Trump aide concealed work for PR firm and misled court to dodge child support  —  Jason Miller signed secret deal to stay with DC-based Teneo after ‘resigning’ and then appeared to misrepresent employment status  —  A top aide to Donald Trump was secretly re-engaged by a leading political strategy firm …

Texas AG Ken Paxton refuses to release texts, emails sent during pro-Trump rally and Capitol riot  —  The Texas attorney general's office is attempting to withhold all messages Ken Paxton sent or received while in Washington for the pro-Donald Trump rally that devolved into a riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Top health officials told to prioritize COVID testing for Cuomo's relatives  —  High-level associates also benefited from program in early days of pandemic  —  ALBANY — High-level members of the state Department of Health were directed last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Health Commissioner …

McConnell's No. 2 weighs future as Trump reshapes Senate GOP  —  John Thune could eventually succeed Mitch McConnell as Senate GOP leader.  But first the second-ranked Senate Republican has to decide whether to run for reelection — with Donald Trump prepared to stand in his way.

Sources: Secret Service inserted itself into case of Hunter Biden's gun  —  On Oct. 23, 2018, President Joe Biden's son Hunter and daughter in law Hallie were involved in a bizarre incident in which Hallie took Hunter's gun and threw it in a trash can behind a grocery store, only to return later to find it gone.

Heritage Foundation turned down six-figure tech donations  —  Flagship conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation turned down a pair of six-figure contributions last year from tech giants Google and Facebook, Axios has learned.  —  Why it matters: CEOs for both companies will be on the Hill …

Jobless claims fall to lowest level of the pandemic  —  Americans filed about 684,000 jobless claims, according to the Department of Labor  —  New jobless claims fell to the lowest levels of the pandemic era, federal data shows, with 684,000 being filed last week.

Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack says only 0.1 percent of Trump administration's covid farm relief went to Black farmers  —  A Q&A with the new secretary of agriculture about how the American Rescue Plan's USDA portion will be spent  —  A tiny fraction of the Trump administration's coronavirus relief …

The mess at Medium … I.  —  Last week, a partnerships manager at Medium working with the White House found that there was a strange problem with the platform: President Joe Biden was being served porn.  —  The manager was in a video conference with a White House staffer to discuss how Biden …

Scoop: Inside Biden's private chat with historians  —  Hosting historians around a long table in the East Room earlier this month, President Biden took notes in a black book as they discussed some of his most admired predecessors.  Then he said to Doris Kearns Goodwin: “I'm no FDR, but ... ”

The gun implicated in Boulder uses the same ammunition as an AR-15.  It's legally a pistol.  —  In a promotional video for the Ruger AR-556, a company product manager gushed that the weapon, legally designated as a pistol but closer to an AR-15 rifle in design, offered much more than a typical handgun.

U.S. COVID response could have avoided hundreds of thousand of deaths - research  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States squandered both money and lives in its response to the coronavirus pandemic, and it could have avoided nearly 400,000 deaths with a more effective health strategy …

Herd Immunity Is Near, Despite Fauci's Denial  —  His estimate that it'll take a 70% to 85% vaccination rate ignores those who have already been infected.  —  Anthony Fauci has been saying that the country needs to vaccinate 70% to 85% of the population to reach herd immunity from Covid-19.

Amid gun control debate, federal court rules states may restrict open carry of weapons  —  As the nation debates gun control following two mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia, a California-based federal appeals court decided Wednesday that states may restrict the open carrying of guns without running afoul of the 2nd Amendment.

New York Reaches a Deal to Legalize Recreational Marijuana  —  The move paves the way for a potential $4.2 billion industry, with millions of dollars in sales tax revenue reinvested in minority communities each year.  —  New York State officials finalized a deal on Thursday …

Maddow Shreds Cornyn Blocking Top DOJ Nominee With Reminder of Their Connection to Case of a ‘Cartoonishly Evil’ TX Cop  —  MSNBC host Rachel Maddow offered a long and scathing indictment of Sen. John Cornyn (R) for leading the charge to block the nomination of Vanita Gupta as Associate Attorney General …

Teen girls, 13 and 15, charged in deadly botched carjacking, taser attack near Nats Park  —  Two teenagers charged in deadly armed carjacking  —  WASHINGTON (FOX 5 DC) - Authorities say they have arrested and charged two teen girls in a deadly attempted carjacking and taser attack …

Exclusive: NRSC drops $1M ad buy targeting Democrats' voting rights bill  —  Senate Republicans' main campaign arm will unveil a seven-figure ad campaign in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and New Hampshire targeting Democrats' effort to expand voting, Axios has learned.

