JUST BEAUTIFUL:  House Republicans are pushing forward with budget and spending plans in the first efforts to put the Trump agenda into legislation rather than executive orders.   Their plan is to cut spending on food stamps, clean energy subsidies, and  Medicaid … …

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN’: A California judge said he will re-sentence the infamous Menendez brothers to 50 years to life, giving them a shot at parole and freedom from their original life sentence for murdering their parents. They would be immediately eligible for parole …

ORANGE ALERT !: The last US citizen held hostage by Hamas militants in Gaza was released yesterday but President Trump overshadowed the story with his deal to accept the gift of a $400 million Boeing 747 from Qatar to replace the …

CHINA SYNDROME: The US and China announced an agreement to temporarily slash the drastic trade tariffs they imposed on each other while continuing talks to end the trade war threatening the world’s two largest economies.   Stock futures were up sharply this morning …

FREE SPEECH: In a blow to the Trump administration, a Tufts University foreign student detained by Immigration and Customs enforcement because she co-wrote an op-ed piece critical of Israel was released yesterday on orders from a federal judge who said the …

WHITE SMOKE: The Catholic Cardinals yesterday chose their first American pope, Cardinal  Robert Francis Prevost, 69, who immediately took the papal name Leo XIV. He becomes the leader of about 1.4 billion Catholics, roughly 20 percent of the world’s population.   In his …

ECON 101: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell revealed yesterday that the basic interest rate will remain at 4.3 percent while announcing in his bloodless style that President Trump’s tariffs are likely to put a dent in the economy.    The man of …

SIMMERING TO A BOIL: India yesterday carried out an air assault on what they said were terrorist targets inside Pakistan and within the Pakistani-controlled portion of Kashmir.   Pakistan’s prime minister called it an act of war.   The strikes came two weeks …

YOU’VE GOT MAIL: In a surprise reversal, the Trump administration asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit by three states that seeks to restrict mail-order access to the abortion pill mifepristone, modelling the same position as the Biden administration in …

DUE PROCESS: President Trump said yesterday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he’s not certain everyone in the US is owed due process of the law, despite what it says in the 5th Amendment to the Constitution..   “I don’t know,” Trump said …