CNN/ORC Poll: Confidence drops in Trump transition  —  Washington (CNN)Donald Trump will become president Friday with an approval rating of just 40%, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll, the lowest of any recent president and 44 points below that of President Barack Obama, the 44th president.

How Repealing Portions of the Affordable Care Act Would Affect Health Insurance Coverage and Premiums  —  CBO reports on the estimated changes in health insurance coverage and premiums that would result from leaving the Affordable Care Act's insurance market reforms in place while repealing the law's mandate penalties and subsidies.

Hair stylist to Marla Maples: No free services in exchange for Inauguration Day ‘exposure’  —  Though Donald Trump and his family project an image of boundless wealth, a Washington-based hairstylist says the president-elect's second wife tried to get out of paying her to style her tresses …

Putin Says Doesn't Believe Trump Met Prostitutes in Russia  —  Attacks on Trump seek to undermine election result, Putin says  —  Unsubstantiated claims are ‘obvious fabrications,’ Putin says  —  Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn't believe that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump met …

‘He Is Going to Test Our Democracy as It Has Never Been Tested’  —  Sometime early last fall, John Dean says he began having nightmares about a Trump presidency.  He would wake in the middle of the night, agitated and alarmed, struggling to calm his nerves.

Betsy DeVos Wants to Use America's Schools to Build “God's Kingdom”  —  It's Christmastime in Holland, Michigan, and the northerly winds from Lake Macatawa bring a merciless chill to the small city covered in deep snow.  The sparkly lights on the trees in downtown luxury storefronts illuminate …

LePage: Chellie Pingree should resign, John Lewis should thank white presidents  —  Republican Gov. Paul LePage had tough words Tuesday morning for Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree regarding her decision to skip President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday.

DisruptJ20 Releases Statement on Project Veritas Video — January 16, 2017  —  Contact: Lacy MacAuley, (202) 815-0288, lacymacauley@gmail.com  —  Legba Carrefour, (202) 297-4511, media@disruptj20.org  —  DisruptJ20 Releases Statement on Project Veritas Video

The Most Successful Democrat Since F.D.R.  —  When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, he understood, without quite saying it, that there had been no highly successful Democratic president in decades.  —  Bill Clinton made the country a better place, but his biggest legislative plans failed and he was beset by scandal.

CIA Director John Brennan Rejects Donald Trump's Criticism  —  Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan rejected Donald Trump's suggestions that he may have leaked an unsubstantiated dossier on the president-elect while defending the U.S. intelligence community more broadly.

Sources: Trump labor pick Andrew Puzder has voiced second thoughts about nomination  —  Washington (CNN)President-elect Donald Trump's choice to be labor secretary has voiced second thoughts in recent days, because of a relentless barrage of criticism from Democrats, labor unions and other liberal groups …

Lifelong Woodmont Country Club member resigns over Obama golf controversy  —  The mayor of a tony Maryland suburb resigned from a prominent golf club on Monday because the club might not welcome President Obama as a member.  —  Jeffrey Slavin, the mayor of the Montgomery County town of Somerset …

GM Announces 7,000 U.S. Jobs, Builds Off Strong Track Record  —  DETROIT - General Motors today announced that it will invest an additional $1 billion in U.S. manufacturing operations.  These investments follow $2.9 billion announced in 2016 and more than $21 billion GM has invested in its U.S. operations since 2009.

Mr. Obama, Pick Up Your Pardon Pen  —  For more than four decades, Sala Udin lived under the shadow of a federal firearms conviction, the result of a search by the Kentucky police who found an unloaded shotgun in the trunk of his car in 1970.  —  Mr. Udin, who had been a Freedom Rider during …

Poll: Obama leaves office with 58 percent favorability  —  President Obama will leave the White House with a 58 percent favorability rating, a new poll finds.  —  A Gallup poll conducted two weeks before Obama leaves office found that more than half of Americans view the president favorably.