Bo, the Obama family's 12-year-old Portuguese water dog, died of cancer on Saturday afternoon, the former first couple announced.
The big picture: Bo was 6 months old when he arrived at the White House in 2009, having been gifted by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) to then-first daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama.
Norwegian Cruise Line this week threatened to pull its ships from ports in Florida after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill prohibiting businesses from requiring customers show proof they have received COVID vaccines, AP reports.
The big picture: Norwegian, which is based in Miami, plans to resume cruises in the Caribbean and Europe this summer and fall with "mandatory vaccination requirements for all guests and crew on all sailings" through the end of October.
The Arizona state Senate has postponed a plan to interview some voters as part of a Republican-commissioned election recount after the Department of Justice raised concerns about voter intimidation, The Washington Post reported.
Why it matters: Pamela Karla, the DOJ principal deputy assistant attorney general, sent a letter to the Arizona state Senate president informing her that the recount in Maricopa County might violate federal law since it's being conducted by a private contractor.
Rep. Matt Gaetz at a Friday rally with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said that despite the sexual misconduct controversy surrounding him, he is not going away.
The big picture: Gaetz and Greene started their "America First Tour" on Friday in Orlando, Florida. The two conservatives plan to use the tour to call out so-called RINOs — "Republicans in Name Only" — who oppose former President Trump's agenda, Politico reports.
A jury in Alabama on Friday convicted Huntsville police officer William “Ben” Darby of murder in the fatal shooting of a suicidal man in 2018, AP reported.
Driving the news: Darby killed Jeffrey Parker while responding to a 911 call in which the man said he was armed and planned to kill himself. Parker was aiming a gun to his own head when Darby shot him, per AP.
Former President Trump's Justice Department in 2017 secretly obtained the phone records of three Washington Post reporters, the newspaper revealed Friday.
Between the lines: The reporters — Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Adam Entous — at the time were looking into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The ACLU is running an emotional two-page ad in the New York Times this Mother’s Day, urging the Biden administration to go beyond reuniting migrant children and parents separated by President Trump and guarantee them protections to stay in the U.S.
Details: The ad, previewed by Axios, depicts, in red ink, desperate, hand-scrawled fears of separated children against the backdrop of a growth chart.
The Ohio Republican Party on Friday censured Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio) and called for him to resign for voting to impeach former President Trump in January, Reuters reports.
The big picture: Gonzalez is the latest Republican lawmaker to be punished for voting to impeach the former president on a charge of inciting the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection.
Friday morning's dismal jobs report only goes to prove whatever people already believed about government policy.
The big picture: Democrats and progressivesare convinced that the weak pace of job growth only serves to underscore the necessity of massive government spending to boost the economy.
The Department of Justice released a proposed rule Friday that would broaden the definition of "firearm" and require some gun-making kits to include serial numbers.
The big picture: President Biden last month unveiled a series of executive actions on guns, including directing the DOJ to propose a rule to crack down on the proliferation of "ghost guns," which are untraceable firearms assembled from kits.
Economists had been expecting the economy to add nearly 1 million jobs last month but it only added 266,000. This speed bump in the U.S. economic recovery could change the political debate over whether or not to spend trillions of dollars on infrastructure and social services.
Axios Re:Cap is joined by Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon and Axios political reporter Sarah Mucha to dig into what the jobs report says about the U.S. economy and what it means for President Biden’s plans.
Former first lady Michelle Obama told "CBS This Morning" that while "we're all breathing a sigh of relief" after the conviction of Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, "there's still work to be done."
What she's saying: "And so we, we can't sort of say, 'Great. That happened. Let's move on,'" she told "CBS This Morning" anchor Gayle King in an interview set to air Monday. "I know that people in the Black community don't feel that way because many of us still live in fear."
California's population declined last year for the first time in the state's recorded history, the Washington Post reports.
Driving the news: The state Department of Finance attributed the 0.46% dip — a loss of 182,083 people — to a decrease in out-of-state migration, slowed immigration and the coronavirus pandemic.
Oklahoma has secured a $2.6 million refund for a malaria drug purchase once touted by former President Trump as a treatment for COVID-19, the state's attorney general announced Friday.
Why it matters: Trump repeatedly promoted hydroxychloroquine last year despite health officials warning that the drug should not be prescribed for treating COVID-19 outside of research or hospital settings due to serious side effects. Oklahoma purchased 1.2 million hydroxychloroquine pills in April 2020, per AP.
President Biden said Friday that the disappointing April jobs report, which showed the U.S. economy added just 266,000 jobs last month, underscores the importance of the COVID-19 relief package and his other proposed spending plans.
