February 16, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Texting the Insurrection. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "... thousands of ... frantic, ephemeral text messages that might have otherwise been lost to history are now key to piecing together the most vivid and comprehensive picture to date of the events surrounding the chaos at the Capitol. Many were sent to [former chief-of-staff Mark] Meadows by Fox News hosts, lawmakers and other Trump allies urging him to get his boss ... to put a halt to the assault. The texts, obtained by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault, are among the most important tools the panel has to bring home the gravity of what happened that day, the planning that preceded it and the concern for democracy that lingered in the aftermath -- even among some of Trump;s most loyal allies, who have since sought to play down the events of the day."

Matthew Brown of the AP: "Former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke misused his position to advance a development project in his Montana hometown and lied to an agency ethics official about his involvement, according to a report from federal investigators released Wednesday. The investigation by the Interior Department's inspector general found that Zinke continued working with a foundation on the commercial project in the community of Whitefish, Montana even after he committed upon taking office to breaking ties with the foundation.... Zinke is a candidate in the June Republican primary for an open Montana Congressional seat, a position he held prior to joining Trump's cabinet." The Washington Post's story is here.

A Florida Woman... Your Tax Dollars at Work. Vimal Patel & Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: A Florida woman used $10,000 of her Paycheck Protection pandemic relief check to hire a hit man. "The woman, Jasmine Martinez, 33, received the loan on April 20, 2021, two weeks before a man ... shot Le'Shonte Jones to death as she walked to her apartment building with her 3-year-old daughter, the Miami-Dade police said in an arrest warrant dated Feb. 9.... The police arrested Ms. Martinez and Romiel Robinson, a man Ms. Martinez was in a romantic relationship with, on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the killing of Ms. Jones, 24.... Miami-Dade police last week also announced the arrest of Javon Carter, an ex-convict who they believe to be the hit man. Mr. Carter was charged with first-degree murder and the attempted murder of Ms. Jones's daughter, who was grazed by bullets in the attack, the police said.... The police believe the shooting was the culmination of a long antagonism between the two women."

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Vladimir Isachenkov, et al., of the AP: "Russia said Wednesday it was returning more troops and weapons to bases, but NATO declared it saw no sign of a drawdown as fears that Moscow could invade Ukraine soon persisted.Russia has massed about 150,000 troops east, north and south of Ukraine, sparking Western concerns it was planning an attack."

