Top Items:
Reuters:
Exclusive: White House uses USAID funds for budget director Vought's security, documents show — The White House budget office is using millions of dollars from the former U.S. foreign aid agency to pay for the security detail of Russell Vought, President Donald Trump's budget chief …
Discussion:
New York Magazine, Mother Jones, Wonkette, MS NOW, The Independent, Crooked Media, Mediaite, Raw Story and The Moderate Voice
Washington Post:
White House, RFK Jr. shake up health leadership after controversies — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s health department is undergoing a major leadership overhaul. — The White House and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are shaking up the health department's leadership team ahead of the midterms …
Discussion:
Politico, MS NOW and Joe.My.God.
RELATED:
Joseph Choi / The Hill:
HHS shaking up top personnel to push Trump, MAHA priorities ahead of midterms — Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday announced a reshuffling of top staffers in his department as the Trump administration looks to shore up health wins that can boost GOP success in the upcoming midterms.
Washington Post:
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers — Documents released Thursday offer the most complete picture to date of the Trump administration's controversial and costly plan to overhaul immigrant detention using industrial buildings.
Discussion:
The Guardian, The Parnas Perspective, NOTUS, PennLive, Joe.My.God. and MS NOW
RELATED:
Brittany Gibson / Axios:
ICE reveals $38B plan for immigrant mega-jails
Discussion:
The National Pulse, NewsMax.com, Bloomberg and WBUR
Joseph De Avila / Wall Street Journal:
ICE Plans $38 Billion Expansion of Immigration Detention Facilities
ICE Plans $38 Billion Expansion of Immigration Detention Facilities
Discussion:
Reuters, New Republic and Project Salt Box
Carl Hulse / New York Times:
Congress Jets Off as D.H.S. Shuts Down — Despite a deadlock over funding for the agency, lawmakers left town and left Democratic and White House negotiators to try to work out a deal in their absence. — When a disruptive government shutdown nears, the Capitol is usually occupied …
Discussion:
Washington Post, UPI, The Hill, Salon, Townhall, New York Sun, FOX 10 Phoenix, Joe.My.God., CBS News, Tampa Free Press and Politico
RELATED:
Meg Kinnard / Associated Press:
What to know about the Homeland Security shutdown starting this weekend
Discussion:
Bloomberg, Politico, CBS News, Committee on Homeland Security, The Guardian, Fox News, New York Times, Washington Examiner and The Hill
G. Elliott Morris / Strength In Numbers:
Democrats have the leverage in the shutdown over ICE
Democrats have the leverage in the shutdown over ICE
Discussion:
GovExec.com, Al Jazeera, KARE-TV, Fox News, Christian Science Monitor, NOTUS, Data For Progress and Breitbart
Samuel Oakford / Washington Post:
The Don Lemon indictment: Video appears to contradict key claims — The former CNN anchor, now an independent journalist, faces criminal charges after covering a protest at a church in St. Paul last month — Video footage appears to contradict key aspects of a federal indictment's descriptions …
Discussion:
twitchy.com, The National Pulse, The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, NewsMax.com and NewsNation
RELATED:
Associated Press:
Feds investigating whether 2 ICE officers lied about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis — Federal authorities have opened a criminal probe into whether two immigration officers lied under oath about the shooting of a Venezuelan man in Minneapolis last month.
Discussion:
Straight Arrow News, CBS News, The Hill, NewsMax.com, Associated Press, KSTP-TV, The Independent, Raw Story, FOX 32 Chicago, KVIA-TV, Alpha News MN and Reuters
RELATED:
Politico:
ICE says federal agents appear to have lied about confrontation that led to shooting … Agents had initially said that two men — Alfredo Aljorna and Julio Sosa Celis - assaulted them with a broom and a shovel before one of them shot Sosa Celis. … Local law enforcement and prosecutors are also investigating the incident.
Discussion:
NOTUS, New York Post, Washington Examiner, The Hill, Mediaite, Truthout, New Republic and CBS News
Andrew Solender / Axios:
Dems tell DOJ to “immediately cease” Epstein files “spying” — A trio of top House Democrats wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi demanding that the Department of Justice “immediately cease” cataloguing members' searches of the unredacted Jeffrey Epstein files.
