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Longtime Washington Post columnist Hugh Hewitt quits newspaper

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Longtime Washington Post columnist Hugh Hewitt quits newspaper


Longtime Washington Post columnist Hugh Hewitt quit the newspaper on Friday, he told Fox News Digital.

Hewitt, a conservative who hosts a nationally syndicated radio show, had been a contributing columnist for the newspaper since 2017 and has written hundreds of pieces.

“I have in fact quit the Post but I was only writing a column for them every six weeks or so,” Hewitt told Fox News Digital, adding he’d recently offered to write another pro-Trump column for the paper ahead of the election. He informed editorial page editor David Shipley on Friday morning.

His last piece was published on Tuesday, where he called on the MAGA movement to evolve if Trump was elected president again. He was a rare pro-Trump voice at the liberal outlet, whose opinion roster and editorial board lean sharply to the left, but his pieces touched on a wide variety of topics.

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WASHINGTON POST STAFFER SAYS MORALE IS DOWN, COLLEAGUES THINK MANAGEMENT IS LYING: ‘A LOT OF SAD HERE’

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt has quit his gig as a Washington Post contributing columnist. (Washington Post)

A clip of Hewitt went viral earlier on Friday when he walked off the Washington Post’s online show the “First Look” with liberal columnists Jonathan Capehart and Ruth Marcus on its “Washington Post Live” platform. It came during a discussion of Trump rhetoric around election integrity.

“Does it seem like Donald Trump is laying the groundwork for contesting the election by complaining that cheating was taking place in Pennsylvania?” Capehart asked Marcus. “By suing Bucks County for alleged irregularities, and this is on top of his continual assertion that if he loses, it’s because of cheating.”

Marcus said Trump had been preparing to blame an election loss on cheating for months.

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“No election can be fair in Donald Trump’s mind unless Donald Trump wins it,” Marcus said.

As Marcus went on, Hewitt tried to interject, but Capehart snapped, “Let Ruth finish, Hugh.”

“Well, I’ve just got to say, we’re news people, even though it’s the opinion section,” Hewitt said. “It’s got to be reported. Bucks County was reversed by the court and instructed to open up extra days because they violated the law and told people to go home. So that lawsuit was brought by the Republican National Committee, and it was successful. The Supreme Court ruled that Glenn Youngkin was successful.

JEFF BEZOS ADDRESSES WASHINGTON POST ENDORSEMENT FIASCO, CITES DISTRUST IN MEDIA LED TO ‘PRINCIPLED DECISION’

Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks during Turning Point’s United for Change rally on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Madeline Carter/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

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“We are news people, even though we have opinions, and we have to report the whole story if we bring up part of the story,” Hewitt added. “So, yes, he’s upset about Bucks County, but he was right and he won in court. That’s the story.”

After a brief pause, Capehart said, “I don’t appreciate being lectured about reporting when Hugh, many times, you’ve come here saying lots of things that aren’t based in fact.”

Hewitt stood up and said, “I won’t come back, Jonathan. I’m done. I’m done. This is the most unfair election ad I’ve ever been a part of. You guys are working. That’s fine. I’m done.”

With that, he left, leaving a blank corner of the screen while Capehart went back to Marcus to talk about her column saying the stakes of the election were democracy and “decency.”

But then Marcus’ screen froze, and further technical difficulties derailed the show from there. 

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Fox News Digital reached out to the Washington Post for comment.

WASHINGTON POST OWNER JEFF BEZOS WANTS MORE CONSERVATIVE OPINION WRITERS AT PAPER: REPORT

Hewitt’s leaving the Post comes on the heels of the decision, at the behest of owner Jeff Bezos, not to endorse a candidate for president this year. The Post’s abdication set off an uproar among staffers and readers, leading to resignations and hundreds of thousands of canceled subscriptions. 

Bezos also has reportedly called for having more conservative opinion writers, so Hewitt’s departure is a blow to that goal.

Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. (Getty Images)

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The Post was set to endorse Kamala Harris – it hasn’t backed a Republican for president since it began regularly offering White House endorsements in 1976 – before Bezos pulled the plug, citing efforts to rebuild trust with readers skeptical of the media.

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Not a regular columnist for the newspaper, Hewitt had written only seven pieces for the Post in 2024 after penning 48 pieces for it alone in 2023. 



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Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

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Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant


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Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.

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The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.

Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.

Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.

Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.

Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).

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The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.

The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.

Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.

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The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.





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Washington state board awards Yakima $985,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

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Washington state board awards Yakima 5,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design


Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.

The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.

The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.

The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.

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The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.



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Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

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Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington


Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.

Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.

That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.

And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.

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“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”

The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.

But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.

He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”

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Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.

At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.

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Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.

It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.

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So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?

“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”

“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”

“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”

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Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.

That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.



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