CHANGE: Sessions Unveils New ‘Get Tough’ Approach to Immigration Enforcement.

SORRY SEEMS TO BE THE PRICIEST WORD: Melania Trump Wins Payout and Apology From U.K.’s Daily Mail.

The August 2016 article entitled “Racy photos and troubling questions about his wife’s past that could derail Trump” contained untrue allegations “which questioned the nature of her work as a model, and republished allegations that she provided services beyond simply modeling,” John Kelly said reading a statement in a London court Wednesday. “The allegations “strike at the heart of the claimant’s personal integrity and dignity,” he said.

The First Lady is understood to have won a payout close to $3 million, according to a person familiar with the settlement, who asked not to be named because the amount isn’t public. The Guardian newspaper reported the damages figure earlier.

President Donald Trump’s spouse filed a suit against the British newspaper in the U.S. for $150 million alleging the article caused “tremendous harm” to her reputation and making it almost impossible to take advantage of “major business opportunities” available “for a multi-year term during which plaintiff is one of the most photographed women in the world.”

“The defendant acknowledges that these claims about the claimant are untrue, and we retract and withdraw them,” Catrin Evans, a lawyer for Associated Newspapers, said in court. Associated Newspapers is owned by Daily Mail & General Trust Plc.

MICHAEL GOODWIN: Trump won’t definitively say he still backs Bannon.

“I like Steve, but you have to remember he was not involved in my campaign until very late,” Trump said. “I had already beaten all the senators and all the governors, and I didn’t know Steve. I’m my own strategist and it wasn’t like I was going to change strategies because I was facing crooked Hillary.”

He ended by saying, “Steve is a good guy, but I told them to straighten it out or I will.”

That’s the same thing Trump said to Beijing about North Korea.

MORNING BRIEF: Liz Sheld has you covered at Hot Mic.

UM… Atlanta Braves stadium to sell beer made with baseball bat shavings.

The perfect beer for fans of over-oaked chardonnay?

SAFETY… YOU KEEP USING THAT WORD: Pro-Transgender Activists Reportedly Assault Opposition.

HMM: Tesla Performs Stealth Recall With Misleading Messages, Customer NDAs.

BECAUSE THEIR SANDWICHES ARE FRIGHTENINGLY JUICY AND CRISPY? University’s LGBT Students ‘Fear’ Arrival Of Chick-fil-A.

ANDREW MALCOLM: Something is up in the Trump White House on North Korea.

Accumulating evidence, however, indicates something is up on North Korea. It could be real. It could be mere pressure, although after the sudden missile raid on Syria last week, diplomats would have to plan as if it’s real.

After visiting South Korea last month, Secy. of State Rex Tillerson pronounced the last 20 years of allied policy toward North Korea a failure. He said the era of “strategic patience” was over, adding all options are on the table, including military action. Secy. of Defense James Mattis delivered similar messages and Vice President Mike Pence is due there later this month.

When Pyongyang launched its next missile test, Tillerson issued an unusual 23-word response: ““North Korea launched yet another intermediate range ballistic missile. The United States has spoken enough about North Korea. We have no further comment.”

Over the weekend the Pentagon ordered the Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Group to waters off the Korean Peninsula. Press reports said China was massing 150,000 troops on its border with North Korea, reports denied by a Beijing spokeswoman.

On Sunday H.R. McMaster said Trump had tasked the National Security Council to develop a full range of options to halt North Korea’s nuclear threat to the U.S. and regional allies.

Then, we checked President Trump’s public schedule for today. He’s got his daily intelligence briefing, followed by meetings with Homeland Security Secy. John Kelly, and Gary Cohn, director of the National Economic Council, and also McMaster.

And then, wait. What this? “In the evening, the President will have a working dinner with senior military leaders.”

Oh.

QUESTION ASKED: How likely is another Korean War?

That may depend entirely on whether Kim Jong-Un understands that his regime — nor likely his own personal self — would not survive a Second Korean War, now that even China seems to have had its fill of his antics.

ABOUT-FACE: Club for Growth Backs New Trump Obamacare Repeal With $1 Million Ad Buy.

