Media Matters reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been featuring anti-vaxxer Dr. Jon Ward at COVID-19 events as he positions himself for a 2024 presidential run. Ward said in a podcast appearance last year that Dr. Anthony “Fauci should face a firing squad” because of his work. Ward is a Florida dermatologist who, as Politico recently reported, has become “a …

NBC News reports: Nearly 1,300 flights within, to and from the United States were canceled Tuesday as an ice storm swept over parts of the South. The storm was concentrated in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, leaving the region hit the hardest with travel issues, with 374 flights canceled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, according to the online flight tracker …

Washington DC’s CBS affiliate reports: A federal judge revoked the pretrial release for a Navy reservist awaiting trial on charges stemming from the Jan. 6 Capitol riot last week following his conviction in Virginia for possessing unregistered silencers. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden ordered Hatchet Speed, of McLean, Virginia, back into custody on Friday after a jury in the Eastern …

The Washington Post reports: Embattled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) told House Republicans on Tuesday that he will step down from his committee assignments, according to a person familiar with the discussion. Santos, who has admitted to fabricating key parts of his background since his election in November, said in a closed-door meeting of House Republicans on Tuesday that he would …

Via email from the Family Research Council: As the Biden administration expanded the distribution of abortion-inducing drugs, 75 pro-life lawmakers have demanded the FDA take pills off the market altogether. “We call on the FDA to remove mifepristone from the market, or, at minimum, promptly restore and further strengthen the initial basic health and safety requirements for abortion drugs, and …

Via press release from GOP Rep. Bob Good: Congressman Bob Good (VA-05) has introduced the No Taxpayer Funding for the Chinese Communist Party Act, which requires the Attorney General to provide a report to Congress within one year of enactment on the extent to which Communist China has benefited from taxpayer funded research. “Americans’ hard-earned money should not be funding …

TMZ reports: Sen. Ted Cruz is standing his ground, refusing to apologize to Paul Pelosi for sharing conspiracy theories about the hammer attack … even after seeing the shocking police video of what went down. The Senator was at Reagan National Airport when we got his reaction to the body cam showing David DePape smash Pelosi in the head with …

Axios reports: A key House Republican is putting forward a plan to make the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) an independent agency outside the Department of Commerce. Removing the agency from a Cabinet-level department could diminish its clout when it comes to securing funding and weighing in on key policy decisions, former senior NOAA officials tell Axios. It would …

Mediaite reports: Far-right former Trump adviser turned podcast host, Steve Bannon, told his audience Monday “whatever you do, don’t send them any money” – referring to the Republican National Committee. Bannon, who ran former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and worked briefly in the White House, expressed concern over the RNC reelecting Ronna McDaniel as chair on Friday. Ahead …

Jacksonville’s PBS station reports: Duval teachers say they are being instructed to “cover or store” classroom libraries they have used for years to supplement their students’ reading. In what appears to be an internal training video obtained by WJCT News, the district’s chief academic officer, Paula Renfro, tells teachers to temporarily pull books from classrooms. Duval Schools confirmed to WJCT …

AccuWeather reports: An intense blast of Arctic air will barrel into the Northeast later this week to deliver quite a cold shock to the Northeast and neighboring Canada, AccuWeather meteorologists warn. For example, in Boston, after a high near 40 on Thursday, temperatures there will dip to 10 below zero on Saturday morning. “At peak during the outbreak from late …

The Daily Beast reports: The filing, which the campaign submitted on Monday to itemize its expenses over the last three months of 2022, shows that Ye paid Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes more than $9,000 for “travel reimbursement” on the same date in November that the rapper and Fuentes dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, accompanied by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos. …

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared. The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal …

The Washington Post reports: Arizona’s top election official has asked the attorney general to investigate Kari Lake, the Republican candidate who lost her bid for governor in 2022, over potential campaign violations involving the disclosure of voter signatures. The referral from Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) to Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) comes as Lake has doubled down on …

Media Matters has the transcript: The race riots of 2020 were never about George Floyd, obviously. That’s why there are no statues of him in American cities. They were about changing the country forever. The first step, of course, was defunding police departments across the country and forcing them to lower their standards to attract unqualified applicants: hiring officers based …

Reuters reports: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton must face an ethics lawsuit by state attorney regulators over a case he brought challenging results of the 2020 election, according to a court ruling posted on Monday. The ruling is a setback for Paxton, who had argued that his work as the top Texas state lawyer was beyond the reach of Texas …

Deadline Hollywood reports: Showtime will no longer be a stand-alone brand. Paramount Global revealed Monday that the company is rebranding the premium cable network as “Paramount+ with Showtime” as part of a wide-ranging change that also brings the two brands together in the streaming world. Later this year, Showtime, which already went through major changes last year with the departure …

The Hollywood Reporter reports: Cindy Williams, the energetic actress who appeared in a pair of Oscar best picture nominees before starring as the idealistic Shirley Feeney on the beloved ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley, has died. She was 75. Williams died in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a brief illness, her children, Zak and Emily Hudson, said in a statement …

ABC News reports: Bed Bath & Beyond told Nexstar Monday that it will be closing 87 additional stores, an announcement that comes days after the beleaguered home goods chain said it had defaulted on its loans. Bed Bath & Beyond said the closures are being done to increase efficiency as the company works with advisors to “consider multiple paths” as …

Courthouse News reports: Putting the social media of five Proud Boys front and center in their seditious conspiracy trial, prosecutors called an FBI agent to testify Monday in front of a series of poster boards with their activity on Parler. FBI Special Agent Kate Camiliere testified that the posts from a Parler monicker called NobleLead belonged to Enrique Tarrio, the …