National Archives: Meadows may not have stored all Trump-era records ‘properly’  —  Mark Meadows and the National Archives are in talks over potential records he did “not properly” turn over from his personal phone and email account, the presidential record-keeping agency confirmed Thursday.

William Hartmann, 63, Michigan Official Who Disputed Election, Dies  —  He refused to certify Joseph Biden's victory over Donald Trump in Detroit but later relented.  A foe of Covid vaccines, he was hospitalized with the virus.  —  William Hartmann, one of two Republican election officials …

Trump's White House Passed Around a PowerPoint on How to End American Democracy  —  The House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol on Thursday released slides from a PowerPoint calling for former President Trump to declare a national security emergency in order …

New York attorney general seeks Trump's deposition as part of civil fraud investigation  —  New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking a deposition from former president Donald Trump early next year as part of her investigation into potential fraud inside the Trump Organization, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Supreme Court isn't well.  The only hope for a cure is more justices.  —  Nancy Gertner is a retired U.S. District Court judge.  Laurence H. Tribe is Carl M. Loeb University Professor emeritus and professor of constitutional law emeritus at Harvard Law School.

Jussie Smollett's conviction for orchestrating and reporting a phony hate crime punctuates actor's sudden downfall  —  Jussie Smollett's star was rising fast three years ago, with his hit show “Empire” leading the ratings and providing him groundbreaking opportunities to portray a gay …

Birds Aren't Real, or Are They?  Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory.  —  Peter McIndoe, the 23-year-old creator of the viral Birds Aren't Real movement, is ready to reveal what the effort is really about.  —  In Pittsburgh, Memphis and Los Angeles, massive billboards recently popped up declaring, “Birds Aren't Real.”

Why I Became an American  —  When I first arrived in the United States, I had to adjust to a new language, new norms, and new traditions.  But I was perhaps most stunned by a simple comment a teammate made.  He criticized President Barack Obama, which I feared could have landed him in prison.

Starbucks workers form their 1st union in the U.S. in a big win for labor  —  Starbucks workers have voted to form their first U.S. union.  —  Workers from one store in Buffalo, N.Y., voted to unionize, in a watershed moment for Starbucks, which operates 8,953 stores in the United States.

Texas Judge Rules State Abortion Law Unconstitutional Over Its Enforcement  —  ‘EAGER IDEOLOGICAL CLAIMANTS’  —  A judge in Texas ruled the state's controversial new abortion law unconstitutional Thursday.  The statute bans abortions after six weeks, before many women even know they are pregnant …

OutKick Exclusive: Penn Trans Swimmer's Teammate Speaks Out As Lia Thomas Smashes More Records … While University of Pennsylvania transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who spent three years at the Ivy League school swimming as a male, has been busy smashing female pool records …

‘Get them ready now’: Matt Gaetz and Steve Bannon discuss plan to take over government with ‘shock troops’  —  Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Thursday talked with conservative broadcaster Steve Bannon about a plan to use “4,000 shock troops” to take over the jobs of federal government employees.

Senate Clears Last Major Hurdle to Raising Debt Ceiling  —  Fourteen Republicans joined Democrats in voting to take up legislation that would pave the way for Congress to raise the debt ceiling by a simple majority vote, skirting a filibuster.  —  WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday cleared away …

New York City poised to become the largest municipality in the U.S. to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections  —  NEW YORK — The city council here will vote on a measure Thursday that would allow immigrants who are not U.S. citizens to vote for mayor and other key municipal positions …

Laclede County, MO Health Department stops COVID work  —  The local health department of a rural southern Missouri county is halting its COVID-19 response efforts after Attorney General Eric Schmitt wrote agencies this week demanding they drop mitigation measures.

That Cream Cheese Shortage You Heard About?  Cyberattacks Played a Part  —  Hackers shut down the biggest cheese manufacturer during peak demand  —  The cream cheese shortage wreaking havoc on bagel shops and bakeries is, in part, due to a cyberattack on the biggest U.S. cheese manufacturer.

The Pandemic of the Vaccinated Is Here  —  Even before the arrival of Omicron, the winter months were going to be tough for parts of the United States.  While COVID transmission rates in the South caught fire over the summer, the Northeast and Great Plains states were largely spared thanks …

It's a Biden Boom—and No One Has Noticed Yet  —  If the current high levels of economic, job, and income growth continue, the 2020 midterms could look different than most are predicting.  —  While many people are uncomfortable communicating bad news, Democrats have a problem these days talking …

Wil Wheaton apologizes for past homophobia, criticizes Dave Chappelle  —  After condemning Dave Chappelle's remarks about transgender people in his most recent Netflix special, actor Wil Wheaton has apologized for his own past homophobia.  —  “For much of my teen years, I was embarrassingly homophobic …

Tucker Carlson's Jan. 6 ‘Agent Provocateur’ Is A Big Tucker Fan And An Amateur Cardinals Mascot  —  “If I'm wrong, so be it, bro,” Carlson's guest said after he'd told Fox News viewers that the St. Louis baseball booster was “clearly a law enforcement officer.”

How Cryptocurrency Revolutionized the White Supremacist Movement  —  White supremacists embraced cryptocurrency early in its development, and in some cases produced million-dollar profits through the technology, reshaping the racist right in radical ways, a Hatewatch analysis found.

What a Times Journalist Learned From His 'Don't Look Up' Moment  —  A new film about a killer comet revives memories of a nail-biting night in The Times newsroom two decades ago.  —  One of the thus-far theoretical duties of the astronomer is to inform the public that something very big …

Long covid is destroying careers, leaving economic distress in its wake … Before the coronavirus ruined her plans, Tiffany Patino expected to be back at work by now.  She and her boyfriend intended to move out of a basement in suburban Maryland, where his grandmother lets them stay for free …

Here comes the next phony GOP attack on the Biden agenda  —  In their effort to derail President Biden's agenda, Republicans have thrown an extraordinary array of lurid and absurd attacks at the provisions that comprise the Build Back Better proposal.  One of their biggest arguments of all is that BBB will spend us into oblivion.

House passes Protect Our Democracy Act to curb presidential abuses of power  —  Fmr. Reagan official warns of threats to abortion — and to democracy  —  (CNN)The House voted 220-208 on Thursday to pass the Protect Our Democracy Act, which addresses presidential abuses of power and reinforces …

I'm Black But Look White.  Here Are The Horrible Things White People Feel Safe Telling Me.  —  “Many of these people are educated, and hold jobs or positions that give them some form of power or influence over Black people.”  —  I was outside my house gardening a few weekends ago when a neighbor …