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 …

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 …

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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.

‘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 …

“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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

Colorado GOP Rep. Boebert accused by California Democrat of harboring a ‘gun fetish’  —  Boebert said lawmakers vow to uphold the Constitution, and Second Amendment is part of it  —  Rep. Mace calls for razor-wire fencing to come down at US Capitol  —  California Democratic …

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 …