Vladimir Isachenkov & Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the U.S. has 'not yet verified' Russia's claim that some of its forces have withdrawn from the Ukraine border and said an invasion of Ukraine remains a distinct possibility. Biden made the remarks at the White House hours after Russia announced that some units participating in military exercises near Ukraine's borders would begin returning to their bases. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier Tuesday said Russia was ready for talks with the United States and NATO on military transparency, missile deployment limits and other security issues. But Biden continued to express skepticism about Russia's intentions. Biden warned again that if Russia invades Ukraine the U.S. 'will rally the world to oppose its aggression.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times report is here. ~~~

~~~ President Biden addressed the nation -- and the world -- about the Russia/Ukraine crisis: ~~~

Paul Sonne & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "As Russian President Vladimir Putin sends mixed signals about his willingness to invade Ukraine, his military continues to undertake activities that appear designed not only to ready an offensive but to thwart any attempt by the United States and NATO to intervene, according to Western officials and analysts.... The Kremlin, said Samuel Charap, a Russia specialist and senior political scientist at the Rand Corp., is looking to 'abundantly disincentivize' the alliance even from contemplating coming to Ukraine's aid militarily."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is preparing strict new limits on pollution from buses, delivery vans, tractor-trailers and other heavy trucks, the first time tailpipe standards have been tightened for the biggest polluters on the road since 2001. The new federal regulations are drawn from truck pollution rules recently enacted by California and come as the Biden administration is moving to restore that state's legal authority to set auto emissions limits that are tighter than federal standards, according to two people familiar with the matter.... The developments represent a revival of California';s influence on the nation's climate and clean air policies, following four years in which ... Donald J. Trump waged legal, political, and, at times, seemingly personal battles with the state. The Trump administration had stripped away California's authority to institute its own vehicle pollution standards, power that the state had enjoyed for more than 40 years."

Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The Biden administration criticized China in a new report released Wednesday morning for failing to uphold a wide range of trade commitments, including promises it had made when it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001 and others in a trade deal signed with the Trump administration in 2020. In its annual assessment of China's compliance with its obligations to the W.T.O., the Office of the United States Trade Representative excoriated the Chinese government for flouting the global trade body's rules and its transparent, market-oriented approach. Instead, China expanded its state-led approach to its economy and trade, causing serious harm to workers and businesses around the world, particularly in industries targeted by its industrial plans, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, said in a statement." The report, via the U.S. Trade Rep, is here.

From the Halls of Montezuma. Emily Green of Vice: "... more than a dozen Marines in the 1st Marine Division at Camp Pendleton ... started smuggling migrants into the U.S. in the spring and summer of 2019 -- even while thousands of their fellow Marines were deployed to the border to shore up security. At their peak, according to court records, they were going on multiple runs a week.... With their closely trimmed hair, clean-cut look, Marine Corps stickers on their cars, and uniform caps on their dashboards, the Marines made the perfect smugglers precisely because no one would ever suspect them. They picked up migrants just north of the U.S. border and transported them 100 miles into the interior of the country in the last and arguably most precarious leg of the smuggling journey.... The smuggling ring at Camp Pendleton underscores the widespread recruitment of military members and Border Patrol into the billion-dollar criminal industry."

Christina Jewett & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate on Tuesday narrowly confirmed Dr. Robert Califf as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, a key federal agency that has been without a permanent chief for more than a yearlong stretch of the coronavirus pandemic. The vote was 50-to-46, with six Republicans crossing the aisle to support him while five Democrats opposed him. One senator voted present. In recent weeks, Dr. Califf's odds of a second confirmation looked increasingly long as opposition mounted over concerns about how he would respond to the opioid epidemic and the agency's handling of abortion drug rules. The White House responded by trying to rally support in Congress and among other allies, with mainstream medical societies and a bipartisan group of six former F.D.A. commissioners coming to Dr. Califf's defense.... Senators in both parties, ranging from liberal Democrats leery of his ties to the pharmaceutical industry to conservative Republicans in lock step with the anti-abortion movement, posed formidable opposition." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee boycotted and delayed a Tuesday vote on the White House's nominees for the Federal Reserve to try to slow the confirmation process and thwart the candidacy of President Biden's pick for banking regulator. The GOP opposition has coalesced on Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Federal Reserve governor who has pledged to focus on the ways climate change threatens financial stability and the overall economy.... Despite the focus on Raskin, Tuesday's boycott halts progress on filling vacancies on the seven-seat Federal Reserve Board, including the confirmation process for Biden's renomination of Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell, who has broad support among Republicans and Democrats.... Republicans can block votes from happening in Senate committees, which are ... divided evenly between the parties, by refusing to attend, thus denying a quorum." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "President Biden is opposing another effort by ... Donald J. Trump to withhold information from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, ordering the National Archives to hand over White House visitor logs the committee is seeking. In a letter to the National Archives, Mr. Biden's White House counsel, Dana Remus, said Mr. Biden had rejected Mr. Trump's claims that the visitor logs were subject to executive privilege and that 'in light of the urgency' of the committee's work, the agency should provide the material to the committee within 15 days." The AP's report is here.

Co-conspirators Subpoenaed. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol subpoenaed two of Donald J. Trump's campaign aides and Republican Party officials from battleground states on Tuesday as it dug deeper into a plan to use false slates of electors to help the former president stay in office after he lost the 2020 election. Among those subpoenaed on Tuesday were Michael A. Roman and Gary Michael Brown, who served as the director and the deputy director of Election Day operations for Mr. Trump's campaign. The panel also summoned Douglas V. Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator; Laura Cox, the former chairwoman of Michigan's Republican Party; Mark W. Finchem, an Arizona state legislator; and Kelli Ward, the chairwoman of Arizona's Republican Party. In letters accompanying the subpoenas, the committee said it had obtained communications that showed Mr. Roman's and Mr. Brown's 'involvement in a coordinated strategy to contact Republican members of state legislatures in certain states that former President Trump had lost and urge them to 'reclaim' their authority by sending an alternate slate of electors that would support former President Trump.'"

“Spygate” 3.0. Steve Benen of MSNBC: "On Saturday, [Donald] Trump issued a written statement claiming that [special prosecutor forever] Robert [MB: sic.] Durham has presented 'indisputable evidence that my campaign and presidency were spied on by operatives paid by the Hillary Clinton Campaign.' The former president's statement added that the controversy, such as it is, should be seen as 'far greater' than Watergate, adding, 'In a stronger period of time in our country, this crime would have been punishable by death.'... A day later, Trump issued another statement, repeating the 'spying' claim. Then he issued another statement. And then another.... As is often the case, the trouble is that Trump doesn't understand the story that sparked his tantrum.... In 2018, after ... [Trump] said the FBI had spied on his campaign, GOP lawmakers made clear they wanted nothing to do with Trump's nonsense. This week, congressional Republicans are taking the fake scandal very seriously." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Another major problem I see with Trump's latest crazy uncle story is the violence he attaches to it. In Spygate's original iteration, I think all we heard was that "Obama tapped my wires." Now, we're reading that Clinton (or her campaign staff, but certainly at her diabolical direction) has committed a capital offense. Some Trumpbot will want to assert his Second Amendment right to take the law into his own hands in defense of the Dear Leader. We've gone from laughable, or at least snicker-worthy, to dangerous. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's some more detailed background on the story by Alexander Mallin & Jack Date of ABC News.

Rick Rojas & Karen Zraick of the New York Times: "Families of people killed in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., said on Tuesday that they had reached a $73 million settlement in their lawsuit against the maker of the AR-15-style weapon the gunman used in the attack. The agreement, reached with the families of five children and four adults who were killed, appears to be the largest such settlement involving a gun maker and relatives of mass shooting victims. It also represents a significant setback to the firearm industry because the lawsuit, by employing a novel strategy, pierced the vast shield enshrined in federal law protecting gun companies from litigation. The families contended that Remington, the gun maker, violated state consumer law by promoting the weapon in a way that appealed to so-called couch commandoes and troubled young men like the gunman who stormed into the elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 20 first graders and six adults in a spray of gunfire." An ABC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Prince Andrew, the disgraced second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who had accused him of raping her when she was a teenage victim of Andrew's friend, the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new court filing in Manhattan on Tuesday. The amount that Andrew, 61, will pay Ms. Giuffre is confidential, the parties said in a joint statement attached to the filing. Andrew also 'intends to make a substantial donation' to a charity 'in support of victims' rights,' the statement says. The deal comes just weeks before Andrew was scheduled to sit for a deposition, in which he would have been questioned under oath by Ms. Giuffre's lawyers. Andrew did not admit to any of Ms. Giuffre's accusations against him in the statement announcing the settlement." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Elahi Izadi & Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post: "A jury ruled against [link fixed] Sarah Palin in her libel case against the New York Times, one day after the judge said he would toss out her claim, saying she had not met the high legal standard required in libel cases involving public figures and journalists.The jury's decision conforms with the one made by U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff. On Monday, he told lawyers for Palin and the Times that he would formally dismiss the former Alaska governor's claim once the jury returned its verdict." A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) MB: It's heartening to read that a jury of ordinary people is able to understand how to apply the First Amendment.

Nomaan Merchant of the AP: "U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news website with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies. The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia.... In a response posted online Tuesday morning, the website said it 'has never worked, collaborated or cooperated with Russia, nor are there any links to spy agencies.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't know much about economics, but I have long been skeptical of Zero Hedge, tho certainly not because I suspected they were publishing Russian propaganda. Some Reality Chex readers have occasionally recommended opinion pieces they found on Zero Hedge, and I've left my response at "Uh-huh."

Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "CNN executive Allison Gollust has resigned following the conclusion of an investigation into the behavior of the network's former star anchor Chris Cuomo that led to his firing and the forced departure of President Jeff Zucker earlier this month. Her departure was announced Tuesday night in a memo to CNN employees from Jason Kilar, chief executive of parent company WarnerMedia, who said that interviews conducted for the investigation and 'a review of over 100,000 texts and emails' found violations of company policy by Gollust, CNN Worldwide's executive vice president and chief marketing officer, as well as Cuomo and Zucker &-- but did not specify what they were.... While being questioned as part of that investigation, Zucker and Gollust acknowledged that they had started a romantic relationship -- but had not properly disclosed it, a violation of WarnerMedia policies. Just before the memo was made public, the New York Times reported new details about a sexual misconduct claim that apparently hastened Cuomo's firing, though little information was made public about it in December." ~~~

~~~ Sex, Assault. Bad Judgment & CNN Big Shots. Emily Steel & other New York Times reporters decipher how Zucker, Gollast & Cuomo lost their CNN jobs. Oh, and besides bringing us President* Trump, Zucker also made a star of that reprobate Joe Rogan. Bear in mind that these disreputable characters are among the people who are ultimately responsible for what passes to the American public as news.

