POLITICO Playbook: Is Kevin McCarthy toast?  —  DRIVING THE DAY  —  For years now, through controversy after controversy, House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY has bent over backward to stay in former President DONALD TRUMP's good graces, all to serve one major purpose: He wants to be speaker someday.

End of Reedy Creek: Disney won't pay more taxes, but you will  —  ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — One of the biggest myths circulating on the internet is that the end of Reedy Creek will finally force Disney to pay its fair share of taxes, boosting the economies of Florida and the counties its resorts are located in.

Mark Meadows was simultaneously registered to vote in three states  —  “I don't want my vote or anyone else's to be disenfranchised. ...  Do you realize how inaccurate the voter rolls are, with people just moving around? ...  Anytime you move, you'll change your driver's license …

Trump says he threatened not to defend NATO against Russia  —  Former president Donald Trump on Thursday offered his most explicit statement to date that he threatened not to defend NATO allies from attacks by Russia.  —  Appearing at an event held by the Heritage Foundation in Florida …

The Marjorie Taylor Greene Insurrection Hearing LIVE!  —  Donate to MeidasTouch: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/ meidastouchBuy MeidasTouch Merch: https://store.meidastouch.comFollow MeidasTouch on Twitter: https:...

Jan. 6 revelations will ‘blow the roof off the House,’ Rep. Jamie Raskin says  —  WASHINGTON — Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., suggested that the House Jan. 6 committee's upcoming hearings will be dramatic and include explosive revelations that the panel has been piecing together behind the scenes for months.

A Look Inside the Textbooks That Florida Rejected  —  The state rejected dozens of math textbooks.  The New York Times reviewed 21 of them to figure out why.  — Give this article- - - Read in app  —  After the Florida Department of Education rejected dozens of math textbooks last week, the big question was, Why?

Are Biden and Putin agreeing on limits to the war?  Just read their statements.  —  Take a careful look at presidential statements from Russia and the United States this week, and you'll see that the leaders of the two countries appear to be clarifying their goals in Ukraine …

Biden White House stands behind Title 42 decision amid party revolt  —  Facing a growing rebellion from within the Democratic Party, the White House is standing behind its decision to end on May 23 a Trump-era deportation policy for migrants encountered at the southern border.

‘We Build the Wall’ leaders who worked with Bannon plead guilty to fraud  —  “We Build the Wall” campaign crowd-funders Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato pleaded guilty Thursday for their roles in pocketing donations solicited to help build a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Tucker Carlson Has a Cure for Declining Virility  —  A promo for an upcoming Fox show describes a testosterone “calamity” among American men, along with an unlikely treatment.  — Give this article- - - Read in app  —  Are you a man worried about your testosterone levels?  Hoping to give them a boost?

Dear Taylor Lorenz, Brian Stelter, and the Rest of the Press— why not show the videos?  —  Taylor Lorenz is a reporter for the Washington Post who wrote a scathing piece about the lady who runs the LibsofTikTok account.  She claims the account has wrongly and falsely shaped narratives that have guided the right to act in homophobia.

Biden Job Approval Stuck in Low 40s  — Average approval rating essentially unchanged from fourth quarter  — All prior elected presidents except Trump had higher fifth quarter averages  — Presidents' approval ratings usually decline in their second year

As the pandemic exploded, a researcher saw the danger.  China's leaders kept silent.  —  The morning of Dec. 26, 2019, began as usual at Vision Medicals in Guangzhou in southern China.  This commercial laboratory, a private start-up barely a year and a half old, was also known by its Chinese name, Weiyuan Gene Technology.

‘Everywhere Babies,’ a picture book celebrating infants, just got banned  —  The inspiration for the popular children's picture book “Everywhere Babies” came to author Susan Meyers more than 25 years ago, after the birth of her first grandchild.  It was around Christmas, she recalls …

Community Input Is Bad, Actually  —  Development projects in the United States are subject to a process I like to call “whoever yells the loudest and longest wins.”  Some refer to this as participatory democracy.  —  Across the country, angry residents and neighborhood associations have the power to delay …

Our Failed COVID Response  —  If, God forbid, we face another pandemic, we cannot use our COVID strategy as the baseline.  —  A February headline in the Washington Post read, “Mask Mandates didn't make much difference anyway.”  A month later, the New York Times gave us this: “Do Covid restrictions work?

Vance surge remakes Ohio Senate race  —  Hillbilly Elegy author's fortunes have changed dramatically since winning Donald Trump's endorsement in the GOP primary.  —  INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — He was lagging in the polls.  His cash was running low.  With the state's primary fast approaching …

‘You only win if you fight’: Will Gallego unseat Sinema?  —  This week Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza is in Arizona to dig into a few big plotlines ahead of this year's elections.  Trump narrowly lost the state in 2020, Senator Mark Kelly — the Democratic incumbent — is one of the most vulnerable senators …