Meet Kevin McCarthy, political hollow man  —  Opinion by  —  I hereby nominate House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for the James Buchanan prize, awarded for monumental smallness in a time demanding leadership.  The 15th president, you might recall, was a politician who tried …

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update: FDA Authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for Emergency Use in Adolescents in Another Important Action in Fight Against Pandemic  —  For Immediate Release:  —  Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded the emergency use authorization (EUA) …

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.

Violence Shakes Israel, With Rocket Fire and Police Battling Palestinians  —  Gaza officials say nine people were killed.  The exchange followed clashes between the Israeli police and Palestinian protesters at Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem after a week of increasing tensions.

HHS Announces Prohibition on Sex Discrimination Includes Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity  —  HHS Office for Civil Rights to Enforce Prohibitions on Sex Discrimination in Line with Supreme Court Decision  —  Washington D.C. - Today …

Russian spy unit suspected of directed-energy attacks on U.S. personnel  —  U.S. officials suspect that a notorious Russian spy agency may be behind alleged attacks that are causing mysterious health issues among U.S. government personnel across the world, according to three current …

‘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.

Paris Teenager's New Gig: Would-Be Queen of Italy.  A Nation Shrugs.  —  The son of Italy's last king has tapped his teen granddaughter to eventually lead the House of Savoy, pretenders to Italy's defunct throne.  “Totally illegitimate,” says a rival clan.

Colorado Springs mass shooting leaves 7 dead, including suspect, at birthday party: police  — Olivia Prentzel, Erin Prater & Breeanna Jent The Gazette  —  A gunman killed six members of an extended family Sunday at a birthday party at a mobile home in Colorado Springs before turning the gun on himself …

J. Lo and Ben Affleck were spotted together in Montana, which is set to gain a new House seat in redistricting  — Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, engaged in the early 2000s, were spotted together in Montana.  — Montana is gaining a seat in Congress after the 2020 census due to its population growth.

U.S. military ship fires 30 warning shots after encounter with Iranian vessels  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A U.S. Coast Guard ship fired about 30 warning shots after 13 vessels from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) came close to it and other American Navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the Pentagon said on Monday.

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.

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.

After Black driver is handcuffed and arrested, Va. prosecutor says she never should have been pulled over  —  Virginia State Police trooper spotted car with taillights out, later pulled driver out of car and attempted DWI arrest, but driver tested 0.0 blood-alcohol content

EXCLUSIVE: How corporate PACs are plotting to “move beyond” January 6  —  Following the attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, dozens of corporations announced they were suspending PAC donations to the 147 Republicans who voted to overturn the election.  Many more announced they were suspending all PAC activity.

California has a staggering $75.7B budget surplus  —  SACRAMENTO — California expects a staggering $75.7 billion surplus despite a year of pandemic closures — an amount that surpasses most states' annual spending and prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday to propose sending cash back to residents as he faces a recall election.

The people who want to keep masking: 'It's like an invisibility cloak'  —  More than a year into the pandemic, some people prefer to keep wearing their face mask - even outdoors in public  —  She's been fully vaccinated for three weeks, but Francesca, a 46-year-old professor …

Why Confederate Lies Live On … Most of the people who come to Blandford Cemetery, in Petersburg, Virginia, come for the windows—masterpieces of Tiffany glass in the cemetery's deconsecrated church.  One morning before the pandemic, I took a tour of the church along with two other visitors and our tour guide, Ken.

QAnon Has an Alarming New Plan to Steal Arizona for Trump  —  It involves replacing all the state's elected officials.  —  DG  —  A group of Arizona citizens, including one Republican Congressional candidate, is asking the state's Supreme Court to invalidate all election results since 2018 …

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 …

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.

New Voters Helped Propel Biden in 2020  —  We know that 2020 produced the largest voter turnout in modern history.  But, for a detailed understanding of who voted—and how they voted—we had to wait until state voter files were updated and analyzed.  This week, Catalist, a Democratic data analytics firm …

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.