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "A middle-aged, mixed-race woman is the third patient to be potentially cured of HIV, with the virus in long-term remission four years after she received a transplant of stem cells harvested from an infant's umbilical cord blood, scientists said Tuesday. The new case, reported at the annual meeting of the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection, is the first time the transplant approach has been successfully reported in a mixed-race woman, an advance that reinforces the exciting concept that an HIV cure may be possible in a wider array of people by using cord blood."

Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "Sea levels along the coastal United States will rise by about a foot or more on average by 2050, government scientists said Tuesday, with the result that rising water now considered 'nuisance flooding' will become far more damaging. A report by researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other agencies also found that, at the current rate of warming, at least two feet of sea-level rise is expected by the end of the century."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.

Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The United States has recorded more than 1 million 'excess deaths' since the start of the pandemic, government mortality statistics show, a toll that exceeds the officially documented lethality of the coronavirus and captures the broad consequences of the health crisis that has entered its third year. The excess-deaths figure surpassed the milestone last week, reaching 1,023,916, according to Robert Anderson, chief of the mortality statistics branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. The center updates its estimate weekly. Although the vast majority of the excess deaths are due to the virus, the CDC mortality records also expose swollen numbers of deaths from heart disease, hypertension, dementia and other ailments across two years of pandemic misery."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Timothy Johnson of Media Matters: "Ben Marble, a medical doctor who recently spoke at a Capitol Hill event held by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), made a deranged appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' broadcast where he said the COVID-19 pandemic could be ended by killing several government officials and public figures and bombing the next meeting of the World Economic Forum. Marble said the following people deserve to die and that if he was the U.S. president he would have them killed: financier and philanthropist George Soros, World Economic Forum head Klaus Schwab, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, presidential medical adviser Anthony Fauci, and 'a few others.' Then saying that 'the job of soldiers during war is to arrest and/or kill the enemy,' Marble repeated the previous names, along with President Joe Biden's and Vice President Kamala Harris'."

Canada. Andy Blatchford of Politico: "Ottawa's police chief has resigned on day 19 of a trucker protest in the core of Canada's capital city. Since the start of the crisis, Peter Sloly and his department have come under fire from city councilors and Ottawa residents for failing to respond decisively to demonstrations that have attracted global attention.... The demonstrations have tormented local residents, who have started to push back with counter protests. Many have complained about their evaporating faith in Ottawa;s police force and in Canada's public institutions in general." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Organizng for Chaos. Sarah Nir & Natalie Kitroeff of the New York Times: "... High above the clot of trucks on Ottawa's Parliament Hill, in hotel rooms just out of the fray, are the war rooms behind the operation. From them, a team of self-appointed leaders, some with military and right-wing organizing backgrounds, have orchestrated a disciplined and highly coordinated occupation. They have spent the weeks huddling in conference rooms and streaming their own news conferences on social media platforms from hotel lobbies. It is a crew that includes former law enforcement officers, military veterans and conservative organizers, a sometimes fractious collaboration that has nonetheless helped to coalesce a demonstration against vaccine mandates into a force that has destabilized the city and sent shock waves throughout Canada. And while the main blockade that had crippled trade and stalled commercial traffic for nearly a week at the main border crossing between Canada and the United States reopened this week, the protesters in Ottawa largely haven't budged." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Maybe you think rich people are so well-educated & "together" that they would never support a bunch of unruly, misguided mothertruckers aiming to disrupt a foreign capital & important U.S. trade routes in the cause of protesting rules designed to mitigate a deadly virus. Think again, people! ~~~

~~~ Aaron Davis, et al., of the Washington Post: "Residents in wealthy enclaves across the United States -- from Beverly Hills, Calif., to suburbs of Austin, to Florida beach communities -- sent millions of dollars to support trucker convoys that occupied the Canadian capital and shut down commerce at key border crossings between the two nations, according to a Washington Post analysis of leaked fundraising data posted online over the past 48 hours. The richer an American community was, the more likely residents there were to donate, and the biggest number of contributions often came from communities where registered Republicans made up solid majorities...."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Gregory Krieg of CNN: "Three San Francisco School Board members were removed from their positions by voters on Tuesday, CNN projects, following a tough recall campaign that pitted Democrats against Democrats as interlocking controversies over school closings and renamings fueled a well-funded backlash. More than 70% of voters supported the recall of School Board President Gabriela López, Vice President Faauuga Moliga and Commissioner Alison Collins as of Wednesday morning, according to preliminary results from the San Francisco Department of Elections. Their temporary replacements will be named by Mayor London Breed, a Democrat who in announcing her support for the recall last year said the city was at a 'crossroads' and called the board's priorities 'severely misplaced.'... The seeds of anger that led to the recall effort were planted early in the coronavirus pandemic, when the board considered changing the names of as many as 44 public schools in a city that was still grappling with how to safely reopen them."

Georgia. Murder Was of the Essence of the Scheme. Tariro Mzezewa & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Prosecutors in the hate crimes trial of Ahmaud Arbery's pursuers on Tuesday focused on showing the ways in which the government believes that the defendants' racism manifested itself on the day Mr. Arbery was murdered -- including the fact that they did not try to help him as he lay dying in the street.... In opening statements on Monday, Bobbi Bernstein, a Justice Department lawyer, told jurors about ugly and explicit expressions of racism the men had used at other times in their lives."

Kentucky. Andrew Wolfson of the Louisville Courier Journal: "A Louisville activist has been identified as a suspect in Monday's attempted shooting of mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. Quintez Brown, 21, was charged with attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment after Greenberg was shot at in his campaign headquarters Monday morning in Butchertown, LMPD spokeswoman Elizabeth Ruoff said late Monday. Brown, a civil rights activist, is a former intern and editorial columnist for The Courier Journal.... Brown was an MLK Scholar at [the University of Louisville] and is the founder of From Fields to Arena, a group committed to providing political education and violence prevention training to youths engaged in hip-hop and athletics.... He recently announced he would run for Metro Council in District 5." Related story linked below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

New York Congressional Race. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Rep. Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) said Tuesday that she would not seek reelection, becoming the 30th House Democrat to announce a planned exit from the chamber ahead of what could be bruising midterm elections for their party in November." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ohio. Sex & the Ice Fisherman. Andrea Sacedo & Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "A debate about a local ban on ice fishing took a viral turn last week when an Ohio mayor wondered about long-term consequences. Opening Hudson Springs Lake to ice fishing sounds good 'on the surface,' Hudson Mayor Craig Shubert said at a Feb. 8 council meeting, but what if people wanted to fish out of shanties? 'Then that leads to another problem: prostitution,' he said. 'And now you've got the police chief and the police department involved.' Online derision followed. So did criticism from colleagues. Hudson City Councilwoman Nicole Kowalski said people were upset that Shubert 'continually embarrasses our town with wild claims.' On Monday, Shubert resigned."

Way Beyond

Honduras. A Former President in Shackles. Joan Suazo & Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: "Honduran authorities detained former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández on Tuesday to potentially face extradition and drug charges in the United States, capping a spectacular downfall for one of Central America's most powerful men. Mr. Hernández, who led the country for eight years and stepped down less than a month ago, was escorted by security officers from his home, wearing a bulletproof vest and shackles that bound him hand and foot." MB: If only it could happen here.

News Ledes

CNN's liveblog of developments & results in the Olympics is here. The AP's live updates are here.

February 15, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Vladimir Isachenkov & Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Tuesday said the U.S. has 'not yet verified' Russia's claim that some of its forces have withdrawn from the Ukraine border and said an invasion of Ukraine remains a distinct possibility. Biden made the remarks at the White House hours after Russia announced that some units participating in military exercises near Ukraine's borders would begin returning to their bases. Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier Tuesday said Russia was ready for talks with the United States and NATO on military transparency, missile deployment limits and other security issues. But Biden continued to express skepticism about Russia's intentions. Biden warned again that if Russia invades Ukraine the U.S. 'will rally the world to oppose its aggression.'" ~~~

