Trump's Longtime Lawyer Says He Paid Stormy Daniels Out of His Own Pocket  —  Michael D. Cohen, President Trump's longtime personal lawyer, said on Tuesday that he paid $130,000 out of his own pocket to a pornographic-film actress who had once claimed to have had an affair with Mr. Trump.

White House reels as FBI director contradicts official claims about alleged abuser … The White House struggled Tuesday to contain a widening crisis over its handling of domestic violence allegations against a senior official, as it reeled from sworn testimony by the FBI chief …

REPUBLICAN SCARE-MONGERING ON “SANCTUARY CITIES” BACKFIRES, DEMOCRATS WIN BIG UPSET IN FLORIDA SPECIAL ELECTION  —  In a special election on Tuesday, Florida's Republicans took a page from Ed Gillespie's playbook and deployed the threat of “sanctuary cities” to scare up the votes to win.

Wall Street might not like this: Inflation rises 2.1 percent, faster than expected … The Consumer Price Index, which measures how quickly prices are going up in the U.S. economy, rose at a faster than anticipated 2.1 percent in January compared to a year ago, triggering fears of another rocky run on Wall Street.

NY Times ‘Very Concerned’ Over Tweets By Its Nazi-Befriending Editorial Board Hire  —  Quinn Norton has tweeted that she's friends with neo-Nazis, and has used slurs on a regular basis.  —  The New York Times is investigating past tweets by Quinn Norton, a journalist who just joined the paper's editorial board, HuffPost has learned.

Suspect wounded, SUV stopped after shooting at NSA gate  —  FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — One person was wounded in a shooting Wednesday morning outside the National Security Agency campus at Fort Meade.  —  Authorities surrounded a handcuffed man after a black SUV ran into a barrier outside the Maryland base.

After more than a year, Trump still doesn't have a science adviser  —  CAMBRIDGE — When the Ebola virus began sweeping through West Africa four years ago, killing thousands of people and threatening to spread beyond the continent, President Obama turned to his science adviser for options.

ICE planned to deport a man whose child has leukemia.  So he took sanctuary in a church. … PHOENIX — The notice that Jesus Berrones would be deported arrived on a Thursday, surprising his attorney, his wife who is a U.S. citizen and, perhaps most of all, Berrones himself.

EPA's Scott Pruitt got waiver to fly business class on foreign carrier from Italy to U.S.  —  WASHINGTON — EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has been under fire for frequently flying in first and business class at taxpayer expense.  CBS News has learned more about one of those flights …

Louise Linton Is Super-Duper Sorry  —  Louise Linton has accomplished the near-impossible task of locating an ordinary meeting place in the most moneyed stretch of the Upper East Side, where she and her husband, U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, own an apartment.

Dems: Bill Clinton too toxic to campaign in midterms  —  Democrats are looking to embrace the #MeToo moment and rally women to push back on President Donald Trump in the midterms—and they don't want Bill Clinton anywhere near it.  —  In a year when the party is deploying all their other big guns …

Poll: GOP gains on generic ballot, Trump approval ticks upward  —  Republicans have erased the Democratic advantage on the generic congressional ballot in a new POLITICO/Morning Consult poll that, for the first time since April, also shows President Donald Trump's approval rating equaling …

GOP rep unveils ‘Crumbs Act’ to make bonuses tax-free, in swipe at Pelosi  —  A Republican lawmaker is set to unveil legislation that would make most bonuses given out as a result of President Trump's tax reform plan tax-free — and took a jab at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi with the bill's name.

Yellowstone ERUPTION: Supervolcano under ‘STRAIN’ - experts find magma chamber pressure  —  YELLOWSTONE is “under strain” according to a group of seismologists who are monitoring the potentially catastrophic volcano, prompting fears an eruption is imminent.  —  A process known as deformation …

New Hedge-Fund Tax Dodge Triggers Wild Rush Back Into Delaware  —  Firms set up LLCs in plan to avoid carried-interest change  —  Congress may have stumbled in narrowing loophole for managers  —  Wall Street's fast-money crowd is returning to well-trodden ground to elude Trump-era tax laws: Delaware.

Christopher Steele is a hero - and Americans owe him their thanks … Christopher Steele, the former British spy whose claims about Donald Trump's ties with Russia hold center stage in Washington right now, drives Republicans crazy.  They have recommended that the Department of Justice open a criminal investigation into his work.

This Isn't Normal  —  You've heard the phrase over and over again: “This isn't normal.”  We've heard it about President Trump's rhetoric, and his Twitter usage.  We've heard it about his attacks on the media, and we've heard it about his legislative ignorance.

Trump's ‘Harvest Box’ Isn't Viable in SNAP Overhaul, Officials Say  —  WASHINGTON — The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program offers about 46 million low-income Americans both sustenance and economic choice by providing an allowance to buy the fruit, meat, fresh vegetables, soda, ice cream and kind of bread they want to eat.

Kelli Ward touts endorsement from fake-news site  —  It looked as if Arizona Senate candidate Kelli Ward had scored a big endorsement: On Oct. 28, she posted a link on her campaign website and blasted out a Facebook post, quoting extensively from a column in the Arizona Monitor.

Duckworth: 'I can't technically take maternity leave'  —  Sen. Tammy Duckworth has a problem: How can a senator who needs to vote take time off to care for her newborn?  —  “I can't technically take maternity leave,” Duckworth said in the latest episode of the Women Rule podcast.

The Daily 202: A pragmatic Bernie Sanders seeks an immigration compromise to protect ‘dreamers’ … THE BIG IDEA: Democrats are so eager to shield young foreign-born “dreamers” from deportation that they're now offering to make compromises that would have been hard to imagine a year ago.

Exclusive: James Comey's Post-FBI Life Has Him Leading A New Team  —  Exclusive: James Comey's Leading A New Team, And They're Crushing Opponents By Double Digits  —  Sarah Sanders Asked If White House Is Withholding Information - Her Response Is A Blowtorch  —  POLITICS |  BENNY JOHNSON