BOB UNRUH — A state commission in Colorado that punished Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips for refusing to use his artistry to promote same-sex marriage could be eliminated. Future funding for the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, where one member even likened Christians to Nazis, failed in a vote in the state's Joint Budget Committee.... (more)

WASHINGTON TIMES — The government careened Friday morning into its second partial shutdown in less than three weeks -- though this one appeared likely to be short-lived. Sen. Rand Paul forced the government to go beyond the midnight deadline when current funding expired, staging a protest against the potentially $2.1 trillion budget bill required to keep the cash spigot flowing.... (more)

GREG COROMBOS — Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., is slamming Republican congressional leaders for caving to spending demands by Democrats in a two-year budget bill that he anticipates will spark trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see while Republicans unilaterally surrender their greatest weapon for passing meaningful entitlement, welfare, or health care reforms.... (more)

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON — The Watergate scandal of 1972--74 was uncovered largely because of outraged Democratic politicians and a bulldog media. They both claimed that they had saved American democracy from the Nixon administration's attempt to warp the CIA and FBI to cover up an otherwise minor, though illegal, political break-in.... (more)

THE GATEWAY PUNDIT — On Tuesday, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released a "much-less redacted," version of the Senate Judiciary Committee's criminal referral of dossier author Christopher Steele. Comey is in hot water. The unredacted memo reveals the FBI misled the FISA court about Christopher Steele's contacts with media outlets.... (more)

SHOWBIZ 411 — Don't believe the mixed or bad reviews coming in early for Clint Eastwood's "15:17 to Paris." I saw it tonight, and like A.O. Scott in the New York Times, I found it fascinating and much more complicated than a snarky dismissal.... (more)

DAILY WIRE — A group of DREAMers, young illegal immigrants fighting to stay in the country following the Trump Administration's refusal to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) executive order, say they'll leave the country if a deal isn't reached . . . err . . . to keep them in the country.... (more)

THE GUARDIAN — Bermuda has become the first jurisdiction to legalise and then repeal same-sex marriage, in what critics have called an unprecedented rollback of civil rights by the British territory.... (more)

WASHINGTON TIMES — Text messages between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, released Wednesday, raised serious questions about whether President Obama kept tabs on the bureau's 2016 investigation into Hillary Clinton, despite his assurances otherwise. In a Sept. 2, 2016, message to Mr. Strzok, a senior FBI agent, Ms. Page, a bureau lawyer, said they were preparing reports on the Clinton investigation for FBI Director James B. Comey because "potus wants to know everything we are doing." "POTUS" is the common Washington acronym for President of the United States.... (more)

WORLDNETDAILY — Just when you thought the Democratic National Committee's funding of the dossier used to spy on Trump's campaign was scandalous, WikiLeaks has revealed another DNC connection to the FISA spying warrant.... (more)

FOX NEWS — Left-wing billionaire George Soros is pumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign looking to sabotage British voters' 2016 decision to leave the European Union. The U.K. Daily Telegraph first reported late Wednesday that Soros has delivered £400,000 ($560,000) to the anti-Brexit "Best for Britain" campaign via his Open Society Foundations. He also hosted big-money donors at his London home as part of the group's goal to raise support to nix the implementation of the Brexit referendum.... (more)

NEWSMAX — A top White House aide is stepping down following allegations of domestic abuse by his two ex-wives. Staff secretary Rob Porter says in a statement the allegations are "outrageous" and "simply false." He says photos published were taken nearly 15 years ago and the "reality behind them is nowhere close to what is being described." Porter adds that he has been transparent and truthful, but will leave the White House after a transition period.... (more)

SALT LAKE TRIBUNE — The LDS Church declared Thursday that it has "zero tolerance" for abuse of any kind but couldn't speak directly to allegations by the ex-wives of a former White House official who reported they received no help from their Mormon clergy when they were being abused. Jennifer Willoughby and Colbie Holderness -- former wives of Rob Porter, who resigned as White House staff secretary this week -- said their LDS bishops either didn't believe them or didn't step in to help when they alleged Porter had physically abused them. Porter has denied the charges.... (more)

