Texas to end all coronavirus restrictions  —  Texas will end its coronavirus restrictions next week with an upcoming executive order, Gov. Greg Abbot (R) announced Tuesday during a press conference in Lubbock.  —  Why it matters: After Abbott signs the new order, which rescinds previous orders …

Biden to announce ‘historic partnership’: Merck will help make Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, officials say  —  The administration brokered the arrangement amid concerns about Johnson & Johnson's production delays  —  President Biden will announce Tuesday that pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co …

6 Dr. Seuss books won't be published anymore because they portray people in ‘hurtful and wrong’ ways  —  (CNN)Six Dr. Seuss books will no longer be published because they “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong,” the business that preserves the author's legacy said.  —  The titles are:

Fox News Insiders Rage Against Hiring ‘Mini Goebbels’ Kayleigh McEnany  —  The network announced Tuesday that McEnany, a career liar, is now a paid contributor.  Newsroom staffers, who've faced “purges” in recent months, are none too pleased.  —  Fox News officially announced on Tuesday …

Cuomo Is Facing a Political Extinction Event  —  Governor Andrew Cuomo sounded defeated, senior officials who had spoken with him said.  It seemed to be getting to him that the usual strategic plays were suddenly no longer working.  “Like an old man who just didn't have the fight in him anymore,” said one.

Alex Jones on Leaked Video: ‘I Wish I Never Met Trump’  —  Before multimillionaire conspiracy theorist Alex Jones riled up Donald Trump's fans with lies about a stolen election, he privately expressed revulsion over the 45th president, a video leaked to Hatewatch reveals.  —  “It's the truth and I'm just going to say it.

Raimondo wins US Senate confirmation; will soon resign as governor  —  PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Gov. Gina Raimondo on Tuesday secured U.S. Senate confirmation as the nation's next commerce secretary, becoming the first Rhode Island politician elevated to the president's cabinet in more than 70 years.

Murkowski weighs Tanden's fate with Alaska on her mind  —  Neera Tanden's been in Senate purgatory for a week now as she and the Biden administration fight to convince Sen. Lisa Murkowski to back her bid to be White House budget chief.  And Murkowski isn't making any sudden moves.

Liberals on fire over failure on $15 minimum wage  —  Liberal senators and outside pressure groups are steaming over the Senate's seeming failure to move a COVID-19 relief package with a provision hiking the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.  —  An adverse decision from the Senate …

Republicans Are Taking a Sledgehammer to Voting Rights  —  Trump's voter fraud lies are fueling efforts across the country to dramatically restrict access to the ballot.  The GOP's opposition to voting rights, says Democratic attorney Marc Elias, has become “the central tenet of their party.”

A Capitol rioter said he posed as ‘Antifa,’ feds say, then boasted he beat police who ‘got exactly what they deserved’  —  The day before a pro-Trump mob stormed the U.S. Capitol, William Robert Norwood III texted a group of friends and family to boast that he had traveled to D.C. with a plan to fool the police.

Why Republicans Don't Fear An Electoral Backlash For Opposing Really Popular Parts Of Biden's Agenda  —  Republicans in the U.S. House last week unanimously opposed President Biden's economic stimulus bill, even though polls show that the legislation is popular with the public.

New book: Cuomo angered Biden team with convention address  —  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) angered now-President Biden's campaign in 2020 over his speech at the Democratic National Convention, which aides considered to be self-aggrandizing.  —  According to the new book “Lucky …

Biden's Future Has Two Parts  —  There are going to be two different Biden administrations.  —  1 hr ago  —  1. AC: After COVID  —  More than any president since Truman, Joe Biden's administration is going to have a clear delineation between two distinct periods: COVID and After COVID.

Scoop: Biden briefing calls for 20,000 child migrant beds  —  A briefing scheduled for President Biden this afternoon outlines the need for 20,000 beds to shelter an expected crush of child migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, Axios has learned.  —  Why it matters: The rapid influx …

The Trump administration quietly spent billions in hospital funds on Operation Warp Speed  —  WASHINGTON — The Trump administration quietly took around $10 billion from a fund meant to help hospitals and health care providers affected by Covid-19 and used the money to bankroll Operation Warp Speed contracts …

US Officials Say Haitian Immigrants May Face Danger In Their Own Country.  They're Deporting Them Anyway.  —  Department of Homeland Security officials acknowledged internally that deported Haitian immigrants “may face harm” upon returning to Haiti due to violent crime and the political instability …

Biden's next big move could deliver a crippling blow to Trumpism  —  In a revealing moment at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida — a Republican who is a leading inheritor of the mantle of Trumpism — unintentionally displayed one of that inchoate ideology's most serious weaknesses.