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.

Pelosi has edge over Trump on budget negotiations, CBS News poll shows  —  Seven in 10 Americans don't think the issue of a border wall is worth a government shutdown, which they say is now having a negative impact on the country.  But partisans don't want their own side to budge …

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.

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 …

A “go big” idea to end the shutdown  —  A new immigration idea has been circulating over the past 24 hours at senior levels inside the White House and on Capitol Hill: Give a path to green cards to the 700,000 current DACA recipients, three sources familiar with the conversations tell Axios.

Pete Buttigieg joins the Democratic race for the 2020 presidential nomination  —  South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who has signaled for months that he would try to leap from local to presidential politics, announced Wednesday that he will join the burgeoning cast of Democratic candidates in the 2020 race.

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 …

‘Nobody Is Going to Believe You’  —  Over the past two decades, Bryan Singer's films—The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie, Superman Returns, four of the X-Men movies—have earned more than $3 billion at the box office, putting him in the top tier of Hollywood directors.

‘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” …

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.) …

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 …

Russell Baker, Times Columnist and Celebrated Humorist, Dies at 93  —  Russell Baker, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose whimsical, irreverent “Observer” column appeared in The New York Times and hundreds of other newspapers for 36 years and turned a backwoods-born Virginian …

Love a candidate but don't think she can win?  You've been infected with Pundititis.  —  The night Elizabeth Warren won reelection, Krista Magnuson started showing symptoms.  —  Magnuson, a 41-year-old political junkie, had come to Warren's victory party in downtown Boston that November evening to celebrate the swelling blue wave.

For two years, Trump has been undermining American democracy.  Here's a damage report.  —  Can U.S. democracy survive when between 35 and 45 percent of the population cheers a president who behaves like an autocrat?  —  When Donald Trump took office two years ago, I and many others began sounding …

WH Bashes Media: 'Never Seen People So Happy To Destroy A Kid's Life'  —  During an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Tuesday evening White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders doubled down on the White House's support for the Covington Catholic student by slamming the media for its coverage of the incident.

Campaign workers demand minimum wage, progressive culture from 2020 Dems  —  Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., left, accompanied by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right, speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 13, 2017, to unveil their Medicare for All legislation to reform health care.

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.

Commission raises concerns about ‘golden’ visa, passport schemes  —  The European Commission on Wednesday published a report criticizing schemes that allow foreign citizens to “buy” EU residency or citizenship through investment.  —  The schemes — dubbed “golden visas” and “golden passports” …