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My story of working with Governor Cuomo — “Let's play strip poker.” — I should have been shocked by the Governor's crude comment, but I wasn't. — We were flying home from an October 2017 event in Western New York on his taxpayer-funded jet. He was seated facing me, so close our knees almost touched.
Discussion:
New York Daily News, Politico, Fox News, VICE, The Daily Beast, Washington Times and The Daily Caller
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The Andrew Cuomo Show Has Lost the Plot
Discussion:
YouGov, Washington Examiner and Sean Hannity
Karen Hinton / New York Daily News:
How to counter penis politics: What it's like to work for Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio
How to counter penis politics: What it's like to work for Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio
Discussion:
Mediaite

South Dakota AG pushed by critics to resign over new evidence in fatal car incident: ‘He knew what he hit and he lied’ — Days after South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg fatally struck a man while driving in September, detectives told the Republican official they had found a pair …
Discussion:
Law & Crime, Grand Forks Herald, CBS News, Talking Points Memo and Argus Leader
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New analyses show Johnson & Johnson's one-dose vaccine works well. — Johnson and Johnson's vaccine has a lower efficacy rate than the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, which are both around 95 percent. … But in South Africa, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is so far the clear winner.
Discussion:
National Review, HotAir, Virginia Mercury, Mother Jones and CBS News
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FDA review confirms safety and efficacy of single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, especially against severe cases — A Food and Drug Administration review released Wednesday of the single-shot coronavirus vaccine made by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson found it was safe …
Discussion:
Wall Street Journal, The Week, UPI, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, HotAir and Fox News

FDA staff endorses Johnson & Johnson's single-shot Covid vaccine for emergency use
Discussion:
Bloomberg, The Hill, Townhall, NBC New York, FOX31 Denver, Mercury News, The Guardian, KXAN-TV, Cyprus Mail, STAT, Grand Forks Herald, IJR, CBS Philly and New York Post
Sarah Owermohle / Politico:
FDA confirms J&J vaccine is safe and effective
FDA confirms J&J vaccine is safe and effective
Discussion:
CBS News, Washington Examiner, ABC News, NPR, Rolling Stone, Al Jazeera, The Verge and National Review

Biden's Stimulus Bill Is a $1.9 Trillion Clunker — Senate Republicans are eager to get aid where it's needed, reopen schools and encourage work. — Democrats are anxious for any excuse to blow up the Senate filibuster, the last procedural hurdle to one-party government.
Discussion:
Insider, Raw Story, Washington Post, Deseret News and Fox News
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First on CNN: Biden's Covid plan gets backing from more than 150 top business leaders
Discussion:
The Daily Caller
Katy Feinberg / Partnership for New York City:
New York Business Leaders Join National Support for Biden Stimulus Package
New York Business Leaders Join National Support for Biden Stimulus Package
Discussion:
CNBC, The Hill, Insider and CBS Philly

LGBT Identification Rises to 5.6% in Latest U.S. Estimate — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Gallup's latest update on lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender identification finds 5.6% of U.S. adults identifying as LGBT. The current estimate is up from 4.5% in Gallup's previous update based on 2017 data.
Discussion:
USA Today, NBC News, The 19th, LGBTQ Nation, PinkNews, Washington Examiner, Althouse, The Hill and National Review
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Samantha Schmidt / Washington Post:
1 in 6 Gen Z adults are LGBT. And this number could continue to grow.

Sen. Ted Cruz Piñatas Created at Dallas Party Store — First. it was former President Donald Trump, then U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders. — Now, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz has his own piñata courtesy of a Dallas party store. — Last week, Cruz sparked widespread outrage for flying …
Discussion:
Raw Story and Crooks and Liars
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Texas disaster puts Beto O'Rourke back in business
Discussion:
El Paso Times and HuffPost
Mary Grace Granados / Dallas Morning News:
Oak Cliff party store has a new political piñata depicting Ted Cruz on his way to Cancún
Oak Cliff party store has a new political piñata depicting Ted Cruz on his way to Cancún
Discussion:
The Hill and Political Wire

