Will There Be a War Over Ukraine?  13 Putin Watchers Weigh In  —  Russian President Vladimir Putin sought a confrontation with the West and he got one.  So now what?  —  Diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis appear to have stalled.  In the past month, Putin has escalated his long proxy war …

Melania Trump auctions off her hat, and has become the latest victim of the cryptocurrency crash  —  The former first lady's chapeau is still far below her asking price.  —  (This article has been updated to reflect that the auction, which was offline for part of Tuesday, is back online.)

New Jersey political consultant Sean Caddle pleads guilty in murder-for-hire plot  —  The 44-year-old resident of Hamburg, Sussex County, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit murder for hire in the stabbing death of the unnamed victim.  —  The New Jersey state house is pictured.

Florida Shock Jock in Matt Gaetz Circle Pleads Guilty  —  The feds are closing in on Rep. Matt Gaetz for his alleged underage sex crimes with yet another criminal case, this time against a key witness: his wingman's best friend. … “Big Joe” Ellicott, a former Florida shock jock …

'She was Zoom'd out:' Veep mulls escape from D.C. bubble  —  Sitting among some of the most influential Black women in America last month, Vice President Kamala Harris confessed to a stifling sensation that had fallen over her while in office.  She was struggling to escape the D.C. bubble …

Virginia's parents can decide what's best for their children  —  Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, is governor of Virginia.  —  In November's election, Virginians came together to declare that too many local leaders were failing a generation of schoolchildren.

Author reveals how Peter Thiel helped Trump cut a deal with Facebook to evade fact checking  —  Scott talks with author and journalist Max Chafkin, who is a features editor and a tech reporter at Bloomberg Businessweek.  Max is the author of “The Contrarian: Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley's Pursuit of Power …

Matea Gold named National Editor, Philip Rucker named Deputy National Editor  —  Announcement from Executive Editor Sally Buzbee, Senior Managing Editor Cameron Barr, Managing Editor Steven Ginsberg, Managing Editor Tracy Grant, Managing Editor Krissah Thompson, and Chief Product Officer and Managing Editor Kat Downs Mulder:

Partisanship Made the Omicron Crisis Worse  —  On Monday, at least 2,181 Americans died from COVID-19.  Over the past week, average daily COVID deaths in the United States have risen to 2,369 — the highest death rate the country has seen in nearly a year.  Given the lag time between spiking cases …

‘The most dangerous man in Congress’: how Paul Gosar became a darling of the far right  —  Once fringe, now dominant in the party, rightwing Republicans are strategizing for minoritarian rule  —  he Arizona Republican congressman Paul Gosar had a simple message for the crowd when he recently addressed …

For 1st time in Michigan history, more people died than were born in 2020  —  For the first time in Michigan's recorded history, deaths outpaced births in 2020 — a situation worsened by the wave of deaths from COVID-19, said Kurt Metzger, a demographer who founded Data Driven Detroit and studies Michigan population trends.

Cawthorn Challenge Raises the Question: Who Is an ‘Insurrectionist’?  —  The challenge to Representative Madison Cawthorn's re-election bid could set a precedent to challenge other Republicans who encouraged the Jan. 6 attack.  —  WASHINGTON — A group of lawyers is working to disqualify …

Sen. Mark Kelly ‘does not support the censure’ of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema  —  Sen. Mark Kelly broke his silence over the censure of his Democratic colleague Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, with a campaign spokesperson saying he disagreed with it and she should not be singled out over her opposition to changing the Senate's filibuster rules.

SALT change likely to be cut from bill, say Senate Democrats  —  Senate Democrats say a proposal to raise the cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions, a top priority of Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), is likely to be cut from the revised Build Back Better Act.

Dr. Oz stumbles out of the gate in Senate race  —  PHILADELPHIA — Mehmet Oz's introduction to GOP grassroots politics is a code-red crisis.  In his first three unofficial tests as a candidate in Pennsylvania's Republican Senate primary, the celebrity physician known as Dr. Oz has been handily rejected by party activists.

