Current # 1 most popular story @ Politico.com by Burgess Everett & Eliana Johnson, March 14, 7:19 pm

basically reports that Team Trump has given up on assisting and advising Trump:

[....] It didn’t have to be that way, Republicans say, especially if Trump had engaged more consistently with senators and made a relatively modest agreement to change the National Emergencies Act to rein in presidential power.

It also was a reminder that White House aides have long acknowledged the futility of speaking for or negotiating on the president’s behalf, a position they now are openly conveying to lawmakers: passing along his tweets rather than attempting to twist arms or hash out a compromise themselves [....]

Economics Editor of The New York Times responding by tweet to Mnuchin's formal statement disputing the linked March 14 New York Times story by Alan Rappeport & Ana Swanson:

Catching up with where the Trumpenproletariat of a swingy area of Pennsylvania are at now:basically, still have the same Fox-News-style grievances as before Trump showed up

By Astead W. Herndon @ NYTimes.com, March 15

[....] Daniel Squadron, the former New York state senator who leads Future Now, a national organization to help elect Democrats to state legislatures, said he cautioned people against thinking the wave of overt white identity politics is simply an offshoot of Mr. Trump.

Mr. Squadron pointed out that, in the Pennsylvania race, Mr. Scavo’s controversial social media posts began before Mr. Trump’s candidacy. Other candidates in this mold, such as the Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, won support of local Republicans even though Mr. Trump had endorsed Mr. Moore’s opponent.

“It’s not about Trump,” Mr. Squadron said. “It’s about a mind-set, a conspiracy theory, an ethnonationalism that Trump reflects.”[....]

Revealed: Donald Trump’s son-in-law challenged by Rex Tillerson and Gary Cohn for mixing personal interests with US foreign policy

By Jon Swaine in New York for TheGuardian.com, March 13

Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was confronted by two of the most senior US government officials for mixing his personal interests with US foreign policy, according to a new book.

Kushner, an envoy to the Middle East for his father-in-law, is said to have been robustly challenged by both Rex Tillerson, then secretary of state, and Gary Cohn, formerly Trump’s top economic adviser.

The confrontations are detailed in Kushner Inc by the journalist Vicky Ward, who also describes interference in foreign relations by Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump. The book is scheduled to be released on 19 March. A copy was obtained by the Guardian [....]

By Ali Winston, Nate Schweber, Jacey Fortin & Liam Stack @ NYTimes.com, March 13

Francesco Cali, the reputed boss of the Gambino crime family, was fatally shot outside his home on Staten Island on Wednesday night, a senior police official said.

Mr. Cali, 53, was shot six times, the official said. The police said they received a report about the shooting outside 25 Hilltop Terrace in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island around 9:20 p.m. There was also a report of a blue pickup truck leaving the scene around the time of shooting [....]

The assassination of Mr. Cali came on the same day that Joseph Cammarano Jr., the reputed acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, was acquitted at trial, and about a week after Carmine J. Persico, a longtime boss of the Colombo crime family, died in prison at age 85 [....]

By Nicole Chavez, Allie Mazurek & Judson Jones @ CNN.com,  10:32 PM ET, March 13 WITH VIDEOS

About 1,100 motorists were stranded in Colorado as a ferocious winter storm -- a "bomb cyclone" -- unleashed hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions in parts of the central United States. "We are in full saving lives mode," said Ryan Parsell, a spokesman for El Paso County, about the ongoing rescues. "This isn't your average Colorado storm." [....]