A refresher on 2017's House special elections Lazaro Gamio / Axios There's been a rush to view 2017's House special elections as a barometer for the health of the Trump presidency, leading to an extreme national focus on the four contested races around the country — one of which became the most expensive House race in history.(A fifth special election in California's heavily liberal 34th congressional district in Los Angeles was fought between two Democrats.)Republicans went four for four in these traditionally GOP districts, but at much closer margins than 2016's congressional races, allowing both parties to spin the results as a success.Kansas, 4th congressional district Date: April 11, 2017Incumbent: Mike Pompeo (R)Reason for special election: Pompeo resigned to become CIA Director.Winner: Ron Estes (R)National spending: Per OpenSecrets, Estes received $130,000 from the NRCC while his Democratic challenger James Thompson received just $3,000 from the Democratic Party, having had a $20,000 request turned down by the Dems' national arm that led his campaign manager to complain that the party was "sitting on the sidelines."Trump's

margin of victory/GOP margin of victory in special election: 27/7GOP margin of victory in 2016/GOP margin of victory in special election: 31/7 Montana (at-large) Date: May 25, 2017Incumbent: Ryan Zinke (R)Reason for special election: Zinke resigned to become Secretary of the Interior.Winner: Greg Gianforte (R)National spending: Per OpenSecrets, the race was the most expensive in Montana history and saw outside Republican groups, including the NRCC and RNC, spend $5.6 million on Gianforte while his Democratic challenger Rob Quist received a little less than $1 million from national Democrat-affiliated groups.Trump's margin of victory/GOP margin of victory in special election: 21/6GOP margin of victory in 2016/GOP margin of victory in special election: 16/6 Georgia, 6th congressional district Date: June 6, 2017Incumbent: Tom Price (R)Reason for special election: Price resigned to become Secretary for Health and Human Services.Winner: Karen Handel (R)National spending: The race was the most expensive House race in history with $56.7 million spent.

Per OpenSecrets, there was a huge amount of outside national spending with $18.2 million poured into Handel's campaign while her Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff received just under $8m from outside groups.Trump's margin of victory/GOP margin of victory in special election: 1/4GOP margin of victory in 2016/GOP margin of victory in special election: 23/4 South Carolina, 5th congressional district Date: June 6, 2017Incumbent: Mick Mulvaney (R)Reason for special election: Mulvaney resigned to become Director of the Office of Management and Budget.Winner: Ralph Norman (R)National spending: Per OpenSecrets, the vast majority of the outside spending came during the Republican primary process with just over $2 million spent — only $85,000 was spent on the general election between both parties as the race was considered to be an easy Republican win.Trump's margin of victory/GOP margin of victory in special election: 18/3GOP margin of victory in 2016/GOP margin of victory in special election: 21/3 DOJ asks Supreme Court to hear Microsoft email case Swayne B. Hall / AP The Justice Department is trying to take its drawn-out fight with Microsoft over law enforcement's access to emails stored on overseas servers to the Supreme Court.

Why it matters: Major tech companies are watching this case closely.litecoin wallet guideIf the Supreme Court takes the case, the outcome would have far-reaching effects on how tech firms store user data on foreign servers — and how law enforcement can access it.bitcoin association hkAs more and more of our data is stored in the cloud by companies with data centers around the world, the question of how governments (both U.S.dogecoin exchange usdand abroad) can access the data is becoming increasingly complicated.litecoin efficiencyAt issue is whether the U.S.kevin kelly bitcoin

government can use a warrant to access messages from one of Microsoft's data centers overseas.bitcoin mining usb ukAn appeals court sided with Microsoft, saying a U.S.bitcoin explorer apiwarrant wasn't sufficient to obtain those messages and that the DOJ would instead need to request the data through an international process.bitcoin exchange founder deadWhat's next: Tech companies including Microsoft are pushing for Congress to update the laws regarding law enforcement access to data centers to create a clear process for accessing data while also protecting privacy.bitcoin zukunft 2015Congress has held hearings on the topic but has not yet acted on legislation.The tour company Otto Warmbier used isn't taking Americans anymore Jon Chol Jin / AP Young Pioneers Tours (YPT), the tour company that hosted Otto Warmbier on his trip through North Korea may have not been as responsible in keeping its tourists as safe as they should have been, according to fellow trip-goers, Politico Magazine reports "It seems partying was a bigger part of the job description than taking care of us," one person who used YPT told Politico, adding that "all of the tour guides were young people who get very drunk.

It was sort of like there were few or no adults around."Why it matters: Following Warmbier's death, YPT announced it isn't taking American tourists on its trips anymore because "the assessment of risk for Americans visiting North Korea has become too high," which puts the blame onto Americans and leaves little room for a company role in the security of its tour group.But two incidents in the buildup to Warmbier's detainment raise questions about the security of tourists in YPT's care.Incident 1: One British trip goer, Danny Gratton, found himself alone in the streets after wandering off with another trip-goer and a few North Koreans on New Years Eve, during what was reportedly a jovial celebration.Unguided tourism is not allowed in North Korea and the country tightly monitors Western tourists, usually by placing North Korean guides with Western guides on tours.Plus, the "disappearance roughly coincides with the time Warmbier allegedly tried to steal the propaganda poster from the hotel, raising questions about whether those two events are related," as Politico writes.

