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A 48-year-old man was executed by lethal injection in the southern US state of Florida on Tuesday for the 2000 murder of a newspaper employee who was abducted while on her lunch break.

Michael Tanzi was put to death shortly after 6:00 pm (2200 GMT) at the Florida State Prison in Raiford for the murder of Janet Acosta, 49, prison officials said in a statement.

US President Donald Trump planted a new sapling on Tuesday to replace a nearly 200-year-old tree at the White House -- dubbing it a "MAGAnolia" after his "Make America Great Again" slogan.

The historic "Jackson Magnolia", believed to have been planted by president Andrew Jackson in the 19th century, was chopped down for safety reasons on Monday.

NOTUS is reporting that emotions are running high in Republican meetings over a GOP budget threatening to add up to $5.8 trillion to the nation’s deficit and potentially raise the nation’s debt to 214% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2054

Republicans typically run on lowering national debt and the deficit under Democratic administrations, and a few of them are apparently having a difficult time switching gears for President Donald Trump, who also significantly raised the deficit under his last administration.

While President Donald Trump’s tariffs continue to roil China, Vice President JD Vance created an uproar of his own after making comments about “Chinese peasants” that quickly spread throughout the foreign country – and incited the fury of Beijing officials.

That’s according to CNN, which reported Tuesday that Vance’s comments in a Fox News interview last Thursday have since shot to the top of one of China’s leading social media platforms Weibo.

The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial board took far-right House Republicans to the woodshed for threatening to blockade the Senate's budget framework, warning them that they were essentially derailing the very pro-Trump agenda they claimed to stand for.

This comes as the same board has gone after President Donald Trump aggressively for a huge new tariff regime the board sees as self-defeating. It also comes after months of infighting among the House and Senate Republicans over exactly how to implement Trump's desired vision for tax cuts, energy deregulation, and border security in a single, all-encompassing package almost certain to be voted on by party lines.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) launched a verbal tirade against one of her constituents who called into a telephone town hall and clearly struck a nerve with the MAGA lawmaker.

“You’re probably one of those people – one of those fake town hallers who want a fake town hall – because you’ve never shown up to one. So you can just sit right back down. I’m not going to have any of it,” Mace said.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is declaring his candidacy in the Senate primary against longtime incumbent Sen. John Cornyn, reported Punchbowl News' John Bresnahan.

The move sets up what could potentially become one of the most expensive and bruising primary battles of the 2026 Senate elections.

by Jennifer Shutt, Daily Montanan

April 8, 2025

The Supreme Court permitted President Donald Trump this week to resume mass migrant deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a ruling that had many of Trump's legal critics fuming and Trump's team proclaiming victory — but it wasn't quite that cut and dry, former federal prosecutor Elie Honig explained during a CNN panel on Tuesday.

"This is a victory for the Trump administration, one of the more significant ones they have netted before the high court," said legal reporter Paula Reid. "But it's a partial victory because they will be expected to follow process, small-p."

Talking Points Memo founder Josh Marshall was surprised Tuesday that the Department of Justice’s impending closure of its Tax Division — ordered by billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — has not gotten more news coverage, especially considering how much the removal of vital accountants can helps billionaires avoid paying taxes.

“Like a body sliced into a hundred pieces, [the department] will simply shrivel and die. And that, more or less, will be the end of the Tax Division,” Marshall wrote. "When you combine this with the gutting of IRS itself it basically means a radical diminution of tax enforcement in the United States. If you make more than say a million dollars a year paying taxes is probably going to be voluntary going forward. It’s a new feature of billionairedom.”

A prominent civil liberties organization celebrated the courtroom win handed to The Associated Press on Tuesday in a legal ruling that made near-identical points as the group did over two months ago.

The victory lap came after U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden scorched the Trump White House’s expulsion of the Associated Press from the Oval Office and Air Force One as “brazen” and likely unconstitutional.

President Donald Trump posted to his Truth Social account on Tuesday that he'd met with House Speaker Mike Johnson and "conservative" members to talk about ongoing budget talks. Trump promises that he's supportive of spending cuts.

"I had a very good meeting today with the Speaker of the House and some of our more Conservative Members, all great people. I let them know that, I AM FOR MAJOR SPENDING CUTS!" he wrote in all capital letters. "WE ARE GOING TO DO REDUCTIONS, hopefully in excess of $1 Trillion Dollars, all of which will go into 'The One, Big, Beautiful Bill.' I, along with House Members and Senators, will be pushing very hard to get these large scale Spending Cuts done, but we must get the Bill approved NOW. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"

Reports claimed President Donald Trump wanted the U.S. government to fund a military parade for his 79th birthday, though Politico cited the White House saying that report is false. The idea of a Trump military parade inspired one Army veteran to ask why her generation never got their parade after serving in a war.

In 2018, Trump wanted a grand parade but ultimately called it off because it would cost approximately $92 million. Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Takis Karantonis, the chair of Virginia’s Arlington County Board, told Politico on Monday that there have been discussions with Trump administration officials about such a parade.