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.

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.

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.

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 …

Ted Cruz Grovels To Tucker Carlson, Cements New GOP Standard: No Criticism Of Jan. 6  —  Sen. Ted Cruz apologized for calling the Capitol rioters “terrorists.”  Tucker Carlson — a devout Jan. 6 revisionist — didn't accept the apology.  —  Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) begged Tucker Carlson for forgiveness on Thursday.

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 …

Lani Guinier, civil rights champion and Harvard law professor, dies at 71  —  A leading voice for voting rights long before her nomination to lead the US Justice Department's Civil Rights Division made her nationally known, Lani Guinier died Friday.  —  Ms. Guinier, the Bennett Boskey professor …

Today's deep question: Will Twitter suspend Sotomayor for COVID misinformation?  —  A wise axiom warns us not to deduce Supreme Court decisions based on the questions asked by its justices during oral arguments.  Perhaps, however, we can deduce their relative wisdom and grasp of reality from the questions they pose.

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:

It's time for the press to take Tom Cotton seriously  —  Journalists would do themselves a huge favor if they stopped treating Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas as a right-wing nut job and consider the possibility that he is actually smarter and more reasonable than his critics say.

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.

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.

Drudge hits ‘mute’ on Biden  —  Welcome to POLITICO's West Wing Playbook, your guide to the people and power centers in the Biden administration.  With Allie Bice.  —  The Drudge Report made its name by making life hell for Democrats in the White House.  —  But over the past several months …

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.

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.

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” …

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.”

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 …

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 …

Cyber Ninjas faces fine over Arizona election review records  —  PHOENIX (AP) — A judge said Thursday he will fine Cyber Ninjas, the contractor that led Arizona Republicans' 2020 election review, $50,000 a day if the firm doesn't immediately turn over public records related to the unprecedented inquiry.