Santos refuses to resign amid calls from local N.Y. GOP  —  NEW YORK — Rep. George Santos refused to resign Wednesday despite a parade of Republican Nassau County officials demanding he step down.  —  Officials from across Santos' Long Island district and beyond gathered at the headquarters …

U.S. airports rumble back to life after FAA computer outage  —  U.S. flights were slowly beginning to resume departures and a ground stop was lifted after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) scrambled to fix a system outage overnight that had forced a halt to all U.S. departing flights.

Barbara Lee tells lawmakers she's running for Senate  —  Lee told Democrats the day after Rep. Katie Porter officially announced a bid for the seat, though Sen. Dianne Feinstein remains noncommittal on her future plans.  —  Rep. Barbara Lee has told her fellow lawmakers she's running …

In the case of the classified documents, it's more serious for Trump than Biden  —  The former president's retention of papers at Mar-a-Lago appears to satisfy more criteria for prosecution than the find at Biden's institute  —  Donald Trump's retention of documents marked classified …

GOP-led Oversight Committee issues flurry of letters to begin probe of Biden, Twitter  —  The letters lead off the GOP's long-promised investigation of the president.  —  The chairman of the new Republican-led House Oversight Committee has issued a flurry of letters as part of the panel's …

The boring journey of Matt Yglesias  —  The Washington ur-blogger's slightly contrarian, mildly annoying, somewhat influential, very lucrative path toward the political center  —  Matt Yglesias can talk about supervolcanoes and about Habsburg federalism and about the semiconductor industry in Taiwan vs. China.

Iran Says Face Recognition Will ID Women Breaking Hijab Laws  —  Iranian women are baring their heads to protest government controls.  A top official said algorithms can identify anyone flouting dress codes.  —  Last month, a young woman went to work at Sarzamineh Shadi, or Land of Happiness …

George Santos Took Donation From Migrant-Smuggler  —  Serial liar and border-hardliner George Santos accepted support from an Italian caught piloting a yacht full of Chinese migrants and from his prominent restaurant-owning family. … Embattled Rep. George Santos took an almost certainly illegal donation …

Russia-Ukraine War  —  Russia Shakes Up Military Leadership Again … The prior military leader is now a deputy to the newly named chief.  —  Russia has replaced its military chief in Ukraine with a Kremlin insider, dashing calls from Moscow ultranationalists for a radical overhaul of the leadership overseeing the flagging invasion.

Why the January 6th Mob Wasn't Stopped in Time  —  Transcripts reveal where the bottlenecks were.  —  The House January 6th Committee did an excellent job in its final report of proving that former President Donald Trump incited the insurrectionist mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol.

Judge will allow prosecutors to use Trump's ‘stand back and stand by’ comment in Proud Boys trial  —  A federal judge ruled Wednesday that prosecutors can use video of then-President Donald Trump telling the far-right group the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” in the trial against several …

The Party's Over for Us.  Where Do We Go Now?  —  For decades, conservative values have been central to Bret Stephens's and David Brooks's political beliefs, and the Republican Party was the vehicle to extend those beliefs into policy.  But in recent years, both the party …

To defeat Trumpism, stop letting MAGA stunts drive the debate  —  When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent planeloads of migrants to Massachusetts in the fall, it received an extraordinary amount of coverage.  Though that stunt said nothing about how to fix our immigration system …

Xi Jinping's plan to reset China's economy and win back friends … The costs of China's chaotic exit from its zero-Covid strategy are surging.  In spite of a virtually static official death toll, a slew of obituaries for elderly public figures from academics to opera singers demonstrate …

JUST IN: Republicans to Vote on a Bill that Would Abolish the IRS, Eliminate Income Tax  —  The House Republicans have essentially declared war on the IRS.  They are now not just stripping it of its funding but are also considering legislation that would abolish both it and its reason for existence.

Exclusive: Uvalde school police chief told investigators why he didn't try to stop gunman: 'There's probably going to be some deceased in there, but we don't need any more from out here'  —  Uvalde school police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo told investigators he was more concerned …

Ryan Zinke Rants That ‘Deep State’ Wants To ‘Wipe Out The American Cowboy’  —  The new MAGA House member isn't putting conspiracy theories out to pasture.  —  Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) says he has your back, buckaroos.  (Watch the video below.)  —  The MAGA House member ranted …

The New Soldiers in Propane's Fight Against Climate Action: Television Stars  —  An industry group is spending millions of dollars to push back against efforts to move heating away from oil and gas.  —  For D.I.Y. enthusiasts, Matt Blashaw is a familiar face, judging bathroom remodels …

Supreme Court lets New York enforce gun law during lawsuit  —  The Supreme Court is allowing New York to continue to enforce a sweeping new gun law banning guns from “sensitive places” such as schools and playgrounds for now while a court challenge plays out.  The justices on Wednesday turned away a plea by the law's challengers.

Olentangy Schools official cuts off reading of Dr. Seuss book during NPR podcast  —  The assistant director of communications for Olentangy Local School District abruptly stopped the reading of the Dr. Seuss book “The Sneetches” to a third-grade classroom during an NPR podcast after students asked about race.

Poland to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine, if others do, too  —  Poland has decided to send a company of Leopard tanks to help neighboring Ukraine in the war with invading Russia, President Andrzej Duda said Wednesday.  But Duda, on a visit to Lviv, said that the move would be possible …

Academy mourns tragic loss in cadet wing  —  The Academy mourns the loss of Cadet 3rd Class Hunter Brown, 21, of Lake Charles, Louisiana.  Brown experienced a medical emergency while leaving his dormitory for class on Monday morning.  Academy first responders were immediately called …

Ex-Louisiana lawmaker gets 22-month sentence for wire fraud  —  Former Louisiana Democratic Party leader Karen Carter Peterson, who resigned from the state Senate last year year citing depression and a gambling addiction — and later pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud — was sentenced on Wednesday to 22 months in prison.