A reminder that Ron DeSantis said last summer that he wanted a new gerrymander of Florida, months before there was any talk that Dems may have a path to gerrymander Virginia. This isn’t Florida making up for Virginia when Florida signaled its move in August.

I talked to Jamie Raskin about his explosive exchange with CNN's Dana Bash. "The media should understand that the survival of the free press is at stake right now," he tells me. "There is only one party in America trying to censor and control the press.” New piece: newrepublic.com/article/2095...

In Florida, Gov. Desantis signs a bill that would prohibit Florida cities from tracking their greenhouse gas emissions. Yes, you heard that right. Never mind doing anything about them: they're not allowed to *track them*.

Backers of the massive data center campus say at full buildout it will consume 9GW of electricity, more than double the entire state of Utah’s current energy use. They say they intend to burn fossil fuels on site to make all that electricity. Box Elder County will vote on the proposal Monday.

The Pentagon fired an ombudsman whose role is to preserve a military newspaper's editorial independence because she spoke out about efforts to undermine that independence. These people behave as if someone else pays their legal fees when they get sued. Oh, right...

NEW: Pope Leo XIV told the world’s press today that the Catholic Church’s moral imagination has long been too narrowed to sexual ethics — and that war, migration, and human dignity are the “much greater, more important issues” of our time.

Moderna’s combo flu-COVID vaccine has received European authorization. Read more: ow.ly/vFpx50YONcH

Talk about a MAJOR conflict of interest: The Paramount CEO, who is trying to buy Warner Brothers, is hosting an invitation-only dinner to HONOR DONALD TRUMP, whose administration is supposed to review mergers like Paramount-WB. They're not even trying to hide the corruption.

Insanity.

🚨BREAKING: Internal emails between DOJ personnel suggest that, from the very outset of the effort to obtain sensitive voter data from states — much earlier than previously known — officials there planned to share it with the DHS. www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

Reading the FT front page story about a Chinese company introducing a battery with a 1500 km range & six minute recharging time & about how two Chinese companies own more than half of the global EV battery market & I am struck by the different realities the US and China occupy. We’ve lost the plot.

“Global prices of jet fuel have risen more than 70 percent since the start the war at the end of February”

Convicted sex criminal Ghislaine Maxwell socialized with Melania from Palm Beach to Manhattan. Emails revealed in the Epstein Files show that the two communicated. Today, the DOJ is still hiding nearly half the files. Why? What’s being hidden? Oversight Dems will find out.

What do Levi’s, Hanes, and Chewy have in common? California AG Rob Bonta just revealed evidence alleging that Amazon used its power to pressure them, and countless other brands, to inflate prices of listings on rival online marketplaces as part of wide-ranging price-fixing scheme.

SCOOP: Trump has told confidants that Ron DeSantis is "begging" for a job in the administration. DeSantis has angled to be attorney general, secretary of defense or even a Supreme Court justice.

The University of South Florida Police Department and Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office are asking for the public's help in looking for two missing graduate students. https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborough-county/2-graduate-students-missing-from-university-of-south-florida-police-say/ 

A data center is opening in middle of Black neighborhood in Miami

With the result in Virginia, here's what we know about how mid-decade redistricting has shifted the landscape. Across the 7 states with new maps: —11 districts have shifted toward Democrats; —9 districts have shifted toward the GOP.

No Is a Complete Sentence You do not owe anyone an explanation of why your answer is no. You do not have to justify your limits or apologize for having them. 'No' is not rude. It is not unkind. It is honest — and it is yours to give freely. Where in your life does a boundary need honoring?

A WIRED review of permits for data center projects using natural gas and linked to OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI shows they could emit more than 129 million tons of greenhouse gases per year. www.wired.com/story/new-ga...

What the American "drug war" looks like on the ground: Ecuadorian fishermen were attacked in a double drone strike, arrested at gupoint, taken to El Salvador and then finally released. www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

RESULT... in Coral Gables, FL: The city has overwhelmingly voted tonight to change timing of its local elections to November. Part of an effort we're seeing nationwide to get higher turnout in local races. It was one of my 40 races to watch in April. boltsmag.org/whats-on-the...

