COLLUSION DELUSION.   DC.  “A dose of reality is in order. No, Trump Jr.’s meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya—a Russian lawyer linked to the Kremlin—did not break any campaign finance laws. Not a single one.”

GOOGLE LOBBYING.   GUA.  “Figures released last week show that Google spent a record amount of almost $6m lobbying in Washington DC in the past three months, putting the Silicon Valley behemoth on track to be the top corporate lobbying spending in the US. Last year it ranked number two, behind Comcast.”

LOBBYING IN AFRICA.   ECON.  “Western firms have long offered help to shady leaders wanting to gild their reputations overseas. Increasingly, however, they are being drafted to run domestic political campaigns too—spreading deft propaganda via social media.”

MD:  MAYOR SEEKS REFORM.   CG.  “All of the candidates expressed support for transparency, but Pantelides, a Republican, was the most forceful in his commitment to changing the city’s laws.”

NY:  NAME STILL THERE.   NYP.  “Paterson’s typed name also appears on the signature line of a letter sent just last month to the FEC on Rangel campaign matters.  There’s just one problem: Paterson hasn’t worked for Rangel’s campaign for three years.”

OH:  JUDGES AND CONTRIBIUTIONS.  DIS.   “Do campaign contributions affect how judges decide cases? Studies indicate the answer is yes. A recent effort by Cleveland attorney Subodh Chandra to disqualify a Summit County judge illustrates how money might drive the public’s thinking on a judge’s impartiality.”

SD:  PLAN TO PURSUE.   KOT.  “South Dakota’s House speaker plans to pursue ballot measures to raise tobacco taxes for technical schools and ban out-of-state political contributions to ballot question campaigns.”

HAVE A GOOD DAY.