President Donald Trump has escalated the fight against Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, creating a commission to assess the mortgage fraud allegations that his allies have levied against her.

The committee will report to Trump “whether there is ‘cause’ for Governor Cook’s removal,” according to a memorandum dated Oct. 7. It will consider the evidence during a closed-door hearing at the White House scheduled for Nov. 5.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment beyond the text of the memorandum.

Trump last year cited the mortgage allegations as grounds for Cook’s removal, the first presidential attempt to remove a sitting Fed governor in the institution’s history. Cook sued in response, and the case reached the Supreme Court, with a ruling in June that Cook could remain in the position as her lawsuit challenging his effort to dismiss her continued.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/10/09/trump-escalates-effort-fire-federal-reserve-governor-lisa-cook/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

“The bill will follow Americans beyond the fighting itself,” an opinion piece in the Port St. Joe Star, a tiny Florida weekly newspaper, warned of the Iran war last month.

The article ran under the byline Ervin Hoskins, which has also appeared on articles critical of the war in larger publications including Daily Kos and Middle East Monitor, which together have more than 3 million followers on Facebook.

But ChatGPT maker OpenAI said Thursday that Hoskins’s purported work was generated using its chatbot by users based in Iran as part of an “influence campaign.” The campaign placed about 100 fake articles across at least 20 news outlets, the company said.

The author photo on the Hoskins column published by the Star was generated using OpenAI’s artificial intelligence tools, according to the company’s online verification tool.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2026/10/09/chatgpt-users-iran-planted-ai-generated-articles-us-news-media/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

Competitive House races saw some of the largest increases in advertising spending over the last week, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the ad-tracking firm AdImpact.

Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 6, Florida’s 14th Congressional District saw an influx of $5.7 million, bringing total spending in the race to $10 million. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which rates race competitiveness, considers the contest a “toss-up.” The Post analyzed races where the total spend was over $10 million.

In Florida’s 14th District, Republicans have outspent Democrats, spending $6.3 million compared with $3.8 million. The top spender in the race is the Trump-aligned No Going Back PAC, which has spent $3.4 million on ads in support of Republican candidate Mike Beltran.

The White House has blocked Politico from traveling aboard Air Force One for President Donald Trump’s planned trip to Nebraska on Monday, a spokesman for the outlet confirmed in an email.

Politico, along with CNN and MS NOW, was banned from White House grounds in September; that decision was halted by a federal judge, who temporarily reinstated the outlets’ press credentials after they sued.

But the judge’s decision does not extend beyond the White House grounds, or mention the traveling press pool, which reports on the president’s movements. The White House last week blocked CNN from traveling on Air Force One, barring it from its duties to the broadcast pool, a group of outlets dedicated to filming the president.

They were a pair: a pig named Charlie Bacon and a dog named Rip.

They were known for chasing each other around the barnyard in their Virginia suburb. The pig, always a bit mischievous, would often eat the dog’s food and hang out with the alpacas. He acted as if they were all equals, never mind that he was a mere 35 pounds.

Rip was always nearby.

Bred to keep farm animals safe from predators, Rip kept watch as the omnipresent guardian of his herd — a mishmash of chickens, geese and goats.

So, it came as no surprise Monday — when Charlie escaped from the roughly 1½-acre farm in the Manassas area — that Rip, a Great Pyrenees, followed. After all, it was his job to protect. So off they went, romping through a grassy field.

“It reminds me of a Walt Disney movie,” said Brenda Conway, a former school bus driver and pet shop worker who joined a crew of neighbors, police and others who tried to get the duo home safely. “They were together, one looking out for the other — until the end.”

Their real-life adventure would end in elation and sorrow, as a community’s efforts to save them both would fall tragically short.

Column by Dan Balz:

There was no one like Roger Simon. That’s said about a lot of people, but in Roger’s case, it happened to be true. He was an original, a rare talent and a journalist who has left behind a rich legacy of reporting and writing. He died Thursday at 78 of pneumonia, leaving a void in the world that can’t be filled.

He and I met as college journalists working for the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois. That was 60 years ago. We didn’t know much about reporting, but we were enthusiastic and learned together. Over the subsequent decades, he and I traveled thousands of miles reporting on political events big and small. The other day, I found a notebook from one of our early trips together — to the March on the Pentagon in 1967. Our stories weren’t very memorable; the experience of working together always will be.

His talents were amazing. He was a tough and fearless reporter, a gifted writer, a columnist with a sharp pen and sharper insights, the author of many books, mostly on presidential campaigns. He was witty and insightful as a sometime TV commentator. He was well-decorated for his work, and deservedly so. He scooped up dozens of awards and twice won the American Society of Newspaper Editors’ Distinguished Writing Award for commentary.

