First Draft on Politics: Rolling Back the Clean Power Plan

View in [Browser]( | Add nytdirect@nytimes.com to your address book. [The New York Times]( [The New York Times]( Tuesday, October 10, 2017 [NYTimes.com/Politics »]( [Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. chief, at the White House in June.]( Scott Pruitt, the E.P.A. chief, at the White House in June. Al Drago/The New York Times Good Tuesday morning, Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today: - The Trump administration announced that [it would take formal steps]( to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, setting up a bitter fight over the future of America’s efforts to tackle global warming. - A Times examination of Russian-linked Facebook pages used in the 2016 election found that much of the content [was taken directly from videos and posts from Americans]( and sowed political discord by tapping into American rage. - New evidence [links Google to Kremlin election meddling]( for the first time. The search giant is one of a number of internet companies facing increased scrutiny. - Stephen Miller, who was a conservative trapped in a liberal California high school, [has rocketed to the upper reaches of White House influence]( especially on immigration. — The First Draft Team HAVE A CONFIDENTIAL NEWS TIP? Do you have the next big story? Want to share it with The New York Times? We offer several ways to get in touch with and provide materials to our journalists. [Learn More »]( ADVERTISEMENT The New Washington Podcast [Senator Marco Rubio]( Mr. Rubio, Republican of Florida, seems determined to shrug off the disappointment of a failed presidential race and show he is serious about the Senate, making up for lost time. [• Listen to the Podcast »]( The Upshot [Can the U.S. Repair Its Health Care While Keeping Its Innovation Edge?]( By AARON E. CARROLL AND AUSTIN FRAKT [Life spans increased in the second half of the 20th century in part because of innovations in the care for high-risk, premature infants.]( Life spans increased in the second half of the 20th century in part because of innovations in the care for high-risk, premature infants. Kevin P. Casey for The New York Times The United States health care system has many problems, but it also promotes [more innovation]( than its counterparts in other nations. That’s why discussions of remaking American health care often raise concerns about threats to innovation. But this fear is frequently misapplied and misunderstood. First, let’s acknowledge that the United States is home to an outsize share of global innovation within the health care sector and more broadly. It has [more clinical trials]( than any other country. It has [the most Nobel laureates]( in physiology or medicine. It has won [more patents](. [At least one publication]( ranks it No. 1 in overall scientific innovation. Strong promotion of innovation in health care is one reason the United States got as far as it did in our recent [bracket tournament]( on the best health system in the world. Though the United States lost to France, 3-2, in the semifinals, it picked up its two votes in part because of its influence on innovation, which can save lives in the United States and throughout the world. [Read more »](  [Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee during a news conference on Capitol Hill last month.]( News Analysis [Trump’s Fight with Corker Jeopardizes His Legislative Agenda]( By PETER BAKER AND JONATHAN MARTIN The heated exchange between President Trump and Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee is coming just as Mr. Trump needs virtually every Republican vote in the Senate for his tax cuts. [After White House Issues Demands, Hopes for an Immigration Deal Dim]( By YAMICHE ALCINDOR Mr. Trump’s list of hard-line immigration measures revealed an unspoken truth: Optimism for a bipartisan deal to protect the young immigrants known as Dreamers was very likely misplaced. [Ivana Trump, a Czech-born former model, ended her marriage with Donald J. Trump in what she called “brutal” divorce negotiations in 1992.]( [White House Reality Show Recap: Trump’s Ex-Wife Claims Title of First Lady]( By KATIE ROGERS Melania Trump’s East Wing struck back at Mr. Trump’s first wife, Ivana, on Monday for jokingly referring to herself as first lady. [A navigator from Planned Parenthood of the Heartland, left, helped a couple enroll in a health care plan in February 2015 in Carroll, Iowa. The group, Iowa’s largest for navigators, ended its counseling program this year after being told that its grant would be cut by 85 percent.]( [Cuts to Health Law Enrollment Efforts Are Hitting Counselors Hard]( By ROBERT PEAR Even successful groups that help consumers enroll in insurance under Obamacare are finding their funding slashed. The Trump administration had promised its deepest cuts for those that performed poorly in signing people up. [Robert McCoy was adamant that he had not committed a triple murder, but his lawyer conceded his guilt in a bid to avoid the death penalty.]( Sidebar [Facing the Death Penalty With a Disloyal Lawyer]( By ADAM LIPTAK The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a lawyer may concede his client’s guilt in a death penalty case, over the client’s objection. [Senator Dianne Feinstein in September. Ms. Feinstein disclosed on Twitter on Monday that she would seek a sixth term.]( [‘I Have the Energy’: Dianne Feinstein Makes Case for a Sixth Term]( By ADAM NAGOURNEY Some Democrats had hoped Senator Feinstein, 84, would step aside to make way for new Democratic blood. Not so. “I’m all in,” she announced on Twitter. Right and Left: Partisan Writing You Shouldn’t Miss Read about how the other side thinks. We have collected political writing from around the web and across ideologies. From the Right [Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry]( in [The Week]( “He has calibrated his retirement announcement to encourage speculation about a 2020 bid, for which his recent comments are clearly useful in positioning him as an establishment primary challenge to Trump. What is it, exactly, that anyone should respect here?” Mr. Gobry sees nothing heroic in Senator Bob Corker’s [recent criticism]( of the president in his interview with The New York Times. If the president were indeed a “toddler,” Mr. Gobry asks, why didn’t the senator from Tennessee say so earlier? Mr. Gobry agrees with Mr. Corker that President Trump has behaved in ways that are “grave and alarming.” The only difference is that Mr. Gobry has not “spent the past year obfuscating about that for political gain.” [Read more »]( _____ From the Left [Jonah Shepp]( in [New York Magazine]( “That Corker is the only Republican openly remarking on the irresponsibility of this behavior is, frankly, an indictment of the rest of the party.” Mr. Shepp does not think that the president’s critics should give Mr. Corker and others like him too much credit. “They had enough evidence to know exactly what kind of erratic person they were hitching their wagons to last year, and went ahead and endorsed him anyway,” he writes. [Read more »]( _____ [More selections »]( ADVERTISEMENT HOW ARE WE DOING? We’d love your feedback on this newsletter. 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