My story of working with Governor Cuomo  —  “Let's play strip poker.”  —  I should have been shocked by the Governor's crude comment, but I wasn't.  —  We were flying home from an October 2017 event in Western New York on his taxpayer-funded jet.  He was seated facing me, so close our knees almost touched.

McConnell throws cold water on Dems' proposed 1/6 Commission  —  Speaker Nancy Pelosi's bid to create a broad bipartisan review of the Jan. 6 insurrection is in peril after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell slammed the proposal on Wednesday as “partisan by design.”

Live updates: USPS head Louis DeJoy tells House panel his strategic plan may include slowing first-class mail  —  The Postal Service is battling financial and service crises caused by years of mail declines worsened by the coronavirus pandemic  —  Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told …

Close ally of Marjorie Taylor Greene among those in Capitol mob  —  (CNN)A close ally of Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene took part in the January 6 mob at the Capitol and said he was among those who eventually made their way into the building.

Inside a Battle Over Race, Class and Power at Smith College  —  A student said she was racially profiled while eating in a college dorm.  An investigation found no evidence of bias.  But the incident will not fade away.  —  NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — In midsummer of 2018, Oumou Kanoute …

South Dakota AG pushed by critics to resign over new evidence in fatal car incident: ‘He knew what he hit and he lied’  —  Days after South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg fatally struck a man while driving in September, detectives told the Republican official they had found a pair …

Steve Bannon investigation gains steam as Manhattan prosecutors subpoena financial records  —  CNN legal analyst explains why the Steve Bannon pardon is problematic  —  New York (CNN)The Manhattan district attorney's office has subpoenaed financial records related to Steve Bannon's crowd …

‘Top Secret’ Saudi documents show Khashoggi assassins used company seized by Saudi crown prince  —  Washington (CNN)The two private jets used by a Saudi Arabian assassination squad that killed and allegedly dismembered journalist Jamal Khashoggi were owned by a company that less than a year prior …

A Proclamation on Revoking Proclamation 10014  —  The suspension of entry imposed in Proclamation 10014 of April 22, 2020 (Suspension of Entry of Immigrants Who Present a Risk to the United States Labor Market During the Economic Recovery Following the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Outbreak) …

Architect Of The Capitol Outlines $30 Million In Damages From Pro-Trump Riot  —  The cost of repairing damages from the attack on the U.S. Capitol and related security expenses have already topped $30 million and will keep rising, Architect of the Capitol J. Brett Blanton told lawmakers on Wednesday.

Putting the GOP “Civil War” in Perspective  —  The degree to which folks continue to view American politics through the Trump prism is both understandable and frustrating.  On the one hand, despite losing the election, the former president has remained an omnipresent figure in our daily lives.

New Omnibus Georgia Senate Proposal Would Severely Restrict Absentee Voting  —  Poll Worker in Bibb Co. looks over an absentee ballot  —  All but three Republicans in the Georgia Senate majority are cosponsoring a massive elections bill that would give Georgia one of the most restrictive absentee …

New analyses show Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine works well.  —  Johnson and Johnson's vaccine has a lower efficacy rate than the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which are both around 95 percent. … But in South Africa, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is so far the clear winner.

Deb Haaland Is Everything the Biden Administration Needs to Be  —  No Biden cabinet pick has so much potential to frame this administration's vision and to inspire support for transformational change.  —  When Joe Biden tapped Deb Haaland to serve as the nation's 54th secretary of the interior …

Rep. Stephanie Murphy ‘seriously considering’ bid to unseat Rubio  —  Florida Rep. Stephanie Murphy is seriously considering a bid to unseat Sen. Marco Rubio's 2022 reelection, announcing Wednesday that she's launching a statewide listening tour and has hired a top Democratic operative to manage the effort.

Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation  —  Competition in the electricity-supply business promised reliable power at a more affordable cost  —  Texas's deregulated electricity market, which was supposed to provide reliable power at a lower price, left millions in the dark last week.

