A video has been unearthed of a Harris County, Texas Republican official telling an audience that they need to recruit an “election integrity brigade” to challenge voters in Houston’s racially diverse downtown neighborhoods, the Washington Post reports.

The official said the GOP needs an “army” of 10,000 volunteers who have “the confidence and courage to come down here,” he said pointing to an area of downtown Houston, “this is where the fraud is occurring.”

Texas state officials, who are predominantly Republicans, couldn’t find any evidence of election fraud, large scale in-person fraud or vote counting fraud, a claim that has been come to be known as “The Big Lie” from Donald Trump because he continues to repeat it even though it has been debunked.

Axios: “The simmering conflict in Eastern Ukraine has threatened to boil over the past few days, with Russia massing troops near the border and pro-Kremlin media raising the specter of war. U.S. European Command went into high alert in light of the Russian movements, which some experts speculated could presage an active Russian military intervention in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine, where Ukraine has been fighting pro-Russian separatists for seven years. Kremlin hopes that Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky would cut a peace deal on Russia’s terms have faded, leaving a diplomatic deadlock.”

“Direct intervention in the Donbas could give Putin leverage, bolster his standing ahead of parliamentary elections this year, and potentially help secure a much-needed water source for occupied Crimea. But the costs of such a war likely exceed any benefits for Moscow, removing all plausible deniability from Russia’s war in Ukraine and risking a strong Western response. Zelensky tweeted Thursday that he was heading to the Donbas because a Ukrainian soldier had been killed overnight and he wanted ‘to be with our soldiers in the tough times.’ The crisis has sparked a burst of patriot fervor and a strong show of support from Washington, both of which have strengthened the embattled Ukrainian president, notes Dmitri Trenin of Carnegie Moscow.”

Bloomberg: “Donald Trump and his lawyers should pay more than $65,000 in legal fees to Milwaukee County and face additional sanctions for filing a ‘baseless’ lawsuit trying to overturn the result of the presidential election, Wisconsin’s biggest metropolitan area told a judge. The former president never had a valid reason to sue to toss out Wisconsin’s 3.3 million votes, a long-shot effort that would have paved the way for the state’s GOP-dominated legislature to appoint a slate of electors more favorable to Trump, the county said in a filing Thursday in federal court in Milwaukee. ‘Trump never offered any legal or factual basis for his breathtaking request, and none exists,’ the county, a heavily Democratic area in a swing state, said in the filing. ‘The relief he sought was entirely baseless and amply justifies the imposition of sanctions.'”

“There is an active police situation off FM 2818 off Stone City Drive. Bryan police confirm that a shooting occurred at Kent Moore Cabinets Police say multiple people were shot and several people are in critical condition. The suspect is not in custody” – KBTX.

Kansas Reflector: “Senate Majority Leader Gene Suellentrop reeked of alcohol, struggled to speak or walk, and threatened the Kansas Highway Patrol officer who stopped him in the early hours of March 16 for driving the wrong way on Interstate 70 in Topeka. The details of the arrest were made available Thursday following the release of his charging affidavit in Shawnee County District Court. Kansas Reflector and other news media filed motions with the court seeking the document’s release. Suellentrop faces a felony charge for fleeing a police officer, misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and reckless driving, and traffic infractions for driving the wrong way on a divided highway and speeding. KHP Officer Austin Shepley’s report says Suellentrop’s alcohol level was 0.17 grams per 100 milliliters of blood. The legal limit in Kansas is 0.08.”

“‘As I approached the driver, he had his left hand out the window and looked back at me with a confused, frightened, blank stare,’ Shepley said. ‘He was not registering my commands or responding to them.’ With the help of a Topeka police officer, Shepley removed Suellentrop from the vehicle and placed him under arrest. They didn’t perform a field sobriety test because of safety concerns. ‘Sitting inside the vehicle with Suellentrop, I could smell a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from his person,’ Shepley said. ‘I also noticed his eyes were watery, droopy, and he had bloodshot eyes. While speaking with him, I was not able to understand what he was saying as he was mumbling words with slurred speech.’ Shepley initially took Suellentrop to the Docking State Office Building for a breath test. Suellentrop ‘had trouble with his motor skills’ while exiting the officer’s vehicle, lost his balance and almost fell. Inside, Suellentrop refused to take a breath sample, saying, ‘I don’t feel the need to do so.’ Suellentrop called the officer ‘donut boy’ and complained this was ‘all for going the wrong way.'”

“Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America: Asa Hutchinson, the lightweight RINO Governor of Arkansas, just vetoed a Bill that banned the CHEMICAL CASTRATION OF CHILDREN. ‘Bye-bye Asa,’ that’s the end of him! Fortunately for the Great State of Arkansas, Sarah Huckabee Sanders will do a fantastic job as your next Governor!” – Statement from the office of the Orange God Emperor.

Left unsaid is that Hutchinson vetoed the bill because he thought it was overly broad and did not include a provision to allow the 200 or so minors in Arkansas currently undergoing hormonal therapy to be grandfathered in and allowed to continue.

“‘She is very, very, very serious,’… HE is Bruce Jenner in a dress and people better start electing sane people to make rational decisions. I’m serious too”

– The current top comment on The Gateway Pundit article “Trump’s Former Campaign Manager Brad Parscale Reportedly Helping Caitlyn Jenner Explore Run for California Governor“, posted Thursday morning. Commenters on the site, despite their paranoia and unremitting hostility to LGBT folk, are often unaware that the Gateway Pundit himself – Jim Hoft – is gay and got married to a 21 year old Filipino immigrant in 2019. They were registered at Pottery Barn.

Washington Post: “Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, acting on a grand jury subpoena, took possession of financial records Thursday morning from the apartment of Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter-in-law of a top Trump Organization officer. Jennifer Weisselberg was married to Barry Weisselberg – the son of Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg – from 2004 to 2018. She has previously said that she had seven boxes of financial records from both her ex-husband and his father, some of which were obtained through divorce litigation. On Thursday, she loaded three boxes and a laptop computer onto a valet cart and wheeled them from her building to a black Jeep with dark-tinted windows that was waiting outside. The move by District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. appears to be the latest sign that Allen Weisselberg, the company’s highest-ranking corporate officer who is not a member of the Trump family, is a key focus of the ongoing criminal probe into former president Trump’s financial dealings.”

“The subpoena, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post, ordered Jennifer Weisselberg to produce all of the records she possesses for her ex-husband’s bank accounts and credit cards plus his statements of net worth and tax filings. Barry Weisselberg is a Trump Organization employee and manages an ice rink for the company in Manhattan’s Central Park. The subpoena asks specifically for records related to the Trump Organization and Wollman Rink. ‘My knowledge of the documents and my voice connect the flow of money from various banks and from personal finances that bleed directly into the Trump Organization,’ she said in an interview Thursday. Investigators, she added, now have her ex-husband’s 2019 and 2020 statements of net worth, his tax returns and copies of Wollman Rink checks from private events that she claims were deposited incorrectly. She has said previously that the documents that were in her possession showed transactions in bank accounts controlled by Barry and Allen Weisselberg jointly.”

“The legal peril Rep. Matt Gaetz is facing appeared to increase sharply after a court hearing indicated that one of his close friends, former Seminole County, Fla., tax collector Joel Greenberg, is likely cooperating with federal prosecutors. The federal probe looking into whether Gaetz had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl and paid for her travel began last year and grew out of the Greenberg case. Gaetz has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing” – Politico.

“FOX News Media has signed former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as a contributor, announced its CEO Suzanne Scott. Pompeo, a diplomat, public servant, entrepreneur and attorney, will offer analysis across all FOX News Media platforms, including FNC and FOX Business Network’s (FBN) daytime and primetime programming. He will make his first appearance on Friday’s FOX & Friends.”

“Making the announcement, Ms. Scott said: ‘Mike Pompeo is one of America’s most recognized and respected voices on foreign policy and national security issues. I look forward to his contributions across our range of platforms to share his distinct perspective with our millions of viewers.’ Mr. Pompeo added, ‘As a now former diplomat and member of Congress, and in this new role at FOX News Media, I intend to give viewers a candid, no-nonsense look at geopolitics, international relations and the America First policies that helped chart the course for unprecedented American prosperity and security'” – Fox News press memo via The Hill’s John Kruzel.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan is unlikely to run for a second term as the state’s No. 2 politician, according to a senior aide who said the Republican is instead expected to focus on his “GOP 2.0” initiative to reframe the party in a post-Trump era. Duncan has signaled for months that he would not seek reelection, but he’s declined to say publicly whether he will stand for another term. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Duncan’s decision has not yet been finalized. While most GOP officials are either cozying up to Donald Trump or trying to avoid his wrath, Duncan stood out by setting himself on a collision course with the former president and top members of his own party. Over the last few months, Duncan has repeatedly urged Republicans to leave Trump in the rearview mirror, he’s called proposed rollbacks to voting rights ‘solutions in search of a problem’ and he refused to preside over a Senate vote on election restrictions.”

“Customs and Border Protection releases its monthly numbers, indicating 172,331 have been apprehended in March. That’s the biggest number recorded in nearly two decades” reports CBS News Homeland Security Correspondent Nicole Sganga. Read the report here.

