China says balloon that entered US was ‘civilian airship’ for research that deviated from course  —  The suspected Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon flying over the continental US entered the entered US airspace “due to force majeure,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Friday …

Employers added 517,000 jobs in January, astonishing labor market growth  —  January marked the 25th straight month of solid job growth, and the unemployment rate edged down to a new low of 3.4 percent.  —  The labor market shattered expectations in January, as the economy added 517,000 jobs …

Trump campaign staff on 2020 election lies: ‘fan the flame’  —  A newly released audio recording offers a behind-the-scenes look at how former President Donald Trump's campaign team in a pivotal battleground state knew they had been outflanked by Democrats in the 2020 presidential election.

The State Where the GOP Would Rather Lose Than Change  —  PHOENIX — In a megachurch where the Arizona Republican Party met over the weekend to chart its course following heavy losses in the midterms, a package of resolutions was up for consideration, including one to censure Republican officials involved in running past elections.

DeSantis owes Trump nothing  —  There is no love lost between former President Donald Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL).  It seems nearly every week, DeSantis makes a name for himself in national headlines , strengthening his exposure and appeal and contrasting himself with Trump in a positive way.

Hunter Biden Claims His Laptop  —  And asks his dad's government to target his critics.  —  WSJ Opinion: The Biden Classified-Document Payback  —  YOU MAY ALSO LIKE  —  Created with sketchtool.  —  1x  —  Hunter Biden did some reckless things, is unhappy people found out, and so is now doing something equally reckless.

AOC decries vote to remove Omar from House Foreign Affairs Committee  —  Moments before House Republicans voted to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., from the House Foreign Affairs Committee over what a resolution said was a series of antisemitic remarks, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. …

All shook up: Why Dems see sliver of opportunity in deep-red Mississippi  —  Republicans have had a lock on the Mississippi governorship for decades.  But Democrats hope that a candidate with one of the most famous last names in America can change that.  —  Democrats are coalescing around …

Leaked Audio And Staff Dispute Show Chaos Inside George Santos' Office  —  Start your day with TPM.  —  After a little over a week working with embattled Rep. George Santos (R-NY), Derek Myers was informed that he would not be getting a permanent job.  During that tense conversation, Santos also offered some parting advice.

House Republicans float one spending cut in a debt ceiling bill: unspent Covid money  —  WASHINGTON — There's no Republican plan, let alone a bill, to resolve the debt ceiling problem.  But some GOP lawmakers are floating one idea to include in a package: rescinding approved but unspent Covid relief funds.

Questioned on Biden documents, his press secretary has only one answer  —  Karine Jean-Pierre, eight months into her tenure as White House press secretary, has frustrated reporters with her inability to shed light on the classified documents probe, raising doubts about her own access.

Former Trump Executive, Already Jailed, Could Face More Fraud Charges  —  Manhattan prosecutors warned that they might charge Allen H. Weisselberg with insurance fraud to pressure him to cooperate in an investigation of the former president.  —  Manhattan prosecutors this week warned …

Confidence in police practices drops to a new low: POLL  —  Just 39% are confident that the police are trained to avoid excessive force.  —  Americans' confidence in how police are trained and their  —  treatment of Black people  —  both have fallen to new lows in an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

I'm a teacher in Florida.  Here's what the DeSantis book bans look like in my classroom  —  A new crackdown on books in Florida schools has had a chilling effect in classrooms.  —  “I'm done!  I'm done!  What do I do now?”  Every teacher, in every classroom, hears this many (thousands) of times daily from their students.