~~~ President Biden addressed the nation -- and the world -- about the Russia/Ukraine crisis:

Christina Jewett & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate on Tuesday narrowly confirmed Dr. Robert Califf as commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, a key federal agency that has been without a permanent chief for more than a yearlong stretch of the coronavirus pandemic. The vote was 50-to-46, with six Republicans crossing the aisle to support him while five Democrats opposed him. One senator voted present. In recent weeks, Dr. Califf's odds of a second confirmation looked increasingly long as opposition mounted over concerns about how he would respond to the opioid epidemic and the agency's handling of abortion drug rules. The White House responded by trying to rally support in Congress and among other allies, with mainstream medical societies and a bipartisan group of six former F.D.A. commissioners coming to Dr. Califf's defense.... Senators in both parties, ranging from liberal Democrats leery of his ties to the pharmaceutical industry to conservative Republicans in lock step with the anti-abortion movement, posed formidable opposition."

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Republicans on the Senate Banking Committee boycotted and delayed a Tuesday vote on the White House;s nominees for the Federal Reserve to try to slow the confirmation process and thwart the candidacy of President Biden's pick for banking regulator. The GOP opposition has coalesced on Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Federal Reserve governor who has pledged to focus on the ways climate change threatens financial stability and the overall economy.... Despite the focus on Raskin, Tuesday's boycott halts progress on filling vacancies on the seven-seat Federal Reserve Board, including the confirmation process for Biden's renomination of Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell, who has broad support among Republicans and Democrats.... Republicans can block votes from happening in Senate committees, which are ... divided evenly between the parties, by refusing to attend, thus denying a quorum."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Rep. Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) said Tuesday that she would not seek reelection, becoming the 30th House Democrat to announce a planned exit from the chamber ahead of what could be bruising midterm elections for their party in November." Politico's story is here.

Elahi Izadi & Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post: "A jury ruled against [link fixed] Sarah Palin in her libel case against the New York Times, one day after the judge said he would toss out her claim, saying she had not met the high legal standard required in libel cases involving public figures and journalists. The jury's decision conforms with the one made by U.S. District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff. On Monday, he told lawyers for Palin and the Times that he would formally dismiss the former Alaska governor's claim once the jury returned its verdict." At 3 pm ET, this is a breaking story that will be updated. A Politico item is here.

Rick Rojas & Karen Zraick of the New York Times: "Families of people killed in the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., said on Tuesday that they had reached a $73 million settlement in their lawsuit against the maker of the AR-15-style weapon the gunman used in the attack. The agreement, reached with the families of five children and four adults who were killed, appears to be the largest such settlement involving a gun maker and relatives of mass shooting victims. It also represents a significant setback to the firearm industry because the lawsuit, by employing a novel strategy, pierced the vast shield enshrined in federal law protecting gun companies from litigation. The families contended that Remington, the gun maker, violated state consumer law by promoting the weapon in a way that appealed to so-called couch commandoes and troubled young men like the gunman who stormed into the elementary school on Dec. 14, 2012, killing 20 first graders and six adults in a spray of gunfire." An ABC News story is here.

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Prince Andrew, the disgraced second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who had accused him of raping her when she was a teenage victim of Andrew's friend, the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new court filing in Manhattan on Tuesday. The amount that Andrew, 61, will pay Ms. Giuffre is confidential, the parties said in a joint statement attached to the filing. Andrew also 'intends to make a substantial donation' to a charity 'in support of victims' rights,' the statement says. The deal comes just weeks before Andrew was scheduled to sit for a deposition, in which he would have been questioned under oath by Ms. Giuffre's lawyers. Andrew did not admit to any of Ms. Giuffre's accusations against him in the statement announcing the settlement." CNN's report is here.