TO BE CLEAR, THESE WERE THE GOVERNMENT’S OWN CYANIDE TRAPS: Government bans cyanide traps in Idaho after boy hurt.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Monday that it had halted all use of the traps on state, federal and private land in Idaho in response to a petition from 19 conservation and wildlife groups.

The spring-activated devices called M-44s look like water sprinkler heads and are imbedded in the ground.

They spray cyanide powder when triggered by animals.

The boy was hurt and his Labrador retriever died in March on federally-owned land near the boy’s house in Pocatello.

Just in Idaho?

21ST CENTURY HEADLINES: “Cyber-Ninja Force” Being Developed to Protect Energy, Gas Grid.

Adding in a few non-virtual ninjas couldn’t hurt.

HMM: Senators Warn Mnuchin of National Security Implications of Russia CITGO Takeover.

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who is chairman of the inter-agency Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) say he needs to be prepared to protect U.S. energy infrastructure should Rosneft carry through with seizing control of CITGO Petroleum Corporation’s Venezuelan parent company, state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela S.A.

Oil giant Rosneft is owned by the Russian government and its chairman, Igor Sechin, is a former deputy prime minister under President Vladimir Putin and a close ally. Both the company and Sechin are currently covered under U.S. sanctions.

Amid economic turmoil in Venezuela and the stress of low oil prices, in December PDVSA leveraged 49.9 of its shares in CITGO as collateral for a $1.5 billion loan from Rosneft. With the situation in Venezuela further deteriorating, making default more likely.

I’ve read plenty of “Just let the Russians have it!” sentiment regarding Syria, and even the wider Middle East. Surely that sentiment doesn’t run as far as our own backyard, does it?

BRIDGET JOHNSON: A few takeaways from today’s NSC briefing on Syria.

•Sarin confirmed as the nerve agent used via testing on victims as well as symptoms. Secondary responders also suffered exposure symptoms.

•Su-22s from Shayrat airfield dropped the sarin on Khan Shaykhun; conventional weapons were dropped about six hours later on hospital treating sarin victims – “no comment” from officials on if Russia did latter.

•No ISIS or other terrorists in area have sarin (just mustard gas) – attack was “not a terrorist holding of sarin or a terrorist use of sarin”

More items at Hot Mic, full story to follow later on PJ Media.

YOU DON’T SAY: For Obama, Syria Chemical Attack Shows Risk of ‘Deals With Dictators’

Although friends and foes alike faulted him for not following through on his threat to retaliate when Syria gassed its own people in 2013, Mr. Obama would counter that he had actually achieved a better result through an agreement with President Bashar al-Assad to surrender all of his chemical weapons.

After last week, even former Obama aides assume that he will have to rethink that passage in his memoir. More than 80 civilians were killed in what Western analysts called a sarin attack by Syrian forces — a chilling demonstration that the agreement did not succeed. In recent days, former aides have lamented what they considered one of the worst moments of the Obama presidency and privately conceded that his legacy would suffer.

“If the Syrian government carried out the attack and the agent was sarin, then clearly the 2013 agreement didn’t succeed in its objective of eliminating Bashar’s C.W.,” or chemical weapons, said Robert Einhorn, who was the State Department special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control under Mr. Obama before the agreement. “Either he didn’t declare all his C.W. and kept some hidden in reserve, or he illegally produced some sarin after his stock was eliminated — most likely the former.”

The headline doesn’t have it quite right. Dealing from a position of resolution and strength, President Reagan was able to make some pretty good deals with the Soviet Union. The lesson from Syria is that irresolute naifs have no business conducting affairs of state with more ruthless leaders — or with anyone else, really.

CLOCK’S TICKING: An important reminder to the Stupid Party from Michael Walsh.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON ON SUSAN RICE: The Obama Administration’s Zelig.

Yet, to be fair, it is difficult to know whether Rice was a seasoned architect of that duplicity. Given her reputation as a useful naïf and loyal fall person, perhaps she was easily manipulated into going on five Sunday shows to mislead and distort. Her subordinate Ben Rhodes needed a vessel to assure the nation that the Benghazi attacks were not due to administration policy failures, and Rice was deemed the ideal vehicle to spread that myth.

