State lawyers arguing against Biden vaccine mandates test positive for COVID-19  —  Two officials presenting arguments on Friday to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to block vaccine mandates ordered by President Joe Biden's administration have tested positive for COVID-19 and will make their cases remotely, their offices said.

Three men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery sentenced to life in prison  —  The three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man, in Georgia were sentenced Friday to life in prison.  —  The sentences for Travis McMichael, who shot Arbery; and his father, Gregory McMichael, do not carry the possibility of parole.

Eric Adams taps younger brother Bernard as a deputy police commissioner  —  Mayor Eric Adams has tapped his younger brother to serve as a deputy NYPD commissioner, The Post has learned.  —  Bernard Adams, a 56-year-old retired NYPD officer, will oversee governmental affairs, he confirmed Friday.

Five myths about the filibuster  —  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has thrown down the gauntlet, saying he will move to change Senate rules by Jan. 17 if Republicans continue to block the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

QAnon Star Who Said Only ‘Idiots’ Get Vax Dies of COVID  —  Cirsten Weldon told her fans not to get vaccinated and wanted Dr. Anthony Fauci executed.  She just died of COVID.  —  A leading QAnon promoter who urged both her followers and strangers she passed on the street …

Hiring falters in December as payrolls rise only 199,000, though the unemployment fell to 3.9%  — Nonfarm payrolls rose by 199,000 in December, far fewer than the 422,000 estimate.  — The unemployment rate dropped to 3.9%, better than the 4.1% estimate.  — Wages increased more than expected, rising 4.7% year over year.

Harris' new communications director apologizes for tweets on ‘undocumented folks’  —  (CNN)Vice President Kamala Harris' newly announced communications director Jamal Simmons is apologizing for decade-old tweets on “undocumented folks” that resurfaced after news of his appointment.

Sidney Poitier, Who Paved the Way for Black Actors in Film, Dies at 94  —  The first Black performer to win the Academy Award for best actor, for “Lilies of the Field,” he once said he felt “as if I were representing 15, 18 million people with every move I made.”

Biden admin weighs offering Russia cuts to U.S. troops in Eastern Europe  —  U.S. troop cuts in Poland and the Baltic would have to be matched by Russian moves in the area.  The U.S. is also working to get Stingers for Ukraine.  —  The Biden administration is heading into next week's talks …

Pelosi Invites President Biden to Deliver State of the Union Address on March 1  —  Washington, D.C. - Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent the following letter today to President Joseph R. Biden inviting him to deliver the State of the Union address on Tuesday, March 1, 2022:

Mom who took her child into Capitol during riot gets prison  —  A North Carolina woman who brought her 14-year-old son into the U.S. Capitol during last year's riot was sentenced Friday to three months imprisonment.  —  U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said she finds it …

Why I Soured on the Democrats  —  Until recently, I was a loyal, left-leaning Democrat, and I had been my entire adult life.  I was the kind of partisan who registered voters before midterm elections and went to protests.  I hated Donald Trump so much that I struggled to be civil to relatives on the other side of the aisle.

Tech Startup Wants To Gamify Suing People Using Crypto Tokens  —  The new company plans to let everyday Americans bet on civil lawsuits by buying and trading associated crypto tokens in “initial litigation offerings.”  —  MS  —  A new tech startup plans to become “the stock market of litigation financing” …

Cyber Ninjas, company that led Arizona GOP election ‘audit,’ is shutting down  —  Cyber Ninjas, the company that led a partisan review of 2020 ballots in Arizona, is closing down following a scathing report by election officials and the threat of $50,000 a day in fines.  —  “Cyber Ninjas is shutting down.

After a series of messaging missteps, CDC's Walensky seeks out media training  —  (CNN)Dr. Rochelle Walensky assumed her new role as the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last January with a vow to restore trust in the agency.  But last fall, several months …

The rise of a pro-democracy media  —  America's news media is increasingly covering the growing radicalism of the Republican Party and its democracy-eroding behavior.  That's a welcome shift.  But it still isn't going far enough.  —  The media has long had a problematic “both sides” approach to covering politics.

Hospitals Are in Serious Trouble  —  When a health-care system crumbles, this is what it looks like.  Much of what's wrong happens invisibly.  At first, there's just a lot of waiting.  Emergency rooms get so full that “you'll wait hours and hours, and you may not be able to get surgery when you need it …

An 85-year-old man in India says he got 12 Covid vaccine shots, and still wants more.  —  There is vaccine hesitancy, but on the flip side, there is Brahmdeo Mandal.  —  Mr. Mandal is so excited about the healing promise of a jab that he says he has received 12 coronavirus vaccine doses — so far.

POLITICO Playbook: Biden finds a new Manchin whisperer  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  The White House is looking to Sen. MARK WARNER (D-Va.) to help thaw out its frosty relationship with Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) in hopes of resurrecting President JOE BIDEN's Build Back Better plan.