Nomaan Merchant of the AP: "U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday accused a conservative financial news website with a significant American readership of amplifying Kremlin propaganda and alleged five media outlets targeting Ukrainians have taken direction from Russian spies. The officials said Zero Hedge, which has 1.2 million Twitter followers, published articles created by Moscow-controlled media that were then shared by outlets and people unaware of their nexus to Russian intelligence. The officials did not say whether they thought Zero Hedge knew of any links to spy agencies and did not allege direct links between the website and Russia.... In a response posted online Tuesday morning, the website said it 'has never worked, collaborated or cooperated with Russia, nor are there any links to spy agencies.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't know much about economics, but I have long been skeptical of Zero Hedge, tho certainly not because I suspected they were publishing Russian propaganda. Some Reality Chex readers have occasionally recommended opinion pieces they found on Zero Hedge, and I've left my response at "Uh-huh."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here.

Canada. Andy Blatchford of Politico: "Ottawa's police chief has resigned on day 19 of a trucker protest in the core of Canada's capital city. Since the start of the crisis, Peter Sloly and his department have come under fire from city councilors and Ottawa residents for failing to respond decisively to demonstrations that have attracted global attention.... The demonstrations have tormented local residents, who have started to push back with counter protests. Many have complained about their evaporating faith in Ottawa;s police force and in Canada's public institutions in general."

Kentucky. Andrew Wolfson of the Louisville Courier Journal: "A Louisville activist has been identified as a suspect in Monday's attempted shooting of mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. Quintez Brown, 21, was charged with attempted murder and four counts of wanton endangerment after Greenberg was shot at in his campaign headquarters Monday morning in Butchertown, LMPD spokeswoman Elizabeth Ruoff said late Monday. Brown, a civil rights activist, is a former intern and editorial columnist for The Courier Journal.... Brown was an MLK Scholar at [the University of Louisville] and is the founder of From Fields to Arena, a group committed to providing political education and violence prevention training to youths engaged in hip-hop and athletics.... He recently announced he would run for Metro Council in District 5." Related story linked below.

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Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday he sees reason for 'cautious optimism' after Moscow signaled willingness to continue talks to resolve the crisis over Ukraine, and Russia said some of its troops were returning to base. But the NATO chief noted no signs of Russian de-escalation 'on the ground.'" Politico's story is here.

Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said that he has been informed that Russia will attack on Wednesday. The comments from the Ukrainian leader [were] made in an address to his nation posted on Facebook.... Zelensky wrote in a statement on Facebook that Ukraine will hold a Day of Unity on Wednesday. He said the relevant decree has already been signed. 'We are told that February 16 will be the day of the attack,' he said, according to a Facebook translation of his comments." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Alexander Smith of NBC News: "Hours after he issued a global statement saying he had heard Russia would attack his country on Feb. 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a clarification of his prediction Monday, explaining that he was referring only to media reports of a possible attack." ~~~

~~~ David Martin of CBS News: "Russia has moved some long-range artillery and rocket launchers into firing position, threatening Ukraine, according to a U.S. official. Some Russian units have left their assembly areas -- the bumper-to-bumper formations seen in satellite photos -- and are beginning to move into 'attack positions,' according to the official. This movement marks a change since Sunday, when some of the units had left the assembly areas but had not yet taken what could be viewed as attack positions." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin left the door open Monday to further talks with Western leaders on his efforts to end NATO's open door policy, when his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the scope for dialogue was 'far from exhausted' and called for intensified talks with Washington and NATO. Putin met Lavrov in the Kremlin Monday in what appeared to be a scripted moment on Russia's formal response to the rejection of its key security demands by Washington and NATO -- including its demand that the alliance bar Ukraine from ever joining. Putin opposed 'the endless, in our opinion, and very dangerous expansion of NATO to the East,' but supported the Foreign Ministry's conclusion on a need to keep talking, RIA Novosti reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov." An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Accountant Fires Dodgy Client. Ben Protess & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's longtime accounting firm abruptly cut ties with his family business last week amid ongoing criminal and civil investigations into whether Mr. Trump illegally inflated the value of his assets, court documents filed on Monday show. In a letter to the Trump Organization on Feb. 9, the accounting firm notified the company of its decision and disclosed that it could no longer stand behind annual financial statements it prepared for Mr. Trump. The firm, Mazars USA, compiled the financial statements based on information the former president and his company provided. The letter instructed the Trump Organization to essentially retract the documents, known as statements of financial condition, from 2011 to 2020.... Given what [Mazars] called 'the totality of circumstances,' the letter directed the Trump Organization to notify anyone who received the statements that they should no longer rely on them." An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Fortinsky, et al., of CNN: "Rudy Giuliani has been engaging with the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection through his lawyer about the scope of his subpoena and whether he may be able to comply with some requests. The panel is making clear that it still expects Giuliani, a central figure in ... Donald Trump's failed bid to overturn the 2020 election, to 'cooperate fully' with its subpoena. CNN reported last week that Giuliani was among four witnesses scheduled to appear before the committee on Tuesday who had their depositions rescheduled."

Katelyn Polantz & Chandelis Duster of CNN: "A conservative lawyer who worked with ... Donald Trump has turned over thousands of pages of emails to the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection but is withholding thousands of others, according to court filing Sunday. John Eastman, a law professor who helped craft Trump's false argument that the 2020 election was stolen, has turned over nearly 8,000 pages of emails to the committee while holding back about 11,000 pages because it is what he calls privileged material. The new numbers come before Eastman and House attorneys meet with a federal judge Monday afternoon about the ongoing dispute over a subpoena of Eastman's Chapman University email account.... Eastman still has to sort through an additional 48,000 pages." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: "U.S. District Court Judge James Carter ordered Eastman to review 1,500 pages per day and determine whether any privileges apply. Carter, wh has emphasized the urgency of the Jan. 6 investigation, required Eastman to produce a daily log of documents he is withholding to give committee investigators a chance to object to his privilege claims. Carter has said he intends to review any disputed documents as Eastman nears completion of his full review." House Counsel Douglas Letter has questioned Eastman's attorney-client relationship with Trump. Eastman has not provided any written evidence of a retainer agreement or other formalization of an agreement. MB: A lawyer can't just claim an attorney-client privilege because it's convenient to do so.

Joe Manchin Is Still a Dick. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Monday said he would not support confirming another nominee selected by President Biden for the Supreme Court immediately before the 2024 presidential election, clarifying remarks he'd made earlier about the midterm elections. Manchin said he would prefer to wait until the country knows who will occupy the White House in 2025. Manchin walked back the comment he made earlier afternoon indicating that he would not support confirming a second Biden nominee to the Supreme Court if another vacancy occurs shortly before the Nov. 8 midterm election.... That's the position he and other Democrats took in the fall of 2020 after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in September of that year." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Manchin said it would be hypocritical for him to confirm a Biden nominee right before the 2024 election after he had opposed Republicans' approval of Trump's nominee while people were voting in the 2020 presidential election. That would be fine -- EXCEPT Republicans went ahead and did it, Joe, in case you didn't notice. ~~~