Warmbier and Gratton roomed together during the trip.The morning after the alleged disappearance and Warmbier's alleged crime, the hotel "mysteriously and uncharacteristically missed their wake-up call," Gratton told The Washington Post (although he did not disclose his disappearance).Then, when Warmbier was detained by North Korean security services at the airport that day, Gratton said he was the only tour go-er to see it.Gratton said the tour company and the U.S.government never contacted him about the detainment.Incident 2: When a friend of one of the Western tour guides hid one of the tourists' passport and North Korean soldiers took him to another area and interrogated him, the tour guide allegedly teased the man's wife instead of helping.One other note: The Daily Mail reports that a British lawyer who went on a separate tour with YPT in North Korea said one of her tour guides brought her to an off-limits floor in their hotel building, which is similar to the location of Warmbier's alleged crime.

Uber board members had copies of key document in Waymo lawsuit AP In a new court document, Uber says that three then-board members—Benchmark's Bill Gurley, Arianna Huffington, and TPG Capital's David Bonderman—received copies of a due diligence report prepared as part of the company's 2016 acquisition of a self-driving truck startup.All obtained copies of the report through Uber's in-house lawyers, and Bonderman subsequently shredded his copy, according to court documents.Gurley and Bonderman are no longer on Uber's board.Why it matters: The Uber-Waymo court saga has been overshadowed by the dramatic departure of Uber CEO Travis Kalanick after the board asked him to resign.Whoever ends up taking the helm of Uber will not only have to fix its broken culture, but will also have to deal with the fallout of Waymo's allegations over the use of proprietary self-driving technology, which is vital to Uber's future.Backstory: At the onset of the case, Anthony Levandowski, a former Waymo employee accused of stealing company secrets before founding and selling his company to Uber, attempted to keep the report from turning up in court by asserting his Fifth Amendment right.

The report presumably contains evidence that Levandowski did download 14,000 proprietary files from Waymo prior to leaving the company.The court eventually denied his request to shield the document and ordered Uber and the forensics firm that prepared it to hand it over.Uber later parted ways with Levandowski.The US photo of a close encounter with a Russian fighter jet Master Sgt Charles Larkin Snr / U.S.European Command via AP The U.S.has released a photo of when a Russian fighter jet flew within five feet of a U.S.Air Force reconnaissance plane earlier this week over the Baltic Sea in an unsafe maneuver.The move came just after Russia announced it would begin targeting the U.S.west of the Euphrates in an escalation of tensions in the Syrian conflict.Senate asks Lynch to disclose Clinton email conversations Elise Amendola / AP The Senate Judiciary committee has asked former AG Loretta Lynch to disclose conversations she has had with two people who were implicated in the "dubious" intel that then-FBI Director James Comey relied on before announcing the Clinton investigation was over.

The Judiciary Committee is now probing into both Trump and Obama administrations.The details:The potentially fake report, which could be linked to Russia, alleged that then-DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz claimed in an email that Lynch told a Clinton staffer the FBI wouldn't probe too far into Clinton.The Judiciary committee now wants to hear about Lynch's conversations with Wasserman Schultz and that staffer.They also asked the staffer, Amanda Renteria, to disclose conversations she had with the FBI and Lynch about the investigation.And they want Lynch to disclose any conversations she had with Clinton's campaign and the DNC about the investigation.Spicer: Carrier will maintain its job quota in Trump deal Darron Cummings / AP Sean Spicer told reporters Friday that the deal Carrier, the heating and air-conditioning manufacturer, made with Trump in November is still in tact, and that news of the company laying off more than 600 employees from its Indianapolis plant was announced last year.Yesterday, reports surfaced that Carrier was cutting more than 600 jobs from its Indianapolis plant.

Spicer clarified Friday that the lay offs were announced last year and would not affect the company's agreement to maintain the deal's 1,069 job quota.Lawmakers ask Mattis to investigate torture of prisoners in Yemen Cliff Owen / AP Lawmakers have asked Defense Secretary Jim Mattis to investigate the alleged torture of prisoners in Yemen, per the AP.The AP issued a report Thursday that the U.S.is interrogating detainees in Yemen (which the U.S.acknowledges) as part of the search for militants in al-Qaeda, but that the U.S.is interrogating them after they've been tortured by the United Arab Emirates.That would put the U.S.in violation of the International Convention Against Torture.The intrigue of this news is that several defense officials told the AP the U.S.has already looked into the allegations of torture and was "satisfied" there wasn't any, as the AP put it.These lawmakers want a further look.Google will stop scanning free Gmail to target ads Virginia Mayo / AP The tech giant will now treat its free Gmail product the same way it treats its G Suite's enterprise products, and will use settings-based ad targeting as opposed to content scanning for ad personalization.Why it matters: The decision likely stems from consumer concerns broadly in the U.S.