How the White House botched the Neera Tanden nomination  —  Just about everyone in Washington, D.C., could see that Neera Tanden's nomination to head the Office of Management and Budget was beleaguered from the beginning — everyone, that is, except the White House.

FDA review confirms safety and efficacy of single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, especially against severe cases  —  A Food and Drug Administration review released Wednesday of the single-shot coronavirus vaccine made by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson found it was safe …

Romney predicts Trump would win the 2024 G.O.P. nomination if he ran for president.  —  Senator Mitt Romney of Utah said on Tuesday that he believed Donald J. Trump would win the Republican nomination for president if he ran for his former office in 2024, another indication of Mr. Trump's perceived strength in the party.

Scoop: Biden will call Saudi king ahead of damning report  —  President Biden plans to call Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Wednesday, ahead of the public release of a potentially damning intelligence report about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a source briefed on the call told Axios.

NY Prosecutors Are Looking at Don Jr. in Trump Biz Probe  —  The Daily Beast has learned that investigators have been asking questions in recent days about Trump's eldest son as they expand their criminal probe into Trump's business empire. … For months, some of Donald Trump's top advisers …

Retired NYPD cop charged in Capitol riot, accused of attacking officer with flagpole  —  A retired New York police officer faces charges for participating in the U.S. Capitol riot last month, accused of having attacked a Capitol Police officer.  —  Federal prosecutors alleged Tuesday in court that the man …

What we know — and still don't — as Congress starts its Jan. 6 investigation  —  Congress is taking its first steps toward a potentially massive investigation into the failures that contributed to the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6.  But its initial foray only underscored how little lawmakers …

A Simple Rule of Thumb for Knowing When the Pandemic Is Over  —  Editor's Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers.  Find the collection here.  —  In the middle of January, the deadliest month of the pandemic, one day after inauguration …

State GOP leaders opt for drive-up convention at Liberty University to nominate candidates  —  After months of disagreement, the Virginia Republican Party's governing body agreed Tuesday night on a method to nominate statewide candidates for the November election.

One America News clashes again with White House correspondents over Trump-approved camera tent  —  One America News, the upstart right-wing cable channel that was granted special status by the Trump White House, is clashing again with its mainstream colleagues on the presidential beat.

Life amid the ruins of QAnon: ‘I wanted my family back’  —  An epidemic of conspiracy theories, fanned by social media and self-serving politicians, is tearing families apart. … She bought ammunition, camping gear, a water purifier and boxes of canned food.

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.

Arizona Man Is Accused of Faking Own Kidnapping to Evade Work  —  When the police arrived, they found the man with his hands bound behind his back by a belt and a bandanna “stuffed in his mouth” in Coolidge, Ariz.  —  The authorities in Arizona accused a man of going to extreme lengths …

Trump's politics hurt his businesses.  Will he sell as he looks to a potential 2024 campaign?  —  Donald Trump's new office is the Mar-a-Lago Club's old bridal suite.  There — exiled from Washington, avoiding New York, working from a repurposed dressing room in Florida — the former president faces a choice.

Major Trump backer Rebekah Mercer orchestrates Parler's second act  —  Mercer, whose family also invested in right-wing news site Breitbart, controls two of the three board seats at the company  —  When social media website Parler's founding CEO John Matze was pushed out last month …

Biden's Stimulus Bill Is a $1.9 Trillion Clunker  —  Senate Republicans are eager to get aid where it's needed, reopen schools and encourage work.  —  Democrats are anxious for any excuse to blow up the Senate filibuster, the last procedural hurdle to one-party government.

Atlas, Ferguson, and Hanson: On Free Speech at Stanford  —  What is the purpose of academic freedom?  —  Is it to allow all kinds of ideas to be expressed and explored, protecting even speech that people in the past considered heretical—protecting free expression that some people today would like to “cancel”?

First on CNN: Biden's Covid plan gets backing from more than 150 top business leaders  —  What Biden said he would do for the Covid-19 economy  —  (CNN)More than 150 senior executives from some of the largest American companies across several major industries have lined …

POLITICO Playbook: 9/11 Commission leaders issue a warning to Pelosi  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  When Republican TOM KEAN became head of the 9/11 Commission, he got a call from TIM RUSSERT asking him to come on “Meet the Press.”  Kean said he'd only appear if his Democratic counterpart on the commission, LEE HAMILTON, were invited too.

Gucci Is Staying in Trump Tower  —  Tiffany and other luxury companies have stepped away from deals with the former president's organization, but not Gucci.  —  The day President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were inaugurated in Washington, D.C., Melania and Donald Trump stepped off Air Force …

Texas disaster puts Beto O'Rourke back in business  —  While Ted Cruz was getting clobbered for fleeing Texas amid its historic winter storm, the Democrat he defeated in 2018, Beto O'Rourke, was already deep into disaster relief mode — soliciting donations for storm victims …

Buckley would weep at the CPAC circus coming to Orlando … If the political descendants of William F. Buckley Jr., Ronald Reagan and Antonin Scalia were coming to town, that would be exciting.  —  But that's not what CPAC is bringing to Orlando starting Thursday.

Pence speaks highly of Trump in meeting and plans to launch a political group  —  Did Pence feel betrayed after riot?  His former chief of staff responds  —  (CNN)Former Vice President Mike Pence told a group of conservative lawmakers on Tuesday that he maintains a close personal friendship …

A Bristling Standoff Rattles Gun-Friendly Vermont  —  In Pawlet, Vt., where a landowner opened a tactical weapons training site, a zoning dispute has escalated into something more dangerous.  —  PAWLET, Vt. — Fear has gradually spread in the town of Pawlet.

Inside the new $65 million push from progressives to compete with conservative media  —  It's called the Project for Good Information, and it raises big questions about the future of the information wars.  —  A prominent Democratic strategist is planning a new $65 million effort …

The Government Censors Are Here  —  Congressional Democrats are demanding to know what communications giants such as Comcast and AT&T are going to do about “the spread of dangerous misinformation.”  How quickly this country is descending into an authoritarian regime where the government controls speech and the flow of information.

‘Bad politics for them’: GOP sneers at Dem Covid bill  —  Republicans are making a risky but calculated bet: that voters won't punish them for opposing a popular $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill.  —  With President Joe Biden and Democrats barely even seeking their input …

Coup in Myanmar: growing protest movement defies the military  —  In the shadow of US-China rivalry, the country is caught in a confrontation between the junta and a civil disobedience campaign  —  At a press conference last week, the first by Myanmar's junta since General Min Aung Hlaing grabbed power …

Federal judge indefinitely blocks Biden administration's 100-day moratorium on most deportations  —  Houston — A federal judge late Tuesday indefinitely banned President Joe Biden's administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations.  U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued …

Liz Cheney calls on Republicans to “make clear we aren't the party of white supremacy”  —  Liz Cheney, the third ranking House Republican, on Tuesday called on the Republican party to “make clear we aren't the party of white supremacy.”  Cheney's remarks came during an event hosted by the Reagan Institute.

Climbing the Bell Curve to the Cathedral  —  Notes on reactionary sea lions  —  Some folks aren't thrilled about my previous post, “Grey Lady Steel Man.”  It seemed to distress Curtis Yarvin (aka Mencius Moldbug) in particular.  He penned a defensive, typically catty ad hominem response in his inimitably hysterical prose style.