~~~ Theodoric Meyer & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: Joe Manchin's close friend Larry Puccio & other Manchin associates are cashing in on Manchin's power as a swing vote.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times argues that we won't have another Civil War because the 19th-century war was largely about the money: "The growth of an avowedly antislavery public in the North wasn't just a challenge to the political influence of the slaveholding South; it also threatened to undermine the slave economy itself and thus the economic basis for Southern power." MB: I'm not sure I agree with his analysis. It's true that a new civil war would have some different causes from the last one, but the nature of white grievance isn't all that different: so many white people are economics-ignorant that they think minorities aren't "taking their jobs"; they're contributing to the economy in exactly the same way the lovely white people do. We've already had a violent insurrection that millions of Republicans think was justified. What's to say they won't think the same about a larger call to arms, led by an autocratic charismatic leader who will save them from the next Barack Obama? (Or his former vice president?) ~~~

~~~ For instance, right now Winger USA is going nuts over this: ~~~

~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "When John H. Durham, the Trump-era special counsel investigating the inquiry into Russia's 2016 election interference, filed a pretrial motion on Friday night, he slipped in a few extra sentences that set off a furor among right-wing outlets about purported spying on ... Donald J. Trump. But the entire narrative appeared to be mostly wrong or old news -- the latest example of the challenge created by a barrage of similar conspiracy theories from Mr. Trump and his allies." Savage explains the fake "spying" details & how right-wing media outlets -- and Trump, of course -- have misinterpreted & exaggerated Durham's filing.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "A Navy nuclear engineer pleaded guilty Monday to charges he tried to sell nuclear secrets to a foreign country, and will likely spend at least a dozen years behind bars after admitting he conspired with his wife in the high-profile espionage case.... [Jonathan] Toebbe, 43, has been in custody since October, when FBI agents arrested him on charges that he and his wife, Diana, conspired to share 'restricted data,' a violation of the Atomic Energy Act that carries the possibility of a life sentence. Toebbe's Valentine's Day plea deal does not resolve the charges against his wife of more than 18 years who worked as a private-school teacher until her arrest. But it does undercut her claims of innocence."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A U.S. judge on Monday jailed a New York husband but set free his wife as they await trial on charges alleging they tried to launder $3.6 billion in stolen bitcoin. During a detention hearing Monday in Washington, the judge cited searches of the couple's apartment and office that yielded $40,000 in cash, more than 50 electronic devices and bitcoin wallets, hollowed-out books and a bag marked 'Burner Phone.' Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington called the government's evidence against tech entrepreneur and dual U.S.-Russia citizen Ilya 'Dutch' Lichtenstein, 34, and his rapper wife, Heather Morgan, 31, 'so weighty as to be overwhelming.' In her decision, the judge pointed to what she called the electronic equivalent of a 'smoking gun' -- the encrypted key codes in Lichtensteins's cloud storage account that unlocked the largest single seizure of funds two weeks ago in Justice Department history.&"

Sorry, Sarah. Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "A federal judge said Monday that he planned to dismiss Sarah Palin's libel lawsuit against The New York Times, ruling that her legal team had failed to meet the extremely high legal standard required to prove that the newspaper defamed her when it published a 2017 editorial erroneously linking her to a mass shooting. The move came as the jury was still behind closed doors in a Lower Manhattan courthouse deliberating on the case. In an unexpected and unusual decision, the judge, Jed S. Rakoff, said he would allow the jury to continue working. If it rules in favor of Ms. Palin, he will set aside their verdict and dismiss the case, he said.... Ms. Palin is very likely to appeal. And his decision to allow the jury to continue weighing the evidence was intended to avoid any complications should the case continue moving through the federal courts.... Judge Rakoff [also] ... faulted The Times for a series of poor decisions that led to this point." ~~~

     ~~~ Politico's report is here. A Law & Crime story is here. See also Akhilleus' commentary in yesterday's Comments thread.

China to Make an Unplanned Moon Landing. Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "On March 4, a human-made piece of rocket detritus will slam into the moon. But it turns out that it is not, as was previously stated in a number of reports, including by The New York Times, Elon Musk's SpaceX that will be responsible for making a crater on the lunar surface. Instead, the cause is likely to be a piece of a rocket launched by China's space agency."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

New York. Amanda Eisenberg of Politico: "New York City fired 1,430 municipal workers after they refused to get fully vaccinated for Covid-19 or submit proof of their shots, City Hall confirmed Monday. That figure represents less than 1 percent of the city's 370,000-person workforce."

Canada. Rob Gillies & Ted Shaffrey of the AP: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to invoke emergency powers to quell the protests by demonstrators who have paralyzed Ottawa and blocked border crossings in anger over the country's COVID-19 restrictions, a senior government official said Monday. The prime minister met virtually with the leaders of Canada's provinces and planned to address the nation late in the afternoon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Justin Trudeau Is Tired of Trying to Reason with You People. Miriam Berger, et al., of the Washington Post: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, under mounting pressure to end the disruption caused by weekslong demonstrations against public health restrictions in the capital and on the border, on Monday became the first Canadian leader to invoke the country's Emergencies Act. The law, approved in 1988 but never before applied, gives the federal government sweeping authority to override provincial powers, to ban public assembly in certain locations and to remove people and property from prohibited spaces. Separately on Monday, police arrested 11 people and seized guns, body armor and 'a large quantity of ammunition' in Coutts, Alberta, one of several sites around Canada where demonstrators have been protesting vaccine mandates and other coronavirus restrictions, authorities said." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The CBC News story is here. The Toronto Star's report is here.

