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5:50 PM ET, February 18, 2021

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Fox News:
Ted Cruz flew to Cancun with his family amid power crisis in Texas: source  —  Millions in Texas without power, at least 20 dead  —  Texas outages is proof we need to expand energy options: Wesley Hunt  —  Sen. Ted Cruz flew to Cancun, Mexico, with his family this week as Texas dealt …
RELATED:
Associated Press:
AP source: Sen. Cruz went to Mexico on vacation amid storm  —  DALLAS (AP) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has traveled to Mexico for a family vacation as his home state struggles with a weather crisis that has left much of Texas without power.  —  The high-profile Republican lawmaker went with his family …
CNN:
Cruz responds to fury over his Cancun trip  —  (CNN)Sen. Ted Cruz and his family flew to Cancun, Mexico, he confirmed in a statement to CNN, as a winter disaster in his home state left millions without power or water.  —  Analysis: Cruz's Cancun trip violates an unwritten rule of politics.
Todd J. Gillman / Dallas Morning News:
Barbs fly at Ted Cruz for heading to Cancun as millions in Texas freeze without power  —  Fellow vacationers spotted the well-known Texas Republican and his family on flight from Houston  —  WASHINGTON — With 3 million Texans shivering in the dark, Sen. Ted Cruz jetted off to Cancun with his family …
David A. Graham / The Atlantic:
Ted Cruz Is No Hypocrite.  He's Worse.  —  Nero fiddled while Rome burned; Ted Cruz jetted to Cancún.  And although the emperor was at least ensconced in a lavish, louche palace, the senator from Texas was stuck in economy class with the peasantry.  —  Cruz's appeal as a politician …
Lauren Larson / Texas Monthly:
13 Curses to Mutter Against Ted Cruz While You Boil Snow to Drink  —  May you make direct eye contact with your neighbor during your yard pee.  —  NOTES  —  This week, as millions of Texans were left without power and water as temperatures dropped to record lows, one man said no—not me.
New York Times:
Senator Ted Cruz left Texas for Cancún as the state was battered by a brutal winter storm.  —  As Texas was battered by an icy storm and widespread power losses that left millions of residents freezing and fearing for their safety, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas left the state on Wednesday …
Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:
Sen. Ted Cruz comes under fire after photos purportedly show him traveling to Cancún as Texans freeze
New York Times:
Manhattan D.A. Recruits Top Prosecutor for Trump Inquiry  —  The Manhattan district attorney has enlisted a former federal prosecutor who is an expert on white-collar crime to join the team investigating the Trump family business.  —  As the Manhattan district attorney's office steps …
Discussion: Political Wire and Raw Story
RELATED:
CNN:
The Supreme Court is still sitting on Trump's tax returns, and justices aren't saying why  —  (CNN)Lawsuits involving Donald Trump tore apart the Supreme Court while he was president, and the justices apparently remain riven by him.  —  For nearly four months, the court has refused to act …
Erin Douglas / The Texas Tribune:
Texas was “seconds and minutes” away from catastrophic monthslong blackouts, officials say  —  Officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said that grid operators implemented blackouts to avoid a catastrophic failure that could have left Texans in the dark for months.  —  Copy link
RELATED:
Joseph Guzman / The Hill:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Texas Gov Abbott fire at each other over deadly winter storm, Green New Deal
Discussion: NBC News, New York Times and IJR
Michael D. Shear / New York Times:
Immigration Overhaul Would Offer 8-Year Path to Citizenship for Millions  —  The proposal offers an eight-year path to citizenship for most of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, eliminates restrictions on family-based immigration and expands worker visas.
RELATED:
CNN:
White House announces sweeping immigration bill
Financial Times:
US will not send vaccines to developing countries until supply improves  —  Biden administration says priority is ‘vaccinating Americans’ in rejection of French proposal  —  The US will not any donate any coronavirus vaccine doses to developing countries until there is a plentiful supply of jabs in the US …
Discussion: Politico
RELATED:
Washington Post:
White House announces $4 billion in funding for Covax, the global vaccine effort that Trump spurned  —  The White House is throwing its support behind a global push to distribute coronavirus vaccines equitably, pledging $4 billion dollars to a multilateral effort the Trump administration spurned.
Bloomberg:
A U.S. Vaccine Surge Is Coming, With Millions of Doses Promised
Discussion: KFF
Politico:
Trump snubs Haley  —  SCOOP: NIKKI HALEY reached out to former President DONALD TRUMP on Wednesday to request a sit-down at Mar-a-Lago, but a source familiar tells Playbook that he turned her down.  The two haven't spoken since the insurrection on Jan. 6, when Haley blasted Trump for inciting his supporters to storm the Capitol.
Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed News:
Trump Can Still Be The Republican Party's Future.  Just Look To Arizona.  —  Arizona Republicans keep losing.  But the Arizona Republican Party has already turned itself into a Trump machine, still trying to win an election that's long over.  And that might be the future of conservatism.
Discussion: Common Dreams
Tom Lawrence / The Daily Beast:
South Dakota Attorney General Charged in Fatal Car Crash  —  But the top law-enforcement official in the state ducked more serious charges in connection with his killing of a man on the side of a road.  —  SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota—South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg will …
Discussion: Raw Story
RELATED:
Joe Sneve / Argus Leader:
AG Jason Ravnsborg charged with three misdemeanors in crash that killed Highmore man
Discussion: The Hill
Michael Roston / New York Times:
NASA Lands Its Perseverance Rover on Mars  —  Here's what you need to know:  —  Cheers erupted in the control room as NASA's rover reached the red planet.  —  NASA landed a new robotic rover on Mars on Thursday, its most ambitious effort in decades to directly study whether there was ever life on the red planet.
RELATED:
Marilynn Marchione / Associated Press:
US life expectancy drops a year in pandemic, most since WWII  —  Life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused its first wave of deaths, health officials are reporting.  —  Minorities suffered the biggest impact …
RELATED:
Politico:
‘Recipe for disaster’: Dem fears mount over immigration overhaul  —  “Biden is going to be dealing with a minority in Congress if he continues down some of these paths,” said one Democratic congressman.  —  Migrants are loaded onto a bus by U.S. Border Patrol agents after being detained …
Nicholas Quah / Vulture:
Reply All Is Having Its Own Reckoning Now  —  Oh, you like podcasts?  Sign up for Vulture's new recommendation newsletter 1.5x Speed here.  —  Earlier this month, Reply All kicked off an ambitious miniseries, “The Test Kitchen,” which sought to take on one of the bigger stories …
Roger McNamee / Washington Post:
America has experience curbing dangerous industries.  We can do the same with tech.  —  Roger McNamee is a technology investor, activist and author of “Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe.”  —  Every generation or so, an industry comes along that is vital to the nation's future …
Washington Post:
8 A.M. ET MONDAY  —  Story by Joel Achenbach.  Photography by Rachel Wisniewski.  —  It's the first day back at work for Scott E. Lynn, the Montour County coroner.  He's been sick with covid-19.  He was out for a month and lost 25 pounds.  As he arrives at his office in a remote corner …
Michael Balsamo / Associated Press:
AP source: Police suggest keeping Capitol fence for months  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Capitol Police officials told congressional leaders the razor-wire topped fencing around the Capitol should remain in place for several more months as law enforcement continues to track threats against lawmakers …
Tom Kludt / Vanity Fair:
“My Job Is Not to Protect ‘the Squad’”: Briahna Joy Gray Wants to Upend Democrats' Political Strategy  —  The Bernie Sanders vet and progressive host envies the right-wing media's ability to drive messages and corral Republican lawmakers—as a recent “Medicare for All” podcast push showed the limits of the left's clout in Congress.
Leah Barkoukis / Townhall:
What Rush Limbaugh Discussed on His Final Radio Show  —  After Rush Limbaugh's heartfelt message to his audience before the holiday season, longtime listeners feared it would be the last time they heard from him.  He told them how he outlived his diagnosis many times over and was grateful to have been alive to hear his eulogies.
Politico:
US and Europe allies reaffirm Iran stance in Paris meeting  —  The foreign ministers of the U.S., France, Germany and the U.K. reaffirmed their call for Iran to fall back into line with commitments under the Obama-era nuclear deal as a quid pro quo for the U.S. to recommit to the agreement.
Randy Wimbley / WJBK-TV:
Grosse Pointe Park man hangs KKK flag in window facing Black neighbor sparking outrage  —  GROSSE POINTE PARK, MIch. (FOX 2) - A racist display has a community outraged in Grosse Pointe Park after a white resident displayed a KKK flag in the window of a home facing their Black neighbor Tuesday.
Discussion: The Root and Raw Story
Jim Geraghty / National Review:
Why We're Taught to Not Speak Ill of the Dead  —  We used to widely honor the instruction to not speak ill of the dead, at least in media and public communications.  But in our modern era of social media, the instinct is largely the opposite.  When a prominent political figure passes away …
 
