Inside the Koch-Backed Effort to Block the Largest Election-Reform Bill in Half a Century  —  On a leaked conference call, leaders of dark-money groups and an aide to Mitch McConnell expressed frustration with the popularity of the legislation—even among Republican voters.

Ghislaine Maxwell Charged With Sex Trafficking of 14-Year-Old Girl  —  A new indictment accuses Ms. Maxwell of paying a victim of her longtime associate Jeffrey Epstein.  —  Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associate of Jeffrey Epstein, was charged on Monday for the first time with sex-trafficking …

The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are very effective in real-world conditions at preventing infections, the C.D.C. reported.  —  The coronavirus vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are proving highly effective at preventing symptomatic and asymptomatic infections under real-world conditions …

A partisan chasm in views of Trump's legacy  —  Two months after President Donald Trump left office, 38% of Americans say he made progress toward solving major problems facing the country during his administration - while a nearly identical share (37%) say he made these problems worse.

CDC Chief Warns of ‘Impending Doom’ as Covid Cases, Deaths Rise  — Walensky says she's scared by uptick that hints at fourth wave  — U.S. doesn't have ‘luxury of inaction’ amid spike, she says  —  The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention pleaded with Americans …

White House dramatically increased tax proposal as it sought to address tensions over next big spending plan  —  Biden aides see next major legislative effort as comparable to LBJ's Great Society but face divisions among key allies  —  When President Biden's team began putting together …

Florida Republicans considering new election bill that would effectively ban giving voters water  —  Florida Republicans are considering a bill that would effectively make it a crime to give voters food or drink, including water, within 150 feet of polling places.

Capitol riot suspect wore ‘I Was There’ shirt when arrested  —  Garret Miller didn't speak to the law enforcement officers who arrested him on charges he stormed the U.S. Capitol in January, but the T-shirt he was wearing at his Dallas home that day sent a clear and possibly incriminating message.

Feuds, fibs and finger-pointing: Trump officials say coronavirus response was worse than known  —  'That's what bothers me every day': Birx and others admit failures that hampered the White House response  —  Several top doctors in the Trump administration offered their most pointed …

U.S. Church Membership Falls Below Majority for First Time  —  WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans' membership in houses of worship continued to decline last year, dropping below 50% for the first time in Gallup's eight-decade trend.  In 2020, 47% of Americans said they belonged to a church …

The Biden administration makes a swath of ocean between New York and New Jersey an offshore wind zone.  —  The Biden administration on Monday announced it will designate an area between the South Shore of Long Island and the New Jersey coast as a priority offshore wind zone …

POLITICO Playbook: Chuck Schumer's 51-vote gambit  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  BREAKING OVERNIGHT — EVER GONE? ...  “Aided by Moon and Tide, Giant Ship Is Partially Refloated,” NYT  —  SPOTTED: MIKE and KAREN PENCE car shopping at Ourisman Honda in Tysons Corner.

Supreme Court rebuffs bid for Hillary Clinton deposition about emails  —  The Supreme Court on Monday denied a bid by a right-wing government watchdog group to require former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton to face a deposition over her use of personal email while she served as secretary of State.

Judge tosses terrorism threat charge against 3 accused in alleged Whitmer plot  —  Three men accused in an alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will not face false report or threat of terrorism charges, a Jackson County judge ruled Monday.  —  Judge Michael Klaeren of 12th District Court …

Biden task force to probe science manipulation under Trump  —  WASHINGTON — A new White House task force will examine instances where the Trump administration may have distorted or suppressed science in critical government decisions, with an eye toward creating fail-safes to prevent it from happening again, the White House said Monday.

The Dumbest Tweet I Have Ever Seen  —  Not Really, but C'mon  —  I usually defend a high degree of license verging on irresponsibility when it comes to Tweets—I think its fine for them to be half-baked, ironical, whimsical, the first drafts of ideas, or one's most cranky and maybe not most-well-informed opinions.

Remote Work Is Here to Stay.  Manhattan May Never Be the Same.  —  New York City, long buoyed by the flow of commuters into its towering office buildings, faces a cataclysmic challenge, even when the pandemic ends.  —  Spotify's headquarters in the United States fills 16 floors of 4 World Trade Center …

Dear Joe Scarborough: Nice Smear.  Now Invite Me To Debate Your Network's Russiagate Coverage  —  “Morning Joe” says those who reported on Russia errors are a “joke” and might be “on Russia's payroll.”  MSNBC should break its four-year freeze-out and invite a skeptic to respond  —  2 hr ago

The Republican Attack on Voting Rights  —  The father of the Constitution wasn't having it.  —  On August 7, 1787, toward the end of what would become known as the Constitutional Convention, the delegates debated what powers state legislatures and the Congress would have when it came to federal election administration.

Massive container ship freed from Suez Canal  —  Rescuers fully dislodged the “Ever Given” from the banks of the Suez Canal on Monday, sending the skyscraper-sized container ship on its way after six days of drama that paralyzed the vital shipping route, according to canal authorities.

New York Must Offer Vaccine to All Prisoners Immediately, Judge Rules  —  A judge in the Bronx ruled that people incarcerated in the state's prisons and jails had been arbitrarily excluded from the coronavirus vaccine rollout.  —  New York must immediately begin to offer Covid vaccines …

AP sources: SolarWinds hack got emails of top DHS officials  —  Suspected Russian hackers gained access to email accounts belonging to the Trump administration's head of the Department of Homeland Security and members of the department's cybersecurity staff whose jobs included hunting threats …

Journalists Attack the Powerless, Then Self-Victimize to Bar Criticisms of Themselves  —  Powerful media figures now invoke sexist and racist tropes to cast themselves as so fragile and marginalized that critiques of their work constitute bullying and assault.

Document: Amazon Security Staff Reported Its Own Hostile Tweets as “Suspicious,” Fearing They'd Been Hacked … After Amazon's public relations account sent a number of tweets taunting public officials, staffers were so concerned about the “unnecessarily antagonistic” tone that a security engineer filed …