Rumors

Mike Finger: Gregg Popovich was watching Kevin McCarthy’s six failed attempts to win the job of Speaker of the House. He had some thoughts: pic.twitter.com/U5qWJ9ADOO

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When we spoke, Ballmer had just returned from a whirlwind day of briefings on Capitol Hill, where he met with the House Select Committee on Modernization and the Problem Solvers Caucus, as well as Representative Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, and Representative Kevin McCarthy, the chamber’s top Republican. He also sat down with Denice Ross, the chief data scientist in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. On the Senate side, he briefed around 25 senators — all of them Democrats, despite his best efforts to assemble a bipartisan audience.

New York Times

Billionaire Seahawks owner and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen this year has made his largest-ever foray into congressional politics, donating $100,000 to a group aiming to keep Republicans in control of the U.S. House of Representatives. The June 14 donation, disclosed in mid-July, went to Protect the House, a committee headed by House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. It’s the biggest check Allen has ever sent to a federal political candidate or committee, according to a review of Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

Seattle Times