Kari Lake, still pushing midterm fraud fiction, edges closer to Senate run  —  She would be tough to beat in a GOP primary, setting up a challenge for national Republicans who worry about her general election prospects  —  By Liz Goodwin and Yvonne Wingett Sanchez

The former Trump aide crafting the House GOP's debt ceiling playbook  —  The national debt exploded on Russell Vought's watch.  Now he wants Republican lawmakers to play hardball.  —  Last month, amid the raucous battle to elect House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, former president Donald Trump spoke …

Art Fair Visitor Breaks a Jeff Koons Balloon Dog Sculpture  —  A woman accidentally knocked over a bright blue dog sculpture at Art Wynwood in Miami, causing the $42,000 artwork to shatter, witnesses said.  —  The balloon dog sculptures made famous by Jeff Koons so closely imitate …

28 Children Rescued, 59 Adults Arrested in Massive DFW Child Porn Investigation: Police  —  Local police, FBI work together to rescue 28 children investigators say were sexually abused, exploited online  —  More than two dozen children have been rescued and nearly 60 people …

February 18, 2023  —  Republican leaders are recognizing that the sight of Republican lawmakers heckling the president of the United States didn't do their party any favors.  —  It not only called attention to their behavior, it prompted many news outlets to fact-check President Biden's claim …

Bernie Sanders: ‘Oligarchs run Russia.  But guess what?  They run the US as well’  —  The veteran senator is now part of Joe Biden's inner circle, and is still fighting his country's vast inequalities  —  fter the State of the Union address at the beginning of this month …

Biden's ‘Buy America’ bid runs into manufacturing woes it aims to fix  —  Infrastructure officials complain they can't find U.S. suppliers for items they need to buy American by law  —  The “Buy America” initiative that President Biden says will promote domestic manufacturing and fuel …

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, February 18, 2023  —  Click here to see ISW's interactive map of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  This map is updated daily alongside the static maps present in this report.  —  Russian forces conducted another missile strike targeting Ukrainian infrastructure throughout the country.

Former GOP Gov. Larry Hogan says he would consider not running in 2024 if his candidacy would help Trump  —  Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said Sunday that he would consider not running in 2024 if his bid would increase former President Donald Trump's chances of winning reelection.

Why does the South have such ugly credit scores?  —  Today, we look at a big, fat map of credit scores reproduced from a recent economics paper.  And while the map suggests any number of tantalizing questions, we are most intrigued by that big band of credit-score calamity that stretches across the American South.

Lawmaker Bares Blow-By-Blow Of Marjorie Taylor Greene Spy Balloon ‘S**tshow’  —  “She's unbelievable... she made a total, absolute fool of herself,” said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.).  —  A Democratic lawmaker has spilled the tea on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's cringey performance …

US Plans New Russia Export Controls, Sanctions on Key Industries  —  President Joe Biden's administration is planning to impose new export controls and a fresh round of sanctions on Russia, targeting key industries a year after Vladimir Putin started his invasion of Ukraine.

‘Brainwashing a Generation’: British Schools Combat Andrew Tate's Views  —  Alarmed by an online personality's popularity among their students, educators are mobilizing to combat the sexism he promotes.  —  As the seventh graders settled into a lecture hall at a school near London …

Statement from President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on the Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration  —  When President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, eighty-one years ago today, it ushered in one of the most shameful periods in American history.

Blinken Has Tense Meeting With Chinese Official Amid Spy Balloon Furor  —  The meeting resumed diplomatic contact between Washington and Beijing that had been frozen since the U.S. shot down a Chinese spy balloon.  —  Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken held what American officials described …

Former president Jimmy Carter opts for home hospice care for final days  —  Jimmy Carter, at 98 the oldest living former president, has chosen to spend his final days at home in Plains, Ga., in hospice care after a series of brief hospital stays, the Carter Center announced Saturday.