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 …

FBI, U.S. attorney in Brooklyn probing Cuomo administration on nursing homes  —  Investigation is in its early stages; no allegations of wrongdoing have been made  —  ALBANY — The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn have launched an investigation that is examining, at least in part …

A Grim Measure of Covid's Toll: Life Expectancy Drops Sharply in U.S.  —  American life expectancy fell by one year, to 77.8 years, in the first half of 2020.  It may rebound as the pandemic's end approaches.  —  Life expectancy in the United States fell by a full year in the first six months of 2020 …

White House announces sweeping immigration bill  —  What Biden has said he'll do about immigration  —  (CNN)The White House announced a sweeping immigration bill Thursday that would create an eight-year path to citizenship for millions of immigrants already in the country and provide …

Limbaugh obituaries show the mainstream media still fawning over the people who poisoned politics  —  The leaders of our elite newsrooms had a whole year to figure out how they were going to frame Rush Limbaugh's life.  —  He announced he was dying of lung cancer last February …

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 …

Trump-McConnell rift threatens GOP's Senate hopes  —  Republicans are starting their life in the Senate minority mired in a civil war over the future of the GOP and former President Donald Trump's role in the party.  —  Trump's scathing attack on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday exposed rifts …

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 …

Trump Frets Foes Will Be ‘Suing Me for the Rest of My Life’  —  Though the riot was the culmination of Trump's months of attempts to overturn the election, it's hardly the only incident that may have left the ex-president legally exposed.  —  A criminal investigation in the state of Georgia.

The Christian Prophets Who Say Trump Is Coming Again  —  Perched on a cream-colored armchair, Johnny Enlow, a 61-year-old, California-based Pentecostal pastor with short-cropped gray hair, a trim beard and Tom Selleck-style mustache, looked into the camera and prophesied that Donald Trump would become president again.

Here's What Trump Said When Asked If He's Running for President  —  On Wednesday, former President Donald Trump gave his first interviews since leaving the White House.  While the former president discussed the remarkable life of radio legend and conservative icon Rush Limbaugh …

How a Liberal Lawyer in Georgia Took an Extreme Right Turn  —  W. McCall Calhoun Jr., who ran for office in Georgia as a Democrat, is a walking embodiment of his state's political contradictions.  —  AMERICUS, Ga.— Over the past three decades, as the state around him turned ever more resolutely Republican …

It might just be game over for the Iowa caucus  —  The siege of Iowa and New Hampshire has begun.  —  The two states with privileged places on the presidential primary calendar are finding their roles more threatened than ever before — most recently in the form of a bill introduced in Nevada …

Nearly 5,000 National Guard troops to stay in DC over concerns of potential violence in March  —  Thousands of National Guard troops will remain in Washington, D.C., in early March amid concerns over followers of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory, some of whom hold out hope former President Trump will be returned to office March 4.

How Oracle Sells Repression in China … Police in China's Liaoning province were sitting on mounds of data collected through invasive means: financial records, travel information, vehicle registrations, social media, and surveillance camera footage.  To make sense of it all, they needed sophisticated analytic software.

Why Biden's New Dawn of Net-Zero Is Looking Like a Dark Day for Labor  —  Last Labor Day, candidate Joe Biden made an impassioned pitch to leaders and members of the AFL-CIO, America's largest labor federation.  Stressing that “the great American middle class was built by unions,” …

Statues of four U.S. presidents among 41 under the microscope by Chicago committee  —  Mayor Lori Lightfoot is confronting the “hard truths of Chicago's racial history,” launching a public process to review the fate of 41 statues and other monuments, including some of former presidents Abraham Lincoln …

Bob Dole announces stage four lung cancer diagnosis  —  Former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole has been diagnosed with lung cancer.  —  The 97-year-old Republican, a war hero who ran unsuccessfully as the 1996 Republican presidential nominee, announced he was “recently” …

Former Ohio GOP chair Jane Timken launches Senate bid  —  Former Ohio GOP Chair Jane Timken is joining the race to replace retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).  —  Timken was widely expected to make a run for Portman's seat.  Prior to launching her campaign, she resigned from her role …

Tennessee bill would grant fathers veto power over abortion, allow establishment of paternity without a woman's consent  —  In an effort to further restrict abortion in Tennessee, two Tennessee lawmakers have introduced legislation that would allow a father to deny an abortion without the pregnant woman's consent.

Thousands of service members saying no to Covid vaccine  —  WASHINGTON — By the thousands, U.S. service members are refusing or putting off the Covid-19 vaccine as frustrated commanders scramble to knock down internet rumors and find the right pitch that will persuade troops to get the shot.