New: Mike Lindell offered $5m to anyone who could disprove his claim to have data showing China interfered in the 2020 election. A Nevada man did just that. But Lindell refused to pay. Now an arbitration panel has ordered Lindell to hand over the $5m. washingtonpost.com/investigations…

Curious how many people actually signed up for Twitter Blue yesterday and today? Well, I've got the numbers and I'll be telling them to @JoyAnnReid on MSNBC in ten minutes. Here's a hint: They were net +28 between signups and cancellations. Not 2,800. Twenty-eight.

Wow. Organizers are on the verge of getting a referendum protecting abortion rights on the ballot in Ohio. But Republicans are so afraid it will pass that they're trying to raise the threshold for referendums passing to a 60% supermajority of voters. tinyurl.com/4hj8cprh

Why are half a dozen Republican-controlled states suddenly rolling back child labor laws? The legislation all goes back to the same source: A billionaire-backed Florida lobbying group. washingtonpost.com/business/2023/…

This isn't about paring back child labor protections around the edges. The GOP bills let 14 and 15-year-olds take on overnight shifts and dangerous assembly line jobs. Work that has been banned for children for a century.

NEW: The Trump campaign quietly hired a second firm to study voter fraud claims after the 2020 election and paid the firm $750k. Its founder says in an interview with Post that the claims were "all false," and that he recently met with DOJ. washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/04…

Yet another ethics lapse that chips away at the Supreme Court’s legitimacy. It is no longer enough for the Court to police itself because they are simply not doing it. So Congress must do it instead. Let’s pass the SCERT Act now.

Conservative justices attend fundraising events for Scalia Law. These justices aren’t dumb — they know what they are doing violates Court rules. But they don’t care because there is nothing to stop them. We need SCOTUS ethics reform now. nytimes.com/2023/04/30/us/…

Another SCOTUS scandal, per The Lever. Justice Clarence Thomas voted to end federal tenant protections that his billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow’s company says threatened its real estate profit margins. And another case is coming soon! levernews.com/thomas-helped-…

Here's what's going on in the Texas legislature in response to school shootings: All students in third grade and up to be trained in battlefield trauma care. legiscan.com/TX/text/HB1147…

“I am never going to stop until these leases are canceled or not renewed” cnn.com/2023/05/03/us/…

NEW: Clarence Thomas had a kid in private school. Harlan Crow paid the tuition. "Harlan picked up the tab," a frmr school admin told us. Thomas didn’t disclose it. $6,200/month Here’s the wire transfer propublica.org/article/claren… By Josh Kaplan Justin Elliott Alex Mierjeski

My Washington Post subscription allows me to share access to great journalism. Check out this gift article, at no cost to you. Read here: wapo.st/3p7TtIQ

Britain’s former top Russian intelligence expert, Christopher Steele, is quite correct. His complaint goes to the extraordinary success of Trump, Barr, Fox News, and others in muddying the waters of common understanding. BTW, I’ve said almost nothing about the dossier.

Stealing elections in broad daylight. Authoritarians in action.

The Durham Report misleads by commission and omission, not to mention obfuscations. Marcy Wheeler of EU says Elon should not lie abt my blue check does a great job of showing the sins of omission: emptywheel.net/2023/05/16/sev…

Stuart Stevens The Lincoln Project Elon Musk This should be making a lot more noise… rollingstone.com/politics/polit…

McCarthy: We might have a child that has no job, no dependents but sitting on the couch, we’re going to encourage that person to get a job and have to go to work, which gives them worth and value.

.President Donald J. Trump was right

The latest (and likely lethal) policy of ⁦Texas GOP⁩: