Reid's final hang up  —  There will never be another like him.  —  Not a chance.  —  Oh sure, there will be leaders who grew up in unimaginable poverty.  Or those who are more workhorse than showhorse.  Or who dominate their state's political apparatus.

Biden to speak with Putin on Thursday at Russian leader's request  —  (CNN)President Joe Biden will hold a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday afternoon “to discuss a range of topics, including upcoming diplomatic engagements with Russia,” National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne told CNN.

‘The Fuse Has Been Blown,’ and the Doomsday Glacier Is Coming for Us All  —  New data suggests a massive collapse of the ice shelf in as little as five years.  “We are dealing with an event that no human has ever witnessed,” says one scientist.  “We have no analog for this”

He died after waiting 15 days for a hospital bed.  His family blames unvaccinated covid-19 patients.  —  Throughout his life, Dale Weeks was characterized by family and friends in Iowa as “a good neighbor,” someone who would do anything for anyone.  So when he was diagnosed with sepsis last month …

2 Georgia Republicans Rack Up Fines for Defying House's Mask Mandate  —  Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Andrew Clyde have incurred more than $100,000 combined in penalties for dozens of violations.  —  WASHINGTON — During a recent marathon session in the House …

Why so much Obama-era pop culture feels so cringe now  —  How Hamilton, Parks and Recreation, and Harry Potter lost cultural cachet.  —  One of the oddities of getting old is bearing witness as the pop culture you used to think would always be beyond reproach slowly slides out of favor.

After Vaccines: Where Covid Death Rates Have Risen  —  Do a compare and contrast of the red and green maps above.  They are the most astonishing thing I saw today.  —  They are from a NY Times deep data dive into the Covid mortality stats post-vaccine availability, titled “Why Covid Death Rates Are Rising for Some Groups.”

11 Years After Trying to Kill Each Other, a Marine and a Talib Meet Again  —  A Times reporter who once served in the Marines returned to the site of a major battle in Afghanistan to see what's changed since the Taliban took over — and to meet a commander he once fought.  —  MARJA, Afghanistan — The tea was hot.

Facebook Said My Article Was ‘False Information.’ Now the Fact-Checkers Admit They Were Wrong.  —  On Monday, I received a rather curious notification on Facebook.  A friend alerted me that when she tried to share a recent article of mine, the social media site automatically blurred the accompanying image …

Republicans eye new front in education wars: Making school board races partisan  —  TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Republicans across America are pressing local jurisdictions and state lawmakers to make typically sleepy school board races into politicized, partisan elections in an attempt to gain …

Decades of DOD efforts fail to stamp out bias, extremism  —  In February, with the images of the violent insurrection in Washington still fresh in the minds of Americans, newly confirmed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took the unprecedented step of signing a memo directing commanding officers across …

‘This was the moment’: CDC defends altered guidance amid Omicron surge  —  CDC Director Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday sought to deflect several lines of skepticism about the agency's newly shortened, five-day period of recommended isolation for asymptomatic individuals who test positive for Covid-19.

Two California teachers were secretly recorded speaking about LGBTQ student outreach.  Now they're fighting for their jobs  —  This fall, a pair of middle school teachers from the Salinas Valley traveled to Palm Springs for the California Teachers Association's annual LGBTQ+ Issues Conference.

Is Fluvoxamine the Covid Drug We've Been Waiting For?  —  A 10-day treatment costs only $4 and appears to greatly reduce symptoms, hospitalization and death.  —  The Food and Drug Administration last week authorized two oral antiviral medicines for the early treatment of Covid-19.  But don't get too excited.

Transgender swimmer Lia Thomas' teammates considered boycotting final meet in protest  —  A group of UPenn swimmers were so upset by transgender athlete Lia Thomas' advantages that they mulled boycotting their final home meet - but decided not to for fear they'd be banned from the Ivy League championship, according to a report.

More than half of U.S. states will raise their minimum wage in 2022, but employers are hiking pay faster  — Twenty-six U.S. states will raise their minimum wage in 2022, but many workers will see more significant pay gains from employers that are raising their pay floor.

Lou Cannon, ‘Hall of Fame’ political writer and Reagan chronicler, hangs it up.  Sort of  —  One of the giants of political journalism has decided to hang it up at age 88.  But anyone who knows Lou Cannon doesn't think for a moment his retirement means more time on the beach or romping …

Anti-Biden 'Let's Go Brandon' merchandise sold at JBER mall prompts update to vendor guidance  —  Ahead of the holidays, a vendor who had set up shop at a mall on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson was selling figurines with an overt political message deriding the commander-in-chief.

Facebook's Pushback: Stem the Leaks, Spin the Politics, Don't Say Sorry  —  Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg drove response to disclosures about company's influence; sending deputies to testify in Congress  —  The day after former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen went public in October …

Biden should stop pretending his resistance to a vax-to-fly rule is about public health  —  The decision by federal health officials to cut in half the number of days for people to quarantine if infected with covid-19 says less about our understanding of how the coronavirus spreads than the influence of …

America Sticks Out Its Tush  —  For his Christmas Day column William Kilpatrick wrote: … That's a bit of an over-simplification, but it's certainly clear that “barring a miracle” the future is post-western.  Mr Kilpatrick continues: … That was a very sharp way of putting it.