GOP Congresswoman Blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser  —  Axios has a small squib about “The Mischief Makers,” a handful of idiosyncratic congressional backbenchers who make trouble for their respective party leadership.  The leading Democratic mischief-maker is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez …

Suck It, Wall Street  —  In a blowout comedy for the ages, finance pirates take it up the clacker  —  In the fall of 2008, America's wealthiest companies were in a pickle.  Short-selling hedge funds, smelling blood as the global economy cratered, loaded up with bets against finance stocks …

‘The perfect target’: Russia cultivated Trump as asset for 40 years - ex-KGB spy  —  The KGB ‘played the game as if they were immensely impressed by his personality’, Yuri Shvets, a key source for a new book, tells the Guardian  —  Donald Trump was cultivated as a Russian asset over 40 years …

Johnson & Johnson's Vaccine Offers Strong Protection but Fuels Concern About Variants  —  The vaccine's efficacy rate dropped from 72 percent in the United States to just 57 percent in South Africa, where a highly contagious variant is driving most cases.  —  Johnson & Johnson announced …

Anti-Trump group launches $1M billboard campaign calling on Cruz, Hawley, McCarthy to resign  —  The anti-Trump Republican Accountability Project is kicking off a $1 million billboard campaign Thursday that targets 12 Republican lawmakers, including Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Arizona GOP lawmaker introduces bill to give Legislature power to toss out election results  —  The Republican chair of Arizona's state House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill Wednesday that would give the Legislature authority to override the secretary of state's certification of its electoral votes.

Body Camera Footage Shows Capitol Rioters Trampling Over Woman  —  Video obtained by The Times provides a police officer's view of the deadly battle to defend a key entryway from the surging mob.  —  As 34-year-old Rosanne Boyland lay dying on the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6 after being crushed by a mob …

'I'm just furious': Relations in Congress crack after attack  —  Some House lawmakers are privately refusing to work with each other.  Others are afraid to be in the same room.  Two members almost got into a fist fight on the floor.  And the speaker of the House is warning that “the enemy is within.”

U.S. handling of American evacuees from Wuhan increased coronavirus risks, watchdog finds  —  The special counsel also criticized the HHS general counsel's office for its ‘attempts to shame the whistleblower.’  —  As the first American evacuees from Wuhan, China, touched down at a California military base …

POLITICO Playbook: My wild day in Wyoming with Matt Gaetz  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  TARA WRITES FROM CHEYENNE, Wyo. — When the opportunity arose to fly across the country to see whether a slick-suited, 30-something congressman from Florida could stage a substantial rally in the name of DONALD TRUMP …

DC Fails To Disbar Anti-Trump FBI Lawyer Despite Guilty Plea  —  As the U.S. government seeks prison time for a former FBI lawyer who admitted falsifying evidence to spy on a former Trump aide, the District of Columbia Bar association hasn't begun an investigation to strip him of his law license, records show.

‘Betrayed’: Republicans urge Biden to change course on stimulus  —  When a bipartisan Senate coalition helped clinch a coronavirus relief bill last year after months of gridlock, it was supposed to be a model for governing in the Biden era.  But now Democrats' surprise takeover of the Senate threatens to leave the group behind.

The Conservative Case Against the Boomers  —  For bleakness, scope, and entropic finality, the progressive critique of the generation has nothing on the social-conservative one.  —  Everyone's fed up with the baby boomers.  Younger progressives charge them with a form of generational hoarding—of titles and power but mostly of money.

Man who wore horns at riot willing to speak at Trump's trial  —  PHOENIX (AP) — The lawyer for an Arizona man who took part in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol while sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns is offering to have his client testify at former President Donald Trump's upcoming impeachment trial.

So much for Joe Biden, moderate  —  President Biden wasted no time releasing a flurry of executive orders and legislative proposals.  Some of them may be helpful in addressing the economic challenges imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.  But others would almost certainly “cancel” …

Republican Ties to Extremist Groups Are Under Scrutiny  —  A number of members of Congress have links to organizations and movements that played a role in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.  —  WASHINGTON — The video's title was posed as a question, but it left little doubt about where the men who filmed it stood.

‘Trump Just Used Us and Our Fear’: One Woman's Journey Out of QAnon  —  During the political fallout after four years of Donald J. Trump, one question is what will happen with the followers of conspiracy theories that bend Americans' perceptions of reality.  —  WASHINGTON — In the summer of 2017 …

Mattis: Trump ‘fomented’ Jan. 6 Capitol assault  —  Former Defense Secretary James Mattis said Thursday the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol was “fomented” by former President Donald Trump, and exemplified the “internal threats” faced by the U.S. that should be viewed “with every bit as much gravity …

‘Charming’ D.B. Cooper suspect Sheridan Peterson dies at 94, spent years dedicated to political causes  —  Sheridan Peterson, long considered a suspect in the D.B. Cooper skyjacking case, died Jan. 8 in California.  He was 94.  —  The California native served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II …

Noem refuses to say whether Biden victory was free and fair  —  PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem refused to acknowledge Thursday that Democrat Joe Biden defeated her close Republican ally Donald Trump in a free and fair election, instead using the opportunity to criticize Biden's actions since taking office.

Ella Emhoff Signs to IMG Models  —  The second daughter follows the inauguration poet Amanda Gorman to IMG.  —  Amanda Gorman is not the only breakout star to have emerged from the inauguration as the fashion world's latest influencer-in-waiting.  —  One week after the Miu Miu coat she wore …

Pentagon halts Trump appointments to advisory boards  —  The Pentagon has suspended the processing of a number of former President Donald Trump's last-minute appointees to defense advisory boards as the new administration looks to weed out loyalists to the former president.

The Constitution does not authorize a general impeachment power  —  The Supreme Court is the highest tribunal in the United States for all cases and controversies arising under the Constitution.  But not all legal issues reach the court, and even if they do, it takes years for them to do so.

'For Christ's sake, watch yourself': Biden warns family over business dealings  —  In the midst of his campaign for president, Joe Biden took his younger brother, Frank, aside to issue a warning.  —  “For Christ's sake, watch yourself,” Biden said of his brother's potential business dealings …

Suspected Russian Hack Extends Far Beyond SolarWinds Software, Investigators Say  —  Roughly 30% of victims are said to have no connection to the network-management company's tainted software  —  Investigators probing a massive hack of the U.S. government and businesses say they have found concrete evidence …