With so many garish spectacles to feast your eyes on at the 33-ring Trump circus, some clowns are easy to miss. Especially the ones performing in proximity to Sean Spicer. Pry your eyes away from the Pagliacci of the Pressroom for a moment, however, and look hard at some of his supporting buffoons. They may not have attracted the notice of Saturday Night Live yet. But now that the White House is blocking outlets like The New York Times, BBC, and Politico from some press briefings, the ones who are still there are becoming an increasingly important part of the story.

Meet “Trey,” for instance—Trey Yingst, Washington correspondent of the “One America News Network,” a cable channel begun in partnership with the Unification Church’s Washington Times, which has since gone independent. One America owner Charles Herring explained why he started the venture: “There’s nothing wrong with Fox. The problem is that if you take the [standard cable] channel lineup, the sources of national news tend to lean to the left . . . and all we have is Fox.” One America’s Foxier-than-Fox programming includes “Jihad: The Grand Deception,” “Escape from Iran,” “Target America,” and an interview show, “On Point,” once hosted by Sarah Palin. One America was included in the press briefing from which The New York Times and BBC were banned.

And Spicer sure likes One America’s man in Washington. During Trump’s first month in the White House, Spicer called on Trey four times. The third time, after he answered Trey’s stumper—“What is the President willing to do to investigate further to determine where these leaks are coming from?”— and the press gaggle started shouting out their own questions, Spicer sounded for all the world like a wounded first-grader. “Hold On! Trey gets a follow up! Everyone else got one!”

Lars Larson is a better-known figure. He’s the top conservative talk radio host in Portland, Oregon, and an occasional fill-in for Rush Limbaugh. Larson was the second person called upon via webcam the day the White House Press Room’s “Skype seat” was inaugurated. Lars first thanked “Commander Spicer” for taking his questions (Spicer has never served in the military), then said, “Thanks for your service to America.” Next came the probing questions. “Does President Trump want to start returning the people’s land to the people? … Can he tell the Forest Service to start logging our forests aggressively again to provide jobs for Americans, wealth for the Treasury, and not spend $3.5 billion a year fighting forest fires?” These stinging queries surely came as welcome relief for Spicer, who had just got through dodging dagger thrusts from Kristen Welker of NBC, about what the White House meant when it claimed to have put Iran “on notice.”

PIERRE — A mesh bag blurred Dirk Sparks' vision.

He lay hooded and handcuffed as four police officers pinned him to a hospital exam table.

Through the patterned light, he saw a fifth officer filming the procedure.

His pants were loosened and pulled below his waist.

Then, pain.

A nurse at Avera St. Mary's Hospital in Pierre inserted a pencil-sized tube into Sparks' urethra to drain his bladder. Moments later, an officer with the Pierre Police Department held a cup of Sparks' urine that soon would be sent off for drug testing.

“It was degrading,” Sparks said. “I was angry. I felt like my civil rights were being violated.”

Hours earlier, police responded to a domestic dispute at Sparks' home. When officers observed him acting "fidgety," they asked for a urine sample. When Sparks refused, police sought a warrant from a Hughes County judge to obtain a urine sample by "medically accepted means."

In Pierre, those means have repeatedly included forcibly catheterizing people who refuse or are unable to provide a sample. Officers subjected a 3-year-old boy to a similar procedure in February as part of a child welfare investigation, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

A civil war between Donald Trump loyalists and establishment-minded Republicans is escalating throughout the federal government — and increasingly the president’s allies are losing.

From the State Department to the Environmental Protection Agency, a sharp dividing line has formed: Cabinet secretaries and their handpicked teams of GOP veterans are rushing to take power as Trump campaign staffers — "originals,” as they call themselves — gripe that they’re being pushed aside.

In over a dozen interviews, the originals, many of whom volunteered to work for candidate Trump when few others were willing to do so, complained that they'd been shut out of meetings and targeted with career-destroying leaks. In recent weeks, a number of longtime Trump supporters have abruptly quit, saying they felt the administration had been overtaken by the same establishment they worked to defeat.

The backbiting is further paralyzing federal agencies, which have been hamstrung by slow hiring, disorganization and an overall lack of direction since Trump’s inauguration. Many of the Trump stalwarts were installed at the agencies during the transition to help them prepare for the presidency, part of so-called beachhead teams.

"You're always watching your back,” said Sid Bowdidge, a Trump campaign staffer who quit his Energy Department job after news reports that he made anti-Muslim slurs on social media, stories that he blamed on leaks by rival co-workers. “It doesn't bode well for a cohesive team to be successful toward a common goal. How can you when people are looking over their shoulder to see if they have a knife in their back?"

...

Now let's get to yesterday. As the bill came up for a floor debate, Democrats like DFL Rep. Ilhan Omar tried convincing House Republicans their bill is a strike against civil rights, and would've effectively blocked protests like Martin Luther King's march in Selma, Alabama.

House DFL leader Melissa Hortman probably didn't expect Omar to convince the House GOP caucus. But, she reasoned, the least they could do is sit there and listen.

Hortman moved for a "call of the House," which forces then-absent members to come back to their desks on the floor. Hortman's call came with an added twist: "I hate to break up the 100 percent white male card game in the retiring room, but I think this is an important debate."

...

"I'm a white male," Dettmer continued. "I respect everybody. But I really believe the comments that were made by the minority leader were really not appropriate." Then, turning to Hortman: "Minority leader, would you apologize to the body?"

http://www.citypages.com/news/house-dfl-leader-melissa-hortman-calls-out-white-males-wont-apologize-video/418127203

LANSING (WWJ) — The Michigan State Senate Transportation Committee has approved legislation that would give motorists the choice to have a “pro-life” specialty licence plate on their vehicles.

Bill sponsor Senator Patrick Colbeck (R-Canton) says part of the money raised by the $35 plates will go toward pregnancy resource centers and abortion alternatives, but also towards suicide prevention services.

“$25 of the proceeds would go towards a special Choose Life fund, that would support life affirming services such as the services that you would find at a pregnancy resource center,” Colbeck said. “They take care of mothers facing unplanned pregnancy, provide for daily needs.”

Currently, 29 states and the District of Columbia have authorized Choose Life license plates, generating more than $21 million for life-promoting activities.