US national policy issues looming after healthcare?

Judge orders government to turn over documents from Rudy Giuliani on travel ban

Those suing over the matter hope the communications will bolster their claim that the ban was motivated by animus toward Muslims.

The painful truth about America’s humiliating dental-health divide

High-end cosmetic dentistry is soaring, and better-off Americans spend billions each year just to make their teeth a few shades whiter. But many who work full time still can’t afford dental care, and millions rely on charity clinics and hospital emergency rooms to treat painful and neglected teeth.

Earlier this month, the House Intelligence Committee invited Yates to share her account of those developments, in an open hearing on the Putin government’s alleged interference in the 2016 election. Such testimony might conceivably touch on why the Trump administration waited weeks after Yates’s warning to oust Flynn.

Yates accepted the committee’s invitation.

Then, the Trump administration informed her that she would need to clear her testimony with the president, according to documents obtained by the Washington Post.

Last Friday, Yates’s attorney reiterated her rejection of the DOJ’s analysis, and affirmed that she intended to testify at an open hearing scheduled for this Tuesday. By that point, Yates had also informed government officials that her testimony would probably contradict some statements made by the Trump administration.

That same day, House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes canceled Yates’s hearing.

On Tuesday, the White House denied that it had taken “any action to prevent Sally Yates from testifying.” Ostensibly, the White House does not consider warning Yates that her testimony would be illegal — absent the president’s consent — as such an action.

Regardless, the Trump administration appears to have discouraged Yates from testifying. Yates insisted on doing so, anyway. And then Nunes canceled the hearing where she was scheduled to speak.

When Nunes made that decision last week, his committee’s ranking Democrat accused him of trying to “choke off public info.”

The fact that Nunes appears to have canceled a hearing — that the White House wished to prevent — has further undermined the GOP lawmaker’s standing

In Arizona, teachers can now be hired with absolutely no training in how to teach

Gov. Doug Ducey described the new law as a positive change that will entice “great teachers” into the classroom and help alleviate the state’s persistent shortage of educators. One retired teacher is calling it the “Warm Body Law."

I am really, really good looking. You look good, too. You’re a tall drink of water. Like a giraffe crossed with Eliot Ness. What are you, 6-foot-8, 6-foot-9? Central casting. But don’t let your head get too big. Don’t be a showboat. Don’t be a grandstander. That’s my shtick. Do you play golf? How far do you drive? Trump hits it strong and long — 285 yards. Have some salad. We got you creamy vinaigrette. I always do Thousand Island.

Supreme Court will not consider reviving controversial North Carolina voter ID law

A lower court had said that state legislators acted “with almost surgical precision” in seeking to blunt the influence of African American voters. Last summer the Supreme Court had divided evenly on whether the law could be used in last fall’s election while the appeals continued.

Top lawmakers: If Trump has tapes, Congress needs access to them

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer were among leaders in both parties requesting that any recordings of White House conversations be turned over for review immediately. Sen. Mike Lee, a former federal prosecutor, said “it’s probably inevitable” that such tapes would be subpoenaed.

AND THE TRUMPIAN ANECDOTE OF THE DAY, WE-ARE-ALL-DOOMED EDITION: Shane Goldmacher brings us this doozy:

K.T. McFarland, the deputy national security adviser, [gave] Trump a printout of two Time magazine covers. One, supposedly from the 1970s, warned of a coming ice age; the other, from 2008, about surviving global warming, according to four White House officials familiar with the matter.

Trump quickly got lathered up about the media’s hypocrisy. But there was a problem. The 1970s cover was fake, part of an Internet hoax that’s circulated for years. Staff chased down the truth and intervened before Trump tweeted or talked publicly about it.

Good to see those White House staffers are on the case! But it would be nice if they would also consider trying to persuade Trump that climate change is real. A lot is riding on that, you know.

When The Carter Center began leading the international campaign to eradicate Guinea worm disease in 1986, there were an estimated 3.5 million cases in 21 countries in Africa and Asia. Today, that number has been reduced by more than 99.99 percent.

In 2016, 25* human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide. These numbers are *provisional until certified.

Jan. 1 – March 31, 2017
Worldwide Total:
3*

I would rather pay the waste and corruption of the government, than the waste and corruption of a business along with the overhead of shareholder profits and bloated executive salaries.

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian diplomats

The president’s disclosures to the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in their Oval Office meeting last week jeopardized a critical source of intelligence on the Islamic State

— an information-sharing arrangement considered so sensitive that details have been withheld from allies and tightly restricted even within the U.S. government, current and former U.S. officials said.

Trump appeared to be boasting of the “great intel” he receives when he described a looming terror threat, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange. As president, Trump has broad authority to declassify government secrets, making it unlikely that his disclosures broke the law.