North Carolina Court of Appeals ordered state Board of Elections to recalculate vote totals in state Supreme Court race.

The ruling overturns a trial court ruling denying Republican Appeals Court Judge Jefferson Griffin's request to toss out tens of thousands of votes he claims are invalid.

The judges ruled 2 -1, along party lines, in favor of Griffin , who lost the 2024 contest to incumbent Justice Allison Riggs .

Julian Zelizer : If the GOP budget is carried out, it will be a second blow to the economy.

Zelizer says the Senate budget is faking the numbers by faking budget reconciliation.

He says the tax cuts would add $5.8 trillion in new deficits over ten years ; that would double the growth of the debt-to-GDP ratio.

John Stossel : In Dunedin , Florida , a man whose grass grew taller than 10 inches was fined $ 500 -a-day for not mowing it.

He says the city of Dunedin collected $3.6 million in fines in 5 years , collecting $ 25,000 a month.

A libertarian law firm, the Institute for Justice , took on Ficken ’s case.

A judge ruled that the fine was “not excessive,” but politicians care mostly about themselves, he says.

Democratic candidates are gearing up for competitive races in the 2026 primaries.

The party's progressive and centrist wings are seeking to pull the party in a direction that they believe will lead them back to the majority in 2026 and potentially to the White House in 2028 .

So far, progressive candidates have had the jump, often criticizing the party for its limp opposition to Trump and Republicans and promising a more robust resistance.

Bennett : "We are very much hoping that moderates will run in as many of the purple and even red districts as possible" Bennett : A big part of the centrist push is backing candidates who had performed well in 2024 , even if they didn’t win.

“Occasionally, we, the party, nominates people from the farther left in those districts, and they lose,” Bennett said.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) attempted to lay a trap for one of the witnesses at a hearing earlier this week and nabbed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer by mistake.

She asked Jesse Panuccio if he had ever taken to social media to personally attack a judge who ruled against you.

Panucciio replied: “I think that attacking judges personally, and not their reasoning, well, let me just give you, Gorsuch, I want to tell you, Kavanaugh, you have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price —'” Klobucar attempted to interrupt and regain control of the situation as soon as she realized where he was going.

George Clooney was reportedly livid after Mika Brzezinski suggested on live television that former President Barack Obama was pulling the actor’s strings.

A Biden biographer revealed details of the heated conversation between Clooney and an unnamed MSNBC producer in his upcoming book about the 2024 presidential campaign.

“ George , this is not a f

ing movie,” the producer reportedly said, according to the book.

Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

Her lawyers say she has had three asthma attacks in ten days since being detained by ICE agents.

Three Democratic Senators say ICE has not provided her inhaler or other medication required by law.

Özturk has not been charged with, or accused of any crime.

Donald Trump unveiled a plan for exorbitant tariffs on practically every country in the world that should really be viewed as a way to intimidate countries into compliance with whatever the king wishes.

David Dayen goes on The Majority Report with a special crossover episode, and talks to Sam Seder about the tariff madness.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna pushed to amend House rules to allow new parents to vote by proxy.

The GOP -run House was all but forced to abruptly end work on its legislative agenda on Tuesday for the remainder of the week .

Luna has tried to justify her push for proxy voting by claiming it’s “pro-family” policies.

Luna was largely absent from the fight against a pro-abortion amendment in her own state last year .

Luna took an oath to represent her constituents on a full-time basis.

She's a proxy tasked with voting on behalf of the people who elected her.

It's her sworn obligation to be there for House activities and act in accordance with her voters’ interests.

If the congresswoman or other representatives want to be an active presence in raising their children, then they should abdicate their seats.

President Donald Trump announced a sweeping regime of bilateral "reciprocal tariffs" on almost every country in the world on Wednesday .

Julian Zelizer : The details belie any coherent logic behind the scheme.

Zelizer says it's a credit to Trump 's slapdash style and personal charisma that he managed to convince everyone that they'd get what they wanted from his second term.

The most common way politicians disappoint you is by saying they'll do the thing you want and then doing the opposite.

In large part, however, Trump has failed in a more unusual way: doing what his supporters want in the most haphazard and incompetent way possible.

Those disappointed by the results might console themselves by saying it's better than what the alternative would have been.