The College Board Strips Down Its A.P. Curriculum for African American Studies  —  After criticism from Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, the official course looks different: No more critical race theory, and the study of contemporary topics — like Black Lives Matter — is optional.

The GOP Is Just Obnoxious  —  This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic, Monday through Friday.  Sign up for it here.  —  Let's say you're a politician in a close race and your opponent suffers a stroke.

Justice Department arrests former ABC News journalist on child pornography charges  —  The Department of Justice on Wednesday announced the arrest of an award-winning investigative reporter on charges related to child pornography.  —  In a statement, the DOJ said that it was charging James Gordon Meek …

George Santos Relative Says They Never Gave $5,800 Reported by the Campaign: “I'm Dumbfounded”  —  Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.  —  Last week, Mother Jones reported that more than a dozen top donors to Rep. George Santos …

Trump Org. controller to testify to Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money payments  —  A top executive of the Trump Organization is expected to appear Thursday before a Manhattan grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump's alleged role in a hush money payment scheme, people familiar with the matter said.

Feds probing Santos' role in service dog charity scheme  —  NEW YORK — FBI agents are investigating Rep. George Santos' role in an alleged GoFundMe scheme involving a disabled U.S. Navy veteran's dying service dog.  —  Two agents contacted former service member Richard Osthoff Wednesday …

Trump Is Losing the Grifter Class to DeSantis  —  And they matter more than you might think.  —  1. Hungry Dogs Have To Eat  —  There was bad news for the Trump 2024 campaign yesterday and it wasn't Nikki Haley's pre-announcement of her campaign to challenge the former president.1

Biden and McCarthy meet as White House aides envision a debt ceiling off-ramp  —  President Joe Biden met Wednesday with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in search of a path to lifting the nation's debt ceiling — and averting the potential for an economic catastrophe.

An alleged $500 million Ponzi scheme preyed on Mormons.  It ended with FBI gunfire.  —  In Las Vegas, a lawyer with huge gambling debts is accused of a financial fraud that left hundreds of victims in its wake  —  LAS VEGAS — The FBI arrived at the only house on this stretch of Ruffian Road at 1:25 p.m. …

Fireworks in House after Democrat says ‘insurrectionists’ should be banned from leading Pledge of Allegiance  —  WASHINGTON — A routine House committee meeting erupted into a heated, nearly hourlong debate Wednesday over the Pledge of Allegiance, with one Democratic lawmaker saying that …

Dangerous Fungi Are Spreading Across U.S. as Temperatures Rise  —  Some fungi such as the type that causes Valley Fever might be adapting to endure more heat stress  —  Dangerous fungal infections are on the rise, and a growing body of research suggests warmer temperatures might be a culprit.

FBI finds no classified documents at Biden's Delaware vacation home  —  The FBI has completed its search of President Joe Biden's Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home and no documents with classified markings were found, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Voter fraud at a GOP stronghold leads to another light sentence  —  Quite a few Republican voters were caught casting illegal ballots in the 2020 elections.  In each case, judges didn't exactly throw the book at them.  —  To the extent that the United States has a retirement community known …

Senate Republicans pen letter asking DirecTV to explain decision ditching Newsmax  —  A group of leading Senate Republicans is requesting information from cable provider DirecTV surrounding its recent decision to drop conservative network Newsmax from its channel lineup.

The House GOP's sham hearings are fizzling before they even begin  —  The GOP's conspiracy theories and unhinged accusations work best when Republicans are in the minority, when they can throw out half-baked accusations and make leaps of logic with little consequence.

Trump's Fund-Raising in First Weeks of '24 Race Is Relatively Weak  —  After announcing presidential runs, Mitt Romney, Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush all raised more per day in their out-of-the-gates fund-raising periods.  —  Donald J. Trump's knack for generating millions of dollars simply …

Illegal border crossings fell sharply in January, U.S. figures show  —  Tighter restrictions applied by the Biden administration against migrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti along the southern border last month led to a precipitous drop in the number of people from those countries crossing …

Guns in the House?  A raucous Natural Resources panel debate  —  House Natural Resources Committee Republicans on Wednesday defeated Rep. Jared Huffman's (D-Calif.) push to reinstate an explicit ban on carrying firearms to the committee room after a lengthy and occasionally heated debate.

Students Forced to Camp Out in Frigid Weather To Get Housing  —  Davis, CA - If the city council thought they had solved the problem of student housing with the approvals of multi-student housing projects over the last several years, those beliefs were dashed by a string of student commenters who told them otherwise.

Democratic-backed Connecticut bill would ban ‘Latinx’ term  —  A group of Hispanic lawmakers in Connecticut has proposed that the state follow Arkansas' lead and ban the term “Latinx” from official government documents, calling it offensive to Spanish speakers.

Mortgage Bankers Scrambling Over Conservative Court Ruling  —  Faced with the potential invalidation of CFPB's funding structure, the top lobbyist for mortgage companies asks Congress to write the agency's rules into law.  —  The Mortgage Bankers Association, a trade group for mortgage companies …