~~~ David Gilbert of Vice: "The Christian crowdfunding site that helped raise $8.7 million for the anti-vax 'freedom convoy' in Canada was hacked on Sunday night, and the names and personal details of over 92,000 donors were leaked online. The database of 92,845 donors is no longer available on the site, but VICE News was able to review a copy of the data. While some of the donors did not provide their names -- such as the person behind the current top donation of $215,000 -- the vast majority did provide them, including American software billionaire Thomas Siebel, who donated $90,000...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ ** Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "The 'Freedom Convoy' has been marketed as a backlash by truckers angry about Covid-19 vaccination mandates. In reality, there don't seem to have been many truckers among the protesters at the bridge (about 90 percent of Canadian truckers are vaccinated).... So this ... [is] more like a slow-motion Jan. 6, a disruption caused by a relatively small number of activists, many of them right-wing extremists.... [The economic costs per day of the 'Freedom Convoy's demonstrations] roughly comparable to insurance industry estimates of total losses associated with the Black Lives Matter protests that followed the killing of George Floyd -- protests that seem to have involved more than 15 million people.... What [the fake trucker protest] is really about is an attempt to exploit pandemic weariness to boost the usual culture-war agenda. As you might expect, the U.S. right is loving it.... The right is perfectly fine, indeed enthusiastic, about illegal actions and disorder as long as they serve right-wing ends."

Beyond the Beltway

Seth Borenstein of the AP: "The American West's megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest in at least 1,200 years and is a worst-case climate change scenario playing out live, a new study finds. A dramatic drying in 2021 -- about as dry as 2002 and one of the driest years ever recorded for the region -- pushed the 22-year drought past the previous record-holder for megadroughts in the late 1500s and shows no signs of easing in the near future, according to a study Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change. The study calculated that 42% of this megadrought can be attributed to human-caused climate change." A Washington Post report is here.

Colorado Secretary of State Race. Felicia Sonmez & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "A Republican county clerk in Colorado who was stripped of her election-oversight duties last year after she allowed an outsider to copy voting-machine hard drives said Monday that she is launching a bid to become the state's top elections official. Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who has embraced the false claim that ... Donald Trump won the 2020 election, made the announcement during an appearance on former Trump White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon's 'War Room' podcast. Peters said she is running to 'restore trust' and 'put an end to government overreach in our election process.'... A Colorado judge in October barred Peters from overseeing her county's elections.... Peters was also arrested last week for allegedly resisting authorities' attempts to seize an iPad in an unrelated case. In the podcast interview Monday, Bannon called Peters 'an American hero' and likened her to Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For a while, Peters was hiding out in an undisclosed location provided by MyPillow Guy Mike Lindell. She has all the qualifications to make an excellent secretary of state.

Kentucky. Piper Blackburn & Bruce Schreiner of the AP: "A Democratic mayoral candidate in Kentucky's largest city said he is 'shaken but safe' after a man stormed his campaign headquarters Monday morning and fired a weapon point-blank at him. Craig Greenberg, who is running for mayor of Louisville, said he was at his campaign office with four colleagues when a man appeared in the doorway with a weapon. 'When we greeted him, he pulled out a gun, aimed directly at me and began shooting,' Greenberg said at a news conference several hours after the attack. The person closest to the door managed to get the door shut, he said. The staffers barricaded the door using 'tables and desks,' and the suspect fled, he said. 'Despite one bullet coming so close that it grazed my sweater and my shirt, no one was physically harmed,' Greenberg said.... The suspect was apprehended outside the building shortly after the shooting, Louisville Metro Police Chief Erika Shields said earlier. She concurred that Greenberg appeared to have been the target of the attack."

Minnesota. Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "Federal prosecutors concluded their case against three former Minneapolis police officers accused of violating George Floyd's civil rights with testimony from the teenage girl [-- Darnella Frazier --] whose viral Facebook video of the fatal arrest sparked worldwide protests."

