Trump cancels Jan. 6 event amid GOP complaints  —  Senate Republicans can now breathe easier on Jan. 6.  —  Former President Donald Trump's announcement Tuesday evening that he would cancel a previously planned press conference is good news for Senate Republicans, who earlier in the day openly fretted …

Ben Smith Is Leaving The Times for a Global News Start-Up  —  Mr. Smith will help start a new organization with Justin Smith, the chief executive of Bloomberg Media.  —  Ben Smith, the media columnist for The New York Times, is leaving the paper to start a new global news organization with Justin Smith …

Entrata founder emails Utah tech CEOs, claiming COVID vaccine part of extermination plot by ‘the Jews’  —  SALT LAKE CITY — The founder and chair of Entrata, a Silcon Slopes tech firm, sent an email to a number of tech CEOs and Utah business and political leaders, claiming the COVID-19 vaccine …

Top Senate Republican signals support for election reform  —  A top Republican is signaling his party isn't necessarily opposed to joining with Democrats to clarify an existing federal law to reduce the potential for election subversion.  —  Driving the news: While broader federal voting …

I-95 in Va. reopens as motorists battle bailout traffic jam on Route 1  —  Have you or someone you know been stuck on I-95?  Tell WTOP about your experiences.  —  Listen to WTOP live online and on the radio at 103.5 FM.  Download the free WTOP News app for Android and Apple phones to sign up for custom traffic and weather alerts.

White House embraces a manage-not-contain Omicron game plan  —  When President Joe Biden took office last January amid a winter Covid-19 surge, he vowed an all-out federal assault aimed at vanquishing the virus.  —  A year later, with the country facing unprecedented levels of disease once again …

Manhattan DA to stop seeking prison sentences in slew of criminal cases  —  Who needs soft-on-crime judges when the district attorney doesn't even want to lock up the bad guys?  —  Manhattan's new DA has ordered his prosecutors to stop seeking prison sentences for hordes of criminals …

Rep. Brenda Lawrence to retire from Congress, leaving Detroit-area seat up for grabs  —  Washington — U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence said she plans to retire from Congress at the end of her term, becoming the 25th House Democrat to decide against seeking reelection in 2022.

Democracy is not in crisis just because Democrats are losing  —  Everywhere you look, Democrats are warning about the threat to democracy currently posed by Trump or the GOP or some combination of the two.  The panic seems omnipresent and is peaking as we approach the anniversary of the Jan. 6 riots at the capitol.

The Radicalization of J.D. Vance  —  As he runs for the Senate, the ‘Hillbilly Elegy’ author has gone from media darling to establishment pariah.  Is his new, fiery, right-wing persona an act?  Or is something more interesting going on?  —  Let's start with the beard.  J.D. Vance didn't used to have one.

Ron Johnson escalates attack on vaccines: ‘Why do we think that we can create something better than God?’  —  Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) this week doubled down on his campaign to promote the so-called “natural immunity” that occurs after one has been infected by Covid-19.

No Way to Grow Up  —  American children are in crisis.  —  American children are starting 2022 in crisis.  —  I have long been aware that the pandemic was upending children's lives.  But until I spent time pulling together data and reading reports, I did not understand just how alarming the situation had become.

Capitol rioter compares attacks on her to treatment of ‘Jews in Germany’  —  Jenna Ryan, a Texas realtor who has sought to parlay her role in the Capitol riot into a career as a right-wing media personality, posted a tweet in March last year that quickly went viral.

January 6 Isn't an Electoral Strategy  —  Everything we've seen so far suggests voters just don't care.  —  In 1873, Alexander Hamilton Stephens was elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election in Georgia.  A year later, Stephens' party took back the House …

Ron DeSantis's Vaccination Status Is Now a State Secret … Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been walking a delicate balancing act on vaccinations, assiduously courting vaccine skeptics without going so far to the right that he lands in Marjorie Taylor Greene territory.

Inside D.C.'s Rowdy New Progressive Scene  —  Once a month, in the latter, vaccinated half of 2021, denizens of D.C.'s progressive ecosystem flocked to a bar in Washington's Adams Morgan neighborhood for a happy hour hosted by the pollster and think tank Data for Progress.