Top Items:
Brett Kelman / The Tennessean:
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.
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Associated Press, Daily Kos, Crooks and Liars, Bulwark+, New York Times, KRDO, Joe.My.God., Raw Story, Insider, HotAir, Twitchy, BuzzFeed News, Lawyers, Guns & Money, The Daily Beast, Washington Post, The Guardian, WATE-TV, Mercury News, Washington Examiner, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The Hill and Forbes
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NBC News:
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.
Discussion:
The Hill, Axios, HotAir, Roll Call, Talking Points Memo, The Moderate Voice, The Daily Caller, CNBC, Common Dreams, Raw Story and UPI
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Natalie Fertig / Politico:
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.
Discussion:
ABC News, Political Wire and Althouse
Politico:
POLITICO Playbook: What we're watching for as Biden starts twisting arms
POLITICO Playbook: What we're watching for as Biden starts twisting arms
Discussion:
Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo
Washington Post:
Senate Democrats, Republicans grapple with price tag for Biden's infrastructure agenda
Senate Democrats, Republicans grapple with price tag for Biden's infrastructure agenda
Discussion:
New York Times, Slate, Wall Street Journal, Crooks and Liars, Associated Press, Twin Cities, The Hill, Bangor Daily News, Common Dreams, Politico and Regular Order
Charles P. Pierce / Esquire:
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
Discussion:
The Hill
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Ed Pilkington / The Guardian:
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 …
Washington Post:
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 …
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Dan Goldberg / Politico:
Pandemic fueled deadliest year for drug overdoses, CDC data shows — Health officials and experts worry that the pandemic has sapped the political will to tackle the drug crisis. — Students learn to put together a Naloxone spray gun in a class on opioid overdose prevention. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Discussion:
Bloomberg, CBS News, National Review and The Hill
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
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.
Discussion:
Insider and Washington Post, more at Mediagazer »
Michael Kranish / Washington Post:
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.
Discussion:
Insider, No More Mister Nice Blog, Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA and Breaking News USA, more at Mediagazer »
Benjamin Weiser / New York Times:
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 …
Discussion:
NBC News, Insider, Reuters, NBC New York, BizPac Review, Wall Street Journal, Justice News, The Daily Caller, Bloomberg, NPR, Washington Post, UPI, Twin Cities, Mediaite, HotAir, The Hill and Political Wire
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Christina Maxouris / CNN:
‘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 …
Discussion:
NewsNation Now, WAPT, New York Post and The Hill
Washington Post:
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.
Discussion:
Politico, NBC News, New York Times, The Guardian, Washington Examiner, CBS News, CBS Dallas / Fort Worth, One America News Network, KXAN-TV, Bloomberg, ABC7, Althouse and Forbes
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The Texas Tribune:
Senate presses forward passing GOP voting and bail bills, as Texas House in chaos over Democrats' decampment
Senate presses forward passing GOP voting and bail bills, as Texas House in chaos over Democrats' decampment
Discussion:
HotAir, National Review, The Hill, Townhall, HuffPost, Louder With Crowder, Houston Public Media, IJR, Axios, Off the Kuff, oann.com, WATE-TV, Lucianne and Just The News
Matt Johnson / WSB-TV:
‘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.
Discussion:
Raw Story
Niraj Chokshi / New York Times:
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” …
Discussion:
Bangor Daily News, NBC 6 South Florida and WSVN-TV
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Emily Birnbaum / Politico:
Facebook seeks recusal of FTC Chair Lina Khan in antitrust case — Facebook on Wednesday filed a motion seeking FTC Chair Lina Khan's recusal from any decisions regarding how the agency should proceed in its antitrust case against the company. — “When a new Commissioner has already drawn factual …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner and Bloomberg
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Brent Kendall / Wall Street Journal:
Facebook Seeks Recusal of FTC Chairwoman in Antitrust Case
Facebook Seeks Recusal of FTC Chairwoman in Antitrust Case
Discussion:
Insider, Human Events, Financial Times and The Verge, more at Techmeme »
Jason L. Riley / Wall Street Journal:
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.
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Kenny Xu / HotAir:
Critical Race Theory has no idea what to do with Asian-Americans
Critical Race Theory has no idea what to do with Asian-Americans
Discussion:
The Federalist and Newsweek
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Inside the Industry That Unmasks People At Scale — Unique IDs linked to phones are supposed to be anonymous. But there's an entire industry that links them to real people and their address. — Joseph Cox — Tech companies have repeatedly reassured the public that trackers used …
Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:
‘Breaks my heart’: Ex-President Bush says Afghanistan troop withdrawal is a mistake — WASHINGTON — Former President George W. Bush called the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan a mistake because he fears how the Taliban will treat Afghan women, children and other innocent people.
Discussion:
Washington Post, Politico, CNN, DW.COM, The Daily Caller and KARK-TV
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Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:
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 …
Discussion:
Raw Story
Sarah Jackson / Insider:
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.
Discussion:
Breaking News USA, more at Techmeme »
Tahir Hamut Izgil / The Atlantic:
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.
Lee Moran / HuffPost:
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 …
Discussion:
Raw Story, Truthout, Insider, CNN and Political Wire
Nicholas Fandos / New York Times:
Schumer Will Propose Federal Decriminalization of Marijuana — Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, will offer draft legislation to remove marijuana from the list of controlled substances and begin regulating and taxing it. — WASHINGTON — Senator Chuck Schumer of New York plans …
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Megan Carpentier / Dame Magazine:
HEALTH THE “PRO-LIFE” PARTY'S LONG FIGHT AGAINST VACCINES — The GOP's opposition to preventative measures, like mask-wearing and vaccines, didn't begin with COVID. Ten years ago, they weaponized another vaccine in a bid for the Republican presidential nomination, and recast themselves as the Death Cult Party.
AMAC:
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.
Daniel Ducassi / The Colorado Sun:
Billionaire Phil Anschutz and his wife are suing Colorado for a tax refund. How much they want is a secret. — Anschutz and his wife, Nancy, claim that changes in the federal tax code made through the CARES Act entitle them to lower taxes in previous years