PoliticsFort Worth Star-TelegramWhy stop at $1,400? These Democratic senators want Biden to back recurring stimulus checks
A group of Democratic senators is urging President Joe Biden to support recurring direct payments to lower-income Americans, arguing that regular, additional cash assistance is necessary until the economy fully recovers from the pandemic-induced downturn. The proposal — which likely would face an uphill climb to become law even if gained wide support within the Democratic Party — would build on the means-tested, one-time $1,400 stimulus check included in Biden's coronavirus relief bill, which passed the House last week and is now under consideration in the Senate. The senators, who also requested Biden support automatic unemployment insurance extensions, said they would like the president to include the ideas in a future economic recovery bill.
U.S.National ReviewGOP Senators Grill FBI Director over Use of Geolocation Data to Track Capitol Rioters
Senators Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah) on Tuesday pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray on the procedures federal law enforcement officials have used to track down those who participated in the January 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol. “I'm anxious to see those who committed unlawful, violent acts on January 6 brought to justice,” Lee said during a Senate Judiciary Hearing on Tuesday. The Utah Republican explained that he had “heard a number of accounts” of people who were in Washington, D.C. on January 6 who never went near the Capitol but were “inexplicably” contacted by FBI agents who knew of their presence in the district that day “with no other explanation, perhaps, other than the use of geolocation data.”
U.S.NBC NewsMom reports 6-year-old missing, but police say she ran him over and threw him in the Ohio River
When Brittney Gosney reported her 6-year-old son missing to Ohio police on Sunday, officers had no idea how the story would change later that day. In a matter of hours, the case of a missing child became a homicide investigation. Authorities were sent to the Ohio River, where James Robert Hutchinson's body was dumped.
PoliticsAssociated PressSenate Dems sorting final details of $1.9T virus relief bill
Democrats sorted through lingering disagreements over emergency jobless benefits and other issues Tuesday and prepared to commence Senate debate on a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan that would deliver a major victory to President Joe Biden. With Democrats having no margin for error in the evenly split 50-50 Senate, Biden was expected to urge them on by conference call. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he planned to bring the sweeping bill to the floor as early as Wednesday, teeing up first votes on a bill aimed at energizing the nation's battle against the pandemic and its wounded economy.
PoliticsArchitectural DigestHouse Call: Cue the Waterworks and Welcome to March
Zoë's newsletter comes to a web page near you, and the theme of the day is damp Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
WorldThe TelegraphPenal Colony No. 2 'breaks people': Inside the prison where Alexei Navalny has been sent
The penal colony where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has been sent to serve his two-year sentence is "one of the worst" in Russia, former inmates and prisoners rights groups have said. Mr Navalny was reported to have arrived at penal colony No. 2 in the town of Pokrov, three hours outside Moscow, on Sunday. Transfers of inmates within Russia's penitentiary system can take days or weeks and relatives often only discover the whereabouts of a prisoner after he or she has arrived at a prison.
PoliticsThe WeekArizona GOP lawyer tells Supreme Court the party needs certain voting restrictions to compete with Democrats
The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments by Arizona Republicans in defense of two voting restrictions they are looking to keep intact. At one point, Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked Michael Carvin, a lawyer representing the Arizona GOP, what the party's interest in maintaining the policy of discarding ballots cast at the wrong precinct was. Carvin answered, without hesitation, that removing the rule would prevent Republicans from competing in the state.
- NewsYahoo News Video
Hundreds claim decades of abuse by N.H. youth center staffers
Abuse allegations against New Hampshire's state-run youth detention center now span six decades, with 150 staffers during that time accused of physically or sexually harming 230 children at a facility the victims' attorney calls a “magnet for predators.
WorldReutersChina says Taiwan pineapple ban not about politics as war of words escalates
China on Monday denied accusations by Taiwan that a ban on pineapples from the island was about politics, saying it was purely a matter of biosecurity, in an escalating war of words that has added to existing tensions. China announced the ban last week, citing "harmful creatures" it said could come with the fruit, threatening China's own agriculture. Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, says there is nothing wrong with its pineapples and that Beijing is using the fruit as another way to coerce the island.
