• IRAN PROVOKES: “Iran’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a U.S. drone on Thursday. … The U.S. military’s Central Command released a statement saying the drone, an RQ-4 Global Hawk, was downed in international airspace, describing it as an ‘unprovoked attack.’” (The Associated Press)

• BUDGETARY OBSTRUCTION: “Democrats on Wednesday muscled through a nearly $1 trillion spending bill that attempts to block President Trump’s policies on climate change, abortion and immigration,” according to The Hill. National Review adds that the spending bill incorporates the “repeal [of] the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, which the Trump administration has appeared ready to cite justifying armed conflict with Iran should such a conflict arise.”

• BITING THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU: Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 reveals, “A 21-year-old Pittsburgh resident and Syrian refugee accused of planning an attack on a Christian church on the city’s North Side and providing resources to ISIS has been arrested. … According to the complaint, [the man] was born in Daraa, Syria, and was admitted to the United States as a refugee on Aug. 1, 2016.” The Pittsburgh incident positively underscores the Trump administration’s emphasis on stronger vetting.

• THE FACES OF EVIL: “In a bid to show the horrific consequences of sanctuary laws, ICE on Monday released details of some of the criminals in Washington and Oregon custody who went on to evade ICE apprehension.” (The Daily Caller)

• PEACE CROSS UPHELD: “The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Peace Cross war memorial on public land outside Washington, D.C., can stand, determining it does not violate the Constitution.” (Fox News)

• REPARATIONS FALLOUT: “A congressional hearing erupted when Quillette writer Coleman Hughes trashed a bill to study slavery reparations as a ‘moral and political mistake,’ forcing the chair of the hearing to tell the audience to ‘chill’ several times,” according to Mediaite. Hughes warned, “We would turn the relationship between black Americans and white Americans from a coalition into a transaction.” Meanwhile, the New York Post horrifyingly reports, “A black parolee arrested for raping and bashing a white woman on the roof of his Bronx apartment building allegedly told a witness that she ‘deserved’ the brutal attack because of slavery.”

• GAMING THE SYSTEM: “A Minnesota man applied for and then received government food stamps for well over a year, even though he is a millionaire, in an effort to prove his belief that the eligibility requirements for the benefits in his state were too loose.” (The Washington Free Beacon)

• TRADE WINDS: “Top Chinese and U.S. officials will resume trade talks in accordance with the wishes of their leaders. … Hopes for a revival of negotiations have been rekindled by a telephone call on Wednesday between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and confirmation they will meet next week in Japan at a G20 summit.” (Reuters)

• LAFFER COMMEMORATED: “President Donald Trump on Wednesday awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to economist Arthur Laffer, whose theories on tax cuts have guided Republican policy since the 1980s.” (NBC News)

• POLICY: The problem with a 90% graduation rate (RealClearEducation)

• POLICY: Socialism will deprive you of what you need to survive (American Institute for Economic Research)

• HUMOR: San Francisco holds nation’s first plastic straw buyback event (IMAO)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.

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