MONEY, POLITICS, AND JOURNALISM: The federal Communications Commission yesterday approved the merger of entertainment companies Paramount and Skydance in a decision that appears to have been contingent on President Trump’s personal settlement of his lawsuit against CBS News and 60 Minutes, which are owned by Paramount.

  The approval has ominous implications for CBS News, which has always operated independently. In a pair of letters filed Tuesday with the FCC, Skydance committed to a post-merger comprehensive review of CBS News, including a promise to install an ombudsman to evaluate complaints of bias.

    FCC approval was the last leap for the $8 billion deal that was jeopardized by Trump’s $20 billion lawsuit over the 60 Minutes interview with presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

  FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement that the agency had approved the deal after receiving such assurances from Skydance and  that the new company would not establish programs related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. That means the deal came with government approval not only of the finances and whether the merger might create a monopoly, but CBS’s exercise of the First Amendment.

  “Americans no longer trust the legacy national news media to report fully, accurately and fairly,” Carr said in his statement. “It is time for a change. That is why I welcome Skydance’s commitment to make significant changes at the once storied CBS broadcast network.”

EPSTEIN AFFAIRS: Todd Blanche, the No. 2 official at the Justice Department and a former Trump defense lawyer, was in Florida yesterday to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, the former procurer of young women for sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.  Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence and has always denied knowledge or participation in Epstein’s abuse of teen girls. 

  Maxwell is appealing her conviction and the DOJ is opposing her. What, if anything, she told the DOJ was not disclosed, but she was an Epstein insider.

  Celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, who joined the Epstein defense in 2005 when Epstein was first under investigation, said that young women and girls interviewed by the FBI at the time claimed to identify several of Epstein’s clients. He said, “I know who they are.” 

  President Trump posted on his Truth Social that, “The Radical Left Democrats are doing everything in their power to distract and obfuscate from our GREAT six months of service to America, results of which many are saying is the BEST six months in Presidential history.”

  Names, please.

REGIME NEWS:

— A veteran New Jersey prosecutor who was appointed as the next U.S. attorney by federal judges in the state said in a social media post that she is  prepared to take the job, even though she was fired by the Justice Department the next day.

The prosecutor, Desiree Leigh Grace, said on LinkedIn that it was an honor to have been selected for the job “on merit” and that she was ready to begin serving “in accordance with the law.”

  The federal judges exercised a rarely-used power to appoint Grace to succeed Alina Habba, President Trump’s former criminal defense lawyer. 

— U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has directed employees to sharply increase the number of immigrants they track with GPS ankle monitors, as the Trump administration widens surveillance of people targeted for deportation, The Washington Post reports.

  In a June 9 memo, ICE ordered staff to put ankle monitors on all people enrolled in the agency’s Alternatives to Detention program “whenever possible,” The Post reports

— The White House this week denied Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s request for $15.8 million in disaster relief money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, to pay for repairs after heavy floods swept through Western Maryland in May.

  “These communities demonstrated a clear need through FEMA’s own process, and Maryland will appeal the decision to seek all available resources to support the recovery efforts,” Moore said in a statement. 

THE OBIT PAGE: Former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, who made an act out of a threatening growl and tearing off his shirt to expose his chiseled physique, a stunt he repeated at the Republican National Convention in support of Donald Trump, died suddenly yesterday in Florida at age 71. It appeared to be a heart attack.

  Police and fire personnel were called to Hogan’s home on Clearwater Beach for a man in cardiac arrest.

  Hogan was known for his horseshoe moustache and colorful bandanas he wore on his head after his blonde locks disappeared. He admitted that his powerful physique was built in part by taking steroids.

  Hogan was born Terry Gene Bollea in Augusta, Georgia. He started wrestling in 1977 and in his prime was 6-8, 300 pounds. He adopted the name “Hulk” after the comic character “Incredible Hulk,” and later took the last name Hogan.

  The Hulk gained further fame appearing in the movie “Rocky III” in 1982. Playing the wrestler, Thunderlips, he throws Sylvester Stallone as Rocky out of the ring.

  Hogan said he came to his decision to support Donald Trump for president after the assassination attempt a year ago. He said, “When I saw him stand up with that fist in the air and the blood on his face — as a warrior, as a leader — I realized that’s what America needs.” 

THE SPIN RACK:  In one of the first casualties of Republican defunding of public broadcasting, WGBH in Boston laid off 13 employees at American Experience, ending for now production of new American Experience documentaries. — A group of hikers dressed in WWII Wehrmacht uniforms with Nazi insignia … including some from America … were stopped by police in the Swiss Alps and ordered to remove their outfits. The police said they wanted to head off any possible confrontations but, unlike some neighboring countries including Germany, Nazi regalia is not illegal in Switzerland.

BELOW THE FOLD: President Trump, who decorated the Oval Office with gold leaf, visited renovations at the Federal Reserve yesterday and said, “I see a very luxurious situation taking place.”

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