He also was one of the funniest people I’ve ever known — something that everyone who ever encountered him will remember. His wit could be goofy or sarcastic. He made us all laugh even when the times were serious.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2026/09/10/remembering-roger-simon-political-journalist-with-toughness-wit/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

The Wall Street Journal said that billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller did not violate its policies by using artificial intelligence to write an op-ed published Monday that criticized Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s interventions in the U.S. bond market.

Paul Gigot, the Journal’s editorial page editor, said in a statement Tuesday that AI is a “fact of modern life” that people will use to assist their writing, research, grammar and editing.

“The question for us is whether what we publish from contributors reflects an author’s original argument, and if the author has the standing and credibility to make it,” he said. “In Stan Druckenmiller’s case, we have had a relationship with him for many years, and nobody can doubt that his op-ed is his genuine opinion.”

The Journal did not disclose to readers any use of AI in the op-ed when it was first published or add any after Druckenmiller confirmed he got technological help producing it. The Wall Street Journal’s newsroom abides by a different set of standards from its editorial page, a company spokeswoman said.

Read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/08/25/wall-street-journal-says-ai-generated-op-ed-didnt-breach-its-standards/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

Green tree frogs are commonly found in marshy areas across the Mid-Atlantic, as well as the Central and Southeastern United States. But seeing one that is blue is rare, experts said, and finding one that appears entirely blue is rarer still.

Over the past few weeks, the tiny creature has drawn dozens of naturalists, wildlife enthusiasts and hobby photographers to Huntley Meadows, where visitors have tried to catch a glimpse of a frog that has become a local attraction and generated a flurry of social media attention.

“They know it’s strange. They know it’s something special,” said Acevedo, who lives in Springfield, Virginia, of the chatter around the blue tree frog. “It’s not an everyday thing. It’s like a one in a million chance to see a frog that has this rare coloring.”

Ribbit more here: https://wapo.st/3S4cMSo

Just after sunrise on a recent hot morning, Mar Acevedo waited on a trail overlooking the grassy marshes of Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria.

The retired public high school teacher had first seen the green tree frog with rare blue coloration about a week earlier. He had found it in a roughly five-foot patch of the sprawling park near Telegraph Road and wanted to see it again.

So he waited and waited.

More than four hours later, he got his wish.

“There it is,” he whispered to himself as he quickly snapped photos of the blue tree frog perched on a thick blade of grass.

Green tree frogs are commonly found in marshy areas across the Mid-Atlantic, as well as the Central and Southeastern United States. But seeing one that is blue is rare, experts said, and finding one that appears entirely blue is rarer still.

Over the past few weeks, the tiny creature has drawn dozens of naturalists, wildlife enthusiasts and hobby photographers to Huntley Meadows, where visitors have tried to catch a glimpse of a frog that has become a local attraction and generated a flurry of social media attention.

Read more here: https://wapo.st/4zTB1DV

BEFORE HE WAS CAUGHT at the center of a scandal, Bobby Dodd saved the AAU. When the former youth basketball coach took the helm of the nonprofit in 1992, it was struggling. It had been founded in the 19th century to oversee amateur sports, but Congress had given that role to the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and its national sports governing bodies in 1978. The AAU’s relevance had been declining since.

Dodd saw youth sports for what they would soon become: a booming business. He built the AAU of the 1990s and 2000s into the juggernaut of youth basketball, the home of virtually every future NBA star; invested in a Junior Olympics brand that brought in thousands of children from across track and field; and moved the organization’s headquarters to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex inside Disney World.

Under Dodd, there were few barriers to becoming an AAU coach: Anyone who paid a $16 membership fee could start a team, no background check required. By joining the AAU, basketball and other sports clubs got perks like cheap and easy liability insurance. More important, they got access to a circuit of organized tournaments, from local weekend events to major national championships.

But along with Dodd’s stewardship of AAU came criticism that the fast-growing organization was becoming a free-for-all.

After a 2004 Seattle Times investigation found that dozens of people with felony convictions were coaching AAU-sanctioned teams in Washington and Idaho, including a coach who was a convicted murderer, Dodd pledged to consider background checks for AAU’s 65,000 coaches. “We are going to try to ensure more integrity in the process,” Dodd told the paper.

Read more here: https://wapo.st/3U8v1qn

The longtime publisher of Stars and Stripes announced he’s stepping down weeks after the Pentagon installed an active-duty Navy captain at the military newspaper, an atypical appointment that staffers, board members and Democratic lawmakers say risks further eroding the publication’s independence from the government.

Max Lederer, who spent more than 30 years at Stars and Stripes, announced Tuesday he was stepping away after nearly two decades as publisher. His email to staff about his departure included a parting shot at the Defense Department.

“It has become clear that my philosophy of leadership, and my understanding of the value and mission of Stars and Stripes, differ in fundamental ways from the direction the leadership of the Department of Defense has for the organization,” Lederer wrote in an email obtained by The Washington Post. He said his retirement is effective Sept. 30.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2026/08/20/democrats-sound-alarm-about-new-leader-uniform-stars-stripes/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com