Why it matters: Economists had expected a gain of around 1 million jobs last month, making this the biggest payrolls miss, relative to expectations, in decades.
CDC respiratory disease chief Nancy Messonnier, who last year was the first U.S. health official to alert Americans of the disruptions to everyday life that the coronavirus would cause, said she will resign on May 14, according to an email to colleagues on Friday obtained by the Washington Post.
Why it matters: Messonnier became a target of former President Trump after she contradicted White House messaging in February 2020 by warning that health experts expected the novel coronavirus to kill thousands of people in the U.S.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has pledged to sign legislation passed recently by state lawmakers that would allow execution by firing squad as an option for prisoners on death row if lethal injections are not available.
Why it matters: While the U.S. has been shifting away generally from capital punishment — Virginia recently became the first southern state to outlaw it — South Carolina is moving in the opposite direction.
Joseph Hurley, the attorney for alleged Jan. 6 Capitol rioter Anthony Antonio, blamed Fox News for his client's actions, saying Antonio developed "Foxitis" after becoming addicted to the cable news network, according to CNN.
Why it matters: Hurley said at Antonio's virtual hearing Thursday that his client had lost his job at the start of the coronavirus pandemic and constantly watched Fox News, eventually coming to believe lies about the 2020 election that the network and former President Trump perpetuated.
A federal grand jury Friday has indicted Derek Chauvin and three other former Minneapolis officers for civil rights violations related to the death of George Floyd.
Why it matters: The new charges mean the officers could face another high-profile criminal trial following a yearlong racial reckoning across the nation.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Thursday night that she will not run for another term this year, after having launched a re-election campaign in March.
Why it matters: It's a stunning reversal for the mayor, a rising Democratic star who was seen as a contender to become President Biden’s running mate or a member of his Cabinet.
Republican officialsare rendering an unequivocal verdict: They want to cement former President Trump's politics and policies into the foundation of the GOP for many years to come.
Why it matters: The debate over Trump's post-election hold on the GOP is over — it has gotten stronger since the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol.
An attorney for Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) told Punchbowl News that Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) has refused to be served in a lawsuit alleging that he and other pro-Trump allies are "responsible for the injury and destruction" of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Why it matters: The lawsuit, which Swalwell has also filed against former President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Rudy Giuliani, alleges that Brooks incited the riot that day through his speech at the "Save America" rally that preceded the violence.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump agree on at least one thing: Buy American. The slogan was a centerpiece of Biden's recent address to Congress, backed up with one of his first executive orders.
Why it matters: Federal law has placed a heavy thumb on the scales when it comes to hundreds of billions of dollars of U.S. government spending. But it's far from clear that it will have its desired effect.
The Federal Election Commission announced Thursday that it won't proceed with a case examining whether former President Trump violated election law in 2016 a hush-money payment made through his then-lawyer Michael Cohen.
The state of play: The election commission, split between three Republicans and three Democratic-aligned commissioners, dropped the proceeding in a closed-door meeting in February, per the New York Times.
Thousands of prisoners who've been in home confinement for as long as a year because of the pandemic face returning to prison when it's over — unless President Biden rescinds a last-minute Trump Justice Department memo.
Why it matters: Most prisoners were told they would not have to come back as they were released early with ankle bracelets. Now, their lives are on hold while they wait to see whether or when they may be forced back behind bars. Advocates say about 4,500 people are affected.
Nearly five months after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the creation of the bipartisan Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth, it's not been formed much less met.
Why it matters: Select committees are designed to address urgent matters, but the 117th Congress is now nearly one-quarter complete without this panel assembling. When she announced this committee, Pelosi described it as an "essential force" to "combat the crisis of income and wealth disparity in America."
The Biden administration is excusing top officials from ethics rules that would otherwise restrict their work with large labor unions that previously employed them, federal records show.
Why it matters: Labor's sizable personnel presence in the administration is driving policy, and the president's appointment of top union officials to senior posts gives those unions powerful voices in the federal bureaucracy — even at the cost of strictly adhering to his own stringent ethics standards.
An anti-coronavirus edict will keep a group of high-profile speakers from taking the podium at this year's college commencement ceremonies: Biden administration Cabinet members.
Why it matters: Speakers who'd normally serve as the new administration's face to the public — or sell President Biden's array of new policies — are banned from speaking in person because the White House doesn't want to encourage super-spreader events.
A police operation against a group of alleged drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro on Thursday ended in a shootout that left at least 25 people dead, Reuters reported.
Why it matters: It is the country's deadliest police raid since 2005, per Reuters.
