Mic Daily: Democrats allege GOP blocked interviews with alleged Russian spy Maria Butina and more

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Mic Dispatch episode 1: Inside the FBI’s crackdown on “black identity extremists”

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In the debut episode of Mic Dispatch Mic’s newsmagazine on Facebook Watch — we meet Rakem Balogun, whose legal name is Christopher Daniels. Balogun was arrested and spent five months in jail after he posted a Facebook post praising Micah Johnson, the lone gunman who killed five Dallas police officers in July 2016.

New episodes of Mic Dispatch drop every Tuesday and Thursday on Facebook at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Trump is deploying his post-Charlottesville playbook amid Putin press conference backlash

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

In the aftermath of his highly controversial press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin, it’s shaping up to be the post-Charlottesville debacle all over again for President Donald Trump and his administration.

House Democrats say GOP blocked them from interviewing alleged Russian agent in probe

Uncredited/AP

Democrats on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence are accusing their Republican counterparts of having blocked them from interviewing alleged Russian spy Maria Butina, who was arrested Sunday and charged over apparent attempts to infiltrate American political organizations to advance Moscow’s interests.

The least awkward way to talk about salary with your co-workers

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Asking someone how much money they make is like asking to see them naked. It feels like a violation at worst, and deeply inappropriate at best. That conversation can be even more awkward when you ask someone with whom you actually share a manager, a company logo and a smelly office microwave.

Let Mic contributor Kaitlin Menza guide you through this potentially awkward situation. It might pay off.

Can Kerri Harris be the first progressive to oust a sitting Democratic senator?

Kerri Harris/TW Collins

“I didn’t want it to be me,” Kerri Harris told Mic about her decision to run in an interview. “I was hoping I would find someone that was ready to take that charge, and I would be able to help on the background on a campaign... It came to a point where I finally said, ‘You know what? If nobody else is going to do it, I’m going to do it.’ And we went from there.”