Politics

The Houston Chronicle reports: Patience has apparently already run out for some Democrats waiting on Beto O’Rourke to announce whether he’ll run for president. A group of Democrats led by a key South Carolina Democrat and a TV actress have created a “Draft Beto” campaign with a goal of raising $1 million and setting up a grassroots network to help …

Forbes reports: Security lines at airports across the country are starting to grow long as nationwide action from TSA workers starts to take its toll. On Friday, CNN reported that the agency, which is responsible for operating security checkpoints at airports across the country, was suffering from staffing shortages as a function of the government shutdown. Starting on Sunday, the …

Remember back in 2017 when Trump claimed credit for zero jetliner crashes that year? Don’t expect him to own any that happen in 2019 because of something he actually did. Andrew LeBovidge, the leader of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, on Monday predicted that the partial government shutdown’s “ripple effect” may last months, “if not years,” for aviation safety …

The New York Times reports: President Trump announced on Monday that he would address the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday evening to discuss what he called the crisis at the southern border, and the White House said that later in the week he would travel to the border as part of his effort to persuade Americans of the …

The Hill reports: Actor Samuel L. Jackson on Sunday emphatically endorsed Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s (D-Mich.) impassioned call to impeach President Trump. Just hours after being sworn in as a new member of Congress on Thursday, Tlaib took a microphone at an event and told the crowd of supporters that “we’re going to go in and impeach the motherf—er” in a …

Via press release: Governor Ralph Northam today announced legislative proposals to remove barriers to voting and reform campaign finance laws. The package includes proposals to implement no-excuse absentee voting; repeal the requirement to show a photo ID to vote; limit large campaign contributions; ban direct contributions from corporations or businesses; and prohibit the personal use of campaign funds. “Participation makes …

Mediaite reports: While at least one elected Democrat has deployed Oedipal profanity in support of impeaching Trump, leaders like Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have adopted a wait-and-see-what-Mueller’s-got posture. But on Monday morning’s edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom, White House Director of Communications Mercedes Schlapp boldly declared that impeachment would fail. Schlapp touted Trump’s “accomplishments,” and said …

The Hawaii Civil Beat reports: Barack Obama is a little older and a little grayer. But at a speech at the East-West Center’s Hawaii Imin Conference Center Sunday evening, he sounded very much like the hope-and-change leader that vaulted him to the White House in 2008. Most of the problems in the world, he said, do not face technological or …

CNBC reports: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will not be on the bench on Monday to hear arguments in the first case brought to the high court since the 85-year-old underwent cancer surgery last month. Ginsburg has not missed a day of argument since President Bill Clinton appointed her to the bench in 1993. This is believed to be …

Politico reports: Democrats want to investigate the Trump Hotel deal and President Donald Trump’s taxes. They want to haul up conflicted Cabinet officials and dig into controversial changes to the census and food stamps. They want to put Education Secretary Betsy DeVos under oath and investigate child detentions at the border. The threat of subpoenas, investigations and oversight hearings will …

Reuters reports: WikiLeaks on Sunday advised journalists not to report 140 different “false and defamatory” statements about its founder Julian Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since June 2012. “There is a pervasive climate of inaccurate claims about WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, including purposeful fabrications planted in large and otherwise ‘reputable’ media outlets,” Wikileaks …

The New York Times reports: The “Dry Alabama” Facebook page, illustrated with stark images of car wrecks and videos of families ruined by drink, had a blunt message: Alcohol is the devil’s work, and the state should ban it entirely. Along with a companion Twitter feed, the Facebook page appeared to be the work of Baptist teetotalers who supported the …

CBS News reports: The partial government shutdown glided into its third week Saturday with no end in sight. If the government is not reopened before February, millions of Americans who receive benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — the nation’s food stamp program — could have their assistance disrupted. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees SNAP at …

From the editorial board of the Montpelier Times: Bernie Sanders should not run for president. In fact, we beg him not to. That is an unfavorable opinion, especially among most Vermonters and progressives who support the platform that has come to define him. But at this point, there are more things about another Sanders run at the White House that …

The Huffington Post reports: Former Canadian prime minister Kim Campbell provided some colourful commentary on U.S. politics, calling U.S. President Donald Trump a “motherf**ker” in a tweet Saturday. Campbell was reacting to a video clip of a reporter asking Trump what kind of safety net is in place for the hundreds of thousands of government workers left without pay if …

CBS News reports: Sen. Lindsey Grahm on Sunday said there will not be progress on negotiations to end the partial government shutdown “as long as the radical left is in charge.” “ICE is not the problem, it’s the solution,” Graham, a top ally of President Trump, said on Face the Nation. “The goal is to repair a damaged, broken immigration …

Inc.com reports: In a scorchingly fact-based letter to President Trump, the Air Line Pilots Association — which represents 61,000 pilots — used simple words. Its president, Captain Joe DePete wrote: “I am writing to urge you to take the necessary steps to immediately end the shutdown of government agencies that is adversely affecting the safety, security and efficiency of our …

NBC News reports: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Sunday that she would support holding a Senate vote on bills passed in the House to re-open parts of the government unrelated to negotiations over funding for President Trump’s wall along the southern border. Collins said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that she understands Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is in …

Politico reports: Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said Sunday that although President Trump uses coarse language at times, he is not to blame for “coarsening” public discourse. “I don’t think anybody in the country blames the president,” he told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I think there’s more important things than who is coarsening the language.” After …

The New York Times reports: Rear Adm. Kevin M. Sweeney has resigned his post as chief of staff to the United States secretary of defense, the Defense Department said late Saturday. Mr. Sweeney had become chief of staff to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in January 2017, and his resignation comes soon after Mr. Mattis’s own pointed departure in December. Mr. …