Featured Stories

Americans trying to evacuate Middle East frustrated with government response

(CBS News) As the U.S. Department of State urges Americans to leave 14 countries across the Middle East amid the widening war with Iran, some Americans are voicing frustration with the lack of help from their government. Sasha Hoffman, an American who lives in Chicago and was vacationing in Dubai when the U.S.-Israeli military action began, initially thought she would be able to wait out the fighting. But after hearing President Trump say Operation Epic Fury could last four to five weeks, her thinking changed.

Susie Wiles sounds the alarm on gas prices

(Politico) President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is telling his advisers to bring ideas to the Oval Office to lower gasoline prices in the wake of the U.S. attack on Iran, according to two energy industry executives familiar with the conversations. The White House is “looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices,” said one of the executives, who was granted anonymity to describe internal administration discussions.

Noem Can't Explain Why She Hired 8-Day-Old Company for Ad Campaign

(New Republic) The Department of Homeland Security tapped a little-known ad firm to produce Kristi Noem’s multimillion-dollar ad campaign during the government shutdown last year. But when asked to explain her rationale before a House Oversight Committee hearing Wednesday, Noem was practically speechless. The money from Noem’s agency was funneling directly into the pockets of her friends and allies at the Strategy Group, a group with myriad ties to the ex–South Dakota governor, including having once employed her alleged beau (Corey Lewandowski) and a CEO who is married to Noem’s ex-chief DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

'Nazi heaven': Inside Miami campus Republicans' racist group chat

(Miami Herald) The secretary of Miami-Dade County’s Republican Party started a group chat primarily for conservative students last fall — and within three weeks it was filled with racist slurs, someone wrote dozens of ways of violently killing Black people and the chat was renamed after what one member described as “Nazi heaven.” In WhatsApp conversations leaked to the Miami Herald, participants used variations of the n-word more than 400 times, regularly described women as “whores,” used slurs to talk about Jewish and gay people and mused about Hitler’s politics.

Thursday's Condensed News Cartoons

Former Bucks County man who voted twice for Trump convicted of voter fraud

(Philadelphia Inquirer) A former Bucks County man who claimed he was covered by pardons given by President Donald Trump to supporters who tried to overturn the 2020 election was found guilty Wednesday by a federal jury in Philadelphia of voting twice for Trump in 2020. Matthew Laiss, 32, was charged by indictment in September of one count of voting more than once in a federal election and one count of voter fraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 10 and faces a maximum of five years in prison on both counts.

Rep. Burgess Owens won't seek reelection

(Axios) Rep. Burgess Owens (R-Utah) will not seek reelection this November, he said in a social media post on Wednesday. Utah's newly drawn 1st Congressional District is widely expected to flip to Democrats, meaning one of Utah's four Republican House members was likely to be unseated. "I will complete this term fully committed to my work in Washington, D.C., and then step away from elected office," the former NFL player said in a statement.

Trump explicitly threatens to take away choice from Texas GOP voters

(Raw Story) President Donald Trump has publicly mused about canceling elections, but he's threatening to do just that in the Texas Republican Senate primary. Trump promised an endorsement on the condition that the loser of his unilateral choice drop out and take away the choice from GOP voters in Texas. "My Endorsements within the Republican Party have been virtually insurmountable!" he said. "It is such an honor to realize and say that almost everyone I Endorse WINS, and wins by a lot, especially in Texas! I will be making my Endorsement soon, and will be asking the candidate that I don’t Endorse to immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!"

Secret ICE Detention Facilities Exist Around Colorado, Data Shows

(Colorado Times Recorder) Just west of downtown Glenwood Springs, perched between Midland Avenue and Interstate 70, a strip mall houses a gym, a chiropractor’s office, a tax accountant, and on the far end of the building, one less-common tenant: an ICE detention facility, one of at least nine such secretive facilities in the state. Between January and October of last year, 3,182 individuals were held in at least one of the nine facilities. The oldest was 91-years-old; the youngest was a 1-year-old girl. Many detainees were held for weeks at a time in rooms without beds, well in excess of the agency’s own internal rules for the small detention facilities, most of which are tucked into strip malls and industrial parks around the state.

Trump's White House ballroom is too big, architect says, as 2nd panel prepares to vote on it

(AP) President Donald Trump ’s White House ballroom project is way too big and should be scaled back, an architect and member of the board of the National Trust for Historic Preservation said Wednesday — one of a number of changes he has suggested for a project he says could permanently alter the nation’s most recognizable historic home.