Justice Stephen Breyer to retire from Supreme Court, paving way for Biden appointment  —  Live coverage: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire  —  WASHINGTON — Justice Stephen Breyer will step down from the Supreme Court at the end of the current term, according to people familiar with his thinking.

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 …

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 …

Georgia Potential November Showdowns: They're Already Close, Quinnipiac University Georgia Poll Finds; Only 25% Are Very Confident In Accurate 2022 Election Count  — mail_outline  —  With Georgia in the national spotlight over its election laws along with two high profile contests in November 2022 …

GOP Has Congress Edge by Default  —  Few say either party is very concerned about ‘average Americans’  —  West Long Branch, NJ - Congressional Republicans have a small edge over their Democratic colleagues on a dubious metric - they are slightly less likely to be seen as lacking concern for the average American's financial well-being.

Fed Tees Up March Interest-Rate Increase  —  Officials have accelerated plans to unwind support for the economy amid rising inflation  —  The Federal Reserve held short-term interest rates steady on Wednesday and signaled intentions to raise them in mid-March, the latest turn toward removing stimulus to temper elevated inflation.

I finally got Covid and it was so horrible it made me doubt if America will ever recover from this pandemic.  It WILL but not with moronic Biden in charge  —  I knew that I was tempting fate when I reposted a meme on my Instagram Stories joking about dodging golf balls at a driving range.

'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 …

Downtown Seattle Target barely surviving as shoplifting ravages store  —  The Target department store in downtown Seattle is being absolutely ravaged by shoplifters, with one staff member telling me theft happens “about every 10 minutes.”  He wasn't kidding.

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 …

US Navy wants to get crashed stealth fighter back — before China can  —  Seoul, South Korea (CNN)The United States Navy is trying to retrieve its most advanced fighter jet from the depths of the South China Sea, an extremely complex operation that analysts say will be closely monitored by Beijing.

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 …

Dominion says there's no ‘realistic possibility’ that it'll settle its lawsuits with Rudy Giuliani, Mike Lindell, or Sidney Powell given the ‘devastating harm’ they've done to the company  — Dominion Voting Systems says it's unlikely to settle its defamation lawsuits over the 2020 election.

Federal Reserve issues FOMC statement  —  Indicators of economic activity and employment have continued to strengthen.  The sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic have improved in recent months but are being affected by the recent sharp rise in COVID-19 cases.

Canceled NY mask mandate is uncanceled again... for now  —  Yesterday we discussed the ruling of a New York State supreme court judge who issued an injunction against Governor Kathy Hochul's statewide face mask mandate.  The judge found that the mandate violated two different state laws …

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.

Top aide to Mark Meadows met with January 6 committee  —  (CNN)Ben Williamson, a top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, met on Tuesday with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to several sources familiar with the meeting.

The Case Against Masks at School  —  In the panicked spring of 2020, as health officials scrambled to keep communities safe, they recommended various restrictions and interventions, sometimes in the absence of rigorous science supporting them.  That was understandable at the time.

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.

Brookside Police Chief Mike Jones resigns after AL.com report on traffic trap  —  7,533  —  Mike Jones, the chief of police in the small Alabama town of Brookside, resigned today in the wake of revelations by AL.com that he turned the department into an aggressive traffic trap …

A Generational Threat to Free Expression  —  Survey data show that Americans under 30 prize cancel culture over liberty.  —  Economy, finance, and budgets  —  Politics and law  —  The Social Order  —  The clash between socialist and liberal economics defined the late twentieth century …

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:

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 …

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.