DAILY WIRE — The FBI's informant in the Uranium One scandal involving the Obama administration gave written testimony to three congressional committees this week in which he accused the Obama administration of making decisions that directly benefited the Russian government and their goals of gaining geopolitical advantages over the United States.... (more)

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON — Some things still do not add up about the so-called Steele dossier, FISA warrants, the Nunes memo, and the hysterical Democratic reaction to it.... (more)

CONRAD BLACK — Donald Trump's critics never imagined that more than a year into his presidency, his approval rating would be rising and just under 50 percent, the economy would be cranking up to a 4 percent growth rate, North Korea would have quieted down temporarily, U.S. oil production would be rising sharply and imports steadily declining, ISIS dispersed, over $6 trillion added to Dow-Jones Industrial stock values (despite Monday's slide), and the Clintons as well as Trump's official investigators facing far more serious legal questions than he is.... (more)

BYRON YORK — This time last week, there was growing tumult in Washington over the memo produced by House Intelligence Committee Republicans alleging "FISA abuse" in the Trump-Russia investigation. There were dire warnings that the release of the GOP memo would endanger national security, that doing so would be "extraordinarily reckless" without proper FBI and Justice Department review, and that the FBI had "grave concerns" about "material omissions of fact" that would "fundamentally impact the memo's accuracy."... (more)

BOB UNRUH — The New York Stock Exchange has been leaving mouths agape and investors pinching themselves ever since Donald Trump was elected president. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has surged on a virtually vertical line, from about 18,000 points to a peak of 26,616.71 on Jan. 26, before dropping a couple of thousand points and then regaining 500 on Tuesday.... (more)

PAUL BEDARD — Attorney General Jeff Sessions celebrated President Reagan's 107th birthday by demonstrating how President Trump has taken up Reagan's campaign to restore the rule of law. In a Tuesday evening speech at the Heritage Foundation to the Reagan Alumni Association, Sessions, who was a Reagan-appointed federal prosecutor, said, "Under President Trump, we are determined to advance President Reagan's work of restoring the rule of law."... (more)

WASHINGTON TIMES — A California judge refused this week to order a baker to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, ruling that to do otherwise would be to trample on the baker's free speech rights. Superior Court Judge David R. Lampe said in his Monday ruling that wedding cakes run to the core of the First Amendment.... (more)

ALAN KEYES — Last week, I wrote a column reflecting on the assertion that Christians who support Donald Trump have, in effect, surrendered to moral relativism. In that column, I noted that -- in the very same week President Trump addressed the Right to Life March, live and in person from the Rose Garden --... (more)

JOAN SWIRSKY — Once upon a time, a seasoned political operative ran for President of the United States against a candidate who had virtually no political experience. She – Democrat Hillary Clinton – former First Lady of Arkansas, former First Lady of the United States, former U.S. Senator from New York, former Secretary of State under the faux "president" Barack Obama, was clearly the favorite.... (more)

WASHINGTON TIMES — The House's top investigator on Sunday said the FBI failed to notify a surveillance court that it was relying on material backed by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign when it asked to snoop on a former adviser to the Trump campaign.... (more)

WASHINGTON TIMES — A top Republican senator on Monday released an unpublished portion of the infamous Trump-Russia dossier that showed Hillary Clinton associates fed information to the author, former British spy Christopher Steele. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairmen Chuck Grassley, Iowa Republican, posted the heavily redacted referral he sent to the Justice Department asking for a criminal investigation into whether Mr. Steele lied to the FBI.... (more)

WASHINGTON TIMES — President Trump said Friday the leaders at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department have a political bias against Republicans. "The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File are great people!" Mr. Trumptweeted.... (more)