ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a request to unseal criminal charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange that were mistakenly revealed in another case.

In a ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said that free-press advocates seeking to unseal the charges have no proof Assange has actually been charged.

The Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press sought to unseal the charges after a federal prosecutor inadvertently typed a reference to “the fact that Assange has been charged” in an unrelated case.

The government has acknowledged it made an error but has not publicly confirmed that charges against Assange have been filed.

In 2018 the Republican incumbents who for several years had easily defended these House seats fell to Democratic challengers in the midterm elections. The president’s particularly low job approval ratings among women fueled the Democratic Party's victories there, and Republicans worry that this situation could foreshadow what's to come next year.

“It’s the suburbs,” Robin Armstrong, who represents Texas on the Republican National Committee, acknowledged in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “That’s basically the woman’s vote. We need to make sure that we’re engaging females and letting them know that we’re addressing their values and concerns.”

In 2018, Hispanic turnout in Texas rose by about 73 percent from 2014, according to a post-election review issued by Latino Victory Fund. But, as revealed by figures compiled by the Texas secretary of state, voter turnout overall increase a bit more, by about 77 percent. That would suggest the growing strength of Democrats in the state is not due to the rising Hispanic population.

Tulsi Gabbard’s presidential campaign hasn’t officially launched yet but it’s already melting down.

Two-and-a-half weeks after she told CNN she had decided to run for the White House—an announcement that even her own staff didn't know was coming, after weeks of debating the timing of the rollout—the 37-year-old congresswoman has struggled to contain the chaos.

Campaign manager Rania Batrice and Gabbard’s consulting firm Revolution Messaging are set to depart after this weekend’s official kickoff in Hawaii, two sources familiar with the situation told POLITICO. Gabbard is leaning on her sister, Vrindavan, to fill the void.

Meanwhile, the congresswoman is under fire back home after picking a fight with Sen. Mazie Hirono, and a prominent Democratic state lawmaker is already challenging Gabbard in next year’s congressional primary. That means she faces the possibility of losing the presidential race and her House seat as well.

Sri Preston Kulkarni

I wear a bracelet every day on my wrist with a JFK quote, "History, after all, is the memory of a nation." I was going to write a post for Holocaust Remembrance Day about how important it is for us to teach and learn history (2/3 of millennials don't know what Auschwitz was), especially in light of the rise of Neo-Nazis and white supremacists in our own country (and sometimes the praise of them by our elected officials).

But then, I saw the below posted by the Harris County GOP. I thought it was bad enough when the Fort Bend County GOP sent out a message to Hindus during our campaign saying, "Would you rather worship a donkey or an elephant? (At least that one meant well, even if it showed a tone deafness to anyone, especially youth, who have been stereotyped or ridiculed for being different). Of course, it was inexcusable that the Tarrant County GOP held a vote recently on whether to remove their Vice Chair simply for being Muslim.
Today the Harris County GOP has gone beyond the pale. For anyone who doesn't know, the Nazis and their predecessors, the Fascists in Italy, were fighting the "leftists." If there was any doubt that we need to do a better job teaching the history of what nationalism, fascism, and Nazi ideology really were (are), this post illustrates that better than I ever could. Good God.