AP-NORC poll: Biden approval buoyed by his pandemic response  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is plunging into the next phase of his administration with the steady approval of a majority of Americans, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Stop saying Republicans are ‘cowards’ who fear Trump.  The truth is far worse.  —  Opinion by  —  Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, deserves great credit for demanding that his party fully repudiate Donald Trump's big lie about the 2020 election and acknowledge its role in inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Rockets Fired at Jerusalem and Israel Responds With Airstrikes After Clashes at Aqsa Mosque  —  Gaza officials report nine people killed.  Hundreds were injured in Jerusalem when the Israeli police fought with Palestinian protesters in an escalation of violence after a week of increasing tensions.

Biden administration revives anti-bias protections in health care for transgender people  —  The Biden administration said Monday it would provide protections against discrimination in health care based on gender identity and sexual orientation, reversing a policy of its predecessors …

'It's not phony': Biden hungry for a jobs deal with Republicans  —  The Biden White House this week will make its most concerted push yet to find a middle ground with Republicans on the president's massive infrastructure proposal.  —  And as it does, the president's position on a potential compromise …

The making of a myth  —  Russell J. Ramsland Jr. sold everything from Tex-Mex food to light-therapy technology.  Then he sold the story that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.  —  Ramsland  —  “We observed an error rate of 68.05%.  This demonstrated a significant and fatal error in security and election integrity.”

Tribalism has come to the West  —  About a decade ago, when I worked for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), I had to force myself to go to lunch with a friend.  I dreaded the meeting because I knew that she was going to try to convince me to leave my job.

Russian criminal suspected in Colonial pipeline ransomware attack  —  WASHINGTON — A Russian criminal group may be responsible for a ransomware attack that shut down a major U.S. fuel pipeline, two sources familiar with the matter said Sunday.  —  The group, known as DarkSide …

Teen Vogue has a new top editor.  —  The last person hired as the top editor of Teen Vogue resigned before her start date.  Now, the wide-ranging Condé Nast online publication is trying again, with the announcement on Monday that Versha Sharma, a managing editor at the news website NowThis, will be its next editor in chief.

The Big Lie Is That Cheney Is Still A Republican  —  Good riddance to Liz Cheney - Yo Lizzy, don't go away mad, just go away rejected and humiliated back to the smoldering ruins of your failed dynasty.  Her ejection is the minimum act of political hygiene necessary to demonstrate to the base …

Chuck Grassley is the 80-something everyone's waiting on  —  OSSIAN, Iowa — Chuck Grassley still gets up at 4 a.m. every day and often goes for a 2-mile run.  The 87-year-old does push-ups, too.  —  “You want me to do 35 for you?” he responded when asked about his regimen as he waited …

A Conversation with U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell  —  Renee Shaw talks with Sen. Mitch McConnell, Kentucky's Republican senior senator and minority leader in the U.S. Senate, about vaccine hesitancy, President Biden's proposed jobs and infrastructure plans, police reform, the teaching of systemic racism and more.

‘We May Not Have a Full Two Years’: Democrats' Plans Hinge on Good Health  —  In a narrowly divided Congress, an illness or a death could upend the balance of power and threaten an ambitious agenda.  —  On March 21, 1950, an Illinois congressman named Ralph Church suddenly slumped in his seat while testifying before a House committee.

When Covid Hit, China Was Ready to Tell Its Version of the Story  —  The government has been using its money and power to create an alternative to a global news media dominated by outlets like the BBC and CNN.  —  In the fall of 2019, just before global borders closed …

The Virginia GOP's Ridiculous Convention by Car  —  Ballots, Buicks, and a ballroom break-in?  —  Well, it's over.  The Virginia Republican Party has completed its Rube Goldberg exercise to select its slate of candidates to challenge the state's increasingly dominant Democrats.

Biden must not ‘underestimate’ Trump's chances of winning in 2024, says White House chief of staff Ron Klain  — Biden's chief of staff Ron Klain said Donald Trump could prove a formidable opponent if he chooses to run for president in 2024.  — “I wouldn't want to estimate …

Kemp signs bill giving big-money donors more impact on key races  —  Without any public notification from his office, Gov. Brian Kemp last week quietly gave his approval to a new law allowing state leaders to set up committees that could raise money during General Assembly sessions while lobbyists are trying to get legislation passed.

School daze: Why Democrats are vulnerable on education  —  Between the slow pace of school reopenings and divisive curricular changes taking place in Democratic jurisdictions, the party's progressive wing is courting a backlash.  —  “Culture wars” has become a shorthand term for a series …

Tema Okun's “White Supremacy Culture” work is bad  —  Prestigious universities and worthy nonprofits shouldn't push nonsense  —  Debating abstractions is difficult and frustrating, and the discourse about “wokeness” and “cancel culture” has become a snakepit of semantic debates, bad-faith actors …

Why Democrats stopped stressing over big spending  —  It took a recession, a pandemic, massive demographic change and an ideological re-sorting of the two parties, but the Democratic Party has finally exorcised the ghosts of Walter Mondale's landslide 1984 defeat.  —  The proof?

California Governor Proposes $100 Billion Recovery Package  — Plan to expand stimulus checks to total $11.9 billion  — Governor must present budget for next fiscal year Friday  —  California Governor Gavin Newsom plans a $100 billion economy recovery package …