Tipsheet: The year the party machines broke

View in your browser     The year the party machines broke BY REID WILSON   2018 marks the demise of the big-city Democratic machine. For centuries, those storied machines dominated America’s largest cities, driving volunteers through neighborhoods and delivering voters to the polls. But for the last several years, those machines have come under intense pressure, driving the demise of the last of the country’s powerful political bosses. Read the full story here     Trump in good shape to secure second Supreme Court confirmation victory BY JORDAIN CARNEY AND LYDIA WHEELER   Brett Kavanaugh is in good shape for winning confirmation to the Supreme Court following a week of hearings and some tough questioning from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Read the full story here     Trump gets good news on wages BY VICKI NEEDHAM  A new report from the Labor Department on Friday showed a significant hike in wages, providing a bolt of good news to President Trump and congressional Republicans less than two months before the midterms. Read the full story here     Cohen seeks to vacate hush-money deal with Stormy Daniels BY JOHN BOWDEN Michael Cohen's shell company has reportedly moved to vacate a 2016 nondisclosure agreement with adult-film star Stormy Daniels, requesting that she return the $130,000 she received as part of the deal. Read the full story here       Papadopoulos sentenced to 14 days in jail in Mueller probe BY MORGAN CHALFANT Former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos has been sentenced to 14 days in federal prison and one year supervised release for lying to FBI investigators about his Russia contacts. "I made a terrible mistake for which I paid dearly,” Papadopoulos said in court on Friday. Read the full story here     DNC: Papadopoulos's UK contact may be dead BY JOHN BOWDEN The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Friday raised the prospect that the London-based professor who told former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos that Russia had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton may be dead. Read the full story here     Booker defies GOP warning, releases another batch of 'confidential' Kavanaugh docs BY JORDAIN CARNEY Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is releasing another round of "confidential" paperwork from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh's work as a White House lawyer, despite the threat of a potential ethics investigation. Read the full story here     7 times Obama hit Trump in speech BY MAX GREENWOOD AND PETER SULLIVAN Former President Obama ripped President Trump on the economy and a laundry list of other issues during a fiery address on Friday. From taxes to Russia and Vladimir Putin, here are seven of the most prominent examples Read the full story here     Apple bans Infowars app from store BY JOHN BOWDEN Apple has permanently banned InfoWars' app from its app store, just weeks after the tech giant announced it was monitoring the right-wing conspiracy newscast app for possible content policy violations. Read the full story here     NYT blasts Trump's call for DOJ to investigate anonymous op-ed BY TAL AXELROD The New York Times came out swinging Friday against President Trump’s call for the Department of Justice to investigate the identity of the anonymous senior administration official who published a blistering op-ed critical of the president in the paper. Read the full story here     The glory days may be dead and gone for social media giants BY LIZ PEEK OPINION | Congress and customers can no longer assume that competition and the kind of disruption we associate with new technologies will keep them honest. Victims of their success, social media companies have become way too big to be governed by the marketplace. Read the full story here     What Puerto Rico’s death toll really tells us BY NICOLETTE LOUISSAINT OPINION | Policymakers, emergency management officials and private sector partners should fight for the sustained investment necessary to tackle issues in emergency preparedness. Lives depend on it and we cannot ignore the facts any longer. Read the full story here     The Associated Press: Echoes of Watergate in Trump tumult By Calvin Woodward and Nancy Benac The White House seethes with intrigue and backstabbing as aides hunt for the anonymous Deep (state) Throat among them. A president feels besieged by tormentors — Bob Woodward is driving him crazy — so he tends his version of an enemies list, wondering aloud if he should rid himself of his attorney general or the special prosecutor or both. Read the full story here     CNN: Obama and Trump fight for America's soul By Stephen Collinson Just as Barack Obama was warning that America is in the grip of a politics of fear that undermines norms and political accountability, President Donald Trump was unleashing his latest assault on traditions of governance that underpin the nation's democracy. Read the full story here     The New York Times: Congressional G.O.P. Agenda Quietly Falls Into Place Even as Trump Steals the Spotlight By Nicholas Fandos   On one end of Pennsylvania Avenue this week, President Trump and his closest advisers labored to beat back perceptions, fueled by an anonymous essay in The New York Times and a bruising new book by Bob Woodward, that he had all but lost control of the presidency from within. He lashed out anew at his attorney general, shouted “TREASON” and demanded investigations of his detractors. But as he raged, Republicans in the Senate were pressing steadily through angry liberal protests and Democratic perjury traps toward perhaps the most lasting impact of the Trump era: a conservative shift in the balance of the Supreme Court capable of shaping the country for a generation. Read the full story here     The Washington Post: Ryan, McConnell try to coax Trump away from shutdown — using props and flattery By Damian Paletta, Erica Werner and Josh Dawsey   The top two Republicans in Congress arrived at the White House this week armed with props aimed at flattering and cajoling President Trump out of shutting down the government at the end of this month. Read the full story here     Bloomberg News: Trump Signals He's Ready to Go All-In Against China on Tariffs By Andrew Mayeda, Shannon Pettypiece, and Mark Niquette President Donald Trump is raising the stakes in his gamble that the world will line up behind the U.S. to take on China over trade. 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