Ted Cruz's Cancún Trip: Family Texts Detail His Political Blunder  —  The Texas senator faced fierce blowback for fleeing his state as a disaster unfolded.  Text messages sent by his wife revealed a hastily planned trip away from their “FREEZING” family home.

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 …

Biden Administration Formally Offers to Restart Nuclear Talks With Iran  —  President Biden campaigned on restoring an accord limiting Iran's nuclear program.  It remains unclear if Tehran, which is demanding that sanctions be lifted, will accept the offer to talk.

6 Capitol Police officers suspended, 29 others being investigated for alleged roles in riot  —  (CNN)Six US Capitol Police officers have been suspended with pay, and 29 others have been placed under investigation, for their actions in the January 6 riot, a department spokesman said Thursday.

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

Don't Read This If You Were a Rush Limbaugh Fan  —  As a radio broadcaster, Rush Limbaugh, who died yesterday, was a great success: He pioneered his genre, attracted millions of listeners for several decades, and grew fantastically wealthy.  Many good people were used to his daily company …

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.

After Years of Chaos, the White House Is Definitely in Different Hands  —  Biden's new chief of staff, like the new President, is a serious Washington lifer.  —  Donald Trump made numerous outrageous but not necessarily consequential decisions throughout his Presidency …

California investor who donated nearly $1M to Trump inauguration sentenced to 12 years in prison  —  A Federal Judge in California on Thursday sentenced a venture capitalist who donated nearly $1 million to former President Donald Trump's inaugural committee to 12 years in prison …

South Dakota Attorney General Charged With Careless Driving in Man's Death  —  Jason Ravnsborg avoided felony charges, including manslaughter, after he struck and killed a pedestrian with his car last September.  —  South Dakota's attorney general has been charged with careless driving …

Live updates: Power restored to 2 million homes in Texas; death toll tops 30  —  Power has been restored to nearly 2 million homes in Texas over the past day, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) said Thursday afternoon, though hundreds of thousands of residents remain without electricity.

Cracked Pipes, Frozen Wells, Offline Treatment Plants: A Texan Water Crisis  —  Electricity was restored to most Texans who had lost power after a winter storm, but water systems for nearly two-thirds of residents were disrupted, leaving millions without drinkable water.

Nursing-Home Death Data Was Sought From Cuomo by U.S. Prosecutors  —  Request came after governor's top aide told lawmakers information was delayed out of fear Trump would politicize it  —  Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn sought data this month on nursing-home deaths from New York …

Republicans think they've found Biden's big weakness.  But there's a problem.  —  In recent days, Republicans have tried to project confidence that they've found a killer attack line on President Biden: They can use the increasing anger of parents over the failure of schools to reopen to win back the suburban voters they've lost.

School Board Mocks Parents Who Support Reopening: ‘They Want Their Babysitters Back’  —  A northern California school board discussed ways to limit the public's ability to speak at meetings and mocked parents who desperately want schools to reopen.  —  “They want their babysitters back,” …

James Murdoch, Who Publicly Broke With Family Over Climate Change, Took $2.2 Million In ‘Personal’ Flights On Corporate Jet  — James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, took $477,000 in personal flights on his family company's corporate jet in 2018, his last year as CEO of 21st Century Fox, records show.

‘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 …

Ella Emhoff Drops a Small (Very Small) Collection of Knits  —  The second daughter turned model released a five-piece collection.  Only one of each item was made.  —  Ella Emhoff, the 21-year-old knitwear designer who signed a major modeling contract in January, has released …

Trump probably should be allowed back on social media, Bill Gates says  — Bill Gates told CNBC that social media companies should eventually take their muzzles off former President Donald Trump, despite his “corrosive” election fraud conspiracy theories.  — He said the sites could slap Trump's future false posts with labels.

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.

Biden privately tells governors: Minimum wage hike likely isn't happening  —  When Joe Biden met with a group of mayors and governors last week he bluntly told them to get ready for a legislative defeat: his proposed minimum wage hike was unlikely to happen, he said, at least in the near term.