Oath Keeper claims she was VIP security at Trump rally before riot and says she met with Secret Service agents  —  (CNN)A leader in an alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy in the US Capitol insurrection claims she was given a VIP pass to the pro-Trump rally on January 6, had met with Secret Service agents …

Exclusive: Defeated and impeached, Trump still commands the loyalty of the GOP's voters  —  If there's a civil war in the Republican Party, the voters who backed Donald Trump in November's election are ready to choose sides.  —  Behind Trump.  —  An exclusive Suffolk University/USA TODAY …

‘Where is Greg Abbott?’  Anger grows at Texas governor in deadly storm's wake  —  It was clear by Tuesday afternoon that Texas was in a full-blown crisis — and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had largely been out of sight.  —  More than 4 million households did not have power amid dangerously low temperatures …

Scoop: Cruz's Cancún trip included college roommate  —  In explaining his disastrous Cancún trip, Sen. Ted Cruz failed to mention his college roommate also was along for the visit.  — Axios has learned Cruz (R-Texas) invited David Panton, his longtime friend and former roommate …

‘Utter outrage’: White House says US in talks with Iran over detained Americans  —  President Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, calls the matter a ‘complete and utter outrage’  —  Joe Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Sunday the US had begun to communicate …

“Mark Changed The Rules”: How Facebook Went Easy On Alex Jones And Other Right-Wing Figures  —  In April 2019, Facebook was preparing to ban one of the internet's most notorious spreaders of misinformation and hate, Infowars founder Alex Jones.  Then CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally intervened.

How Investigative Journalism Flourished in Hostile Russia  —  A new wave of news outlets has used conventional, and unconventional, methods to pierce the veil of Putin's power.  —  The Russian language has introduced a few words that in recent years have been widely used and misused in English: disinformation, kompromat, Novichok.

Tough Sanctions, Then a Mysterious Last-Minute Turnabout  —  The Treasury Department slapped sanctions on the Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler in 2017 for corruption in Africa.  In Donald Trump's final days in office, they were rolled back with no explanation.

Shlomo Hillel, Who Helped 120,000 Jews Flee Iraq, Dies at 97  —  Working undercover, he used bribes, fake visas and a network of smugglers to bring refugees to Israel in the late 1940s and early '50s.  —  Shlomo Hillel, a Baghdad-born Israeli operative who in the late 1940s and early '50s used bribes …

A Ripple Effect of Loss: U.S. Covid Deaths Approach 500,000  —  CHICAGO — A nation numbed by misery and loss is confronting a number that still has the power to shock: 500,000.  —  Roughly one year since the first known death by the coronavirus in the United States, an unfathomable toll is nearing …

S.F. school board president: Renamings are on hold, reopening is our priority  —  As a credentialed teacher serving as a volunteer school board member, I make every effort to respond to every email.  Every single day I am talking to parents on the phone, answering their questions about distance learning …

WHO Said What About Wuhan?  —  International investigators ignore the lab-leak theory but investigate frozen fish.  —  Chinese policy makers have been floating an implausible theory: The novel coronavirus didn't originate in China but was imported from Europe.

Oregon GOP ousts chair, taps state Sen. Dallas Heard as new leader  —  A conservative state senator from Myrtle Creek is the new chair of the Oregon Republican Party, following an event Saturday in which Republicans overhauled their top party leadership.According to multiple Republican sources …

The Lost Hours: How Confusion and Inaction at the Capitol Delayed a Troop Deployment  —  As violence grew out of control on Jan. 6, the head of the Capitol Police made an urgent request for the National Guard.  It took nearly two hours to be approved.  —  WASHINGTON — At 1:09 p.m. on Jan. 6 …

Why America doesn't have the third party it wants  —  On the heels of a second historic impeachment trial, new polls from Gallup show a record number of Americans identify as independent (50 percent) and favor a new political party (62 percent).  —  In any other industry …

QAnon's corrosive impact on the U.S.  —  Tens of millions of Americans believe QAnon's core — and false — theory that an evil cabal of Satan-worshipping elites commits atrocities against children and controls much of the world.  Where does this movement stand and who has it impacted?

Investigative Update: United Airlines Flight 328 Boeing 777 Engine Incident  —  The National Transportation Safety Board issued an investigative update Sunday for its ongoing investigation of Saturday's engine event on a Boeing 777-200.  —  United flight 328 experienced a right engine failure shortly …

Yale Law Students Said a Top Journal Was Racist.  Admissions Data Suggest Otherwise.  —  The Yale Law Journal on Friday released admissions data in the face of a week-long pressure campaign in which activists alleged that blacks are underrepresented on the masthead.

Blue-Collar Jobs Boom as Covid-19 Boosts Housing, E-Commerce Demand  —  Residential construction, package delivery and warehousing jobs exceed pre-pandemic levels, and some companies can't find enough workers  —  America's blue-collar workforce is filled with signs of a strengthening job market.

Federal judges call for increased security after threats jump 400% and one judge's son is killed  —  Judge Esther Salas was in her New Jersey home when a gunman targeting Salas opened fire on her family, killing her son and wounding her husband.  Now she's fighting for better protection of judges.

Biden's big summertime verdict  —  President Biden is promising COVID-19 vaccines will be available to all Americans by the end of July — and a Quinnipiac poll finds three-quarters of Americans expect him to pull it off.  If he fails, the coronavirus could start to haunt the new president just like it did his predecessor.

What Drove the Historically Large Murder Spike in 2020? … Amid the pandemic, lockdown orders, and nationwide protests against police violence, a historically large increase in murders occurred in 2020.  Previously, the largest recorded one-year rise in murders in U.S. history was a 12.7 percent increase in 1968.