Discussion:
The Hill, Washington Examiner, Courthouse News Service, NewsMax.com, Techdirt, MS NOW, Semafor, ABC News, CNN, The Wrap and CNBC
RELATED:
Alexander Willis / Raw Story:
‘Later found dead’: Dem lawmaker flags explosive Trump allegation in Epstein files
Discussion:
New York Post
Josephine Walker / Axios:
MAGA-land demands Epstein answers after Bondi's hearing
MAGA-land demands Epstein answers after Bondi's hearing
Discussion:
New York Sun, The Hill, Media Matters for America, Crooks and Liars and The Status Kuo
Colby Smith / New York Times:
U.S. Inflation Eased at Start of the Year — Inflation in the United States eased at the start of 2026, providing a reprieve to the Federal Reserve as it contends with yet another year of consumer prices rising faster than the central bank's target. — Here is what the latest Consumer Price Index showed on Friday.
Discussion:
NBC News, The White House, The Washington Free Beacon, Wall Street Journal, The Daily Caller, CBS News, Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion, Liberty Street Economics, Jared's Substack, NewsMax.com, Washington Post, PBS NewsHour, Denver Post, The Hill, Florida's Voice, FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul, Independent Women, Townhall, twitchy.com, RedState, Newsweek, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Axios, NOTUS, The American Conservative and Semafor
RELATED:
C. Frances / The Intercept:
The Woman Alex Pretti Was Killed Trying to Defend Is an EMT. Federal Agents Stopped Her From Giving First Aid. — MINNEAPOLIS — The struggle that killed Alex Pretti began with a shove. It ended with gunshots. — In the final moments before he was shot and killed by federal authorities in Minneapolis …
Discussion:
New Republic
New York Times:
Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses — In an internal memo last year, Meta said the political tumult in the United States would distract critics from the feature's release. — Five years ago, Facebook shut down the facial recognition system for tagging people …
Discussion:
Electronic Frontier Foundation, Gizmodo, NextDraft, The Information, The Verge and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »
ProPublica:
What Meetings Among Trump Lawyers Reveal About the FBI's Seizure of Election Records in Georgia — The Missouri prosecutor overseeing an investigation into the 2020 vote in Fulton County, Georgia, has taken part in meetings since last fall with lawyers tasked by President Donald Trump to reinvestigate his loss to Joe Biden.
Discussion:
Public Notice, New York Magazine and Honolulu Star-Advertiser
The Athletic:
President Trump pardons Hall of Famer Joe Klecko and four other former NFL players — Share full article — President Donald Trump pardoned former NFL players Joe Klecko, Nate Newton, Jamal Lewis, Travis Henry and the late Billy Cannon on Thursday, according to White House pardon czar Alice Marie Johnson.
Discussion:
The Guardian, ESPN, TheGrio, New York Times, MLive.com, Breitbart, Washington Times, New Jersey Online, The Hill, Mediaite, NewsMax.com, Blaze Media, Fox News, OutKick and MS NOW
New York Times:
Homeland Security Wants Social Media Sites to Expose Anti-ICE Accounts — The department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment on Immigration and Customs Enforcement, officials and tech workers said.
Discussion:
Joe.My.God.
Paul Krugman:
The MAGA Bubble Is Imploding — Americans aren't buying Trumpist gaslighting about the economy … Attorney General Pam Bondi's meltdown on Wednesday while being questioned the House Judiciary Committee was exceptional, even by this administration's rock-bottom standards.
ProPublica:
“Not Ready for Prime Time.” A Federal Tool to Check Voter Citizenship Keeps Making Mistakes. — When county clerk Brianna Lennon got an email in November saying a newly expanded federal system had flagged 74 people on the county's voter roll as potential noncitizens, she was taken aback.
Discussion:
Democratic Erosion, New Republic and Truthout
New York Times:
‘I Just Want to Get Out of Here’: ICE Is Detaining Hundreds of Children … A 7-year-old in Oregon was seeking treatment for a nosebleed last month when immigration agents detained her and her parents outside a hospital emergency room. They were taken to a federal detention center in Texas for three weeks.
Discussion:
The Bulwark
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Ring cancels its partnership with Flock Safety after surveillance backlash — Following mounting pressure and a questionable Super Bowl ad, the Amazon-owned company walked back its plan to integrate with the controversial law-enforcement technology company.
