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.

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 …

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.

Sen. Ted Cruz Piñatas Created at Dallas Party Store  —  First. it was former President Donald Trump, then U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders.  —  Now, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has his own piñata courtesy of a Dallas party store.  —  Last week, Cruz sparked widespread outrage for flying …

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.

Scoop: Senate committee postpones hearing for imperiled Tanden  —  The Senate Homeland Security Committee is postponing a confirmation hearing scheduled Wednesday for Neera Tanden, Axios has learned, a potential death knell for President Biden's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget.

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.

How to counter penis politics: What it's like to work for Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio  —  I've worked for and with powerful men in and around politics my whole life.  From Mississippi, where I grew up, to Washington and New York, I've been a woman in a field where power and ambition drive both sexes …

It wasn't an ‘intelligence failure’ that left the Capitol Police unprepared - it was racism  —  Steven Sund, the disgraced former chief of the Capitol Police Department, was explicitly warned in a Jan. 3 memo from his own intelligence unit that thousands of desperate, violence-prone Trump supporters …

Judge bans enforcement of Biden's 100-day deportation pause  —  A federal judge has indefinitely banned President Joe Biden's administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations  —  Rep. Linda Sanchez on new immigration reform bill presented by Democrats

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

McDonald's Secretive Intel Team Spies on ‘Fight for $15’ Workers, Internal Documents Show  —  McDonald's collects ‘strategic intelligence’ on workers advocating for a $15 minimum wage, including ‘how and where will FF$15 attack the brand.’  —  For years, McDonald's has internally labeled activists …

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 …

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.

MAGA's Moment of Weakness  —  Trump and his allies have been defeated, humiliated, and betrayed.  It's time to sweep the leg.  —  “We're going to win so much, you're going to be so sick and tired of winning, you're going to come to me and go 'Please, please, we can't win anymore.' You'll say 'Please …

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.

With Ashli Babbitt Killing Shrouded in Mystery, Capitol Officer Who Shot Her Is in Hiding for His Own Safety  —  All told, seven people died in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6.  But only Ashli Babbitt's death was directly caused by violence that day.

Tucker Carlson Says No White Supremacy at Riot—An Officer Says He Was Called Racial Slurs  —  Tucker Carlson has claimed that there is no evidence of white supremacy at the Capitol Riot on January 6—on the same day that a Capitol police officer said he was called racial slurs while defending the building during the insurrection.

Evangelical Leaders Condemn ‘Radicalized Christian Nationalism’  —  A coalition of evangelical Christian leaders is condemning the role of “radicalized Christian nationalism” in feeding the political extremism that led to the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by supporters of former President Trump.

New York Times Calls for Workplace Changes in Diversity Report  —  “The Times is a difficult environment for many of our colleagues,” the report found.  People of color described “unsettling and sometimes painful day-to-day workplace experiences.”  —  Top executives at The New York Times …

It violates free press rights to bring to trial a Des Moines Register reporter arrested while covering a protest  —  Editorial: The pending charges against a Register reporter who was arrested while covering a social justice protest last spring are a clear infringement on the freedom of the press.

Top Florida Democrat makes 2022 play as DeSantis' stock rises  —  TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis' profile is growing, and Nikki Fried has noticed.  —  As DeSantis quickly becomes the national conservative media's favorite governor and basks in recent polling that his approval rating is above 50 percent …

‘Keep the schools shut’: Teachers rage against the machine  —  ROCKVILLE, Maryland — “Enough is enough,” declared Jeremy Levine, a featured speaker at the teachers union rally.  “You will not sacrifice our lives, disrupt our communities, and endanger our students, for what?  Test scores?

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.