America's July jobs report landed Friday morning, and the headline number was the kind that makes Washington stop cold.

Payrolls fell by 23,000 when economists had expected a gain. That is a miss of more than 100,000 jobs, and it came with another dose of bad news buried in the revisions.

JUST IN: A surprisingly bad job report. The US economy LOST -23,000 jobs in July (way below expectations of +80k). May and June were revised DOWN by a combined -103,000.

Unemployment rate: 4.1% ->This went down for the WRONG reasons. Over 260,000 left the labor force

Wage… pic.twitter.com/PGoCbq325I

— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) August 7, 2026

The first reaction is obvious: 23,000 jobs disappeared, and the previous two months were weaker than Americans had been told.

But the full report is more complicated than the screaming headline. There is a real warning here, along with one enormous seasonal distortion that deserves attention.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payroll employment fell by 23,000 in July while unemployment held near 4.1 percent. The number of unemployed Americans stood at 6.9 million, and temporary layoffs climbed by 153,000 to 921,000.

Labor-force participation was 61.4 percent. That rate has

Todd Blanche's nomination to become President Trump's next confirmed attorney general looked like it might be one Republican defection away from collapse.

Then Sen. Bill Cassidy walked onto the Senate floor Friday and delivered the vote Blanche desperately needed.

I will announce my decision on the Attorney General nominee at 10:40 am ET from the Senate Floor.

— U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (@SenBillCassidy) August 7, 2026

Cassidy's announcement had been closely watched because Blanche could afford almost no additional Republican opposition. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska had already said they would vote no.

With Sen. Mitch McConnell still absent, another lost GOP vote could have left the nomination stranded before the Senate's August recess.

Just the News reported that Cassidy's support likely clears the way for confirmation. The Louisiana Republican said his choice was between Blanche and another acting attorney general who might be less capable of running the Justice Department under President Trump.

Cassidy acknowledged that he had concerns, but concluded that rejecting Blanche could put progress against violent crime, drug trafficking, and fraud at risk.

The report noted that Collins and Murkowski were already opposed while

Well, the Ninth Circuit just handed the Left a ruling it badly wanted to avoid.

An 11-judge en banc panel has cleared the way for Arizona to enforce two election-law provisions that progressive groups have fought since 2022.

The decision is a major win for Arizona’s authority to maintain accurate voter rolls and police illegal voting. It also delivers a broader warning to activist organizations trying to turn political opposition into automatic standing to sue.

There is one important legal detail up front: this fight concerned a preliminary injunction. The Ninth Circuit did not finally resolve every claim in the lawsuit.

It did vacate the order that had blocked enforcement and sent the case back to the district court.

In practical terms, Arizona can now move forward with the two challenged provisions while the litigation continues.

JUST IN: En banc 9th Circuit lifts injunction against 2 AZ election law changes. Judges spar over post-Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine organizational standing. Find it lacking on 1 of 2 claims. Vulgarity-free concurrence from Van Dyke. Opn: https://t.co/FtNAbbkFdu

— Josh Gerstein (@joshgerstein) August 7, 2026

The Ninth Circuit’s published opinion addresses two pieces of Arizona

Meta just got handed a $567 million bill in New Mexico.

But the money is not the part that should make Silicon Valley nervous.

A state judge also ordered changes aimed at the machinery behind Facebook and Instagram — the addictive design choices, weak protections and age-detection failures that New Mexico says helped turn childhood into a profit center.

The Associated Press reports that Judge Bryan Biedscheid directed Meta to pay $567 million over five years to address harms suffered by young people. Of that amount, $420 million is earmarked for treatment services.

The remaining money is assigned to prevention, public awareness, screening and related costs. The order also requires stronger responses to reports of child sexual abuse, limits on how chatbots interact with minors and caps on the hours young users can spend on Meta’s platforms.

The balance is slated for prevention, public awareness, screening and related costs. State lawmakers will determine how the money is ultimately distributed.

That comes on top of the $375 million civil verdict a New Mexico jury returned against Meta in March.

Add it together and the company is staring at $942 million from one state case.

Meta posted about $60

President Trump is taking another run at removing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

This time, the White House has put a deadline on it.

Cook has until August 26 to answer the mortgage allegations at the center of a fight that has already gone all the way to the Supreme Court.

The Associated Press reports that White House aide Dan Scavino sent Cook’s attorney a letter saying President Trump is considering removing her from the Fed’s Board of Governors. The notice gives Cook 21 days to challenge the allegations before the president makes another decision.

The 21-day window is the legal key to the White House’s second attempt. Without it, another removal decision would arrive with the same fatal flaw.

It is the White House’s answer to the procedural defect that stopped the first removal attempt.

The letter largely repeats the allegations raised last year, but the process is different. Cook now has a written explanation, a response deadline and an opportunity to put her evidence in front of the president before any final action is taken.

Her attorney says the renewed effort remains legally baseless and promised another challenge if the White House proceeds. That makes August 26 the

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Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said he does not plan on retiring anytime soon, denying rumors that he is considering retirement this year.

"Obviously I'm here for another term," Alito said in an interview published on Friday.

Samuel Alito staying on Supreme Court bench for another term after NPR erroneously reported his retirement https://t.co/HoRH6cJCTq pic.twitter.com/QphYYufVzs

— New York Post (@nypost) August 7, 2026

POLITICO has more:

NPR accidentally published an article announcing the conservative justice's retirement in June, which it swiftly took down and apologized for. Journalist Nina Totenberg, a longtime legal affairs correspondent for NPR, later said the mistake happened because she incorrectly assumed that the court was announcing Alito's retirement during announcements of staff retirements.

