Trump's Lawyer Said There Were “No Plans” For Trump Tower Moscow.  Here They Are.  —  Trump's lawyer claims the Moscow tower was barely more than a notion.  “There were no drafts.  Nothing in the file.”  Documents obtained by BuzzFeed News tell a different story.

Gay valedictorian banned from speaking at Covington graduation ‘not surprised’ by D.C. controversy  —  A gay student who was barred by the Covington diocese from speaking at his 2018 graduation, is “not surprised” by the Covington Catholic High School video.

Ocasio-Cortez and liberal freshmen join Oversight Committee  —  The House Oversight Committee is adding a group of progressive flamethrowers to its ranks.  —  Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) …

Federal Employees Going Through ‘a Little Bit of Pain’ but Border Wall Is ‘Bigger Than’ Them Says Lara Trump  —  The 800,000 furloughed federal employees and 400,000 working without pay due to the government shutdown over $5 billion dollars in funding for a wall on the U.S. southern border are going through …

Hundreds of IRS employees are skipping work.  That could delay tax refunds.  —  Hundreds of Internal Revenue Service employees have received permission to skip work during the partial government shutdown due to financial hardship, and union leaders said Tuesday they expected absences to surge …

‘Knock them in the teeth.’ How Trump turns crises into leverage.  —  The 800,000 federal workers who are expected to miss their second paycheck in the coming days are the most extreme example yet of a negotiating tactic President Trump has used repeatedly since taking office.

Senate Leaders Plan Competing Bills to End Shutdown  —  Senate Leaders Plan Competing Bills on Shutdown  — With dueling votes planned for Thursday, the Senate will finally move off the sidelines a month into the partial government shutdown.  — Both measures face long odds …

Mueller wants to know about 2016 Trump campaign's ties to NRA  —  Washington (CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller's team has expressed interest in the Trump campaign's relationship with the National Rifle Association during the 2016 campaign.  —  “When I was interviewed by the special counsel's office …

Four Accused of Plotting to Attack Muslim Community  —  Police in Greece, New York, have arrested and charged four suspects who allegedly planned to attack a nearby Muslim community.  The four men were each charged with three counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of conspiracy.

Sen. Bernie Sanders changes his message to black voters: ‘Racism is alive’  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. — With the state capitol behind him and a crowd of hundreds in front of him, Sen. Bernie Sanders celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day by telling a rare personal anecdote: He was in Washington …

Pete Buttigieg Thinks All the 2020 Democrats Are Too Old  —  Pete Buttigieg, the Millennial mayor of South Bend, Indiana, will formally launch an exploratory committee on Wednesday and make official the presidential run he's been not-so-subtly edging toward for the last year and a half.

How Trump Offered NASA Unlimited Funding to Go to Mars in His First Term  —  Donald Trump nearly derailed a televised call to the International Space Station after he got distracted, first by a sudden fantasy of going to Mars before the end of his first term in the White House …

Baltimore-raised Pulitzer Prize winner Russell Baker dies at 93  —  Former Baltimore Sun foreign correspondent Russell Baker is pictured at his Virginia home in 2012.  (Kenneth K. Lam / Baltimore Sun)  —  Russell Baker, a Baltimore-raised, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist …

How the Clinton machine flooded the FBI with Trump-Russia dirt ... until agents bit  —  When at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  That's what Hillary Clinton's machine did in 2016, eventually getting the FBI to bite on an uncorroborated narrative that Donald Trump and Russia were trying to hijack the presidential election.

Corporate America Is Getting Ready to Monetize Climate Change  — Storms, floods, drought and heat waves worry largest companies  — Merck, Apple, Home Depot also see new revenue opportunities  —  Bank of America Corp. worries flooded homeowners will default on their mortgages.

KFF Health Tracking Poll - January 2019: The Public On Next Steps For The ACA And Proposals To Expand Coverage  —  Ashley Kirzinger , Cailey Muñana, and Mollyann Brodie  —  Key Findings:  — Half of the public disapproves of the recent decision in Texas v. United States …

New York law is an open invitation to home invaders … There is a reason homeowners can rarely afford to dispense mercy on an overnight invader: Criminal intruders tend to be the dangerous type.  What homeowners don't expect are law enforcers and prosecutors going after them for ­defending themselves and their loved ones.

Power struggle paralyzes ‘irrelevant’ White House press shop  —  Washington (CNN)White House press briefings, in steady decline even before the partial government shutdown, have now ground to a halt as a prolonged power struggle among President Donald Trump's aides leads to a muddled messaging strategy …

Trump's liaison to Congress eyeing exit  —  Shahira Knight, the president's legislative affairs director and a central figure in the White House's shutdown negotiations with Congress, is planning to leave the White House in the coming months, according to four sources familiar with her plans.

Despite Bitcoin's Dive, a Former Soviet Republic Is Still Betting Big on It  —  Tax breaks, land deals and cheap energy have spurred cryptocurrency mining in Georgia, which wants to be a digital data leader.  —  TBILISI, Georgia — For three years, a windowless warehouse on the edge of town …

‘Unacceptable’: Coast Guard's top officer criticizes lack of payment in government shutdown  —  The Coast Guard's top admiral said Tuesday that members of the armed forces should not be expected to shoulder the burden of the partial government shutdown, citing the “anxiety and stress” …

UK's ex-EU ambassador: Brexiteers like ‘snake oil salesmen’  —  The arguments of senior Brexiteers would “make snake oil salesmen blush” and their “dishonesty is breathtaking,” according to the U.K.'s former ambassador to the EU.  —  Delivering a sobering lecture on the state of the Brexit process …