 
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 More Items: 
Tyler Olson / Fox News:
Russel Honoré, Pelosi pick to lead review of Capitol security, ripped by Republicans as ‘extreme partisan’
Discussion: HuffPost and Washington Examiner
Helen Roy / The American Mind:
Walk Away from Never Trump
Brent Budowsky / The Hill:
Pass popular Biden's popular COVID-19 bill
Discussion: Associated Press and WTOP
Rob Savillo / Media Matters for America:
Fox News and Fox Business falsely blamed renewable energy for Texas blackouts 128 times over two days
Sam Seder / FAIR:
Open Letter to John Mulholland, US editor of The Guardian
 Earlier Items: 
Theodore Schleifer / Vox:
Democratic donor Laurene Powell Jobs is expanding her political operation with Joe Kennedy
Chicago Tribune:
Michael Madigan resigns from Illinois House after being ousted as speaker, defends his legacy in face of ‘vicious attacks’
Discussion: Human Events
Erin Durkin / Politico:
De Blasio rips ‘bullying’ Cuomo over nursing home controversy
Ezra Klein / New York Times:
'There's No Natural Dignity in Work'
Discussion: Joanne Jacobs and Foreign Policy
Politico:
It might just be game over for the Iowa caucuses
Discussion: Outside the Beltway
 

 
From Techmeme:

Mishaal Rahman / Android Authority:
Source: Google has canceled the development of a second-generation Pixel Tablet, planned for release in 2025, due to concerns that it wouldn't sell very well

The Information:
Sources: OpenAI considered making a browser, discussed deals to power AI features on Samsung devices and search on sites and apps from Condé Nast and others

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is testing a more conversational version of Siri, dubbed “LLM Siri”, with plans to release it in spring 2026 as part of iOS 19 and macOS 16

 
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