“Andrew Wheeler will be the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency after the Senate voted to confirm him in a mostly party-line … 52-47 vote on Thursday, seven months after his predecessor Scott Pruitt resigned. Republican Sen. Susan Collins was the only Republican to vote against Wheeler.” (ABC News)

“Sen. Bernie Sanders’ new deputy national press secretary likely won’t be eligible to vote in the 2020 election due to what she says is her status as an undocumented immigrant. The hiring of Belen Sisa, an Arizona leftist activist, was announced Wednesday evening. Sisa, who says she was brought to this country illegally from Argentina by her parents at age six, is currently protected from deportation under President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program.” (Washington Examiner)

“Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Friday he’s running for president, saying he will emphasize attempts to combat climate change during his bid for the Democratic nomination. … But it’s far from clear that voters will make the environment a priority on Election Day. Inslee lost a 2018 ballot initiative in his home state that would have imposed the nation’s first carbon fee on large polluters.” (CNBC)

“Tax refunds have increased this week, the Treasury Department announced Thursday, after critics attacked the initial lower refunds that resulted from Americans paying less to government coffers. Through four weeks of the filing season, the average tax refund in 2019 increased to $3,143 — up from last week’s average of $2,640, according to the Treasury Department. … The average refund at this point in the filing season is now up 1.3 percent over last year.” (The Daily Signal)

“Israel’s attorney-general announced on Thursday he intends to indict Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on corruption charges, a decision coming just six weeks before a closely contested national election. It was the first time a serving Israeli prime minister has been put on official notice of planned prosecution, and deepened uncertainty over how Netanyahu … will fare against a coalition of upstart centrist rivals.” (Reuters)

“Trump derangement syndrome has gone so far into overdrive that his detractors are now criticizing him even when he does something solely to their benefit. The LGBT pushback against his administration’s policy to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide is perhaps the most puzzling example. According to Fox News, LGBT activists have largely denounced the Trump administration’s policy on decriminalizing homosexuality as a cheap ploy rather than an actual promise.” (The Daily Wire)

Always blame Trump: “Undocumented immigrants are increasingly choosing to cross the U.S. border illegally rather than waiting in line to claim asylum at legal ports of entry. … Immigration lawyers and rights advocates say asylum seekers are opting for illegal crossing because they are growing frustrated with waiting lines caused by Trump administration policies.” (NBC News)

Lazy journalism: “A sinister game called ‘The Momo Challenge’ exists online. It involves a creepy woman’s face popping up when children are watching cartoons on YouTube or playing video games or just messaging each other. Momo orders these children, as part of this game, to do harmful things to themselves, up to and including suicide. The most important thing to understand about ‘The Momo Challenge’ is that it doesn’t exist. … This is a great example of media people conjuring fake news.” (Reason)

Not-so-humorous: Democrats essentially say, “The only thing more precious than a newborn baby is the right to kill it” (The Babylon Bee)

Policy: “Properly understood, state and local taxes don’t reduce your ability to pay federal income tax, and don’t tax the same dollar of income twice. Instead, they reflect a choice you made to live in a place in which the government provides a certain set of goods and services to taxpayers. Residents of lower-tax states should not be on the hook for spending decisions of governments in higher-tax states. … Congress should get rid of the deduction entirely. To minimize disruption, the deduction should be set on a gradual glide path toward zero over a number of years.”(Michael R. Strain, Bloomberg Opinion)

Policy: “Colorado is joining a list of states attempting to overturn the way Americans have selected their presidents for over two centuries. … While the Constitution, intentionally, gives wide latitude to states to create their own electoral systems, the law passed in Colorado, along with the rest of this effort, would be unprecedented. It would be the first time states potentially outsource their Electoral College votes to the will of the nation as a whole, rather than having elections determined by their own voters. The result of this, ironically, could be very undemocratic.” (The Daily Signal)