CNN/ORC Poll: Confidence drops in Trump transition  —  Washington (CNN)Donald Trump will become president Friday with an approval rating of just 40%, according to a new CNN/ORC Poll, the lowest of any recent president and 44 points below that of President Barack Obama, the 44th president.

How Repealing Portions of the Affordable Care Act Would Affect Health Insurance Coverage and Premiums  —  CBO reports on the estimated changes in health insurance coverage and premiums that would result from leaving the Affordable Care Act's insurance market reforms in place while repealing the law's mandate penalties and subsidies.

Putin Says Doesn't Believe Trump Met Prostitutes in Russia  —  Attacks on Trump seek to undermine election result, Putin says  —  Unsubstantiated claims are ‘obvious fabrications,’ Putin says  —  Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn't believe that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump met …

‘He Is Going to Test Our Democracy as It Has Never Been Tested’  —  Sometime early last fall, John Dean says he began having nightmares about a Trump presidency.  He would wake in the middle of the night, agitated and alarmed, struggling to calm his nerves.

LePage: Chellie Pingree should resign, John Lewis should thank white presidents  —  Republican Gov. Paul LePage had tough words Tuesday morning for Democratic U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree regarding her decision to skip President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday.

More Than 40 Democratic Lawmakers Are Boycotting Trump's Inauguration  —  The number of Democratic lawmakers refusing to attend Donald Trump's inauguration jumped significantly on Monday, with 42 House Democrats now planning to boycott Friday's ceremony, according to the Washington Post.

Betsy DeVos Wants to Use America's Schools to Build “God's Kingdom”  —  It's Christmastime in Holland, Michigan, and the northerly winds from Lake Macatawa bring a merciless chill to the small city covered in deep snow.  The sparkly lights on the trees in downtown luxury storefronts illuminate …

DisruptJ20 Releases Statement on Project Veritas Video — January 16, 2017  —  Contact: Lacy MacAuley, (202) 815-0288, lacymacauley@gmail.com  —  Legba Carrefour, (202) 297-4511, media@disruptj20.org  —  DisruptJ20 Releases Statement on Project Veritas Video

CIA Director John Brennan Rejects Donald Trump's Criticism  —  Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan rejected Donald Trump's suggestions that he may have leaked an unsubstantiated dossier on the president-elect while defending the U.S. intelligence community more broadly.

The Most Successful Democrat Since F.D.R.  —  When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, he understood, without quite saying it, that there had been no highly successful Democratic president in decades.  —  Bill Clinton made the country a better place, but his biggest legislative plans failed and he was beset by scandal.

Sources: Trump labor pick Andrew Puzder has voiced second thoughts about nomination  —  Washington (CNN)President-elect Donald Trump's choice to be labor secretary has voiced second thoughts in recent days, because of a relentless barrage of criticism from Democrats, labor unions and other liberal groups …

Lifelong Woodmont Country Club member resigns over Obama golf controversy  —  The mayor of a tony Maryland suburb resigned from a prominent golf club on Monday because the club might not welcome President Obama as a member.  —  Jeffrey Slavin, the mayor of the Montgomery County town of Somerset …

Trump's HHS pick doesn't want to flaunt his own Obamacare bill at confirmation hearing  —  (CNN)Tom Price made his name in Washington as a critic of Obamacare — in fact, he has a plan to dismantle it.  —  But he may not want to talk about that much when he testifies before Congress this week …

Hair stylist to Marla Maples: No free services in exchange for Inauguration Day ‘exposure’  —  Though Donald Trump and his family project an image of boundless wealth, a Washington-based hairstylist says the president-elect's second wife tried to get out of paying her to style her tresses …