Outside the Beltway

Students across the country are staging 17-minute protests at 10 am in their time zones.

Stephen Hawking possessed one of the greatest minds in history, but he will likely be most remembered for not letting a debilitating disease stop him from contributing to our understanding of the universe.

By all accounts, Gina Haspel is exceedingly well qualified to be the next C.I.A. Director, but she has a troubling past that the Senate will need to at least force her to answer questions about.

Rex Tillerson was an awful Secretary of State who simply had to go, It’s quite possible his successor will be an even greater disaster.

Ending an investigation that was flawed and tainted with partisanship from the start, the House Intelligence Committee has abruptly concluded its investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

By threatening to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, Donald Trump is making it far less likely that any upcoming talks with North Korea will succeed.

Service members deployed to Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Mali, Niger, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Tunisia, and Uganda qualify.

Anderson Cooper has interviewed adult film star Stormy Daniels for 60 Minutes, but lawyers for President Trump are apparently considering legal action to stop the report from airing.

The President tried bringing something akin to a traditional policy process to the White House. Now he’s rebelling against it.

CJR’s Dan Mitchell has a tiny quibble with a recent viral NYT thumbsucker. 

Two seemingly contradictory essays out today highlight the exhausting political conversation environment.

The eighty year old mystery regarding the fate of famed aviator Amelia Earhart may have taken a step toward being solved if the results of a new forensic study are correct.

What the heck is going on in Kentucky and Tennessee?

Maryland’s legislature is considering a law that would require candidates for President to release their tax returns. It’s probably not Constitutional.

The Russia investigation rolls on with more evidence of questionable conduct on the part of Trump and his team.

Adult film star Stormy Daniels has filed a lawsuit against the President, handing the already beleaguered White House yet another headache.

The chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors is out after failing to convince the boss not to impose tariffs.

POLITICO buries the lede in making the case for “Donald Trump’s bubble presidency.”

How ‘tainted’ must a funder be before a charity is obliged to reject the donation?

The circumstantial case for corruption by Kushner is growing.

Four social media stars have been fired from their television show after the revelation that Pamela Gellar is their mother.

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham says war against North Korea would be worth it. Ignoring the fact that it would result in casualties unlike anything America has seen since the Vietnam War.

I’ve made the sad discovery that longtime friend of the blog John Burgess passed away on February 16, 2016.

The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether an American company can be required to turn over data stored on servers located overseas.

We form stereotypes about generational cohorts when they’re very young and then freeze them.

President Trump has announced that he’ll be imposing significant tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. This is an unwise decision.

With the Winter Olympics over, the next step on the Korean Peninsula is utterly unclear.

Following yesterday’s move by Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walmart has raised the age for all gun sales to 21.

The 29-year-old was one of President Trump’s most trusted aides but she had an impossible job.

A Federal Judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to invalidate Federal laws against marijuana use and possession.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals rules that existing civil rights laws bar discrimination based on sexual orientation.

China’s Xi Jinping solidified his hold on power well into the next decade over the weekend.

The Supreme Court has declined an invitation to intervene early in the legal arguments surrounding DACA.

Jonathan Bernstein thinks so and Chuck Todd and company outline a pretty strong case.

Mark Levin says we’re “morons” and “illiterate in English” because we’ve quoted the NYT.

Some thoughts on the biggest Marvel blockbuster yet. [Modest spoilers]

An emerging technology will take “fake news” to a whole new level.

The Mueller investigation moves forward.

If a law enforcement officer with 30 years of experience can’t stop an active school shooter, what makes anyone think a teacher with a gun can?

Since the Supreme Court handed down its decision in District of Columbia v. Heller four separate Federal appellate courts have ruled that state and local laws banning “assault weapons” do not violate the Second Amendment.

A new poll suggests that Republicans would get the blame if Congress fails to pass a bill to protect DACA beneficiaries.

While the glass ceiling in high-level posts was shattered decades ago, men still dominate the field.

Billy Graham was the son of a North Carolina farmer who grew up to become a counselor to Presidents, Prime Ministers, and even a Queen.

President Trump is calling on the Justice Department to ban bump stocks, but it seems clear that this is an area where Congress needs to be taking the lead.

Continuing a pattern that has gone on for eight years now, the Supreme Court has declined to hear another appeal regarding a Second Amendment challenge to state gun control laws.

The Russia probe charges Alex Van Der Zwaan made false statements about past communications with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates.

Donald Trump’s dereliction of duty in response to clear evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election is a staggering and flagrant dereliction of the duties he agreed to take on when he took the Oath Of Office more than a year ago.

NRO’s David French offers “A Gun-Control Measure Conservatives Should Consider.”

The prospects for extending legal protections for DACA beneficiaries are getting grimmer by the day.

A significant and important development in the Russia investigation that shows that President Trump’s claim that the stories of Russian interference in the 2016 election were “Fake News” is completely untrue.