Why Republicans took aim at an ethics watchdog  —  The failed attempt by Republicans to rein in an independent ethics office was the culmination of years of mounting frustration on Capitol Hill.  —  While House Republicans backed down Tuesday from their effort to tighten oversight of the Office …

Schumer adopts Trump slogan: GOP wants to ‘Make America sick again’  —  It's a world where health insurance companies are jacking up rates, Americans are losing benefits and illness is racking the nation.  —  This is the apocalyptic picture of America offered by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer …

Doctors group warns against loss of coverage from ObamaCare repeal  —  The country's leading doctors group is urging Republicans to take steps to ensure that people do not lose their health insurance once ObamaCare is repealed.  —  The American Medical Association (AMA) …

Congressman spent campaign funds for rabbit air travel  —  Rep. Duncan Hunter and his wife, Margaret, who is paid $3,000 a month in campaign funds to serve as his campaign manager.  (AP file/Alex Brandon)  —  Rep. Duncan Hunter used campaign funds to pay for $600 of airline fees to fly a family rabbit …

Mariah Carey breaks silence on New Year's mishap: ‘Mortified’  —  One day after Mariah Carey's management team blasted Dick Clark Productions for its response to her now-infamous performance during Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest, the singer is breaking her silence on the matter as well.

Megyn Kelly's Departure Is a Big Clue About the Future of Fox News  —  Megyn Kelly's decision to jump from Fox News to NBC resolves one of the last unanswered questions of the Roger Ailes scandal: Would she stay or would she go when her contract ended?  With her last show set to air on Friday …

Trump to tap Wall Street lawyer, Jay Clayton, to head SEC  —  NEW YORK — President-elect Donald Trump will nominate Wall Street lawyer, Jay Clayton, to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Sean Spicer, a spokesman for Trump's transition team.

Mass murderer Charles Manson seriously ill, moved to hospital, sources say  —  Charles Manson and other members of his so-called family were convicted of killing actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area during two August nights in 1969.

Every year I take on a personal challenge to learn new things and grow outside of my work.  In recent years, I've run 365 miles, built a simple AI for my home, read 25 books and learned Mandarin.  —  My personal challenge for 2017 is to have visited and met people in every state in the US by the end of the year.

To Julian Assange: I apologize.  —  Please watch Sean Hannity's interview with Julian Assange (Wikileaks).  —  Exposing the truth re: the Left having been oh-so-guilty of atrocious actions and attitudes of which they've falsely accused others.  The media collusion that hid what many on the Left have been supporting is shocking.

Congressman's son dabs during official swearing-in photo, adults don't get what's happening  —  Washington (CNN)On a day filled with pomp, circumstance and photo ops meant to commemorate pomp and circumstance, leave it to the youth to out-ridiculous everyone else.

Trump inauguration gala books country band Big & Rich  —  The country music band Big & Rich will headline an inaugural gala this month for President-elect Donald Trump  —  The Republican Party of New York and Great Alliance America announced Tuesday that the country band would perform at the event.

Voters want Trump to concentrate on jobs  —  Voters want President-elect Donald Trump to focus on bringing back manufacturing jobs from overseas and preventing more jobs from leaving the country when he takes office later this month.  —  A new POLITICO/Morning Consult survey reveals less enthusiasm …

U.S. Conservatives Outnumber Liberals by Narrowing Margin  —  PRINCETON, N.J. — Many more Americans have considered themselves politically conservative than liberal since the early 1990s.  That remained the case in 2016, when an average of 36% of U.S. adults throughout the year identified themselves as conservative and 25% as liberal.

Can the Democrats Start from Scratch?  —  Before assailing Trump's Cabinet nominations, or thirsting for a Warren-Booker ticket, the left must do some serious soul-searching.  —  Last year, Americans discovered how many of us lived in houses of straw.  A few puffs from an impulsive orange …

Free marijuana on Inauguration Day  —  4,200 free joints on Inauguration Day as part of a protest … WASHINGTON (WUSA9) - You might catch a strong smell of marijuana on Inauguration Day.  That's because there will be thousands of joints handed out—for free—by the DC Cannabis Coalition.

GOP panel to probe Obama response to Russia hacking  —  The GOP-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee will dig into the Obama administration's response to Russian hacking.  —  The committee — overseen by Sen. Bob Corker  —  (R-Tenn.) — will hold a closed-door briefing with administration officials on Thursday.

Trump's trade agenda takes the GOP back a century  —  A couple of years ago, free trade was seen as a key principle of the Republican Party.  Then Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for president, and things got more complicated.  —  “The Trans-Pacific Partnership is another disaster done …

NAACP stages sit-in at Jeff Sessions' office  —  NAACP leading sit-in to protest Sessions pick  —  (CNN)The NAACP is staging a sit-in at the Mobile, Alabama, office of US Sen. Jeff Sessions to protest Sessions' nomination as US attorney general.  —  The protesters say they will stay until Sessions …

In New Jersey, Only a Few Media Watchdogs Are Left  —  TRENTON — When New Jersey lawmakers blocked a vote last month on a bill backed by Gov. Chris Christie that would have ended the requirement that legal notices be published in newspapers, it was a rare good news story for the state's press corps.

A New Celebrity Video Urges Congress to Obstruct Donald Trump  —  In the weeks before the election, Hollywood figures unleashed a flood of videos urging voters to stop Donald Trump.  That, obviously, didn't happen.  —  But one of the groups that invested in the election has been renamed and …

EPA Asks Employees If They're Straight, Gay, or ‘Something Else’  —  The Environmental Protection Agency is asking all its employees whether they are straight, gay, or “something else” in an effort to create a more “inclusive” workplace.  —  The Washington Free Beacon obtained a copy …

Finale  —  Parting thoughts on journalism, authority and the Trump era.  —  By  —  By the time you read this, we will have started our new job as editorial features editor of The Wall Street Journal, in charge of the op-ed pages of the newspaper and its digital counterparts.  This is our final column.