Scoop: Biden will call Saudi king ahead of damning report — President Biden plans to call Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Wednesday, ahead of the public release of a potentially damning intelligence report about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a source briefed on the call told Axios.
Discussion:
The Hill, Middle East Monitor, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera and The New Arab
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Jamal Khashoggi: Biden faces calls to ‘strike a blow’ for Saudi human rights — President Biden to call King Salman as his administration prepare to release intelligence report expected to implicate crown prince — Joe Biden is expected to call Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Wednesday …
Discussion:
CNN

Scoop: Senate committee postpones hearing for imperiled Tanden — The Senate Homeland Security Committee is postponing a confirmation hearing scheduled Wednesday for Neera Tanden, Axios has learned, a potential death knell for President Biden's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget.
Discussion:
American Prospect, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, GovExec.com, Politico, CNN, Reuters, ABC News, The Hill, Breitbart, Talking Points Memo and Raw Story
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MAGA's Moment of Weakness — Trump and his allies have been defeated, humiliated, and betrayed. It's time to sweep the leg. — “We're going to win so much, you're going to be so sick and tired of winning, you're going to come to me and go 'Please, please, we can't win anymore.' You'll say 'Please …
Discussion:
New York Magazine, New York Post, New York Times and Raw Story

Texas Electric Bills Were $28 Billion Higher Under Deregulation — Competition in the electricity-supply business promised reliable power at a more affordable cost — Texas's deregulated electricity market, which was supposed to provide reliable power at a lower price, left millions in the dark last week.
Discussion:
The Hill and Kevin Drum

Fanne Foxe, ‘Argentine Firecracker’ at center of D.C. sex scandal, dies at 84 — At about 2 a.m. Oct. 7, 1974, U.S. Park Police pulled over a silver-blue Lincoln Continental that had been swerving and speeding without headlights on near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington.

Life amid the ruins of QAnon: ‘I wanted my family back’ — An epidemic of conspiracy theories, fanned by social media and self-serving politicians, is tearing families apart. … She bought ammunition, camping gear, a water purifier and boxes of canned food.

It wasn't an ‘intelligence failure’ that left the Capitol Police unprepared - it was racism — Steven Sund, the disgraced former chief of the Capitol Police Department, was explicitly warned in a Jan. 3 memo from his own intelligence unit that thousands of desperate, violence-prone Trump supporters …
Discussion:
Fox News, Washington Post, Crooks and Liars, The Intellectualist, BizPac Review and The Week
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Jacqueline Alemany / Washington Post:
Power Up: What senators still want to know about Jan. 6 attack from defense and FBI leaders
Power Up: What senators still want to know about Jan. 6 attack from defense and FBI leaders
Discussion:
Politico, New York Times, The Week, CBS News and Raw Story

NY Prosecutors Are Looking at Don Jr. in Trump Biz Probe — The Daily Beast has learned that investigators have been asking questions in recent days about Trump's eldest son as they expand their criminal probe into Trump's business empire. … For months, some of Donald Trump's top advisers …
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, New York Times, Insider, Palmer Report and Political Wire

Judge bans enforcement of Biden's 100-day deportation pause — A federal judge has indefinitely banned President Joe Biden's administration from enforcing a 100-day moratorium on most deportations — Rep. Linda Sanchez on new immigration reform bill presented by Democrats

Major Trump backer Rebekah Mercer orchestrates Parler's second act — Mercer, whose family also invested in right-wing news site Breitbart, controls two of the three board seats at the company — When social media website Parler's founding CEO John Matze was pushed out last month …

Bruce Springsteen's Drunken-Driving Charges Dropped by Prosecutors — Musician's blood-alcohol level was under the legal limit, federal prosecutors say; Springsteen pleaded guilty to consuming alcohol in a closed area — Federal prosecutors in New Jersey said Wednesday …

New Omnibus Georgia Senate Proposal Would Severely Restrict Absentee Voting — Poll Worker in Bibb Co. looks over an absentee ballot — All but three Republicans in the Georgia Senate majority are cosponsoring a massive elections bill that would give Georgia one of the most restrictive absentee …
Discussion:
Mother Jones, Des Moines Register, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, mailchi.mp and Big League Politics

