Congress is angling to impose some training wheels on the Trump administration when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars on broadband deployment. Lawmakers are eyeing the reconciliation process for the farm bill as a way to check the Agriculture Department, which manages various telecom subsidies through its Rural Utilities Service (RUS). “Appropriate guidance in the farm bill being reconciled and the department’s continued vigilance are critical to avoiding another boondoggle,” said a Senate GOP aide, referring to past alleged waste in the program.

The negotiations come as Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune (R-SD) and Telecom Subcommittee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) write a new letter cautioning Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to avoid duplicating any Federal Communications Commission efforts as it develops a rural broadband pilot program with $600 million Congress allocated for the purpose earlier in 2018. The lawmakers cite reporting from POLITICO on the mishandling of broadband funds under the Obama-era RUS, which some believe squandered hundreds of millions of dollars. Although Sec. Perdue previously has touted the Trump administration’s goal to better marshall existing funds, the lawmakers stressed some concerns: “While we know you are working to correct these past shortcomings … we strongly urge you to take the necessary steps to avoid the failures of the past Administration,” Chairmen Thune and Wicker write.

Chairman Thune has looked to FCC Commissioner Mike O’Rielly for guidance, questioning him on the topic during a recent FCC oversight hearing. “There are some provisions in the farm bill that I appreciate,” Commissioner O’Rielly told Chairman Thune. “I think they could go a little further.” Commissioner O’Rielly said Congress should focus on making sure the money helps people who lack broadband options rather than subsidizing those who just have subpar internet service.

In June, Arkansas began rolling out a controversial change to its Medicaid program. Under a new state plan, all recipients who are able to work will have to log 80 working hours each month, or risk losing access to their health care. But finding a job might not be the biggest hurdle for many people. In order to stay eligible for Medicaid, Arkansas’s recipients must report their working hours each month, and it must be done online—the state doesn’t offer a way to do it via mail, telephone, or in person. This stings especially hard in Arkansas, which ranks 48th in the country for internet access. Approximately 30 percent of the state’s population has access to fewer than two internet providers. An estimated 20 percent have only a smart phone for internet access at home. And in a state where 17 percent of residents live below the poverty line, even those with access might not be able to afford service.

A bipartisan bill now in Congress would give the National Institutes of Health $95 million over five years to fund studies on how media and technology effect children.

Don’t believe your eyes and ears. Believe only me. That has been President Trump’s message to the public for the past two years, pounded in without a break: The press is the enemy. The news is fake. President Donald Trump has done his best to prepare the ground for a moment like Aug 21. In a divided, disbelieving nation, will this really turn out to be the epic moment it looks like? Or will Trump’s intense, years-long campaign to undermine the media — and truth itself — pay off now, in the clutch? 

After all, this ugly saga will reach its resolution in the court of public opinion, as political matters often do: in the midterm elections, in the will of Congress, in the ways that citizens talk to their representatives in their home districts. “If what we learned today doesn’t matter to people, what will?” asked CNN's Chris Cuomo. It’s an excellent question, and the answer may be “almost nothing.”

Apparently, the tabloid executive David J. Pecker has been granted immunity by federal prosecutors investigating payments during the 2016 campaign to two women who said they had affairs with Donald J. Trump. Pecker is chief executive and chairman of American Media Inc., the nation’s biggest tabloid news publisher, best known for its flagship, The National Enquirer. He is close to President Trump and the president’s former lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, and had been integral to a campaign effort to help protect Trump from embarrassing stories about women as he ran for the presidency.

The agreement adds another unusual aspect to a case never seen before in the annals of presidential campaign finance history. It means that a company that operates as a news organization is cooperating with federal authorities on an investigation that involves its work with a campaign.  As reported in July, federal prosecutors determined that in American Media’s work for Cohen — and, according to Cohen, Trump’s candidacy — the company operated in more of a campaign mode. And when the authorities subpoenaed the company in April, its executives decided against fighting it, agreeing to cooperate where warranted, and where they deemed officials were not violating First Amendment rights. The company’s cooperation gives prosecutors a second line of access to communications about the effort to protect Trump’s secrets involving women during the campaign, on top of the information provided by Cohen.

Nearly eight-in-ten Americans say that when it comes to important issues facing the country, most Republican and Democratic voters not only disagree over plans and policies, but also cannot agree on basic facts. Ironically, Republicans and Democrats do agree that partisan disagreements extend to the basic facts of issues. About eight-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning independents (81%) say Republican and Democratic voters disagree on basic facts of issues. A similar – albeit slightly smaller – share of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (76%) say the same. Just 18% of Republicans and 23% of Democrats say that voters of the two parties can agree on basic facts even if they disagree over policies and plans. Opinion on whether or not Republican and Democratic voters can agree on basic facts differs by race and ethnicity. Whites (82%) are far more likely than blacks (70%) or Hispanics (64%) to say that voters cannot agree on basic facts. And while about a third (34%) of Hispanics and 26% of blacks say that voters of both major parties can agree on basic facts, fewer whites (17%) say the same.