And some conservatives, mindful of the possibility Republicans may lose the Senate in November, have also quietly rooted for Alito to step aside — which would give President Donald Trump an opportunity to appoint another Supreme Court justice.

Alito also brushed aside those calls, dismissing the notion that judges are interchangeable parts, even with ideological peers.

"It's not pleasant, in the sense that it's a reminder of mortality," he said. "It's like, what are those vultures doing up there? They are

Six days after a horrific shooting at an Idaho In-N-Out restaurant, police have released surveillance footage capturing the entire attack.

The video is absolutely harrowing.

In addition to showing the gunman, 24-year-old Chad Williams, carrying out the shooting, it also shows three armed civilians firing back.

ABC 7 NY provided a summary of the video:

The video shows the moment the carnage began, when the gunman drove up to the drive-thru payment window and fatally shot the first victim, In-N-Out employee Ashley Garibay, according to police.

The gunman then parked his car and shot another victim who was in his car, police said.

Later, the video shows the gunman looking through the payment window and seeing employees rendering aid to Garibay, according to police narration of the video.

The gunman was then seen firing into the payment window, according to police, and when his handgun jammed, he went to his car to get a rifle.

The video showed the chaos inside the restaurant as an off-duty trooper searched for the gunman and helped usher people to the exit, police said.

The gunman is then seen on video running back to the drive-thru with the rifle and later firing at customers, according to police.

Later on,

There's been a national debate on affordability in recent days that seems to all stem from a dubious social media claim that burritos suddenly cost $20 nationwide. 

But supposedly serious journalists and commentators have picked up the narrative, including Fox News contributor and Washington Post columnist Mark Thiessen:

Cry me a river. The burritos in the college cafeteria are included in your meal plan. https://t.co/lQCDSW23Zy

— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) August 5, 2026

That comment sparked remarks from, among others, Vice President J.D. Vance:

I'm surprised to hear Mark say this. If you've ever met him in person, it's quite obvious the man has never missed a burrito. https://t.co/z4DjKLVZVs

— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 5, 2026

According to The Hill, the vice president later defended the jab in an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt:

"I certainly wish him the best. I think he's been a little unfair to me over the last couple of weeks, and so I decided to hit back with a little spice," Vance said of Thiessen.

Vance said he looked

President Trump is not letting a divided appeals court have the final word on construction at the White House.

After two Democrat-appointed judges backed an order stopping above-ground work on the new ballroom, Trump announced that his administration is taking the fight straight to the United States Supreme Court.

But he did more than announce another appeal.

The president put the project into a much bigger frame: a heavily protected military and national-security complex designed to safeguard the White House, future presidents, their families, visiting dignitaries and everyone working inside the Executive Mansion.

Fox News reported that the Justice Department moved quickly after the D.C. Circuit decision, escalating the case while the court’s mandate remains temporarily stayed.

JUST IN: The Justice Department is appealing the new ruling against President Trump’s White House ballroom project, escalating the legal fight just hours after a federal appeals court sided against the administration.

The D.C. Circuit ruled Friday morning that Congress has… pic.twitter.com/Ne8Gf9y6Hq

— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 7, 2026

That timing matters.

The appeals court stayed its own mandate for 14 days, leaving the administration a narrow window to ask the Supreme Court to intervene before the injunction takes full effect.

In his

This is what happens when a women’s sports league refuses to draw a clear, public line.

Royce White, a 6-foot-8 former NBA first-round draft pick who weighs roughly 260 pounds, says he is declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft.

White is now the second former NBA player to announce such a move after Enes Kanter Freedom made his own declaration Friday.

And White is not being subtle about the point he intends to prove.

Fox News reporter Jackson Thompson broke the story after speaking directly with White:

A second former NBA player plans to join the WNBA.

Royce White – a first-round NBA Draft pick in 2012 – told me he will be declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft. The only thing that will stop him is if the WNBA makes a "definitive statement" that males can't play in the league. https://t.co/1TiWv2d8Kp pic.twitter.com/22SsSgoHTf

— Jackson Thompson (@JackThompsonFOX) August 8, 2026

There is an important distinction here: White has announced his intention to declare. That announcement alone does not formally place him in the draft pool, guarantee his eligibility, or force a WNBA team to select him.

But the challenge he is making could hardly be clearer.

In a

It was plain as day for all of us who watched it happen in real time, and now even Hunter Biden is admitting that the blanket presidential pardon he received from his father in 2024 was unfair and only made possible by unparalleled privilege. 

He made the unvarnished acknowledgement during a recent interview, even going on to confirm that the move damaged Joe Biden's already tattered legacy.

As The Hill reported: 

Hunter Biden, the son of former President Biden, on Friday said the pardon he received in 2024 was "not good" for the American people or his father's legacy, calling himself the "the most privileged person there is."

The younger Biden, in an interview with BBC's "Newsnight," said he understood the backlash the former president received after issuing the clemency, after he repeatedly pledged that he would not intervene in his son's criminal cases.

"It's something that is easily criticized and for good reason," Hunter told the outlet. "It's not fair."

"I was the only one in the world that could have gotten what I got from the only person in