Pelosi asks Trump to reschedule SOTU because of the shutdown  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday asked President Donald Trump to reschedule his State of the Union address — or deliver it in writing — as long as the government remains shut down.  —  The president was set to give his annual speech to Congress on Jan. 29.

Exclusive excerpt: Chris Christie torches Jared  —  Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie settles scores in “Let Me Finish,” a memoir out Jan. 29 from Hachette Books, writing that President Trump “trusts people he shouldn't, including some of the people who are closest to him.”

Shutdown's Economic Damage Starts to Pile Up, Threatening an End to Growth  —  WASHINGTON — The partial government shutdown is inflicting far greater damage on the United States economy than previously estimated, the White House acknowledged on Tuesday, as President Trump's economists doubled projections …

Four U.S. troops reported among 16 dead in north Syria attack  —  BEIRUT (Reuters) - A bomb attack claimed by Islamic State killed U.S. troops in northern Syria on Wednesday, weeks after President Donald Trump said group was defeated there and he would pull out all American forces.

T-Mobile announced a merger needing Trump administration approval.  The next day, 9 executives had reservations at Trump's hotel.  —  Last April, telecom giant T-Mobile announced a megadeal: a $26 billion merger with rival Sprint, which would more than double T-Mobile's value and give it a huge new chunk of the cellphone market.

Bipartisan Senate group presses Trump to end shutdown  —  Senators in both parties are racing to deliver a letter to President Donald Trump indicating that if the government reopens, they are willing to work on a border security package with the president, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Republicans sanctioned Steve King.  Why won't Democrats even criticize Rashida Tlaib for promoting anti-Semitism?  —  After Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, was quoted in the New York Times as musing about when “white supremacist” and “white nationalist” became offensive terms …

Karen Pence Is Working At A School That Bans LGBTQ Employees And Kids  —  The school discriminates against LGBTQ people in its job application and says LGBTQ kids aren't welcome.  —  Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence, started at a job this week teaching art at Immanuel Christian School in Northern Virginia.

Republicans Break Ranks Over Move to Lift Sanctions on Russian Oligarch's Firms  —  WASHINGTON — A group of 11 Republican senators broke ranks with their leadership and the administration on Tuesday to side with Democrats in a showdown over sanctions on Russia, underscoring the political sensitivity …

Trump and Putin Have Met Five Times.  What Was Said Is a Mystery.  —  WASHINGTON — The first time they met was in Germany.  President Trump took his interpreter's notes afterward and ordered him not to disclose what he heard to anyone.  Later that night, at a dinner …

WeWork's CEO Makes Millions as Landlord to WeWork  —  Adam Neumann has bought properties and leased them to his co-working startup, sparking conflict of interest concerns  —  For more than two months after employees at International Business Machines Corp. moved into a Manhattan building managed …

Amid Internal Investigation Over Leaks to Media, the Center for American Progress Fires Two Staffers  —  The Center for American Progress fired two staffers suspected of being involved in leaking an email exchange that staffers thought reflected improper influence by the United Arab Emirates within …

Seth Moulton to speak in N.H., restarting buzz he may run for president  —  US Representative Seth Moulton, Democrat of Salem, will travel to New Hampshire in two weeks, sources familiar with the planning tell The Boston Globe.  —  The trip to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary state …

If Only Obama Had Done the Things Obama Actually Did  —  Matt Stoller, who has repeatedly dismissed the Obama administration as a failure, tells the New York Times that candidates who sound like Obama will face suspicion from voters.  “We tried that and it didn't work,” Stoller said.

“He's not a guy who likes a plan”: How Trump takes his strategic cues from Mike Tyson  —  When a frustrated adviser once tried to convince President Trump to consider a strategic plan, the president launched into a story about his friend Mike Tyson, the former world heavyweight boxing champion.

Sacklers Directed Efforts to Mislead Public About OxyContin, New Documents Indicate  —  A filing in a Massachusetts lawsuit contains dozens of internal Purdue Pharma documents suggesting the family was far more involved than the company has long contended.  —  Members of the Sackler family …

When It Comes to Trump and Russia, Should We Apply Hanlon's Razor or Occam's?  —  It's getting harder to believe that this can be explained by stupidity rather than malice.  —  This is, I suppose, an awkward time to bring up razors, since we are in the midst of a heated debate …

Most Border Wall Opponents, Supporters Say Shutdown Concessions Are Unacceptable  —  Partisan divide on whether shutdown is ‘very serious’ problem  —  With the partial shutdown of the federal government in its third week, both opponents and supporters of expanding the U.S.-Mexico border …

Why would William Barr take this job?  The answer should alarm Trump.  —  It was William P. Barr's confirmation hearing.  But it was Robert S. Mueller III's affirmation hearing.  —  President Trump had nominated Barr to be his new attorney general to shield him from Mueller's hoax of a rigged witch hunt.

Is AOC the Future of Politics?  Is Trump?  —  Do these two represent the future of politics?  —  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Donald Trump could not be more different as people.  Old vs. young; glamorous vs. fat; making ends meet vs. ultra-rich; democratic-socialist vs. populist-conservative.

Facebook's ‘10 Year Challenge’ Is Just a Harmless Meme—Right?  —  If you use social media, you've probably noticed a trend across Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter of people posting their then-and-now profile pictures, mostly from 10 years ago and this year.  —  WIRED OPINION

Kelli Ward's husband accused of spitting on Martha McSally supporter  —  Former U.S. Senate candidate Kelli Ward's husband was accused of spitting in the eye of one of her former volunteers because the volunteer subsequently supported her former political foe, Martha McSally, police records obtained Tuesday show.

Trump Job Approval Sets New Record for Polarization  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — The average 79-percentage-point difference between Republicans' and Democrats' job approval ratings of President Donald Trump during his second year in office is the largest Gallup has measured in any presidential year to date.

New court filing indicates prosecutors have extensive details on Manafort actions not yet made public  —  Prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III have intensively scrutinized Paul Manafort's activities after President Trump's election — including after Manafort was criminally charged …