Bruce Springsteen's Drunken-Driving Charges Dropped by Prosecutors  —  Musician's blood-alcohol level was under the legal limit, federal prosecutors say; Springsteen pleaded guilty to consuming alcohol in a closed area  —  Federal prosecutors in New Jersey said Wednesday …

Why Do the Election's Defenders Require My Agreement?  —  The purpose of voting today is to give a democratic veneer to an undemocratic regime—not to give the people a say in the direction of their government. … Sullivan is vociferously anti-Trump, so I expected us to disagree—which, naturally, we did.

Fanne Foxe, ‘Argentine Firecracker’ at center of D.C. sex scandal, dies at 84  —  At about 2 a.m. Oct. 7, 1974, U.S. Park Police pulled over a silver-blue Lincoln Continental that had been swerving and speeding without headlights on near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington.

Sheryl Sandberg and Top Facebook Execs Silenced an Enemy of Turkey to Prevent a Hit to the Company's Business  —  Amid a 2018 Turkish military campaign, Facebook ultimately sided with Turkey's demand to block the page of a mostly Kurdish militia.  “I am fine with this,” Sandberg wrote.

A possible Tanden replacement privately touts her own Senate support  —  A leading fallback option to head Joe Biden's Office of Management and Budget has privately touted her own possible support in the Senate even as she encourages the confirmation of her embattled friend, Neera Tanden, to the post.

With Congressional Stimulus Fight Looming, 76% of Voters Back $1.9 Trillion Plan, Including 60% of Republicans  —  89% of Democrats said they support the proposed COVID-19 aid package  — 7 in 10 independents support the stimulus proposal, compared to over 1 in 5 who oppose it.

LGBT Identification Rises to 5.6% in Latest U.S. Estimate  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gallup's latest update on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identification finds 5.6% of U.S. adults identifying as LGBT.  The current estimate is up from 4.5% in Gallup's previous update based on 2017 data.

Ted Cruz's Approval Rating Among Republicans Drops More Than 20 Percent After Cancun Fiasco  —  Texas Senator Ted Cruz's approval rating took a major hit following last week's Cancun trip fiasco, according to a Yahoo/YouGov poll.  The poll, released Wednesday, found that 24 percent …

Key Biden aide said pandemic was ‘best thing that ever happened to him’, book says  — Anita Dunn said privately what aides ‘would never say in public’  — Cautious campaigning won Covid battle with Trump  —  A senior adviser to Democrat Joe Biden in his campaign for president believed …

CIA launches task force to probe invisible attacks on US diplomats and spies as one victim finds some relief  —  (CNN)More than three years after former senior US intelligence officer Marc Polymeropoulos suffered a mysterious attack in Moscow that changed his life forever, he finally has a diagnosis …

EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden was living with his brother Beau's widow Hallie while sending raunchy texts and FaceTiming in the shower with her married SISTER as they declared their love and she called him her ‘prince’  — Hunter Biden began dating his late brother Beau's widow, Hallie Biden, shortly after Beau died of brain cancer in 2015

Austin urges military to take COVID-19 vaccine as refusals persist  —  As military members continue to reject the COVID-19 vaccine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin released a video stressing the vaccine's safety while the Defense Department promotes “informed decision-making.”

Murkowski undecided on Tanden as nomination in limbo  —  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on Wednesday that she hasn't made a decision on Neera Tanden's nomination, leaving President Biden's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) stuck in limbo.

California candidate for governor accuses Newsom of creating ‘education equality gap’ during COVID  —  Faulconer launched his bid earlier this month to replace Newsom, who is likely facing a recall election.  —  Governors like Cuomo, Newsom operated like they were ‘untouchable’ during pandemic: Lahren

More Americans now say academic concerns should be a top factor in deciding to reopen K-12 schools  —  Amid new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on how to safely reopen K-12 schools for in-person instruction, Americans are increasingly concerned about the effect of virtual learning on academic progress.

Police Want Larry Krasner Gone, So They're Backing His Opponent … As Larry Krasner, Philadelphia's reformist district attorney, faces his first reelection challenge, the city's law enforcement groups have coalesced around a former homicide prosecutor whom Krasner fired when he entered office in 2018.

General Officer Assignments  —  The chief of staff of the Army announces the following officer assignments:  —  Maj. Gen. Peter B. Andrysiak Jr., commanding general, U.S. Army Alaska; and deputy commander, U.S. Alaskan Command, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, to deputy commanding general, U.S. Army Europe-Africa, Germany.