U.S.TheGrioWoman arrested after being linked to crime via Cheetos residue on teeth
An Oklahoma woman was literally caught red-handed on first-degree burglary complaint charges thanks to Cheetos snack dust. Sharon Carr was arrested on Feb. 26 after police reported an attempted home burglary. While she did not take anything, officers claim she left behind a Cheetos bag.
PoliticsNational ReviewMurkowski’s Vote on Tanden Confirmation is ‘Fluid,’ Thune Says
Senate GOP Whip John Thune (R., S.D.) said Tuesday that Senator Lisa Murkowski's (R., Alaska) critical vote for Neera Tanden's confirmation to become the director of the Office of Management and Budget is “fluid.” “She obviously wants to get their attention on things that are important to her state,” Thune said, according to Politico, referring to Biden administration officials. “It's been fluid,” Thune added.
WorldThe WeekFormer French President Sarkozy was found guilty of corruption, but he probably won't spend a day behind bars
A court found former French President Nicolas Sarkozy guilty of forming a "corruption pact" with his lawyer and a senior magistrate, handing him a three-year prison sentence after the verdict was announced. But Sarkozy, the first president to be sentenced to jail in France's modern history, likely won't spend any time behind bars, The Guardian reports. Two of the three years are suspended, and Sarkozy will likely be able to serve the one remaining year by wearing an electronic bracelet or in home confinement.
WorldReutersU.S. and EU impose sanctions on Russia over Navalny poisoning, jailing
The United States on Tuesday imposed sanctions to punish Russia for what it described as Moscow's attempt to poison opposition leader Alexei Navalny with a nerve agent last year, in President Joe Biden's most direct challenge yet to the Kremlin. The sanctions against seven senior Russian officials, among them the head of its FSB security service, and on 14 entities marked a sharp departure from former President Donald Trump's reluctance to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin. Navalny, 44, fell ill on a flight in Siberia in August and was airlifted to Germany, where doctors concluded he had been poisoned with a nerve agent.
U.S.Associated PressPolice: 13 killed when big rig hits SUV carrying 25 people
Thirteen people were killed Tuesday when an SUV carrying 25 people and a semitruck collided on a Southern California highway near the U.S.-Mexico border, authorities said. Twelve people were found dead when first responders reached the highway, which winds through fields in the agricultural southeastern corner of California. Another person died at a hospital, California Highway Patrol Chief Omar Watson said.
PoliticsReutersSenate panel advances Garland's nomination as U.S. attorney general
Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's pick for attorney general, moved a step closer on Monday to securing Senate confirmation as the top U.S. law enforcement official, with the Judiciary Committee throwing its weight behind his nomination. The federal appellate judge won bipartisan support in a 15-7 tally in the Senate Judiciary Committee to advance his nomination to the Senate floor for a vote that Democrats hope will be held this week. Among the four Republicans voting in favor of Garland were two former chairmen of the committee, Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham.
WorldAssociated PressChinese vaccines sweep much of the world, despite concerns
The plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago's airport in late January, and Chile's president, Sebastián Piñera, was beaming. The source of that hope: China – a country that Chile and dozens of other nations are depending on to help rescue them from the COVID-19 pandemic. China's vaccine diplomacy campaign has been a surprising success: It has pledged roughly half a billion doses of its vaccine to more than 45 countries, according to a country-by-country tally by The Associated Press.
WorldAssociated PressIndonesia's Sinabung Volcano spews high column of ash
Indonesia's Mount Sinabung was erupting Tuesday, sending volcanic materials as high as 5,000 meters (16,400 feet) into the sky and depositing ash on nearby villages. Activity at the volcano in North Sumatra province increased over the past week, with authorities recording 13 times when it released ash clouds. The 2,600-metre (8,530-feet) Sinabung was dormant for four centuries before erupting in 2010, killing two people.
