COVID Is an Emergency.  To SCOTUS's Conservatives, It's Also an Opportunity.  —  Where the liberal justices see sickness and death, the conservatives see a chance to crush government.  — A Trucker Stuck for 14-Plus Hours on a Virginia Highway Explains What It's Like—and How She's Peeing

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.

America's Omicron Wave Already Looks More Severe Than Europe's  —  From abroad, where COVID-conscious Americans now look for portents of our near-term Omicron future, nearly all the signs have been positive over the last few weeks.  In fact, case numbers aside, the U.K. and continental surges …

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 …

The chair of the Jan. 6 panel says the committee will ask Mike Pence to appear  —  Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, says they expect to ask former Vice President Mike Pence to voluntarily appear this month.

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.

Was the Jan. 6 Attack on the Capitol an Act of ‘Terrorism’?  —  A sharp rebuke of Senator Ted Cruz by the Fox News host Tucker Carlson has heightened a legal and semantic debate over a charged term.  —  WASHINGTON — After a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol last year …

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 …

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 …

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.

Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson expected to run for reelection  —  Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson is expected to run for reelection and kick off his campaign next week, according to a source familiar with his decision.  —  For months, the incumbent Republican declined to say whether …

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.

Biden, surveying Colorado fire damage, comforts families and promotes agenda  —  President Joe Biden traveled to Colorado to survey the damage caused by a rare winter fire that tore through a suburban neighborhood before the start of the new year.  —  In remarks at a Denver County community center …

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.

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:

This is how the Republicans are whitewashing the J6 insurrection out of existence  —  And how the Big Lie became so easy to believe.  —  The president pinned blame on the former president Thursday for causing the J6 insurrection.  His speech was part of events marking the one-year anniversary …

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” …

Living In The Florida County That Became A Breeding Ground For Capitol Rioters  —  Seven residents of Brevard County — where cruelty and violence are fixtures of “Make America Great Again” politics — have been arrested since Jan. 6, 2021.  —  Brevard County, Florida …

Chatfield admits to affair as ‘consenting adults,’ denies rape claim  —  Alleged victim was the ex-House speaker's future sister-in-law  —  Former state House Speaker Lee Chatfield admitted today to an extramarital affair but said it was with a consenting adult and denied “false rape claims.”

UAE: State Security Retaliates Against Ahmed Mansoor  —  Allies Should Call for Rights Defender's Immediate Release  —  (Beirut) - United Arab Emirates authorities retaliated against the detained human rights defender Ahmed Mansoor after July 2021, when regional media published a prison letter …

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.

Unvaxxed couple dies of COVID holding hands: ‘True definition of soulmates’  —  A husband and wife married four decades died “seconds” apart while holding hands.  —  William Stewart, 73, and wife Carol, 69, had been hospitalized with severe cases of COVID-19 — unmitigated by the fact …