Newsom picks Laphonza Butler as Feinstein replacement  —  California's governor chose a labor leader turned power player to serve in the Senate, and an adviser told POLITICO there were no preconditions about whether she could run in 2024.  —  California Gov. Gavin Newsom …

Trump arrives at New York court for $250 million fraud trial  — The $250 million civil fraud trial that could see Donald Trump permanently banned from doing business in New York is set to begin.  — Trump arrived at Manhattan Supreme Court to attend the trial.

Supreme Court declines to consider longshot bid to disqualify Trump from running for president  —  The Supreme Court said Monday that it will not take up a longshot challenge to Donald Trump's eligibility to run for president because of his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

Matt Gaetz: 'Biden's Favorite Republican'  —  A vote to oust Speaker McCarthy would empower Democrats.  —  Kevin McCarthy chose the only option he had on Saturday to avoid a pointless government shutdown by seeking a bipartisan vote.  He succeeded, but now the GOP Jacobins who blocked …

Biden Plans Call With Allies to Reassure Support for Ukraine  — Call between allies could take place as early as tomorrow  — US Congress omitted $6 billion in aid from spending bill  —  President Joe Biden is planning to call allies to reassure them that US support for Ukraine will continue …

Play it again, Sam  —  Inside Bankman-Fried's last year in the crypto game  —  Most of the people who went to work for Sam Bankman-Fried ended up in jobs for which they were not obviously qualified, and Natalie Tien was no exception.  She'd been raised in Taiwan by middle-class parents whose …

Supreme Court denies Eastman petition, with rare recusal from Thomas  —  The Supreme Court on Monday denied an effort by lawyer John Eastman to appeal a ruling that found he may have acted criminally with the legal advice he gave former President Trump.  It spurred a rare recusal …

First on CNN: Fulton County DA subpoenas Trump ally Kerik to testify, and he wants immunity  —  The Fulton County district attorney's office has issued a subpoena to former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik to testify in the first trial later this month in the case stemming …

Meet Joe Biden's Newest Campaign Surrogates: The Republicans Who Hate Him  —  A Biden campaign strategy has turned Marjorie Taylor Greene, Ron DeSantis, and Nikki Haley into effective messengers for his reelection campaign  —  A Facebook icon representing an external link to share the article …

North Carolina Republicans create “secret police force”  —  North Carolina's new $300 billion state budget contains a provision that gives extraordinary investigative powers to a partisan oversight committee co-chaired by Senate Leader Phil Berger (R) and House Speaker Tim Moore (R).

Little Enthusiasm for 2024 Front-Runners  —  Voters much more likely to see Biden as too old than Trump  —  West Long Branch, NJ - There is not a lot of enthusiasm for either President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump becoming the major party nominees in 2024.

Putin's Next Target: U.S. Support for Ukraine, Officials Say  —  Russian spy agencies and new technologies could be used to push conspiracy theories, U.S. officials say.  —  Russia's strategy to win the war in Ukraine is to outlast the West.  —  But how does Vladimir Putin plan to do that?

Four SCOTUS cases to watch this term  —  The 2023-24 term starts today.  Let's break down some cases worth tracking. … The 2023-24 Supreme Court term starts today and we're staring down the barrel of nine months of decisions from a hyper-conservative majority.