Pro-Life Congressman Urged Abortion, Paramour's Text Suggests
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In a text message to Rep. Tim Murphy, a Pennsylvania Republican, a woman he admitted to having an affair with criticized him for hypocrisy over an anti-abortion statement posted on his office's Facebook account -- after he urged her to, in her words, "abort our unborn child" in the midst of an unfounded pregnancy scare. Steve King's Kin on Campaign Staff Year-Round
Des Moines Register
Rep. Steve King, the influential conservative Iowa Republican, employs his son and daughter-in-law as full-time campaign staffers, and has paid them more than $805,000 since 2004, records show. Although typically legal, an arrangement paying close family members year-round for congressional campaign work for more than a decade is unusual, experts said. Russian Ads Aimed at Michigan, Wisconsin
CNN
Russian-linked Facebook ads specifically targeted Michigan and Wisconsin, two states crucial to Donald Trump's victory last November, CNN reports, citing sources with direct knowledge. It said key demographic groups in pivotal areas were targets of the ads, which included divisive and anti-Muslim messages. How the Elderly Lose Their Rights
New Yorker
Court-appointed guardians can sell the assets and control the lives of the elderly without their consent—and reap a profit from it. The New Yorker explores how state laws control guardianship, and how they have given rise to an industry of professionals who exploit them before victims know what hit them. Mueller Looks to Counter Pre-Emptive Trump Pardons
Bloomberg Politics
President Trump, judging by his tweets, could try to pardon people in his circle even before prosecutors charge anyone with a crime. So special counsel Robert Mueller has hired Michael Dreeben, an attorney with over 100 Supreme Court appearances, to research the limits of the pardoning power. Trump's Agencies Spent Big Time Just Before Fiscal Year Ended
Forbes
Following a "use it or lose it" approach to the federal budget, agencies raced to use up their remaining annual budgets before the end of September in order to protect future funding levels, writes Adam Andrzejewski of OpenTheBooks.com. Total spending for the last week of the 2017 fiscal year hit $11 billion. President Trump's office spent $21.8 million, up from the $6 million President Obama's office spent to end 2016. 'Moneyball' Analysis Makes Baseball More Boring
Wall Street Journal
All that rigamarole before stepping into the batter's box was bad enough. But after years of "Moneyball"-style quantitative analysis, major-league teams are setting records for inactivity because of on-field substitutions and strategizing, prompting talk of rule changes. Games this season saw an average gap of 3 minutes, 48 seconds between balls in play, an all-time high.
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