February 14, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskt on Monday said that he has been informed that Russia will attack on Wednesday. The comments from the Ukrainian leader [were] made in an address to his nation posted on Facebook.... Zelensky wrote in a statement on Facebook that Ukraine will hold a Day of Unity on Wednesday. He said the relevant decree has already been signed. 'We are told that February 16 will be the day of the attack,' he said, according to a Facebook translation of his comments." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: So now I hear on MSNBC that Zelensky is walking back his prediction.

~~~ MEANWHILE, Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin left the door open Monday to further talks with Western leaders on his efforts to end NATO's open door policy, when his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said the scope for dialogue was 'far from exhausted' and called for intensified talks with Washington and NATO. Putin met Lavrov in the Kremlin Monday in what appeared to be a scripted moment on Russia's formal response to the rejection of its key security demands by Washington and NATO -- including its demand that the alliance bar Ukraine from ever joining. Putin opposed 'the endless, in our opinion, and very dangerous expansion of NATO to the East,' but supported the Foreign Ministry's conclusion on a need to keep talking, RIA Novosti reported, citing Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov." An AP story is here.

Accountant Fires Dodgy Client. Ben Protess & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's longtime accounting firm abruptly cut ties with his family business last week amid ongoing criminal and civil investigations into whether Mr. Trump illegally inflated the value of his assets, court documents filed on Monday show. In a letter to the Trump Organization on Feb. 9, the accounting firm notified the company of its decision and disclosed that it could no longer stand behind annual financial statements it prepared for Mr. Trump. The firm, Mazars USA, compiled the financial statements based on information the former president and his company provided. The letter instructed the Trump Organization to essentially retract the documents, known as statements of financial condition, from 2011 to 2020.... Given what [Mazars] called 'the totality of circumstances,' the letter directed the Trump Organization to notify anyone who received the statements that they should no longer rely on them." An NBC News story is here.

Katelyn Polantz & Chandelis Duster of CNN: "A conservative lawyer who worked with ... Donald Trump has turned over thousands of pages of emails to the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection but is withholding thousands of others, according to court filing Sunday. John Eastman, a law professor who helped craft Trump's false argument that the 2020 election was stolen, has turned over nearly 8,000 pages of emails to the committee while holding back about 11,000 pages because it is what he calls privileged material. The new numbers come before Eastman and House attorneys meet with a federal judge Monday afternoon about the ongoing dispute over a subpoena of Eastman's Chapman University email account.... Eastman still has to sort through an additional 48,000 pages."

Rob Gillies & Ted Shaffrey of the AP: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has decided to invoke emergency powers to quell the protests by demonstrators who have paralyzed Ottawa and blocked border crossings in anger over the country's COVID-19 restrictions, a senior government official said Monday. The prime minister met virtually with the leaders of Canada's provinces and planned to address the nation late in the afternoon."

Miriam Berger, et al., of the Washington Post: "Police on Monday arrested 11 people and seized guns, body armor and 'a large quantity of ammunition' in Coutts, Alberta, one of several sites around Canada where demonstrators have been protesting coronavirus restrictions, authorities said. The Alberta Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it had learned of a 'small organized group within the larger Coutts protest' that 'had access to a cache of firearms with a large quantity of ammunition' and 'was said to have a willingness to use force against the police if any attempts were made to disrupt the blockade.'"

David Gilbert of Vice: "The Christian crowdfunding site that helped raise $8.7 million for the anti-vax 'freedom convoy' in Canada was hacked on Sunday night, and the names and personal details of over 92,000 donors were leaked online. The database of 92,845 donors is no longer available on the site, but VICE News was able to review a copy of the data. While some of the donors did not provide their names -- such as the person behind the current top donation of $215,000 -- the vast majority did provide them, including American software billionaire Thomas Siebel, who donated $90,000...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Molly Nagle of ABC News: "President Joe Biden assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the United States and its allies will respond 'swiftly and decisively' to any further aggression by Russia against Ukraine, according to a White House readout of a phone call between the two leaders. The Sunday morning call took place as U.S. officials continue to warn that an attack from Russia could come 'any day now' and urge all Americans still in Ukraine to leave the country." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Ukraine crisis are here: "With Russian warships massing off Ukraine;s Black Sea coast and the United States warning that Russian ground forces are poised to strike from multiple directions, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany arrived in Kyiv on Monday as part of an increasingly urgent diplomatic effort to avert a full-scale invasion of Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's liveblog is here: "A senior Russian military official said on Monday that Russia was ready to open fire on foreign ships and submarines that illegally enter its territorial waters, the Interfax news agency reported."

David Cohen of Politico: "Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) ... said Sunday that every Republican will ultimately have to say whether they believe the events of the day represented 'legitimate political discourse.'... During its winter meeting in Salt Lake City earlier this month, the RNC accused [Kinzinger & Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.] 'of participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.'"

Guacamole Wars. Mark Stevenson of the AP: "Mexico has acknowledged that the U.S. government has suspended all imports of Mexican avocados after a U.S. plant safety inspector in Mexico received a threat. The surprise, temporary suspension was confirmed late Saturday on the eve of the Super Bowl, the biggest sales opportunity of the year for Mexican avocado growers -- though it would not affect game-day consumption since those avocados had already been shipped." MB: Seems more serious than last week's Gazpacho Conflict.

Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "... clashes between Republican leaders and the candidates Trump has embraced have been playing out across the country with growing ferocity in recent months, a chaotic sign that Trump's once unchallenged hold on the party and rank-and-file supporters is waning, even if by degrees. The former president's power within the party and his continued focus on personal grievances is increasingly questioned behind closed doors at Republican gatherings, according to interviews with more than a dozen prominent Republicans in Washington and across the country, including some Trump advisers. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity because there remains significant fear of attracting Trump's public wrath.... Behind the scenes Trump has pushed back on aides, and even screamed at advisers, who have told him not to focus so much on re-litigating the last election.... "

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "President Biden responded to American frustration with pandemic restrictions, saying that it was still too soon to lift indoor mask mandates, while suggesting that other restrictions may soon be able to end. In the roughly 22-minute interview, some of which was previewed before Sunday, Mr. Biden said that decisions by some state governors last week to begin lifting indoor mask mandates were 'probably premature,' but acknowledged that it was a 'tough call.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates are here: "As Canadian officials announced the reopening of a major border crossing blockaded by 'Freedom Convoy' protesters, demonstrations against vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers continued to fuel spinoff protests around the world.... Demonstrators were en route to Brussels, where convoys from European countries were expected to converge this week -- although warnings from Belgian authorities appear to have kept the rally at bay during Monday morning rush hour. Some groups said they would be arriving by afternoon. The Canadian demonstrations have also inspired protests and heavy police presence in countries and states including New Zealand, France, Australia, Alaska and New York. Meanwhile, concerns that the protests might disrupt the Super Bowl -- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) suggested truckers should 'clog things up' at the sporting event -- were allayed. A small group appeared outside the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, but no major disruptions were reported, and the L.A. County Sheriff's Department said the gathering was peaceful."

Canada. Sarah Nir of the New York Times: "Canadian law enforcement officials said Sunday that they had reopened a major international bridge that protesters had been blockading for almost a week, raising hopes for industries the unrest had slowed to a near-standstill. As they announced that the Ambassador Bridge, which ties Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, had been reclaimed after a series of arrests in the morning, some hailed it as a victory for a government shaken by the intransigence of anti-vaccine mandate protests that have mushroomed since they began. But in Canada's capital, Ottawa, hundreds of truckers were entering their third week of occupation of the area around Parliament Hill, where they appeared to be emboldened by a growing sense of impunity. Late Sunday, the mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson, revealed back-channel negotiations were underway with the truckers' leadership to remove their convoy from residential neighborhoods, among other measures." The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have a feeling that if I parked my van in the middle of an Ottawa street, local police would figure out pretty quickly how to get my van & me out of the road. And charge me time & money for their trouble.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.

News Ledes

CNN's live updates of Olympics events are here.

How Not to Handle Another Russian Doping Scandal. New York Times: "The Russian figure skating star at the center of doping questions at the Beijing Olympics will be allowed to continue to compete despite failing a doping test weeks ago, but officials will not conduct an awards ceremony or hand out medals in any event she wins until her case is resolved. The International Olympic Committee took the extraordinary step of serving notice that the athlete, Kamila Valieva, 15, would stay off the podium, as would the other medalists in her events, because of lingering doubts about her eligibility. Valieva became a face of the Games as she helped her Russian team win an earlier competition, and is widely seen as the favorite to win the women's singles event that begins on Tuesday."