Trump Budget Cuts Funding for Security at Train Stations, Rail Networks

President Donald Trump's 2018 budget would cut transportation security grants that support patrols of so-called soft targets like New York City's Penn Station and Washington, D.C.'s Union Station. In the document released this week, the Trump administration proposed cutting by more than half a $100 million grant program that supports security operations at passenger transportation sites, $10 million of which funds security at Amtrak.

Donald Trump Meets With Pope Francis For The First Time At The Vatican

Donald Trump met Pope Francis for the first time at the Vatican Wednesday morning, where the two men exchanged gifts and pleasantries inside the Apostolic Palace after meeting privately for nearly half an hour. The pope gifted Trump with a medal designed by a Roman artist in the shape of an olive, which he said represented peace and had signed personally for him.

NOW: Congressional Aides Fear Politicians Are Being Blackmailed by Suspects in IT Breach

Confusion reigns supreme among Congressional technology aides after four former House IT workers, who have since been banned from the congressional network, committed data-theft and yet continues to go generally ignored. Imran Awan and his three relatives worked for the House of Representatives in the IT department but were banned by police after suspicion arose that the brothers broke into congressional computers without permission.

Trump’s New Trade Rep. Struggles To Push ‘Fair Trade’

U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer disagreed with Asian and Pacific countries over protectionism during his first overseas trip as the nation's top diplomat on trade policy Sunday. U.S. officials attending the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Hanoi, Vietnam over the weekend, opposed language that called for all member-countries to "fight against all forms of protectionism," according to Reuters .

The Road To Riyadh

I really, really do not want to waste a lot of time on Donald Trump's Saudi Arabian visit; however, for the record, which is still important, it was a nightmare. The nation-to-nation exchange could not have been more shameful: Yet another American president, a decade and a half after 9/11, lying to himself and the entire world to declare that Islam is wonderful, it's just extremism that's a mortal threat, in exchange for hundreds of millions of Saudi petrodollars in arms deals.

Democratic Contenders Lead Gillespie In Virginia Governor Poll

Both Democratic contenders for the Virginia governorship lead Republican candidate Ed Gillespie in a head-to-head poll published Monday. Former Rep. Tom Perriello and Lieutenant Governor Ralph Northam, both Democrats, led Gillespie's numbers by a wide margin in the Washington Post-Schar School poll , with Perriello's 50 percent gaining a slight edge over Northam's 49 percent.

Gov Jerry Brown’s ‘Freeloaders’ Comment Rejuvenates Anti-Gas Tax Fervor

Opponents of California's recent gas tax say Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown's recent comments likening them to "freeloaders" has created even more animus against the law's supporters. One lawmaker who is trying to repeal the so-called Road Repair and Accountability Act said Sunday that "outraged" citizens inundated his office with calls asking why the governor is so dismissive toward their concerns.