Missouri School District Bans Toni Morrison Book  —  A school board in Missouri has banned four books, including Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, from libraries in the district's high schools, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.  —  The Wentzville School Board voted 4-3 to remove …

Ridgeland Mayor Demands LGBTQ+ Book Purge, Threatens Library Funding  —  Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee is withholding $110,000 of funding from the Madison County Library System allegedly on the basis of his personal religious beliefs, with library officials stating that he has demanded …

Kansas bill forces pharmacists to fill ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine as off-label COVID treatment  —  TOPEKA, Kansas - A group of Kansas politicians tasked with steering public health policy are pushing to allow doctors to prescribe unproven treatments and preventives for COVID-19 without any potential for responsibility.

Leaked Chats Reveal Fascist Group Patriot Front Shames Members About Their Porn, Junk Food Habits  —  The inner workings of the group were laid bare after the release of 400 gigabytes of data by the left-wing collective Unicorn Riot.  —  TO  —  It shouldn't be a surprise that fascists rule …

A Political Scientist Warns the Democratic Party Is Off Course  —  Ruy Teixeira was co-author of one of the most influential political books of the 21st century.  Now, he says, Democrats are getting its lessons all wrong.  —  A funny thing happened on the way to the emerging Democratic majority.

Mark Zuckerberg's Stablecoin Ambitions Unravel With Diem Sale Talks  —  The controversial cryptocurrency project that Mark Zuckerberg once defended in front of Congress is unraveling after regulatory pressure.  —  The Diem Association, a cryptocurrency initiative once known as Libra backed …

Prosecutors explained the plot of ‘Game of Thrones’ to argue that a rioter quoting Cersei Lannister was proof of criminal intent  — Jeremiah Caplinger quoted from “Game of Thrones” in a social media post days after the Capitol riot.  — “As said by Cersi Lannister 'I choose violence …

DeSantis' Demented Doc Is About to Get the Grilling He Deserves  —  STRAIGHT-UP OPPORTUNIST … He doesn't deserve to be the state's surgeon general.  It hardly seems like he deserves to be a doctor at all.  —  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a politician by profession …

Special report: How Stefanik won power and support for spreading Trump's ‘Big Lie’  —  The false claim that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent or stolen lives on.  —  Former president Donald Trump continues to spread what's become known as the “Big Lie” — because it's a baseless myth — to this day.

Federal judge rejects challenge to ‘weighty and urgent’ Jan. 6 committee  —  A federal judge in California on Tuesday delivered a forceful defense of the Jan. 6 select committee's efforts, sharply rejecting a bid by attorney John Eastman — a key driver of Donald Trump's effort to subvert the 2020 election …

How Senate Dems reaped the benefits from 2 little-known GOP maneuvers  —  Senate Democrats lost their fight to weaken the filibuster, but they're capitalizing big on another rules change — that the GOP pushed.  —  After an Obama administration marked by Democratic frustration over the pace …

Crypto collapse erases more than $1 trillion in wealth, forcing a reckoning for everyday investors  —  Some are rethinking their plans; others say they are invested for the long term  —  By the end of last year, the value of Hasten Carter's cryptocurrency holdings had climbed to about $250,000.

Man Can't Get Heart Transplant Because He's Not Vaccinated Against COVID  —  BOSTON (CBS) - David Ferguson is speaking out passionately on behalf of his son DJ.  He says the 31-year-old is fighting for his life at Brigham and Women's Hospital and in desperate need of a heart transplant.

'He's a villain': Joe Manchin attracts global anger over climate crisis  —  The West Virginia senator's name is reviled on the streets of Bangladesh and other countries facing climate disaster as he blocks Biden's effort to curb planet-heating gases  —  Within the brutal machinations of US politics …

Bernie Sanders ally Nina Turner seeks rematch with Rep. Shontel Brown in Ohio  —  CLEVELAND — Nina Turner, the progressive activist with close ties to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is mounting another campaign for Congress in Ohio.  —  The former state senator from the Cleveland area told NBC News …