With Ashli Babbitt Killing Shrouded in Mystery, Capitol Officer Who Shot Her Is in Hiding for His Own Safety — All told, seven people died in connection with the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6. But only Ashli Babbitt's death was directly caused by violence that day.
Discussion:
Instapundit

McDonald's Secretive Intel Team Spies on ‘Fight for $15’ Workers, Internal Documents Show — McDonald's collects ‘strategic intelligence’ on workers advocating for a $15 minimum wage, including ‘how and where will FF$15 attack the brand.’ — For years, McDonald's has internally labeled activists …
Discussion:
Daily Kos, Popular Information and USA Today

Sheryl Sandberg and Top Facebook Execs Silenced an Enemy of Turkey to Prevent a Hit to the Company's Business — Amid a 2018 Turkish military campaign, Facebook ultimately sided with Turkey's demand to block the page of a mostly Kurdish militia. “I am fine with this,” Sandberg wrote.

Key Biden aide said pandemic was ‘best thing that ever happened to him’, book says — Anita Dunn said privately what aides ‘would never say in public’ — Cautious campaigning won Covid battle with Trump — A senior adviser to Democrat Joe Biden in his campaign for president believed …
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, The Blue State Conservative and Raw Story

How Screwed Is the Trump Hotel D.C.? — For three years, the lobby of the Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. was the hedonistic center of the MAGA-verse. The room glittered with chandeliers and the flashes of sabers slicing open champagne bottles (prefaced by the ringing of a bell to draw eyeballs to the spectacle).
Discussion:
Crooks and Liars and Raw Story

Tucker Carlson Says No White Supremacy at Riot—An Officer Says He Was Called Racial Slurs — Tucker Carlson has claimed that there is no evidence of white supremacy at the Capitol Riot on January 6—on the same day that a Capitol police officer said he was called racial slurs while defending the building during the insurrection.
Discussion:
The Daily Beast, Mock Paper Scissors and CNN

Top Florida Democrat makes 2022 play as DeSantis' stock rises — TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis' profile is growing, and Nikki Fried has noticed. — As DeSantis quickly becomes the national conservative media's favorite governor and basks in recent polling that his approval rating is above 50 percent …
Discussion:
Orlando Sentinel

Scoop: U.S. and Israel to convene strategic forum on Iran — The United States and Israel have elected to reconvene a strategic working group on Iran, with the first round of talks on intelligence surrounding the Iranian nuclear program expected in the coming days, Axios has learned.

Romney predicts Trump would win the 2024 G.O.P. nomination if he ran for president. — Senator Mitt Romney of Utah said on Tuesday that he believed Donald J. Trump would win the Republican nomination for president if he ran for his former office in 2024, another indication of Mr. Trump's perceived strength in the party.
Discussion:
Washington Examiner, Forbes, CNN, Politico, NBC News, National Review, TheBlaze, IJR, BizPac Review, Bloomberg, Disrn, CBS News, HuffPost, The Hill, New York Post and Washington Times

One America News clashes again with White House correspondents over Trump-approved camera tent — One America News, the upstart right-wing cable channel that was granted special status by the Trump White House, is clashing again with its mainstream colleagues on the presidential beat.

It violates free press rights to bring to trial a Des Moines Register reporter arrested while covering a protest — Editorial: The pending charges against a Register reporter who was arrested while covering a social justice protest last spring are a clear infringement on the freedom of the press.

Evangelical Leaders Condemn ‘Radicalized Christian Nationalism’ — A coalition of evangelical Christian leaders is condemning the role of “radicalized Christian nationalism” in feeding the political extremism that led to the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 by supporters of former President Trump.
Discussion:
The Guardian and Raw Story

The future of QAnon, explained by 8 experts — QAnon's prophecies failed to come true. Here's why the conspiracy theory will persist anyway. — If you're a hardcore QAnon believer, you had high hopes for January. — Among other things, you expected Donald Trump to remain president.
Discussion:
Raw Story

CNN exclusive: A solar panel in space is collecting energy that could one day be beamed to anywhere on Earth — (CNN)Scientists working for the Pentagon have successfully tested a solar panel the size of a pizza box in space, designed as a prototype for a future system to send electricity from space back to any point on Earth.
Discussion:
The Week