The Raleigh News & Observer reports: Does former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory need protection? Do all current and former public officials? At least one state senator thinks so. After a video was posted on Facebook Friday showing a group of people following McCrory during a trip to Washington, D.C., for inaugural weekend, chanting “Shame!” and calling him a bigot, …

The Associated Press reports: A Nebraska state legislator known for his blunt, occasionally offensive manner, who was fined for having cybersex using a state computer, resigned Wednesday after he retweeted a comment that implied participants at a women’s march were too unattractive to be sexually assaulted. Republican Sen. Bill Kintner announced at a news conference in the state Capitol that …

CNN reports: President Donald Trump on Wednesday started to reshape US immigration enforcement policies via executive action, taking his first steps toward fulfilling some of the most contentious pledges that defined his campaign — building a border wall and punishing “sanctuary cities.” Trump signed what the White House described as executive orders that begin moving towards building a wall on …

From the Hollywood Reporter: Mary Tyler Moore, whose roles as a perky housewife on The Dick Van Dyke Show in the 1960s and as a spunky, single working woman in her eponymous ’70s sitcom made her America’s sweetheart, has died, her rep Mara Buxbaum confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. She was 80. Moore played opposite her TV persona and received …

Lock them up! Lock them up! Newsweek reports: Senior Trump administration staffers including Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner, Sean Spicer and Steve Bannon have active accounts on a Republican National Committee email system, Newsweek has learned. The system (rnchq.org) is the same one the George W. Bush administration was accused of using to evade transparency rules after claiming to have “lost” …

The Daily Beast reports: Someone at the U.S. Department of Defense has seemingly been studying the art of the subtweet. On the same morning President Donald Trump is expected to order a temporary ban on refugees, the department’s Twitter account posted a heartwarming story about an Iraqi refugee who enlisted as a Marine and went back to Iraq as part …

The Hill reports: President Trump’s chief strategist, Stephen Bannon, is dipping into Breitbart News to staff the White House. The hires give Bannon more loyalists in Trump’s West Wing, and also raise Breitbart’s profile and power. It comes as the conservative news organization, led by Bannon until last year, seeks to expand its influence in Washington and the world. One …

The Moscow Times reports: More than 70% of Russians believe that new U.S. President Donald Trump will be a competent head of state, a survey by state-backed pollster VTsIOM has revealed. Some 40 percent of respondents had high expectations for President Trump, while another 31 percent believed that he would be at least an “average” leader. Only 4 percent said …

Politico reports: An electrical contractor is suing President Donald Trump’s Washington hotel for $2 million over what the contractor contends are unpaid bills for “nonstop” work performed to open the luxury lodging at the Old Post Office Building last year. The suit filed in D.C. Superior Court by Laurel, Maryland-based AES Electrical, also known as Freestate Electrical, contends that the …

The Associated Press reports: An Idaho man has been charged with a federal hate crime after prosecutors said he lured a gay man to a remote location and then beat him to death. Kelly Schneider, 23, was indicted by a grand jury earlier this month, but the case was kept under seal until he was taken into federal custody, U.S. …

This morning multiple outlets are pointing to this story from yesterday’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune: One of the most powerful men in America happens to be a resident of Sarasota County. We think. His name is Stephen K. Bannon, the scruffy-faced senior adviser to our new president. Maybe you’ve heard of him. But has anyone actually seen him? In particular, has anyone …

Via Mediaite: White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer expressed to Sean Hannity tonight [last night] that he gets “frustrated” with liberal media “double standards” and a propensity to immediately assume he’s lying. Hannity spoke with Spicer about liberal bias in the press and WikiLeaks exposing communications between members of the press and the Clinton campaign, with Spicer saying that it’s …

The Daily Dot reports: As the Trump administration rapidly shuts down the lines of communication between federal agencies and the public, an anonymous Twitter account is upholding the ethos of the National Parks Service. @AltUSNatParkSer gained more than 170,000 followers overnight after the Badlands National Park Twitter account made headlines by tweeting and then deleting a series of climate change …

Charlotte’s ABC affiliate reports: An Indian Trail mother was shocked by a discovery she made on her medical history. Kristina Rodriguez said that after she had blood work done by her medical service provider, Lake Park Family Practice of Carolinas Healthcare System, she saw “lesbianism” listed under medical problems on her medical history record. “This listed as a medical problem …

The jokers behind YouTube’s popular Bad Lip Leading channel just released their take on the inauguration. Watch below as Trump, Obama, Bush, and members of the Supreme Court utter inanities. I won’t give any of the best lines, but the opening bit with Melania made me laugh the hardest.

The New York Daily News reports: Top Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway allegedly punched a tuxedo-clad man at an exclusive inauguration ball just hours after the new commander-in-chief was sworn in, according to a witness. Conway, who serves as President Trump’s senior counselor, apparently stepped between two men after they got into a scuffle at the invite-only Liberty Ball on Friday …

John Nolte left his years-long gig as Breitbart editor as part of the mass staff exodus in May 2016 following the Michelle Fields incident. Yesterday he wrote this for the Daily Wire: On this particular subject, I have been very clear since the beginning, since The Donald stepped out onto the political stage. And for the hard of hearing, let …

International Business Times reports: Kaspersky, Russia’s biggest cybersecurity firm, confirmed Wednesday its manager in charge of investigating hacking attacks, Ruslan Stoyanov, was arrested in December. Reports published earlier in Russia’s Kommersant newspaper also said Stoyanov was arrested along with a senior Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) intelligence officer, and that both faced charges of treason. Kaspersky spokeswoman Maria Shirokova reportedly …

Fortune reports: Big pharma isn’t planning on “going gentle into that good night.” The drug industry’s largest trade group and lobbying arm, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), launched an expansive new campaign Monday aimed at getting the public – and, critically, lawmakers – to sympathize with the increasingly maligned industry, which has been slammed left and right …

NBC News reports: First published in 1949, Orwell’s classic dystopian tale of a society in which facts are distorted and suppressed in a cloud of “newspeak” topped the best-seller list of Amazon as of Tuesday evening. The sales bump comes after the Trump administration’s assertions his inauguration had record attendance and his unfounded allegation that millions of illegal votes were …