Satellite imagery reveals that US has damaged or destroyed an estimated 7,645 buildings in Iran (including 60 schools) while killing at least 3,300 individuals since 28 Feb. Nearly 3,000 of those buildings were in Tehran

Multiple oil spills are visible from space after Iranian and US-Israeli strikes hit oil facilities and ships in the region, with experts warning of an impending environmental catastrophe. https://cnn.it/3Ovxzwk

According the AG Blanche, “The SPLC is manufacturing racism to justify its existence.” This is some whacked out far-right fantasy. Hard to imagine this theory will hold up in court, but the lives of paid informants who infiltrated hate groups will be at risk. www.justice.gov/opa/pr/feder...

The California Assembly has killed the CalCare single-payer healthcare plan (AB 1900), despite CA Dems’s veto-proof supermajority in both houses & the majority of CA voters supporting it. My fellow Californians, consider each rep & gov candidate’s CalCare stance when you cast your vote!

The YES has won in Virginia; voters approved the constitutional amendment to adopt Dems' congressional gerrymander. This is likely to deliver a 10-1 (Dem) congressional delegation in November, compared to 6-5 (Dem) now. The remaining obstacle: State supreme court will be weighing in still.

Exclusive: More than 100 former NASA astronauts are launching a nonpartisan nonprofit that will advocate for constitutional limits and bringing back civic responsibility.

Page One. @wsj.com #Florida

Pa. court recognizes ‘reproductive autonomy’ as a right, strikes down ban on public funding for abortion www.inquirer.com/news/pennsyl...

A US army sergeant with 27 years of military service – including deployment to Afghanistan – has said that federal immigration agents recently arrested his wife during an appointment at an El Paso, Texas, immigration office.

Some timeline stuff: — We expect to get InfoWars.com after the judge clears it in a couple of weeks. — We'll build a world of characters on the site and across social media. Tim Heidecker is in charge, and we have grand designs. — Visit theonion.info, buy a subscription, help us dominate the world.

The Trump admin wants access to the personal medical records of millions of federal workers, including their medical visits, prescriptions, and treatment histories. This is just wrong. I'm urging them to reserve course on this dangerous decision, which puts Americans’ privacy at risk.

56,497 companies already applied to get $166 BILLION in refunds for Donald Trump's illegal tariffs. But where’s Trump’s plan to give the American people their money back? Every second that ticks by with no refund for American families is theft in broad daylight.

Despite Trump's best efforts, solar is still booming in the US.

"As of 2020, Garcia, Gonzalez, Hernandez, Lopez, Martinez and Rodriguez have all joined the list of most common last names."

EU: The European Union will require sale of mobile phones with “user-replaceable and longer-lasting batteries” starting in 2027. The regulation demands “availability of spare parts and manuals for 10 years to curb planned obsolescence”.

Absolutely incredible. NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman, who commanded Artemis II, took this footage from the far side of the Moon with his iPhone. Watch with sound on.

A Ron DeSantis super PAC is cashing big checks from donors with businesses before his administration – including utility giant Florida Power & Light, phosphate mining firm Mosaic, and the New York real-estate investor behind the "Blue Ribbon Projects" bill. jasongarcia.substack.com/p/ron-desant...

Breaking: HHS’s ban on gender-affirming care is struck down. Rarely have I read a ruling this sharply worded. “This case is one of a long list of examples of how a leader’s wanton disregard for the rule of law causes very real harm to very real people.” www.advocate.com/politics/nat...

"She’s been a court interpreter for over 20 years, the only one licensed in Texas for Hindi, Punjabi, or Urdu. Her language skills are requested nationwide..." "One of her children recently enlisted in the military... www.texasobserver.org/immigration-...

"Pancreatic cancer mRNA vaccine shows lasting results in an early trial: Scientists caution that more research is needed, but nearly all of the patients who responded to the personalized vaccine are still alive six years later."

OOP New York Times got receipts on John Roberts being like, 'I know this isn't how anything works, but a Democratic president is about to implement a policy!!' www.nytimes.com/2026/04/18/u...

🔨 🔥 The time to rise has been engaged… “Finest Worksong” was released as a single in the UK on April 18, 1988. The video was directed by our very own @michaelstipe.bsky.social

Plans for North #Florida ICE detention warehouse fall through after huge opposition from the community. www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/p...

Bluesky under attack. (Maybe you noticed that Thursday.) "Bluesky’s website and app are still struggling on Friday after experiencing service interruptions that chief operating officer Rose Wang attributed to an ongoing cyberattack." techcrunch.com/2026/04/17/i...