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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

The State Assault on Voting Rights Hurts All of Us  —  Republicans are cynically supporting anti-voting measures that will ultimately hurt both parties—and our country.  —  When John F. Kennedy squared off against Richard Nixon in the 1960 presidential election, 64 percent …

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 …

Biden administration launches major push to expand offshore wind power  —  Initiative by Commerce, Energy, Interior and Transportation departments aims to tackle climate change while boosting union jobs  —  The White House announced on Monday an ambitious plan to expand wind farms along …

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.

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.

America's Immigration Amnesia  —  In the early 2000s, Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas were accustomed to encountering a few hundred children attempting to cross the American border alone each month.  Some hoped to sneak into the country unnoticed …

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 …

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.

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.

Scoop: Moderate Democrats buck Biden tax hikes  —  President Biden's plan to pay for his coming infrastructure package with big tax hikes already is meeting some resistance from moderate Democrats, a stumbling block for his progressive ambitions.  —  Why it matters: If this discomfort turns …

Millennials, forged by recession and ridicule, are ascendant in Washington  —  WASHINGTON — When the Senate's first millennial, Jon Ossoff, heads to a vote, he skips the golden, senators-only elevator and takes the back stairs, two at a time — maybe because he's a young man in a hurry or maybe because he needs the steps.

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 …

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 …

Inside America's Most Interesting Magazine, and Media's Oddest Workplace  —  The publication of the “Harper's letter” attracted huge attention.  Most people had stopped reading the magazine, which is stranger and better than you might expect.  —  Last August, when the pandemic seemed endless …

Did Something Happen In Boulder?  —  I'm not as old as Grandpa Badfinger, nor as manifestly senile, but I still have only the vaguest notion that something bad happened last week in Colorado, and I can't quite put my trigger finger on exactly what it was.  It's just a hazy recollection …

The Biden administration will investigate Trump-era attacks on science.  —  The Biden administration will investigate Trump-era political interference in science across the government, the first step in what White House officials described as a sweeping effort to rebuild a demoralized federal work force and prevent future abuses.

U.S. tries to break Iran nuclear deadlock with a new proposal for Tehran  —  If President Joe Biden is serious about rejoining the Iran nuclear deal, then the next few weeks could prove make-or-break as the politics in both Washington and Tehran appear poised to intensify.