And the fable of the supposedly honorable Bowe Bergdahl (currently facing Pentagon charges of desertion)?

Rice was there, too. To prop up an unhinged trade of five terrorists at Guantanamo for an AWOL soldier, Rice falsely claimed that Bergdahl had “served with honor and distinction.” Then she trumped that with a quite unnecessary fillip: “Sergeant Bergdahl wasn’t simply a hostage; he was an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield.” Left unsaid was that a number of American soldiers were killed as a result of efforts to find his walkabout whereabouts.

Again, note always the weird but characteristic Rice emphatics: Just as she did not go on one show but five to disseminate Benghazi falsehoods, so too it was not enough just to leave Bergdahl’s story at “honor and distinction” without the added “captured on the battlefield” nonsense. Unfortunately, she can be counted on to give a tough, no-holds-barred confirmation of something false — on the logic that bogusness gains credibility the louder and stronger it is expressed.

Her expertise is in telling the Big Lie, yet the media still seems mostly happy to treat her as an expert on most anything else.

CHANGE: Toshiba warns it may not survive crisis.

Did anybody pick Toshiba ahead of Sears in the Established Brands dead pool?

CULTURE OF INTIMIDATION: Florida sheriff under fire over anti-drug video defends tactics: ‘We don’t negotiate’

In the video shared on Facebook, Lake County Sheriff Peyton Grinnell told heroin drug dealers to “enjoy trying to sleep at night” because his officers were coming for them.

“You can’t negotiate with these drug dealers. They know what they’re doing,” Grinnell said Tuesday on “Fox and Friends.” He added, “They are pushing this poison out on our streets. We need to take a tough stance on it and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Critics seemed to be riled up more by the four agents wearing black hoods and masks standing behind him.

The sheriff, who has been on the job since January, said the agents are working undercover in a “dark and dangerous world” and their identities must be protected.

“But they wanted to be a part of that video,” Grinnell said. “They have a passion to serve. They want to make sure this county is safe so I was proud when they wanted to be on that video.”

Drug criminalization may be even more corrosive to our institutions than drug use can be to individuals.

GRANDSTANDING: Transportation Committee Dem Wants Hearing on United Airlines Incident.

Must every problem or pain find its solution or palliative in Washington?

I HAD NO IDEA: As the freshman Supreme Court justice, Neil Gorsuch will have ‘cafeteria duty’ and a few other hazing rituals.

How do you keep a new Supreme Court justice’s head from getting too big?

Start by making him take notes and answer the door at the justices’ private meetings. Then remind him he speaks last at those discussions. Finally, assign him the job of listening to gripes about the food at the court’s cafeteria.

That’s what awaits Neil Gorsuch, who joined the Supreme Court on Monday as the “junior justice,” the freshman of the nine-member court. The menial duties for the newest justice are a part of tradition, but not a bad deal for a job that comes with lifetime tenure and the prestige of a high court seat.

I’m not sure “menial duties” count as hazing, but they’re probably good for the ego.

THE LARGE PRINT GIVETH AND THE SMALL PRINT TAKETH AWAY: Here’s the Fine Print On The Country’s Biggest-Ever Free College Plan.

INDEED: Enough With PolitiFact’s Opinion Journalism.

I’M NOT BUYING THIS HUFFPO HEADLINE: Democrats Contemplate How To Forfeit Their Power Upon Regaining The Senate.

“When the Democrats return to the majority and capture the presidency ― which we will, that day is going to arrive ― we will restore the 60-vote margin,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) told MSNBC on Monday. “We will ensure that for the Supreme Court, there is that special margin that any candidate has to reach, because that is essential to ensuring that our country has a confidence in people who are nominated, rather than just someone who passes a litmus test.”

This isn’t what the Democrat base wants to hear before winning back the majority, and it isn’t how the Democrat base expects to exact its revenge after winning back the majority, and it certainly isn’t what the Democrat base wanted when it forced Chuck Schumer into the ill-advised Gorsuch filibuster.