Tennessee abandons vaccine outreach to minors — not just for COVID-19  —  The Tennessee Department of Health will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach - not just for coronavirus, but all diseases - amid pressure from Republican state lawmakers, according to an internal report and agency emails obtained by the Tennessean.

Iranian Operatives Planned to Kidnap a Brooklyn Author, Prosecutors Say  —  Masih Alinejad spoke critically of her native country's autocracy.  Now an Iranian intelligence official and three others have been indicted in New York.  —  An Iranian American journalist living in Brooklyn …

Ken Starr helped Jeffrey Epstein with ‘scorched-earth’ campaign, book claims  —  Book by Miami Herald journalist details extraordinary efforts by special prosecutor who hounded Bill Clinton to aid sex trafficker  —  Ken Starr, the lawyer who hounded Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky …

Inside the secret plan for the Texas Democratic exodus: A phone tree, a scramble to pack and a politically perilous trip  —  They activated the plan with a phone tree late Sunday: Pack your bags — and make sure they weigh no more than 45 pounds.  Be ready to leave Austin at noon tomorrow.

Schumer launches long-shot bid for legal weed  —  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released sweeping draft legislation Wednesday to legalize weed, officially kickstarting a difficult debate in his chamber that also makes a major splash for one of his campaign promises.

William Barr clashes with former Trump appointee from Pa. over handling of election-fraud claims  —  A war of words broke out Tuesday among former senior Justice Department officials over Pennsylvania politics and the aftermath of the 2020 election, fueled by former president Donald Trump's release …

Democrats face these major headwinds in 2022 elections  —  History and a handful of issues threaten the Democrats' narrow congressional majorities in next year's midterm elections.  —  Even though President Joe Biden's job approval ratings remain solid if unspectacular …

Facebook staffers were told by execs to scrap any mention of Russia in a 2017 white paper on the platform's security concerns: ‘We started to feel like we were part of a cover-up’  — Facebook's 2017 white paper initially mentioned Russian election interference, a new book says.

Norwegian Cruise Line sues Florida surgeon general over vaccine passport ban  —  (CNN) — Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings is suing Florida's surgeon general over the state's law that prohibits companies from requiring customers and employees to provide documentation of Covid-19 vaccination status.

There's a Word for What Trumpism Is Becoming  —  “I became worse.”  That's how double impeachment changed him, Donald Trump told a conservative audience in Dallas last weekend, without a trace of a smile.  This was not Trump the insult comic talking.  This was the deepest Trump self.

Crime and Cuba backfire on Democrats  —  Two apparently unconnected issues that top the headline news endanger Democrats' election hopes.  I say “apparently” because although the events are taking place in different countries, both are tied indissolubly to the Left and to the party in power in Washington.

Sacha Baron Cohen, Showtime win dismissal of Roy Moore defamation lawsuit  —  British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen on Tuesday won the dismissal of a $95 million defamation lawsuit by Roy Moore, a former U.S. Senate candidate from Alabama who claimed he was tricked into being portrayed falsely …

How Tucker Carlson became the voice of White grievance  —  Tucker Carlson huddled in a low-ceilinged dungeon that had served as a holding pen for Africans bound for enslavement in the United States.  It was a July day in 2003 in Ghana, and Carlson stood alongside some of America's most prominent civil rights leaders.

DeSantis' anti-riot law didn't apply as Cuba protesters shut down a Miami-Dade road.  Hmmm . . .  Gov. DeSantis should have just laid it on the line when a reporter asked about the hundreds upon hundreds of Cuban-American demonstrators and their supporters who shut down a portion of the Palmetto Expressway in Miami-Dade County.

Critical Race Theory has no idea what to do with Asian-Americans  —  However, with the emergence of several racial groups that have come to be just as successful as whites, critical race theorists have come up with the term, “white adjacency.”  Robin DiAngelo, author of the now-infamous book White Fragility …

Biden names Arizona Republican Jeff Flake as his ambassador pick for Turkey  —  Ronald J. Hansen Yvonne Wingett SanchezArizona Republic  —  President Joe Biden intends to nominate former Sen. Jeff Flake as ambassador to Turkey, putting the Arizona Republican on the front lines diplomatically …

As the Left's Power Rises, Its Legitimacy Is Falling  —  When the Left requires brute force to win, it alienates apolitical America.  —  I can recall only three instances of gasping aloud in response to a plot twist.  Being a child of the 1980s, I had the privilege of seeing Darth Vader announce …

New York takes conservative approach counting virus deaths  —  ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — The federal government's count of the COVID-19 death toll in New York has 11,000 more victims than the tally publicized by the administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, which has stuck with a far more conservative approach to counting virus deaths.

Harris emerges as main GOP foil on campaign trail  —  Republicans on the campaign trail are zeroing in on Vice President Harris as their political target of choice as the midterm battle draws closer.  —  The attacks against Harris come as Republicans have struggled to define President Biden …