“When Major League Baseball pulled its upcoming All-Star Game out of Atlanta, Republicans reacted with ominous warnings, half-hearted boycotts, and a specific threat. ‘In light of @MLB’s stance to undermine election integrity laws,’ Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) tweeted last week, ‘I have instructed my staff to begin drafting legislation to remove Major League Baseball’s federal antitrust exception.’ Duncan’s proposal stands almost no chance of becoming law, but Republicans have good reason to be concerned – corporate boycotts, like the ones in Georgia now, have worked before. Over the last decade, they’ve helped reverse anti-LGBT laws in North Carolina and Indiana. And just this year, the threat of boycotts could help temper an anti-trans law in South Dakota. All the while, there’s been only modest blowback for the businesses standing up to politicians. ‘Corporations are people, these are your constituents,’ said one Republican strategist, invoking an infamous line from now Utah Sen. Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. ‘You aren’t going to punish successful businesses in your state or congressional district.'”

“But as the MLB and major employers in Georgia like Delta and Coca-Cola come out against a Georgia law imposing all sorts of restrictions on voting in the state, Republicans are struggling to figure out how they keep businesses in line. On Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned of ‘serious consequences’ if the private sector kept ‘behaving like a woke parallel government.’ But he didn’t even have a chance to clarify what those consequences would be before he was walking back his comments. ‘I didn’t say that very artfully yesterday,’ McConnell said Wednesday. A day after advising businesses to ‘stay the hell out of politics,’ McConnell said corporations were ‘certainly entitled to be in politics.’ Republicans can talk tough about corporations siding against them, but the reality is, that’s really all they can do. As McConnell demonstrated, even that game is delicate. And while corporations don’t want to alienate half of their consumer base by coming out against a partisan law, Republicans don’t want to ostracize big business” – Daily Beast.

Newsday: “Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin said Thursday he will run for governor of New York, launching his bid for the Republican nomination with an attack on Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for diminishing the state and a promise to bring it ‘back from the brink.’ Zeldin, 41, a four-term congressman from Shirley, announced his decision on Fox News Thursday morning after spending the past five weeks testing the waters by talking with county Republican chairs and leaders across the state. ‘The bottom line is this: To save New York, Andrew Cuomo’s gotta go,’ Zeldin said in a press release announcing his candidacy. ‘I will bring the kind of relentless, fighting spirit toward helping to save our state that Andrew Cuomo only reserves for multimillion dollar self-congratulatory book deals, cover-ups, abuse and self-dealing,’ he said in his statement. Though he gained national attention as a staunch defender of former President Donald Trump over the past four years and visited the former president at his Mar-a-Lago home and resort last month, Zeldin does not mention Trump in his announcement.”

Following mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado, President Joe Biden will unveil a half dozen executive orders Thursday aiming to curb gun violence and shady gun transfers, following up on a campaign promise, USA Today reports.

Among the rules relating to guns and gun violence:

• Having the Department of Justice format regulations for “ghost guns,” weapons that are constructed by owners either through kits or through parts bought separately on the internet;
• Regulating, under the National Firearms Act, a firearms accessory that acts as a brace for a handgun so it can operate like a rifle, similar to the one used by the Boulder shooter;
  Read More ▶ “Biden to introduce six Executive Orders targeting gun violence”

Lawmakers voted to approve a change to legislation submitted by Democratic Virginia Governor Ralph Northam to the state legislature that legalizes marijuana, making Virginia the first Southern state to decriminalize pot.

The Associated Press reports that Northam’s changes would legalize individuals to possess marijuana and grown a limited number of plants themselves by July, speeding up the legalization process by up to three years.

“The time has come for our state to legalize marijuana. The amendments ensure that while we’re doing the complicated work of standing up a commercial market, we aren’t delaying immediate reforms that will make our Commonwealth more equitable for all Virginians,” House Majority Leader Charniele Herring said while arguing that the legislation with the changes should pass.

One of the domestic terrorists arrested after the January 6th insurrectionist attack on the Capitol has flipped and is providing assistance to prosecutors investigating the far-right nationalist group The Proud Boys, CNN reports.

The revelation comes just days after a report that a member of another far-right nationalist group, the Oath Keepers, entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors, likely to provide information in the investigation of that group, according to a court motion that was mistakenly made public.

Prosecutors have at least two dozen members of the Proud Boys jailed without bail as part of their prosecutions for the January 6th coup attempt.  The Department of Justice is concentrating a great deal of effort to bring cases against the members of the far-right militant groups which reportedly organized attacks prior to arriving in Washington, DC.