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.

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.

‘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.

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 …

Bill changing Georgia voting rules passes state House  —  Proposals target absentee and runoff voting after 2020 elections  —  The Georgia House passed an overhaul of election laws Thursday after last year's close presidential election, including new absentee voter ID requirements …

Biden Denies Any Role in Causing Migrant Surge: Not 'Because I'm a Nice Guy'  —  President Joe Biden denied that his policies or his rhetoric about immigration is the cause of a surge of migrants at the southern border, instead attributing it to an annual increase of people making the trek to the United States during the winter months.

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.

Schumer tees up Senate votes on hate crimes, gun control, voting rights  —  The Senate will take up legislation as soon as next month on hate crimes against Asian Americans, as well as background checks for gun buyers and a massive voting rights package, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday.

The New Republic names a new top editor and will return to Washington.  —  The New Republic named a new editor on Thursday and announced that it was moving back to Washington, its home city for most of its 107-year existence.  —  Michael Tomasky, who has edited the policy journal Democracy …

Biden doubles vaccine goal for first 100 days  —  President Joe Biden said Thursday that his administration is aiming to distribute 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines in its first 100 days, doubling the original goal after easily surpassing it last week.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 ... ”

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 …

Andrew Cuomo's family members were given special access to covid testing, according to people familiar with the arrangement  —  As the coronavirus pandemic swept through New York early last year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration arranged for his family members and other well-connected figures …

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 …

Oil Lobby Backs Climate Action Plan  —  ‘Climate change is real,’ American Petroleum Institute head Mike Sommers says  —  WASHINGTON—The oil industry's top lobbying group will push Congress for legislation to price carbon emissions across the economy, in a sharp policy turnabout a decade …

How the Supreme Court Could Supercharge the GOP's Voter Suppression Agenda  —  Sometime later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court will hand down its decision in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee, a case that Republicans very much hope will grind what little remains of your right to vote into a fine, democracy-tinged dust.

Pro-Trump group accused of illicitly shielding donors  —  A legal complaint against a prominent pro-Trump group will test new standards for so-called dark money groups that have the potential to reshape the nation's campaign finance landscape.  —  Why it matters: The groups …

Thom Tillis would have lost Senate reelection bid if not for Cunningham extramarital affair: Pollster  —  GOP Sen. Thom Tillis would have lost his 2020 reelection bid in North Carolina if it weren't for revelations of an extramarital affair by his highly touted Democratic opponent, the senator's pollster said.

Powell's Pathetic Dominion Defamation Defense  —  Here's why her case—that no reasonable person would take seriously her “wild” and “outlandish” claims about election fraud—falls apart.  —  On Monday, the lawyers for one of Donald Trump's former election lawyers, Sidney Powell …

The Death Of Polling Is Greatly Exaggerated  —  Polls probably aren't at the top of your mind right now.  We're more than four months removed from the 2020 election, and we still have almost 20 months to go until the midterms.  —  That's why it's the perfect time to launch the latest update …

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 …

Ninth Circuit Rules 2A Doesn't Protect Right To Bear Arms  —  On Wednesday afternoon, an en banc panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals handed down a decision that's sure to get the attention of the Supreme Court, declaring that the state of Hawaii's requirement that residents hoping …

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 …

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.

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.