PoliticsThe IndependentBiden calls Mexican president an ‘equal’ partner amid surge in border crossings
And while Mr Biden has kept Mr Trump's policy in place to send new migrants back to Mexico due to concerns about Covid spread, the new president has already begun rolling back other Trump-era policies that hardened the border against refugees and other migrants seeking opportunities or safe haven in the US. The Biden administration has ended Mr Trump's so-called Remain in Mexico programme that forced more than 70,000 asylum-seekers to stay south of the border while their cases wound their way through immigration courts. Thousands of those enrollees have now crossed into the US under the Biden administration's supervision.
WorldReutersBoeing to base U.S. Air Force prototype on Australian pilotless combat jet
Boeing Co will use a pilotless, fighter-like jet developed in Australia as the basis for its U.S. Air Force Skyborg prototype, an executive at the plane maker said on Tuesday. The "Loyal Wingman", the first military aircraft to be designed and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years, made its first flight on Saturday under the supervision of a Boeing test pilot monitoring it from a ground control station in South Australia. Boeing's Loyal Wingman is 38 feet long (11.6 metres), has a 2,000 nautical mile (3,704 km) range and a nose that can be outfitted with various payloads.
WorldAssociated PressDefying deadly crackdown, crowds again protest Myanmar coup
Police in Myanmar's biggest city fired tear gas Monday at defiant crowds who returned to the streets to protest last month's coup, despite reports that security forces had killed at least 18 people a day earlier. The protesters in Yangon were chased as they tried to gather at their usual meeting spot at the Hledan Center intersection. Demonstrators scattered and sought in vain to rinse the irritating gas from their eyes, but later regrouped.
U.S.USA TODAY'What any good human would do': Louisiana man helped save infant abandoned along highway
Luke Dufrene said he saw something disturbing as he was driving to work Thursday evening. The 23-year-old Lockport, Louisiana, man said he was on his commute when he saw the driver of a vehicle "dropping a baby off" on the median of a highway. "I looked back and he took off leaving the child there, so I flipped a U-turn in the grass to get to the baby,” Dufrene said.
PoliticsCharlotte ObserverRepublican lawmakers have waited too long to expand Medicaid in NC. Now, it’s urgent.
It boggles the mind why Republican lawmakers have for seven years denied healthcare in the form of Medicaid to those who are less fortunate. The worldwide pandemic has taken a toll on the lives and livelihoods of many in North Carolina. President Biden added 15% more to help with expansion of Medicaid, which certainly sweetens the pot for N.C. legislators to act now.
- PoliticsYahoo News Video
Gov. Abbott says all businesses in Texas can reopen, ends statewide mask mandate
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said on Tuesday that all businesses in the state can fully reopen. Abbott also ended the statewide mask mandate.
WorldBusiness InsiderBiden refused to sanction MBS over Khashoggi's murder because he doesn't want his relationship with Saudi Arabia to get worse, officials say
A newly declassified US intel report said the Saudi crown prince approved Jamal Khashoggi's killing. Joe Biden announced new sanctions over the murder but has declined to punish the crown prince. A US official told The Washington Post it's because Biden wanted to heal the US-Saudi relationship.
U.S.The IndependentTexas governor ends mask mandate and says all businesses can reopen
Texas governor Greg Abbott has announced that all businesses can reopen at 100 per cent capacity and that he is lifting the statewide mask mandate, implemented to stem the spread of the coronavirus. The governor has been under pressure from fellow Republicans to remove the mask rule that has been in place for eight months. Even as case numbers, deaths, and hospitalisations have dropped from the peak of the winter surge, health officials have expressed concern that the decline has plateaued and have warned against relaxing restrictions.
“How about we skip ‘he won’t win’ cycle and not do 2016 all over again. Trump can absolutely win another presidential election.”
“With independents deserting him, there is simply no path for Trump to get back into the White House — except as a tourist.”
“They might as well cancel the 2024 primaries...because there is no way he can lose.”
“The next Republican presidential primary will be heavily shaped by Trump — whether or not he decides to run again.”
“Donald Trump will not be running for president again. He will, however, continue to tease the possibility of a 2024 run.”