Sacramento Had a Mole. Nobody Saw It Coming.

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She wore a wire. For months. Inside the innermost circle of California’s most powerful Democrat. Alexis Podesta was a fixture in Sacramento politics — a Newsom appointee, a Jerry Brown alum, the kind of insider who knows where the bodies are buried because she helped bury a few herself. Starting in June 2024, she was also working with the FBI. Her target was Dana Williamson, Gavin Newsom’s own chief of staff. Williamson has since pleaded guilty to federal fraud and tax charges. But the wire caught more than Williamson. It caught a whole ecosystem of phone calls, connections, and conversations

A Curious Touch or a Crime? The Case Against an Olympian.

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A former Olympic canoeist is facing a felony charge. He says he was just curious. David “Davey” Hearn represented the United States in whitewater canoeing at the Olympics. Last month, he says, he stopped his bike at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. He saw a piece of loose blue coating. He touched it. Now he’s indicted for destruction of property. U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro announced the charge Thursday in D.C. Superior Court. The incident happened June 19, during the pool’s $14 million restoration — a project pushed by President Trump, who calls the coating “American flag blue.” Several others have

Harris, Mamdani Open Talks on Democratic Party’s Future.

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Kamala Harris made a phone call last week. On the other end was Zohran Mamdani, the young New York mayor who has become the face of the party’s ascendant left. The talk ran long. It was, by all accounts, the first of many. The subject was the future of the Democratic Party. That future, increasingly, runs through people like Mamdani, and Harris seems to know it. The timing tells the story. Days before the call, Democratic socialists backed by the mayor won three New York congressional primaries, unseating two sitting members of Congress. Reps. Dan Goldman and Adriano Espaillat, long

The High Court Has Spoken. Women’s Sports Stand.

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The Supreme Court has spoken. States may protect women’s sports. On Tuesday, the justices ruled for West Virginia and Idaho against transgender athletes who sued for access to girls’ teams. The vote was 6-3. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote for the majority. The states were defended by Alliance Defending Freedom. The athletes were represented by the ACLU and Cooley. The cases were West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox. The Court upheld state laws requiring student-athletes to compete on teams matching their biological sex at birth, not their gender identity. The holding was plain: consistent with Title IX and the

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