thursday defeated a last-ditch effort to extend a key spy authority until early July, after President Trump's pick for director of national intelligence rattled lawmak ... (CBS News)

OpenAI says fake accounts from China tried to turn Americans against data centers

6 hrs ago - OpenAI has published a report about ChatGPT users, who it says were likely based in China, that used the chatbot to plan a campaign designed to sway Americans' opinions about AI data centers. It divided the users into two clusters, the first of ... (Engadget)

El Nino forms, expected to strengthen, say NOAA forecasters

6 hrs ago - NOAA’s National Weather Service announced today that El Nino has developed in the tropical Pacific, and issued an El Nino Advisory. El Nino, the warm phase of the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), is predicted to intensify to a moderate or st ... (NOAA)

ECB hikes interest rates for first time since 2023 as Iran war ramps up energy costs

7 hrs ago - ECB hikes interest rates for first time since 2023 as Iran war ramps up energy costs Published Thu, Jun 11 2026 8:16 AM EDT Updated 11 Min Ago Chloe Taylor @ChloeTaylor141 Key Points * ECB hikes its key interest rate to 2.25% as the Iran war continue ... (CNBC)

America's emergency oil reserve is about to hit lowest level since Reagan era

7 hrs ago - Thursday 11 June 2026 06:48 BST President Donald Trump's ongoing war with Iran is draining America's emergency supply of crude oil — which is just days away from hitting its lowest level in more than 40 years, according to a report Wednesday. Si ... (The Independent)

Trump White House hunting for insider who leaked details about Epstein freakout: report

8 hrs ago - June 10, 2026 10:21PM ET The Trump administration is launching a "massive leak hunt" to find out who spilled details on a panicked conversation inside the White House. A new book by journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan has the Trump White Ho ... (Raw Story)

Ukraine reportedly strikes military targets, hit several bridges in large-scale attack across Russian-occupied Crimea

8 hrs ago - June 11, 2026 7:05 am (Updated: June 11, 2026 2:08 pm) Ukraine struck military targets in Russian-occupied Crimea, hitting several bridges as multiple explosions were reported across the peninsula overnight on June 11, according to local authorit ... (kyiv independent.com)