News

Already underway. The Washington Post reports: FBI Director Christopher A. Wray is appearing Tuesday morning before a Senate panel, where he is expected to field questions on security clearances for White House personnel and whether he remains confident in the independence of his agents. Wray is one of six top intelligence agency heads testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee for …

CNBC reports: The newspaper printing presses may have another decade of life in them, New York Times CEO Mark Thompson told CNBC on Monday. “I believe at least 10 years is what we can see in the U.S. for our print products,” Thompson said on “Power Lunch.” He said he’d like to have the print edition “survive and thrive as …

The Daily Beast reports: Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer is writing a book about his life and relationship with the president. According to a proposal shopped to multiple publishers and obtained by The Daily Beast, Michael Cohen’s book will likely be titled Trump Revolution: From The Tower to The White House, Understanding Donald J. Trump, and will focus on the …

Politico reports: President Donald Trump warned early Tuesday morning that the present round of immigration negotiations over the DACA program “will be our last chance” to reach an agreement on the issue and called for a bipartisan deal. Trump set off negotiations over DACA – an Obama-era program that shields undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children …

CBS News reports: In conversation with fellow “Big Brother” contestants on DACA and uptick in deportations of undocumented immigrants with the current administration, Omarosa Newman said it’s only “going to get worse.” “I’ve seen the plan,” she said. “The roundup plan is getting more and more aggressive. He’s a numbers guy. He wants to outdo his predecessors.” “As bad as …

Mother Jones reports: The Trump administration’s controversial pick to run the 2020 census has withdrawn from consideration to be deputy director of the US Census Bureau, according to sources close to the bureau. In November, Politico reported that the administration planned put Thomas Brunell, a political science professor who has defended Republican redistricting efforts in more than a dozen states, …

The BBC reports: The US president’s daughter-in-law, Vanessa Trump, has been taken to the hospital after opening an envelope containing white powder. The letter was addressed to Donald Trump Jr, Mr Trump’s eldest son, at his apartment in Manhattan. She and two other people at the scene were decontaminated by firefighters and taken to hospital for evaluation. The Secret Service …

NBC News reports: The Justice Department’s No. 3 attorney had been unhappy with her job for months before the department announced her departure on Friday, according to multiple sources close to Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand. Brand grew frustrated by vacancies at the department and feared she would be asked to oversee the Russia investigation, the sources said. She will …

The Associated Press reports: President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget for next year that heralds an era of $1 trillion-plus federal deficits and — unlike the plan he released last year — never comes close to promising a balanced ledger even after 10 years. The growing deficits reflect, in great part, the impact of last year’s tax overhaul, …

Reuters reports: Pyeongchang Winter Olympics organizers confirmed on Monday that the Games had fallen victim to a cyber attack during Friday’s opening ceremony, but they refused to reveal the source. The Games’ systems, including the internet and television services, were affected by the hack two days ago but organizers said it had not compromised any critical part of their operations. …

The International Business Times reports: Germany is celebrating its annual Rose Monday carnival in traditionally satirical fashion: with floats that feature huge, unflattering puppets of politicians. US President Donald Trump is the focus of much of the rude humour this year. A float in Düsseldorf depicts a naked Donald Trump being shafted by a gigantic brown bear with the slogan …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump is remaking the Republican economic playbook in his own image, abandoning ideological consistency in ­favor of a debt-busting strategy that will upend how Washington taxes and spends trillions of dollars each year. On Monday, Trump is slated to announce a new budget plan that will no longer seek to eliminate the deficit over the …

Common Dreams reports: Lissa Lucas traveled the 100 miles from her home in Cairo, West Virginia to the state capitol in Charleston Friday to testify against an oil and gas industry sponsored bill (HB 4268) that would allow companies to drill on minority mineral owners’ land without their consent. Lucas began to testify to the House Judiciary Committee, but a …

Agence France-Presse reports: A suspected poacher was mauled to death and eaten by a pack of lions close to the Kruger National Park in South Africa, police said Monday, adding that little was left of the victim’s body. The remains were found at the weekend in the bush at a private game park near Hoedspruit in the northern province of …

This morning Politico published an excerpt from Joshua Green’s new book, Devil’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Nationalist Uprising. If Trump quit or was impeached, Bannon told friends, it would eliminate the first great champion of Trumpism—but it wouldn’t be a negative judgment on the politics that had swept him into office. In such a scenario, who better …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration wants to turn the International Space Station into a kind of orbiting real estate venture run not by the government, but by private industry. The White House plans to stop funding the station after 2024, ending direct federal support of the orbiting laboratory. But it does not intend to abandon the orbiting laboratory …

Bloomberg reports: The amount of influenza ravaging the U.S. this year rivals levels normally seen when an altogether new virus emerges, decimating a vulnerable population that hasn’t had a chance to develop any defenses. It’s an unexpected phenomenon that public health experts are still trying to decode. The levels of influenza-like illnesses being reported now are as high as the …

Salt Lake City’s CBS affiliate reports: Former lawmaker Rep. Jon Stanard,(R-Dist. 62), who resigned from his position on Tuesday citing “immediate personal and family concerns,” met with a Salt Lake escort twice for sex. Stanard was elected to the Utah House of Representatives in 2012. He resides in St. George and is married with three children. The 43-year-old former state …

The Hill reports: In an interview with “The Late Show,” Lane, who is starring as Roy Cohn in the play “Angels in America,” told host Stephen Colbert that he thinks Trump learned a lot about how he acts today from the attorney, a famous “fixer” who mentored Trump. Cohn died in 1986. “Really, what you learn [from the play] is …

The New York Times reports: Rachel L. Brand, the No. 3 official at the Justice Department, plans to step down after nine months on the job as the country’s top law enforcement agency has been under attack by President Trump, according to two people briefed on her decision. Ms. Brand’s profile had risen in part because she is next in …