Shamed into it by DC & MD attorneys general? (DC Atty. Gen. told WaPo June 12 that “We’re getting in here to be the check and balance that it appears Congress is unwilling to be”. ) At the very least: "gone viral", or "doh why didn't we think of this sooner?"

By Tom Hamburger & Karen Tumulty @ The Washington Post, June 14

Nearly 200 Democratic members of Congress agreed to file a lawsuit Wednesday against President Trump alleging that by retaining interests in a global business empire he has violated constitutional restrictions on taking gifts and benefits from foreign leaders.

The lead senator filing the complaint in federal district court, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), said Tuesday that the lawsuit has already drawn more congressional plaintiffs — 196 — than any legal action previously taken against a president. No Republicans had joined in the lawsuit so far, although they will be invited to do so, Blumenthal said.

An advance copy of the legal complaint reviewed by The Washington Post argues that those in Congress have special standing because the Constitution’s “foreign emoluments clause” requires the president to obtain “the consent of Congress” before accepting any gifts [....]

But fortunately it's all just paranoia plus Hillary's fault.

  By Caroline Bankoff @ Daily Intelligencer @ NYMag.com, June 13

The Senate has reached an agreement to further sanction Russia for its meddling in the 2016 election, as well as its military activities in Ukraine and Syria. The bipartisan deal also includes a provision allowing Congress to review and potentially prevent the White House from rolling back penalties on Russia. Since November, various members of President Trump’s circle have reportedly floated the idea of easing the sanctions ordered by President Obama, with Trump himself saying that he was considering it shortly after his inauguration. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has since said that, “The United States sanctions will remain until Moscow reverses the actions that triggered our sanctions,” but Trump and Tillerson are not always on the same page.

From Reuters: [....]

By Sarah Kliff @ Vox.com, June 12

The Affordable Care Act is in deep trouble — in Washington and large swaths of the country.

[.....] across the nation, health insurance plans are beginning to flee the Obamacare marketplace. They’ve cited the uncertainty around the health care law’s future, sown by congressional Republicans and the Trump administration. The number of counties with zero health plans signed up to sell 2018 coverage keeps growing [....]

Trump Cabinet Members Compete for Best Compliment Giver

By Amy Qin @ NYTimes.com, June 9

BEIJING — Whether read openly and voraciously or behind closed doors, celebrity gossip plays an integral role in the entertainment world, connecting stars and the big businesses that back them to an audience eager for the juiciest of details.

But to some officials in China, the bloggers that report those tidbits play another role: a threat to public order.

A large number of Chinese “celebrity news” blogs have disappeared in recent days after coming under the scrutiny of China’s cyberspace regulators. Their absence comes amid a broader tightening of online and media controls ahead of a once-in-every-five-years meeting of top Communist Party leaders this year, at which party officials will consider major decisions about who will lead the country in the coming years.

At a meeting on Wednesday with representatives from China’s leading internet companies, officials from the Beijing bureau of the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s top online regulator, called on the companies to “actively promote socialist core values” and create a “healthy, uplifting environment for mainstream opinion” by combating vulgar and sensationalist coverage of celebrity scandals and lifestyles [....]

Every major federal agency and program has an inspector general, a nonpartisan, independent official whose staff investigates cases of wasteful spending, criminal activity, employee misconduct and plain bad management. These are watchdogs with real teeth... The administration...has undermined the inspectors’ role by failing to hire for open positions and planning to slash the offices’ budgets, one of the many ways the White House has found to diminish the oversight functions of the federal government.

Easier to avoid Schneiderman and Preet this way, you understand, don't you Barron dear?

By Adam Edelman @ NYDailyNews.com, June 10

A GOP donor who once had ties to IBM is the man behind the millions of Twitter bots President Trump counts on as followers who could be employed to target voters with misleading or fake news on social media. In order for it to work, the scheme relies on the quiet guidance of Robert Mercer, a reclusive Republican mega-donor and staunch Trump supporter, sources told the Daily News [....]

Trump, meanwhile, has accrued among his 30 million Twitter followers — 15 million of which are actually bots that experts have told the Daily News could be “weaponized” to spread fake and misleading news stories that favor the White House or distract from the scandals it now faces.

But with the subtle introduction of advanced technology, by individuals familiar with artificial intelligence, their effectiveness as it pertains to targeting users and interacting with them could escalate rapidly.

“Fooling humans into doing things in the electronic realm turned out to be really easy,” said Simon Crosby, the chief technology officer at a firm called Bromium, pointing to well-documented campaigns that are thought to have influenced the 2016 presidential race and the Brexit referendum [.....] “But with a few extra steps that seem available in the right circles, it could get even easier,” [....]

Mother Jones recently announced it’s “redoubling our Russia reporting”—in the words of editor Clara Jeffery. Ain’t that rich.

How Steve Case became Washington's tech whisperer

By Mike Donovan for The Agenda @ Politico.com, June 8

On a late March afternoon in the marbled caucus room of the U.S. Senate, more than a hundred entrepreneurs from all over the country—Minneapolis, Albuquerque, Cincinnati—stuffed themselves column-to-column for an unusual session. The topic was the promise of technology for America and the perils it poses to a country in which some regions are being left far behind. Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse, a first-term Republican, delved into the particulars of a mechanized economy so new that economists don’t know what to call it but is leaving his state hollowed out. “Even as we feed more and more people around the globe,” says Sasse, “it requires less and less labor.” Next up was Ro Khanna, a newly elected Democratic congressman representing Silicon Valley. On paper, he and Sasse share just about no politics. But he was there to talk about exporting the benefits of his district’s booming economy to people in places like, well, Nebraska. “It’s patronizing to suggest they don’t want to be part of the future,” said Khanna.

Everyone here—the politicians, the founders, a healthy helping of Capitol Hill staff—was in the room at the invitation (and in the founders’ case, on the dime of) someone whose name some of the younger participants could be forgiven for otherwise not knowing: America Online founder Steve Case [....]