A group of conservative operatives using sophisticated robocalls raised millions of dollars from donors using pro-police and pro-veteran messages. But instead of using the money to promote issues and candidates, an analysis by The New York Times shows, nearly all the money went to pay the firms making the calls and the operatives themselves.

"We don't blindly follow your authority just because you're the mayor."

Autumn Alston, a Democratic activist who canvassed for Cotham’s two most recent campaigns and advised her often, echoed that sentiment. “She used people when she needed them and now she has abandoned them,” Alston told me, noting that Cotham stopped contacting her after switching parties. Naturally, everyone would like to know what could possibly motivate a politician to abandon their whole platform, their constituents, and their dignity so suddenly and dramatically. We reported last week on the possibility that Cotham, a former charter school lobbyist, traded a vote on the abortion bill in order to co-chair the Education Committee. When she announced her defection, she said it was in part because she’d been “bullied by her fellow Democrats and had grown alienated from the party on issues like school choice,” per the New York Times. (Cotham has not responded to Jezebel’s requests for comment.) But Coby, in whom she confided about her decision to switch parties, said it wasn’t really about any genuinely held beliefs, political issues, or even money. “I wish I could say that she took a giant bag of cash at an IHOP and that’s why she did this—but it’s so much dumber than that,” he said. “It’s just a deeply petty, personal thing.”

For Republicans, the investigations into Clarence Thomas and his friendship with Harlan Crow, a Texas billionaire, are just pretexts for an attack on the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. “This assault on Justice Thomas is well beyond ethics,” Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week on Supreme Court ethics reform. “It’s about trying to delegitimize a conservative court that was appointed through the traditional process.” “This is an unseemly effort by the Democratic left to destroy the legitimacy of the Roberts court,” he went on to say. “It’s put people at risk. It’s put their personal safety at risk.” Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa accused Democrats and their “allies in the liberal media” of waging “a crusade to threaten to pack and smear the courts.” And Senator Mike Lee of Utah described the questions about Thomas’s conduct as “attacks” that are “undermining the rule of law, endangering the security of the justices and their families, and inflicting incalculable damage on our country.” For their part, Democrats do not seem eager to attack or undermine the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. Just a handful of Democrats in the House of Representatives called for Justice Thomas’s resignation after reports that he accepted lavish trips and gifts from Crow, and Senate Democrats have been careful with the issue. There’s been no attempt to subpoena either Justice Thomas or Chief Justice John Roberts — who was politely asked by letter, last month, to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee — and there’s no indication that Democrats have the votes to pass anything like a meaningful Supreme Court ethics law. What’s more, Democrats still speak as if they hold the Supreme Court in high esteem. They defer to its judgments and trust it enough to think that it could, with a little prodding, handle its own ethics issues. The goal of their questions and investigations is not to delegitimize the court as much as it is to shore up the court’s legitimacy — to protect its standing in a world where most Americans take a dim view of most American institutions. Republicans, in other words, are wrong; Democrats are not out to undermine the Supreme Court. But they should be.

Jack Parsons, one of the “suicide squad” trio of young rocket-boy founders of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had an improbable extracurricular life.

Lori Vallow, 49, faces up to life in prison for murdering her two children and her husband's former wife.

The world’s largest crypto exchange by volume said new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits prompted the exit.

The Chicago River's rebirth has allowed a giant snapping turtle to thrive in the once-toxic water, earning 'Chonkasaurus' some fans.

The project is already receiving interest from Americans who believe Russia will be the "only Christian country" left, a lawyer told state media.

