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.

Senate Democrats reveal $3.5 trillion plan to invest in health care, climate change and more … WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leaders announced an agreement Tuesday evening to advance a $3.5 trillion spending plan to finance a major expansion of the economic safety net.

Ken Starr's Completely Inexcusable Career Has a New Chapter Titled ‘Jeffrey Epstein’  —  If there is a less excusable human being walking upright than Ken Starr, head huntsman of the Great Penis Chase of 1998, then I'm hard pressed to think of who it is.  Since his salacious moment in the national spotlight, Starr has presided over a

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.

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.

‘We are seeing people passing quicker than before’: What hospitals look like in US Covid hot spots  —  (CNN)Dr. Sergio Segarra says when Covid-19 patient numbers in the Miami hospital he works in dipped below 20 last month, he began feeling optimistic.  —  “I remember seeing articles …

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 …

‘He wished he had gotten the vaccine:’ Local man battling COVID-19 from ICU for months  —  GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Blake Bargatze, 24, was the only one in his family to not get vaccinated and now he remains in a hospital ICU more than three months after contracting COVID-19, according to his family.

Norwegian Cruise Line sues Florida over prohibition on vaccine requirements.  —  The fight over requiring vaccinations for travel is heating up.  —  Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings sued Florida's surgeon general on Tuesday, accusing the state of preventing it from “safely and soundly” …

Emails Reveal Cops Fanned Flames as FBI Debunked Antifa Hoax  —  LIE SEASON … Wildfires are back and could be worse than ever.  Just don't tell the cops manufacturing wild rumors about how they start.  —  On Sept. 11, 2020, the same day the Federal Bureau of Investigation released …

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.

Critical Race Theory Is a Hustle  —  It may resemble a serious academic discipline, but it's really just a fancy argument for racial preferences.  —  A majority of American fourth- and eighth-graders can't read or do math at grade level, according to the Education Department.

The tedium of the Trump-books news cycle  —  “The Trump books are coming.”  Late last month, Katie Rogers, a White House correspondent at the New York Times, warned us that we could soon expect a raft of new titles about Trump's final months in office to hit bookstores …

Storm Clouds Brewing for Terry McAuliffe as Democrats Face Reckoning Nationally  —  There's no doubt about it - Terry McAuliffe is in trouble in Virginia.  After previously serving as governor from 2014 to 2018, McAuliffe presumably believed he could simply cruise back into the position he once won by nearly three points.

My Friends Were Sent to the Camps  —  If you took an Uber in Washington, D.C., a couple of years ago, there was a chance your driver was one of the greatest living Uyghur poets.  Tahir Hamut Izgil arrived with his family in the United States in 2017, fleeing the Chinese government's merciless persecution of his people.

Inside Facebook's Data Wars  —  Executives at the social network have clashed over CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned data tool that revealed users' high engagement levels with right-wing media sources.  —  One day in April, the people behind CrowdTangle, a data analytics tool owned by Facebook, learned that transparency had limits.

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 …

Drug overdoses soared to a record 93,000 last year  —  Deaths from drug overdoses soared to more than 93,000 last year, a staggering record that reflects the coronavirus pandemic's toll on efforts to quell the crisis and the continued spread of the synthetic opioid fentanyl in the illegal narcotic supply …

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 …

New Book Details Eric Trump ‘Flipped Out’ On Election Night  —  Donald Trump's son reportedly screamed at campaign aides as his father's lead against Joe Biden narrowed, according to Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker's new book.  —  Eric Trump “flipped out” on the night of the 2020 election …

Right Wingers Are Taking Over Library Boards to Remove Books on Racism  —  When Joe Makula decided to run for the board of the Niles-Maine Public Library in Niles, Illinois, this spring, a community member asked him how he thought the library could better serve the area's increasingly diverse community.

Inside Shepard Smith's Post-Fox News Crash on CNBC  —  The ex-Fox anchor's much-hyped new show has failed to bring in viewers and, per insiders, it has struggled with some internal turmoil, including “regular tantrums” from Smith.  —  Whether it's a poor time slot, behind-the-scenes squabbles …