Why Covid Death Rates Are Rising for Some Groups  —  The overall rate of Covid-19 deaths has declined since vaccines became widely available in April, yet nearly a quarter million people in the United States have died from the virus in the past eight months.

Trump Adviser Peter Navarro Lays Out How He and Bannon Planned to Overturn Biden's Electoral Win  —  “It started out perfectly.  At 1 p.m., Gosar and Cruz did exactly what was expected of them...” … A former Trump White House official says he and right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon …

CDC's New Isolation Guidance Treats Unvaccinated the Same as Un-boosted  —  The Centers for Disease Control has moved one step closer to changing the definition of fully vaccinated to include only those who have received a booster.  —  Earlier, I noted how the CDC arbitrarily halved its quarantine guidance from ten days to five.

The Peanut Butter Secret: A Lavish Tax Dodge for the Ultrawealthy  —  A tax break aimed at small businesses has become a popular way for Silicon Valley founders and investors to avoid taxes on their investment profits.  —  This is the story of the incredible cloning tax break.

EXCLUSIVE: There Was ANOTHER Rally Planned On Jan. 6 ... At The Supreme Court  —  The same people who organized Trump's fateful rally on the Ellipse had something else in store on Jan. 6: a rally planned in front of the Supreme Court.  —  The same people who organized Trump's fateful rally …

The Political Life of Dr. Oz … Dr. Oz for Senate is headquartered in a patch of strip mall next to a Mexican restaurant in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, where the candidate's father-in-law, Dr. Gerald Lemole, maintains a medical office down the road from the Lemole family farm …

Russian court orders oldest civil rights group Memorial to shut  —  Russia's Supreme Court has ordered the closure of International Memorial, Russia's oldest human rights group.  —  Memorial worked to recover the memory of the millions of innocent people executed, imprisoned or persecuted in the Soviet era.

U.S., Russia Set Schedule for Ukraine Talks in January  —  Russia has deployed 100,000 troops near Ukraine border, U.S. estimates, with no signs of de-escalation  —  WASHINGTON—The U.S. and Russia have agreed to hold security talks on Jan. 10, amid tensions over Russian forces deployed near Ukraine …

Not the Time for Measuring Drapes  —  This column by Eric Levitz has been generating some buzz.  Based on the congressional districts redrawn so far, the piece argues that “the new House map will be much less biased in the GOP's favor than the old one.”  The new map might even be “tilted, ever so slightly, in the Democrats' favor.”

It's Not Over for Joe Biden  —  Mr. Axelrod was a senior adviser to President Barack Obama and chief strategist for the 2008 and 2012 Obama presidential campaigns.  —  Joe Biden must be having flashbacks.  —  In early 2010, when Democrats lost a special election for the late Edward Kennedy's Senate seat …

Gunman kills four in Denver-area shooting spree before he is killed by police  —  A lone gunman shot four people to death and wounded three, including a police officer, on Monday in a Denver-area shooting spree that unfolded at several locations and ended with police killing the suspect, authorities said.

Antisemitic flyers found Christmas morning, spreading COVID conspiracies in Springfield  —  This Christmas Day, some Springfieldians woke up not to presents but to an antisemitic flyer.  —  The flyers were left at the front steps of houses in central Springfield sometime during the night of Christmas Eve.

The Democrats' Education Lunacies Will Bring Back Trump  —  Terry McAuliffe lost the Virginia governor's race by saying, “I don't think parents should be telling schools what to teach.”  If that was no gaffe, Democrats have a lot more significant losing ahead

Healthy, boosted people unlikely to develop severe omicron infections, but jury's out on older, at-risk populations  —  The new variant has sent U.S. infections soaring, but a smaller share than with delta are resulting in hospitalization.  —  Healthy individuals who have been vaccinated …