The Persian Puzzle: As President Trump weighs how tough to be on Iran, he has appointed a hawkish new national security adviser, his fourth after just 2 ½ years as President. Robert O’Brien has been the State Department’s chief hostage negotiator. …

Tailpipe: The Trump administration is expected today to revoke California’s authority to set auto emissions standards that are stricter than federal regulations, directly confronting the state’s efforts to fight climate change. When the Trump administration announced lower federal standards earlier this …

Locked and Loaded:President Trump is moving toward blaming Iran for the attacks that crippled Saudi Arabian oil production.  “It’s looking that way,” he said. “That’s being checked out right now.”    Trump boasted of the ferocity of American military power but also …

Locked and Loaded: President Trump said the US is prepared to strike when it gets verification of who was responsible for drone attacks on Saudi Arabian oil production facilities over the weekend.   The attacks knocked out half of Saudi Arabia’s oil …

D Plus: Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to 14 days in prison and given a $30,000 fine for her admission that she paid a fixer $15,000 to have her daughter’s college entrance exam questions illicitly corrected.   She also must perform 250 …

Debatable: In the effort to make splashy news in the Democratic candidate debate last night in Houston, Beto O’Rourke promised he would take assault rifles away from gun owners and Andrew Yang said he would run a lottery to give money …

The Vapor Trail: The President who campaigned against government regulation is preparing to start regulating the vaping industry. In the midst of an unexplained rash of vaping-related illnesses and deaths, President Trump said, “We’re going to have to do something about …

The Spy Game:The CIA in 2017 was forced to extract a high-level Russian spy with access to the Kremlin because his cover was in danger of being blown, several news outlets report. The informant was recruited decades ago and became …

Know Thine Enemy:President Trump cancelled what had been a secretly planned peace conference with Taliban leaders at Camp David because of an attack last week that killed an American soldier.   Trump both revealed the meeting and its cancellation in a …

Spinning Down: Hurricane Dorian, now reduced to a Category One, is drenching the Carolina coast with high winds and heavy rain this morning. At 7 am it was centered about 30 miles west-southwest of Cape Hatteras, according to the National Hurricane Center. …