After 71 years, one of southern Indiana's best known pharmacies is closing. Butt Drugs in Corydon notified customers on Thursday that it plans to close on April 29, 2023. "This was a decision that did not come lightly, considering Butt Drugs has been serving our beloved community for over 70 years," wrote Katie Butt Beckort. She is a third generation owner of the business that has been a target of more than a few one-liners from customers and the media. Beckort's grandparents started the pharmacy in 1952 on East Chestnut Street as "William H. Butt Drugs." Her father continued it as "Butt Rexall Drugs." "When I took over and purchased it from my father, we legally changed it to 'Butt Drugs.' Keeping it simple," Beckort explained to WDRB in a past story. "Butt was the given name, you know," Beckort said. "You make it what it is, you make it what life can be, have fun with it." The business has used the family name in commercial jingles with clever puns, and Beckort said the shop has been known for its old fashioned soda fountain and a prescription pick-up in the store's rear (that's no joke). People travel from all over just to get their "I love Butt Drugs" t-shirts, magnets and hats. Beckort said she and the staff are "deeply saddened that we must close our doors." "Our customers have always been more than customers to us. They are family. Our staff at Butt Drugs want to thank you for your loyalty and the trust you have had in us," the notice said. Beckort's letter placed some of the blame on changes in healthcare and the lack of control by pharmacies to control what insurance companies pay for medicines. "Unfortunately, insurance companies continue to reimburse less and less. More and more prescriptions are filled where we are reimbursed less than what we pay for the medications from the wholesaler," she said. "More than 50% of all prescriptions go out the door at a loss, and this has been a trend in pharmacy that has exacerbated over the last five years." Beckort said the store could have closed five years ago, but she got creative and made sacrifices to keep the store open, but from a business standpoint the business was unable to continue.

What led to his firing earlier that month was a matter of some dispute. In a termination letter, Feinstein’s chief of staff wrote that Purley had lost his job simply because he had stopped showing up to work and had repeatedly corresponded with constituents on behalf of the senator without first getting approval from his manager. Purley, meanwhile, thought he was being punished for telling “hard truths” about Feinstein. It was obvious to him that her mental faculties were dimming and she might be going senile. Purley also thought the Senate office should be focusing more on constituent services — casework like tracking misdirected benefit payments or providing help filling out federal forms. During a pandemic, this was the kind of work that Purley felt could save lives — especially lives in hard‐up communities of color. (Feinstein’s office declined to provide comment for this story.) Things had come to a head two weeks earlier. On a phone call with other members of the office, Purley had let loose, airing concerns for what felt like 10 minutes. He talked about the coworkers who had touched his hair while he sat at his desk, how the senator hadn’t ever learned his name or spoken to him despite five years of service to her, how the chief of staff seemed to be operating as a shadow senator since the actual one was, in his opinion, no longer mentally there. Perhaps most memorable to those on the call was his belief that the senator cared “more about her dog, Kirby, than she does about Black people.” After he’d finished speaking, Purley said, there was silence. Purley knew then that he wasn’t long for the job. He ordered the mushrooms later that day.

A YouTuber who intentionally crashed an aeroplane for views will plead guilty to obstructing a federal investigation by cleaning up the site of the crash, US prosecutors say. Trevor Jacob, 29, posted the video of the plane crash to YouTube in December 2021, implying it was an accident. It has over 2.9 million views to date. In a plea agreement, he said he filmed the video as part of a product sponsorship deal. He could face up to 20 years in prison. He reported the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board, who said he was responsible for preserving the wreckage. According to the plea agreement, Mr Jacob later claimed he did not know the location of the site. He did, and returned by helicopter and secured and removed the wreckage, which he later destroyed, the statement says.

The billboard reads “THIS IS A STRICT 25 MPH ZONE: A reminder courtesy of Planet of the Vapes.” By Annie Nickoloff

The former president of the Massachusetts State Police troopers’ union, Dana Pullman, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for accepting kickbacks from a lobbyist and for using a union debit card for personal expenses, including meals and travel.

“Doesn’t matter what cultural institution you work with in America, you’re going to be working with billionaires and there’s not a billionaire on this planet that is not fucked up.”…

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday overturned the bribery conviction of Joseph Percoco, an ex-aide to Democratic former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a ruling that further limits the ability of federal prosecutors to pursue corruption cases.

The leaders agreed to meet early next week, a White House spokesperson said. Aides from both sides have started to discuss ways to limit federal spending, as talks on raising the government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling to avoid a catastrophic default creep forward, people familiar with the discussions said. White House officials acknowledge that they must accept some spending cuts or strict caps on future spending if they are to strike a deal, two sources said, while insisting they must preserve Biden's signature climate legislation that passed along party lines last year.

Billionaire Sam Zell is the largest mobile home landlord in the US, but his tenants say they reckon with disrepair, neglect, flooding and rising rents. Some have had enough

Patricia McCullough, who is on the ballot on Tuesday, handed Donald Trump a rare legal victory in 2020 and has sided with the GOP on other election cases, only to be repeatedly struck down by the high court she now wants to join.

The private jet industry is destroying the climate and intensifying inequality. Rather than providing subsidies, we should tax the hell out of it.