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 …

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 …

Texas Spins Into the Wind  —  An electricity grid that relies on renewables also needs nuclear or coal power.  —  By The Editorial Board  —  While millions of Texans remain without power for a third day, the wind industry and its advocates are spinning a fable that gas, coal and nuclear plants …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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,” …

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.

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 …

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.

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.

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.

Study: Biden's $1.9 Trillion Stimulus Bill Will Devastate the Economy  —  Conventional wisdom dictates that if the government pumps a lot of money into the economy it will bloom and blossom like a flower getting water and grow and grow and grow.  —  It's the basis of modern liberal economic thinking and has been since the New Deal.

Superintendent candidate Deborah Kerr deletes account after tweets about her experience with the N-word  —  Shortly before polls closed Tuesday night, Wisconsin schools superintendent candidate Deborah Kerr replied to a viral Twitter prompt about the N-word.