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.”
PoliticsThe WeekThe Trump administration reportedly quietly funded Operation Warp Speed with money set aside for hospitals
Congress granted the HHS permission to move pandemic-related money between accounts, though the agreement stipulated the agency had to give lawmakers a heads up. Former Office of Management and Director Russ Vought defended the decision and said "we would do it again," telling Stat that not only did the administration have the authority, it was also "the right thing to do in order to move as quickly as possible because lives were on the line." Other Trump officials seemed to agree, per Stat, arguing that successful vaccines would reduce hospitalizations, making Warp Speed the more consequential outlet.
U.S.NextSharkNBC Asian America Piece Has Readers Split Over 'Hate Crime' Statement
No hate crimes were reported this year so far. According to Yam, the 2,800 hate incidents collected by watchdog Stop AAPI Hate over five months last year “weren't necessarily hate crimes” as they included “less severe, yet insidious, forms of discrimination. Citing experts, the piece acknowledged the rise in “anti-Asian sentiment during the COVID-19 pandemic but warns against labeling incidents without evaluating individually.
U.S.National ReviewWe Already Have an Alternative to Massive Student-Loan Cancellation
Income-driven repayment (IDR), an existing set of programs that function somewhat poorly, can be improved to ensure that not a single borrower will ever have to make an unaffordable payment on federal student loans. Under IDR, monthly payments are tied to a borrower's income and unaffordable balances are ultimately forgiven. IDR accomplishes this in a way that minimizes moral hazard and delivers benefits in a true progressive manner — with more benefits going to people who invested in a college degree, and took on debt to do so, but didn't see the return they were promised in the form of a high-paying job.
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CPAC and the broader Republican Party agree: It's Trump's party for now
The crew looks to the weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference speeches for indications about where the GOP is headed.
PoliticsAxiosCNN: Pentagon watchdog says Ronny Jackson drank on duty and harassed staff
Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) allegedly made "sexual and denigrating" comments about a female staffer, drank alcohol and took sleeping medication while working as White House physician, according to an official report obtained by CNN Tuesday night. The big picture: The Department of Defense inspector general's report stems from a years-long investigation into allegations against Jackson of alcohol abuse and overprescription of medication, which Jackson has called "false and fabricated." Of note: The DoD report was based on White House documents and interviews with 78 witnesses and covers his time as White House physician during the Obama and Trump administrations, per CNN.
U.S.The WeekTexas has one of the worst vaccination rates in the U.S. It's reopening 'all businesses' anyway.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) announced Tuesday that effective next Wednesday, "all businesses of any type" in the Lone Star state will be allowed to fully reopen. On a related note, Houston, Texas' largest city, is the one city in the United States to have reported finding at least one case of every known variant of the coronavirus, which are believed to be more transmissible and have experts on the alert for another uptick in cases as they become the dominant sources of infection. Texas is also lagging behind in vaccinating its population, which is the second largest in the nation.
U.S.Miami HeraldA woman is missing at the Vandenberg wreck off Key West, police say
A woman wdisappeared Tuesday morning while diving the Vandenberg wreck off Key West, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The Navy and FWC were searching all day, said FWC spokesman Officer Bobby Dube. A Navy helicopter crew and special forces divers joined in the search, and the dive team from the Monroe County Sheriff's Office also helped.
U.S.Associated PressCalifornia crash kills 13 of 25 people crammed into SUV
Authorities are investigating whether human smuggling was involved after a crash Tuesday involving an SUV packed with 25 people and a tractor-trailer that left 13 people dead and bodies strewn across a roadway near the U.S. Mexico border. When police arrived, some of the passengers were trying to crawl out of the crumpled 1997 Ford Expedition while others were wandering around the fields. The rig's front end was pushed into the SUV's left side and two empty trailers were jackknifed behind it.
PoliticsCBS NewsSchumer says "we'll have the votes" to pass COVID relief bill
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer expressed confidence on Tuesday that President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill will pass in the Senate this week, saying the Senate will take up the legislation as early as Wednesday. The Senate is using the budget reconciliation process to pass the bill, which limits time for debate and allows legislation to pass with a simple majority. Schumer spoke to reporters after Mr. Biden addressed Democratic senators virtually during their caucus lunch.
U.S.Miami HeraldHey Florida Republicans, Fidel Castro would just love your Bright Futures crackdown | Opinion
Nothing highlights the comparison better than state Republicans' latest bid to ideologically manipulate education by steering students away from a liberal-arts education that might teach them to think critically. Alarm bells should be going off for every parent in the state, given that Senate Bill 86 would force students to choose only state-sanctioned subjects of study in college — or risk losing their Bright Futures Scholarships. Florida students are awarded this financial aid based on merit and hard work, paid for by Floridians' investment in the state's lottery.
PoliticsAssociated PressBiden's Cabinet half-empty after slow start in confirmations
President Joe Biden's Cabinet is taking shape at the slowest pace of any in modern history, with just over a dozen nominees for top posts confirmed more than a month into his tenure. Among Biden's 23 nominees with Cabinet rank, just 13 have been confirmed by the Senate, or a little over half. On Tuesday, Biden's cabinet was thrown into further uncertainty when his nominee to lead the White House budget office, Neera Tanden, withdrew from consideration after her nomination faced opposition from key senators on both sides of the aisle.
