News

The Daily Beast reports: The Kremlin has long denied that it had anything to do with the infiltration of the NRA and the broader American conservative movement. A U.S. intelligence report reviewed by The Daily Beast tells a different story. Alexander Torshin, the Russian central bank official who spent years aggressively courting NRA leaders, briefed the Kremlin on his efforts …

The Wall Street Journal reports: PG&E Corp. said it will seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a day after the company’s CEO stepped down over the financial fallout spurred by the utility’s role in helping spark the California wildfires. The company and its wholly owned subsidiary, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., said they plan to file a petition on or around …

The Hill reports: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Sunday that he’s urged President Trump to open up the government for a short period of time so lawmakers can attempt to broker an end to the ongoing government shutdown, but was adamant that the president is “not going to give in” on his demands to fund a border wall. Graham said …

The Rochester Democrat reports: Gov. Andrew Cuomo has backed a plan to raise New York’s smoking age to 21, a proposal meant to curb tobacco use by teens and make the state the seventh to make the switch. The Democratic governor announced Saturday he would include the plan in his budget proposal, which he will unveil in full on Tuesday. …

Nature Magazine reports: Something strange is going on at the top of the world. Earth’s north magnetic pole has been skittering away from Canada and towards Siberia, driven by liquid iron sloshing within the planet’s core. The magnetic pole is moving so quickly that it has forced the world’s geomagnetism experts into a rare move. On 15 January, they are …

The Hill reports: Adult film star Stormy Daniels will attend the testimony next month of President Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen, her lawyer Michael Avenatti announced Friday. Cohen is scheduled to testify before the powerful House Oversight and Reform Committee on Feb. 7 and will face questions from Democrats on links between the Trump campaign and Russia and his …

Business Insider reports: President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who works as a White House adviser, is one of the names being considered as a replacement for The World Bank’s outgoing president, Jim Yong Kim, the Financial Times reported Friday. The DC-based World Bank, founded after World War II to finance economic-development projects in emerging economies, has traditionally been led …

The New York Post reports: President Trump on Saturday morning called his firing of former FBI Director James Comey “a great day for America.” The comment came in a tweetstorm voicing outrage over a recent New York Times report saying days after the May 2017 firing, the FBI opened an inquiry into whether Trump was “secretly working on behalf of …

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis removed Broward Sheriff Scott Israel from office Friday, replacing him after 10 months of turmoil spawned by the slaughter of 17 staff and students in Parkland. The governor replaced Israel with former Coral Springs Police Sgt. Gregory Tony, 40, who has a background in active-shooter training and becomes the first black sheriff …

Reuters reports: The House and Senate this week voted overwhelmingly to provide back pay to about 800,000 federal workers who are going without paychecks because of the partial government shutdown. But seven lawmakers — all House Republicans — opposed the measure. Those “no” votes came from Reps. Justin Amash (Mich.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Glen Grothman (Wis.), Thomas …

Forbes reports: Donald Trump sold an estimated $35 million worth of real estate while serving in the White House last year, according to a Forbes analysis of local property records and federal filings.  Although the president delegated day-to-day management of his assets to his sons Eric and Don Jr. upon taking office, he maintained ownership of his business, which continued …

Bloomberg reports: The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has sued the federal government for forcing its members to work without pay during the government shutdown. It’s at least the third lawsuit filed by government workers since the shutdown began 21 days ago. The air traffic controllers union is seeking a court order compelling the U.S. to account for all the …

The Washington Post reports: Tests revealed that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has no additional cancer following her surgery in December, and no further treatment is needed, the Supreme Court announced Friday. “Justice Ginsburg will continue to work from home next week and will participate in the consideration and decision of the cases on the basis of the briefs and the …

Politico reports: Rep. Mo Brooks on Friday defended the need for more border security, including a border wall, by comparing the situation along the nation’s southern border to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. “Let’s look at 9/11 by way of example. We lost 3,000 people more or less on 9/11,” Brooks (R-Ala.) said on CNN’s “New Day.” “That …

The Trace reports: The National Rifle Association appears to have illegally coordinated its political advertising with Republican candidates in at least three recent high-profile Senate races, according to Federal Communications Commission records. In Senate races in Missouri and Montana in 2018, and North Carolina in 2016, the gun group’s advertising blitzes on behalf of GOP candidates Josh Hawley, Matt Rosendale, …

The Miami Herald reports: With more federal security screeners refusing to work without pay, Miami International Airport plans to cut off access to one of its terminals over the weekend in order to send TSA workers to busier checkpoints, a spokesman said Thursday night. Closing of the security checkpoint at Terminal G is set to begin at 1 p.m. Saturday, …

The Hill reports: Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Thursday fired back at former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) who said he hopes she is not the future of the Democratic Party. Ocasio-Cortez fired back in a tweet asking, “New party, who dis?” Lieberman, a former Democrat who was the party’s vice presidential nominee in the 2000 election, argued that the New …

From the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal: With Democrats in Congress refusing to appropriate $5.7 billion for a border wall, President Trump now says he may declare a national emergency. He’s probably right that he has the legal authority, but it would set a bad precedent that conservatives who believe in the separation of powers could live to …

Roll Call reports: Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is lobbying his former colleagues to do more to study unidentified flying objects. “I personally don’t know if there exists little green men other places, I kind of doubt that, but I do believe that the information we have indicates we should do a lot more study,” the Nevada Democrat said. …

The Week reports: Throughout his campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed that America’s southern neighbor would stump up the money for the steel barrier. Between his announcement speech and the 2016 election, he declared 212 times that Mexico would pay for the wall, according to Factbase, which tracks all of Trump’s interviews, speeches and tweets. He then went on to argue that …