Manchin calls for ‘enormous’ infrastructure package paid for with new taxes  —  WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin said Wednesday that he favors a large infrastructure package that would be paid for in part by raising tax revenues — a point of contention between the two parties.

Sidney Powell's defense in defamation suit could put her in legal jeopardy  —  (CNN)Sidney Powell, President Donald Trump's former lawyer, filed an eye-popping brief this week that could potentially doom her chances of dismissing a $1.3 billion defamation suit and provide ammunition in a separate lawsuit seeking her disbarment.

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 …

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 …

Officer Brian Sicknick Died After the Capitol Riot.  New Videos Show How He Was Attacked. … New videos obtained by The New York Times show publicly for the first time how the U.S. Capitol Police officer who died after facing off with rioters on Jan. 6 was attacked with chemical spray.

Dollar Shave Club has laid off all of its staff at men's lifestyle site, MEL, and is looking for a rescue buyer  — Dollar Shave Club laid off MEL Magazine's editorial team on Wednesday.  — The site became a media industry darling despite being owned by a razor brand.

Rachel Levine, historic transgender nominee, confirmed as assistant health secretary  —  Levine is the first openly transgender official ever confirmed by the Senate  —  The Senate on Wednesday voted 52 to 48 to confirm Rachel Levine as the nation's assistant secretary for health …

Asian Grandmother Who Smacked Her Attacker With A Board Donates Nearly $1 Million  —  Xiao Zhen Xie, the 75-year-old woman who was punched by a white man in San Francisco - and then fought back by smacking him with a board - will not keep the nearly $1 million that has been donated for her medical expenses.

Biden's New Deal: Re-engineering America, quickly  —  President Biden recently held an undisclosed East Room session with historians that included discussion of how big is too big — and how fast is too fast — to jam through once-in-a-lifetime historic changes to America.

Trumpists Still Pushing Election Fraud Claims and Conspiracy Theories  —  Because I am a masochist, I subjected myself to a cavalcade of crazy yesterday.  I watched / listened to much of the seven hours of a nutso livestream from Regent University masquerading as an academic forum on “election integrity.”

BUSTED: 7 Republican lawmakers who will grill tech execs on election misinformation tweeted #StopTheSteal  —  On Wednesday, The Washington Post reported that seven Republicans who sit on the House Energy and Commerce Committee — a body that will tomorrow interrogate the leaders of Facebook …

Rob Bonta named California attorney general, would be first Filipino American in role  —  Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday appointed Democratic Assemblyman Rob Bonta as California attorney general, picking a leading advocate for criminal justice reform who has campaigned to abolish the death penalty …

Videos show ally of Marjorie Taylor Greene among mob inside Capitol during January 6 riot  —  These are the key moments from the US Capitol riot  —  (CNN)Footage from the January 6 riot at the US Capitol shows a close ally of Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene inside the building.

Democrats Say Agency Run By Trump Holdover Is Delaying Stimulus Checks  —  The IRS hasn't received the payment information it requested to send checks to Social Security recipients.  —  Millions of disabled and retired Americans are still waiting for their $1,400 stimulus payments …

The GOP's Long-Game Plan to Thwart Biden's Agenda Is Already in Action  —  Last week, Ohio's Attorney General filed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department challenging the landmark recovery legislation just passed by Congress, the American Rescue Plan (ARP).

Trump let OANN in the White House.  Now it's Biden's problem.  —  Welcome to POLITICO's 2021 Transition Playbook, your guide to the first 100 days of the Biden administration.  —  DONALD TRUMP is longer in the White House, but his favorite cable news network, One America News Network …

The Biden presidency — already transformative for the worse  —  President Biden is using his entire administration to impose “woke” precepts about race, class, and gender on a public that recognizes them as mostly pseudo-intellectual rubbish masking intolerance.

Bad News Bias  —  The U.S. media is offering a different picture of Covid-19 from science journals or the international media, a study finds.  —  Bruce Sacerdote, an economics professor at Dartmouth College, noticed something last year about the Covid-19 television coverage that he was watching on CNN and PBS.

42 Million Want to Migrate to U.S.  —  Here are questions every leader should be able to answer regardless of their politics: How many more people are coming to the southern border?  And what is the plan?  —  There are 33 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.  Roughly 450 million adults live in the region.

Terror in a Boulder supermarket: How the King Soopers shooting unfolded … BOULDER, Colo. — Dean Schiller was nearby shopping when he heard the shots.  So Schiller, who regularly live-streams crime scenes on YouTube, hustled over to the entrance of the King Soopers supermarket.

Human penises are shrinking because of pollution, warns scientist  —  Dr Shanna Swan has found that chemicals called phthalates are causing human babies to be born with malformed genitals.  —  Created with Sketch.  —  Penises are shrinking and genitals becoming malformed because of pollution …

Google offered a professor $60,000, but he turned it down.  Here's why  —  (CNN Business)When Luke Stark sought money from Google in November he had no idea he'd be turning down $60,000 from the tech giant in March.  —  Stark, an assistant professor at Western University in Ontario, Canada …

How Trump is exposing the ugly truth about the GOP plan to retake power  —  Opinion by  —  The Republican strategy for retaking power depends in no small part on undertaking maximum voter suppression and other anti-majoritarian efforts all over the country — while piously pretending …

Politico quoted Stephen Miller on immigration issues without noting his white nationalist background  —  Playbook offered a case study in access journalism  —  Politico's morning Playbook on Wednesday discussed “a tale of two immigration messages,” contrasting the Biden and Trump administrations' media accessibility at the border.

Men Looking for Work Drive Migrant Surge at the U.S. Border  —  Most of those apprehended are men in search of jobs, with the pandemic easing in the U.S. and fewer opportunities at home  —  The surge in illegal immigration across the southern U.S. border is shaping up to be the biggest in 20 years.

Part 1: THE FACTORY  —  Hundreds of workers at a Tampa lead smelter have been exposed to dangerous levels of the neurotoxin.  The consequences have been profound.  —  Plumes of dust, laced with lead, blow across the factory like a sandstorm.  The poison hangs so thick in the air …

Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed By Mysterious ‘Drones’ Off California Over Numerous Nights  —  In July of 2019, a truly bizarre series of events unfolded around California's Channel Islands.  Over a number of days, groups of unidentified aircraft, which the U.S. Navy simply refers to as ‘drones’ or 'UAVs …

Biden Administration Splits with Progressive Groups, Sides with Cops in Supreme Court Case  —  The Biden administration backed law enforcement in a policing powers case before the Supreme Court on Wednesday, placing it at odds with the American Civil Liberties Union and other progressive groups.

Biden's EPA to review manipulation of science under Trump  —  WASHINGTON — Pledging to put science above politics, the Biden administration will look back through four years of environmental policies and decisions made by the Trump administration to see where scientific data may have been manipulated or intentionally suppressed.