Welcome to Trashberg  —  Shrek nudes without access, favor, or discretion.  —  2 hr ago  —  Last August, Substack approached me about writing a newsletter under the terms of what they're now calling Substack Pro.  I declined at the time, mostly because I was burned out and on the verge …

Fox News Isn't Even Trying to Hide That It Purged These Staffers  —  In January, Fox claimed a set of layoffs was mere “restructuring.”  But now fired staffers notice their old jobs being advertised, “blatant” proof of an “ideological purge.”  —  BEAST INSIDE

The GOP Is the Party of No Hope—and Endless Mass Murders  —  Now out of power, congressional Republicans have transformed themselves into the Helpless Caucus: Yes, there are problems, but no, we can't do anything about them! … After four years of Trumpism, we've learned that Trumpism …

Advocates want NIH to use its Moderna vaccine patent to push for global access  —  The agency has leverage it could use to require Moderna to make its mRNA coronavirus vaccine more widely available, groups contend  —  When Moderna sprinted to create a coronavirus vaccine last year …

Facebook Testing App for Prisoners Re-Entering Society  —  Facebook Inc. is building a service for people who are transitioning from prison back into society, part of an apparent effort within the company to create more products for marginalized communities.

‘They are, in effect, supporting racism’: Black leaders zero in on Dems' filibuster holdouts  —  Black civil rights leaders, voting rights advocates and elected officials are ramping up their lobbying of Senate Democrats to nix the filibuster, arguing that they can keep the rule in place or pass voting rights legislation, but not both.

Blue-State Voter ‘Suppression’  —  Where's the outcry over Democrats' earlier poll-closing hours and ID rules?  —  Moves by Republican legislators to reform state election laws are drawing incendiary accusations from Democrats.  Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams denounced them as “Jim Crow in a suit and tie.”

Jay Leno Apologizes for Decades of Jokes About Asians: ‘In My Heart I Knew It Was Wrong’ … Late-night host and comedian Jay Leno has issued an apology for a series of jokes told over his career targeting Asian communities.  —  The apology comes after a nearly 15-year campaign …

Pro-Trump Senate candidates create early 2022 headaches for Republican leaders amid battle over party's future  —  One candidate resigned the Missouri governorship in disgrace, facing criminal charges and allegations that an extramarital affair had turned violent.

Biden is using FDR as his role model.  He's made the no-drama Obama era look wild.  —  Biden's low-key presidency shifts into higher gear with his first news conference.  If he's lucky, it will be dull despite the many crises he's facing.  —  Presidents get to decorate the Oval Office any way they want, and it's usually telling.

Aides Warned Trump About Anti-Vax MAGA Fans.  He Did Nothing.  —  “I have practically begged him to get out there constantly and make videos calling on his supporters who are hesitant to get their shots,” one person close to Trump said.  —  In the final months of Donald Trump's term in office …

White House hires Andrew Bates as deputy press secretary  —  The White House is beefing up its press staff by adding campaign veteran Andrew Bates as a deputy press secretary.  He's scheduled to start Monday.  —  Bates spent the past few months handling media relations …

E.P.A. to Review Attacks on Science Under Trump  —  The agency said it would carry out an accounting of political interference in science, an usually public act that Biden administration officials said was needed to restore trust in the agency's decisions.  —  WASHINGTON — The Biden administration …

Duped by Duffel Blog, a congressman claims that the VFW and American Legion were labeled hate groups  —  Duffel Blog has fooled yet another member of Congress.  —  Most recently, the military-centric satirical website was inadvertently cited during a Wednesday hearing about extremism in the military …

A Cargo Ship Drew a Giant Dick Pic in the Ocean Then Got Stuck in the Suez Canal  —  Just before blocking one of the world's busiest waterways where 10 percent of world trade flows, the unfortunate Ever Given sailed an even more unfortunate course.  —  MC  —  The Suez Canal has been blocked …