As world focuses on omicron, delta variant overwhelms parts of U.S.  —  While the U.S. braces for the unknowns of omicron, which has now been detected in Minnesota, St. Cloud Hospital in the central part of the state is still deep in a battle with the delta variant of the coronavirus.

McConnell: No legislative agenda for 2022 midterms  —  Mitch McConnell has told colleagues and donors Senate Republicans won't release a legislative agenda before next year's midterms, according to people who've attended private meetings with the minority leader.

John Kennedy Tells Biden Nominee Dale Ho He's Too ‘Angry’ To Be A Federal Judge  —  “We don't need federal judges who are angry,” said the GOP senator, who voted to put angry guy Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court.  —  Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told President Joe Biden's judicial nominee Dale Ho …

Exclusive: Sinema won't commit to voting for Biden's sweeping social safety net expansion  —  (CNN)Kyrsten Sinema, the influential moderate Democratic senator from Arizona, did not commit to voting for President Joe Biden's sweeping social safety net legislation in a sit-down interview with CNN on Thursday …

Alec Baldwin's Gun Could Have Fired Without Him Pulling the Trigger, But Did It?  —  In his first major interview since being involved in a fatal shooting on the set of his latest movie, Alec Baldwin made a surprising new claim about his actions that day.  —  Baldwin said the gun went off without him ever actually pulling its trigger.

Why a Pollster is Warning Democrats About the 2022 Midterm Elections  —  Focus groups with Virginia voters led to a bluntly worded memo on what Democrats need to do going into the midterms.  —  Brian Stryker, a Democratic pollster, didn't work for Terry McAuliffe's campaign in the Virginia governor's race.

Meadows' book possible ‘waiver’ of executive privilege, Jan. 6 investigators say  —  Jan. 6 investigators have tried to pry information from Mark Meadows for months.  Now, excerpts from his forthcoming book have piqued the select committee's interest.  —  In interviews, members of the committee …

A CIA Report Shows Trump Abandoned His Duty as Commander in Chief  —  The CIA is too polite to say this directly, but it has issued a report that shows that Donald Trump, while obsessing over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, abandoned one of his primary duties as president …

CIA Files Say Staffers Committed Sex Crimes Involving Children.  They Weren't Prosecuted.  —  Over the past 14 years, the Central Intelligence Agency has secretly amassed credible evidence that at least 10 of its employees and contractors committed sexual crimes involving children.

My Worry for America  —  OPINION — I was a Brigadier General 30 years ago, assigned in Europe as the head of intelligence.  Most of the time I was looking at the Balkans because there was a war going on.  Yugoslavia lasted for 72 years and then it was gone; it fell apart.  —  These were bitter rivalries.

Cancel Mel Gibson  —  Every day, as dawn's rosy fingers reach through my window, I arise and check in with Twitter, to see what fresh hell awaits.  Generally, by about 6:30, I've been made furious by the outrage du jour.  But recently, I experienced more of a sense of bemusement than ire …

Feds could release ‘alternative’ Mueller report soon  —  “Primary processing” of compendium mentioned in Mueller aide's book should be complete next month, court filing says.  —  An unpublished investigative compilation sometimes referred to as the “Alternative Mueller Report” …

Congress needs to act on Xi Jinping's genocide now  —  This week, a private U.K.-based investigative panel released what it says are classified Chinese government documents that appear to show how Chinese President Xi Jinping personally laid the groundwork for the systematic forced assimilation of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

Kayleigh McEnany says she didn't lie in the White House briefing room because she went to Oxford, Harvard, and Georgetown and is a Christian  — Former press secretary Kayleigh McEnany claims she didn't lie in the White House briefing room.  — She writes in her upcoming book …

Liberty University professor charged in alleged abduction, sexual battery of student  —  A professor at Liberty University is accused in the abduction and sexual battery of a student, according to the evangelical school and court records in Lynchburg, Virginia.

EXCLUSIVE: No COVID in Cabo!  California governor Gavin Newsom does it again - with a Thanksgiving vacation at $29,000-a-night villa owned by Russian oligarch who admitted dodging $248M in taxes - days after extending state's state of emergency  — Governor Gavin Newsom spent Thanksgiving …

U.S. hedge-fund billionaire on China disappearing people: They're behaving like a “strict parent”  —  I missed this yesterday.  If you did too, make amends.  Not just because the contrast this clip draws with the moral righteousness displayed by the Women's Tennis Association is so sharp …

Far right is using Twitter's new rule against anti-extremism researchers  —  Researchers fear the new ban on posts sharing people's private information will be ‘emboldening to the fascists’ eager to keep their identities concealed.  ‘Things now unexpectedly work more in our favor,’ one Nazi sympathizer wrote.

Senate candidate Mehmet Oz says he's a Pennsylvania resident now.  So why's he still hanging out in his New Jersey mansion?  —  Mehmet Oz lived in North Jersey for more than three decades.  The celebrity known as “Dr. Oz” has invited magazines and TV cameras to his home overlooking …

School districts across metro Detroit closed Thursday due to threats  —  In the wake of a deadly school shooting at Oxford High School on Tuesday, school districts across the area began announcing late Wednesday plans to call off classes on Thursday.  —  Superintendent Pat Watson …

Rep. Kai Kahele calls Navy water contamination ‘a crisis of astronomical proportions in Hawaii’  —  Hawaii Rep. Kai Kahele today said that the Navy “is currently experiencing a crisis of astronomical proportions in Hawaii” as military officials scramble to respond to hundreds of reports …

Republicans defy COVID vaccine policy at the N.J. Statehouse, ignoring troopers who tried to stop them  —  1,456  —  A number of Republican members of the state Assembly openly defied a new COVID-19 vaccine policy at the New Jersey Statehouse on Thursday and took their seats to cast votes anyway …

Carlos Watson Has a Cold  —  A tale of the embattled Ozy founder, a turkey club sandwich, and a misadventure in crisis management.  —  On Wednesday, November 10, Carlos Watson, the embattled founder and C.E.O. of Ozy Media, told me that he was flying from his home in Mountain View, California …

On the Question of Expelling Congressman Bowman  —  As a socialist organization building mass, working class power for the freedom of all oppressed peoples under capitalism and imperialism, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is committed to the Palestinian fight for freedom.