U.S.Los Angeles Times OpinionLetters to the Editor: If Californians want cleaner cars on the road, they shouldn't buy dirty ones
Perusing the website of the California Air Resources Board would give still unconvinced readers instantly accessible information on the numerous studies conducted on childhood asthma and related illnesses that hospitalize and sometimes kill Californians prematurely. Until we price carbon seriously, gas-guzzling vehicles may kill us even before global warming takes us off the proverbial cliff. If you want to see traditional carmakers switch to only making electric vehicles, you need to stop buying their gas cars.
U.S.The IndependentFBI investigating if Capitol officer Brian Sicknick was sprayed with chemical irritant
Investigators are scrutinising new video evidence that appears to show chemical irritants sprayed at officer Brian Sicknick during the US Capitol riot as they work to determine his cause of death. Quoting law enforcement sources and people familiar with the matter, multiple outlets report that investigators are looking at whether there are any connections between a possible chemical assault on Officer Sicknick during the riot and the medical distress that led to his death. It comes as anonymous sources told The Washington Post that Officer Sicknick's death was not believed to be from blunt force trauma, despite early reports he was struck in the head by a fire extinguisher.
PoliticsNBC NewsThe nefarious issue that tanked Biden Cabinet nominee Neera Tanden
What happened to Neera Tanden is racist, and we can't ignore how that influenced the White House's decision Tuesday to pull her nomination to lead the Office of Management and Budget. Tanden's confirmation failure makes her the first of President Joe Biden's picks to be disqualified. It's no coincidence that she also happens to be an Asian American woman.
PoliticsBusiness InsiderRepublicans and majority of Democrats vote to keep incarcerated people from participating in elections
Progressive Democrats introduced a measure Tuesday to give incarcerated people the right to vote. The amendment, to major voting rights legislation, failed by a 93-278 vote. A majority of Democrats also voted against it.
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
U.S.USA TODAY'Unjustified violence': California man files civil rights lawsuit after police ordered dog to 'bite' eight times during 2020 arrest
Burkdoll told Rubio police had gotten calls of a man looking into vehicles. Rubio dismissed the accusation and said the only reason he was being stopped was because of the color of his skin. "You don't face racism because you're not brown," Rubio told Burkdoll early in the encounter after the officer told him she was mixed race.
WorldThe IndependentUS says Russian intelligence behind Navalny poisoning and sanctions multiple officials
The US has concluded that Russian intelligence agencies were behind the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and will impose sanctions on multiple senior government officials. Names of the seven members of the Russian government to be sanctioned include Andrei Yarin, the chief of the Kremlin's domestic policy directorate and Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB), according to a statement. Export restrictions will also be expanded on items that could be used in the manufacturing process of chemical weapons under the Chemical and Biological Weapons Act.
U.S.Fort Worth Star-Telegram‘Morally compromised.’ Why one archdiocese urges Catholics to avoid newest COVID vaccine
The Archdiocese of New Orleans has advised Catholics against receiving the new Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, calling the one-dose shot “morally compromised. In a statement Friday, the religious organization said the new vaccine should be avoided due to its link to an “abortion-derived cell line” used in the vaccine's development and production phases. But the available vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are “morally acceptable,” the archdiocese wrote, because only some lab testing utilized stem cells from aborted fetuses, making their connection to abortion “extremely remote.
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.
PoliticsINSIDERCrossFit condemns Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for 'loathsome and dangerous lies'
Fitness brand CrossFit, a staple of Marjorie Taylor Greene's political brand, is distancing from the Republican. A spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that the company is against Greene's conspiracy theories. CrossFit's statement comes after the House voted to strip Greene of her committee assignments.
WorldThe TelegraphDuchess of Sussex accused of 'bullying Palace staff to tears'
The Duchess of Sussex faced several bullying complaints from members of her staff during her time as working royal, it was claimed on Tuesday night, as tensions between the couple and Buckingham Palace deepened. Jason Knauf, the couple's communications secretary at the time, submitted a formal complaint about the claims in October 2018 in an apparent bid to protect his staff. Royal aides are said to have approached The Times ahead of Meghan and Harry's Oprah Winfrey interview, due to be broadcast in the US on Sunday evening, because they felt only "a partial version" had emerged of the Duchess's two years as a working member of the Royal family.
PoliticsThe Independent‘It’s really sad, who says that?’: Lindsey Graham mocked for thanking Trump for ‘allowing me to be in his world’
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham was roundly mocked for grovelling comments he made about Donald Trump in a TV interview. Mr Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday evening that the former president was “very nice” because “he's allowed me to be in his world”. On MSNBC's Morning Joe the following day, the co-hosts laughed at the senator's subservient tone in praising his master.
PoliticsBusiness Insider10 hours in Cancún hurt Ted Cruz's job approval more than when he tried to flip the presidential election
GOP Sen. Ted Cruz drew national ire after he attempted to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, but according to a new poll from Morning Consult, his overall job approval from Texans was hurt far more when he vacationed in Cancún during a winter storm that left much of Texas without power or water for days. According to polling conducted between February 18-28, Cruz's net approval rating dropped from +6 to -5 in the weeks following his Cancún excursion. A net approval rating is calculated by subtracting the share of disapproving Texan voters from the share of voters that approve of Cruz.
“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.”