Justice Dept. Inquiry Into Matt Gaetz Said to Be Focused on Cash Paid to Women  —  The congressman and a former official in Florida sent money to the women using cash apps, receipts showed.  —  WASHINGTON — A Justice Department investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz …

Scoop: Biden doesn't plan to revive SALT deduction, possibly losing key moderates  —  President Biden is unlikely to propose reinstating state and local tax deductions in his second tax-and-spending package despite pressure from several fellow Democrats, according to people with direct knowledge of the planning.

Can Vaccinated People Spread the Virus?  We Don't Know, Scientists Say.  —  Researchers pushed back after the C.D.C. director asserted that vaccinated people “do not carry the virus.”  —  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday walked back controversial comments made by its director …

Panic Rooms, Birth Certificates and the Birth of GOP Paranoia  —  How America's center-right party started to lose its mind, as told by the man who tried to keep it sane. … In the 2010 midterm election, voters from all over the place gave President Obama what he himself called “a shellacking.”

Georgia election law prevents African American, Latinx, others from exercising the right to vote  —  the Republican Georgia governor signed SB202, which changes the state's election code to prevent a repeat of what occurred in November 2020 and January 2021, when the state voted Democratic …

Georgia Should Stand Up to Corporate Bullies  —  Corporations have the right to free speech.  They do not have the right to obedience to all of their demands.  It is high time that state-level Republicans remembered that.  —  A variety of factors have led to the capture of America's major corporations …

A Man Found 15,000 Bees in His Car After Grocery Shopping  —  An off-duty firefighter in Las Cruces, N.M., whose hobby is beekeeping, safely removed the swarm from the man's car in an Albertsons supermarket parking lot.  —  He had just finished grocery shopping, but a New Mexico man got …

Ossoff Breaks with Biden, Opposes Call to Move MLB All-Star Game from Georgia  —  President Biden said Wednesday in an ESPN interview that he would “strongly support” Major League Baseball's moving the All-Star Game out of Georgia to protest the state's new voting law, but Jon Ossoff …

Iran Nuclear Deal Participants to Meet in Vienna Next Week  —  President Biden has said he wants the U.S. to return to the deal that U.S. exited in 2018  —  Negotiations to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal will take place among all parties in Vienna next week, senior western diplomats said Friday …

Vaccine Passports and the Categorical Impermissibility of Inconveniencing Republicans  —  On the GOP's principled incoherence about freedom of association  —  Conservatives have been freaking out about the mere possibility of vaccine passports, government-issued documents certifying the bearer's Covid jabs.

Oath Keepers founder, associates exchanged 19 calls from start of Jan. 6 riot through breach, prosecutors allege  —  Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, his deputy and three members who guarded Roger Stone exchanged nearly 20 phone calls over three hours on Jan. 6, coinciding with the first assault …

Exclusive: Fresh data reveal how Trump made inroads with Latinos  —  A new analysis of U.S. voters suggests — counterintuitively — that the coronavirus pandemic may have helped drive former President Donald Trump's surprising increase in support from Latinos last November.

HHS isn't up to handling the border surge  —  Many mistakes and unfortunate circumstances have created the border crisis.  One of the mistakes, which Congress could fix easily, was the 2002 decision to give the Department of Health and Human Services authority over unaccompanied minors.

Dems pine to face Ron Johnson just one more time  —  Here's something you don't see every day: Democrats goading an incumbent Republican senator to run for reelection.  —  It's not only that Democrats see Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) as finally ripe for defeat after closely aligning himself …

There's a New Cheesecake Factory in DC, and the White House Press Corps Is Psyched  —  “TODAY'S THE FREAKING DAY,” tweeted one reporter on opening day.  —  When you think of Washington “power restaurants,” Cheesecake Factory probably doesn't come to mind.  But what is a power spot if not simply …

New York attorney general probes finances of key Trump aide  —  The New York attorney general has gathered personal financial records of the Trump Organization's longtime chief financial officer and his family, according to a witness who provided some documents — another sign of legal pressure …

American Airlines Statement on Texas Voting Legislation  —  Earlier this morning, the Texas State Senate passed legislation with provisions that limit voting access.  To make American's stance clear: We are strongly opposed to this bill and others like it.  As a Texas-based business …

Analysis reveals nearly 200 died in Texas cold storm and blackouts, almost double the official count  —  The deaths of nearly 200 people are linked to February's cold snap and blackouts, a Houston Chronicle analysis reveals, making the natural disaster one of the worst in Texas this past century.

Biden Seeks to Use Infrastructure Plan to Address Racial Inequities  —  The president's $2 trillion proposal allocates money to help communities of color, like a New Orleans neighborhood devastated by a highway project a half-century ago.  —  WASHINGTON — America's most celebrated infrastructure initiative …

Army probes missing rifle from National Guard unit deployed to the Capitol  —  The Army has dispatched its in-house criminal investigative arm to probe the potential theft of a rifle from the D.C. National Guard while the unit was training in Virginia three weeks ago, an Army spokesperson confirmed on Thursday.

Embattled Cuomo Pushes Skyline-Altering Penn Station Real Estate Plan as Critics Mobilize  —  Even amid multiple scandals, a weakened Gov. Andrew Cuomo is trying to railroad through a city-changing land deal that would reshape Manhattan's skyline.  And the project's detractors, until very recently, were few and relatively muted.

EXCLUSIVE: Suspect In Three Vancouver Masonic Lodge Fires Shared Antisemitic, QAnon-Related Content On Facebook  —  Social media posts highlight a deep belief in flat earth, QAnon related conspiracy theories, and claims that Freemasonry is a form of Judaism.  —  The Canadian Anti-Hate Network

Meet “Big Dan” Rodimer, the Jersey Guy Who Wants to Be a Texas Cowboy (and Congressman)  —  The path to power takes many twists and turns.  If Dan “Big Dan” Rodimer wins the May 1 special election in the Sixth Congressional District south of Dallas, his hero's journey will have led him through …

Thousands of South Florida Voters Changed Parties After Capitol Attack  —  Over 6,000 in Miami-Dade and Broward counties officially changed their political affiliations away from the Republican party.  Nearly 3,000 left the Democratic party.  —  Thousands of people in Miami-Dade …

Cooking oil or crude?  Italian restaurant owner was mistaken target of U.S. sanctions  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One of the final acts of the Trump administration was almost certainly one of the most confounding for Alessandro Bazzoni, a restaurant owner in Verona, Italy.

Sidney Powell Gets $100,000 Bill From Wisconsin: Governor Demands Legal Fees Over Election Lawsuit  —  Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers asked a federal court Wednesday to force far-right attorney Sidney Powell and her client and co-counsel to be sanctioned and pay more than $100,000 in legal fees …

Trump and his advisors are shrugging off DOJ's Capitol riot probe.  But they see danger in the Georgia and New York investigations.  — Trump and his advisors are dismissing the threat of legal exposure to him from the Capitol riot.  — More danger is seen in what they call the …