Discussion:
Scripps News, Associated Press, flocksafety.com, The Hill, Business Insider, RedState, Ars Technica, Techdirt, The Ring Blog, KARE-TV, The Hollywood Reporter, CNBC, KVIA-TV, Reason, Gizmodo, Variety, TechCrunch, The Register, Futurism, UPI, Straight Arrow News, CBS News and Mashable, more at Techmeme »
New York Times:
Justice Department Sues Harvard for Admissions Records — The Trump administration appears to have renewed its pressure campaign against Harvard since President Trump backtracked this month on a possible settlement with the Ivy League school. — The Trump administration sued Harvard University on Friday …
Alex Isenstadt / Axios:
South Carolin's Mark Sanford eyes a comeback — Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is considering three paths to political redemption — a run for his old House seat, a campaign for the governor's mansion he once occupied or a primary bid against Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham.
Discussion:
NBC News
Collin Anderson / The Washington Free Beacon:
Former Penn President Liz Magill, Who Resigned in Disgrace After Disastrous Anti-Semitism Testimony, Named Dean of Georgetown Law — Liz Magill, the former University of Pennsylvania president who resigned in disgrace after arguing that calls for the genocide of Jews could be permissible under campus rules …
Discussion:
Georgetown University, Politico, Forbes, Above the Law and Jewish Insider
Financial Times:
Rubio skips Ukraine meeting with European leaders in Munich — US secretary of state cancels attendance at last minute in move that EU official calls ‘insane’ — US secretary of state Marco Rubio has skipped a meeting with European leaders on the war in Ukraine, in a move seen …
Discussion:
Fox News, Bloomberg, The Daily Signal, The Kyiv Independent, UPI, Washington Times, KVIA-TV, France 24, Reuters, NewsMax.com, Associated Press, CBS News, Radio Free Europe/Radio … and Politico
Jacob Owens / KVOA-TV:
Nanos pushes back on claims of withholding evidence in Guthrie case — TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) - Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos is pushing back on claims that he is withholding crucial evidence from the FBI in the Nancy Guthrie case. — Nanos denies the allegations, describing the report as “not even close to the truth.”
Jen Rice / Democracy Docket:
In victory for Democrats, Virginia Supreme Court says redistricting vote can go forward — In a big win for Virginia Democrats' efforts to counter President Donald Trump's GOP gerrymanders in other states, the Virginia Supreme Court said the state can hold its special election on the redistricting plan.
Discussion:
NBC News, New York Post, Associated Press, Fox News, NPR, RedState, Roll Call, Cardinal News, Washington Examiner, Blue Virginia and Election Law Blog
Associated Press:
Logistics giant DP World replaces chairman named in Jeffrey Epstein documents — Dubai has announced a new chairman for DP World, one of the world's largest logistics companies, replacing the outgoing head who was named in the Jeffrey Epstein documents. The announcement by the government's …
Finya Swai / Politico:
Trump pushes voter ID ‘whether approved by Congress or not!’ … Trump has been personally involved in efforts to tighten voter registration standards nationwide, backing the SAVE America Act — an updated GOP election bill that would overhaul federal voting rules.
Discussion:
Straight Arrow News, Democracy Docket, New York Times, CNBC, Scripps News, Fox News, The Gateway Pundit, Newsweek, NewsMax.com, CBS News and Boston.com
Meredith Lee Hill / Politico:
Meet the YOLO Republicans: Lawmakers with nothing to lose are threatening Trump's grip on Congress … When a vote to overturn his Canada levies came to the floor Wednesday, “I was in the cloakroom, and I heard people say, ‘I hate tariffs,’ and then voted” to leave them in place, Bacon recalled.
Discussion:
CNBC, Drezner's World and NewsNation
AP-NORC:
A majority disapprove of how Trump is handling Greenland — Twenty-four percent of adults approve of Trump's handling of Greenland; 72% disapprove. … The Trump administration's approach to Greenland is proving unpopular among U.S. adults, according to a new AP-NORC poll.
Discussion:
Associated Press, New Jersey Online, WNYW-TV, MeidasTouch News, No More Mister Nice Blog, Truthout, The Hill, Newsweek and The Dispatch
Nate Raymond / Reuters:
US judge orders Trump administration to facilitate deported college student's return — A U.S. federal judge on Friday ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Honduran college student who was deported in violation of a court order, a step the government had previously refused to take.
Discussion:
The Boston Globe, Associated Press, Al Jazeera, Raw Story and WBUR


