February 4, 2026

Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: “The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed for now a new California voting map that could help Democrats gain up to five seats in Congress, the latest twist in a national fight between liberals and conservatives seeking advantage in this year’s midterm elections. The justices cleared the state to use a map pushed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and approved by voters that was intended to offset a redistricting effort by Republicans in Texas sought by President Donald Trump. The Texas map could net the GOP up to five additional seats. The high court’s ruling will remain in effect while a lawsuit challenging California’s map works its way through the courts. The Supreme Court ruled in December that the Texas map was constitutional, so many legal experts expected the justices to approve the California map as well.”

Michael Kunzelman & Alanna Richer of the AP: “A government lawyer who told a judge that her job 'sucks' during a court hearing stemming from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement surge in Minnesota has been removed from her Justice Department post, according to a person familiar with the matter. Julie Le had been working for the Justice Department on a detail, but the U.S. attorney in Minnesota ended her assignment after her comments in court on Tuesday.... Le was assigned at least 88 cases in less than a month, according to online court records. [U.S. District Judge Jerry] Blackwell told Le that the volume of cases isn’t an excuse for disregarding court orders. He expressed concern that people arrested in immigration enforcement operations are routinely jailed for days after judges have ordered their release from custody.... 'Fixing a system, a broken system, I don’t have a magic button to do it. I don’t have the power or the voice to do it,' [Le told Blackwell].” ~~~

     ~~~ Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: “A federal prosecutor in Minneapolis was fired from the U.S. attorney’s office on Wednesday after she expressed exasperation with the crippling case load arising from the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown.... After her remarks in court, Ms. Le’s temporary post at the U.S. attorney’s office was ended.... It remained unclear whether she had also been fired from her job at ICE.” MB: Le probably should have asked for whistleblower protections before she told the judge what was really going on within “Operation Metro Surge.” Related NBC News story linked below.  

Hannah Rabinowitz, et al., of CNN: “A Justice Department review found that Ed Martin improperly handled grand jury materials that were part of an investigation targeting Donald Trump’s political enemies.... It was at least part of the reason Martin was pushed out of DOJ headquarters early this year. The review, which was overseen by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s office..., found that Martin had shared the secret grand jury material in the [Adam] Schiff case.... Martin initially denied sharing the material with unauthorized people..., but emails soon surfaced showing that Martin had in fact shared the grand jury material.... Martin was removed as the head of the so-called Weaponization Working Group on the first day of 2026 and he was relocated out of department headquarters to a building across town that houses the pardon attorney — Martin’s one remaining role.” Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe Eagle Ed should have spent less time cosplaying detective and more time learning how not to get his own stunts detected. Here's a hint, Ed: don't send grand jury files as attachments to emails. You're supposed to don that secret-agent coat and meet the intended recipient in a dark alley or parking garage basement. Maybe put a potted plant on the balcony as a signal, like Bob Woodward. You know, you can't just dress the part, you've got to be the part.

Matt Lavietes of NBC News: "The Trump administration will withdraw 700 federal immigration agents from Minnesota, border 'czar' Tom Homan said on Wednesday.... 'My goal, with with the support of President Trump, is to achieve a complete drawdown and end this surge, as soon as we can,' Homan said at a news conference. He reiterated that the president 'fully intends to achieve mass deportations during this administration.'"

Jeff Bezos can afford one of the world's largest and most expensive yachts (about $500 million). He can afford to spend $75 million on "Melanie the Movie." He can afford a $56-million-dollar wedding in Venice. That's because, according to Philip Bump, who appeared on MS NOW, Jeff pulls in about $70 million every damned day. Yet he can't afford to run a newspaper: ~~~ 

~~~ Benjamin Mullin, et al., of the New York Times: “The Washington Post told employees on Wednesday that it was beginning a widespread round of layoffs that are expected to decimate the organization’s sports, local news and international coverage. The company is laying off about 30 percent of all its employees, according to two people with knowledge of the decision. That includes people on the business side and more than 300 of the roughly 800 journalists in the newsroom, the people said. The cuts are a sign that Jeff Bezos, who became one of the world’s richest people by selling things on the internet, has not yet figured out how to build and maintain a profitable publication on the internet. The paper expanded during the first several years of his ownership, but the company has sputtered more recently. Matt Murray, The Post’s executive editor, said on a call Wednesday morning with newsroom employees that the company had lost too much money for too long and had not been meeting readers’ needs. He said that all sections would be affected in some way, and that the result would be a publication focused even more on national news and politics, as well as business and health, and far less on other areas.” The link appears to be a gift link. An AP story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~ 

The voters, in their inimitable stupidity, have turned the nation over to a madman. Oh, have I mentioned that before?

Vicious Man-Toddler Throws Another Tantrum. Michael Bender, et al., of the New York Times: “The potential for a deal between Harvard University and the White House was thrown into doubt after ... [Donald] Trump unleashed a blistering attack on the Ivy League school in a series of late-night social media posts. Just last week, Mr. Trump privately told negotiators he was willing to drop his demand for a $200 million payment from Harvard to the government if that would secure an agreement to end his pressure campaign against the university, which he views as hostile to conservatives and his presidency. After a report from The New York Times about the change of heart, Mr. Trump’s Truth Social posts at 11:20 p.m. on Monday and again on Tuesday — at 12:11 a.m. and 7:56 a.m. — made clear he had lost interest, at least for now, in such a compromise. Instead of dropping the fine, Mr. Trump said he would demand $1 billion 'in damages.' He threatened the school with a criminal investigation.”

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: Donald “Trump laced into the CNN correspondent Kaitlan Collins in the Oval Office on Tuesday, calling her 'the worst reporter' and scolding her for not smiling as she tried to ask about the latest release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein. 'She’s a young woman — I don’t think I’ve ever seen you smile,' Mr. Trump said in a sarcastic tone, while sitting at the Resolute Desk. 'I’ve known you for 10 years. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a smile on your face.' Ms. Collins noted that she was asking the president about Mr. Epstein’s sexual assault victims, but Mr. Trump interrupted her. 'You know why you’re not smiling? Because you know you’re not telling the truth,' he said. Mr. Trump has often singled out female journalists for attacks and insults....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Is a "girl" supposed to smile and giggle when talking about sexual assault? The attack on Collins is just one of the many indications that Trump can't handle the pressure of his cascading failures. His first line of inappropriate attack is usually against women who challenge him in some way. 

~~~ Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: Donald “Trump on Tuesday released a new rendering of his plans for a large new ballroom on White House grounds and said it was stylistically similar to the historic design of the existing buildings nearby. Mr. Trump, who has faced criticism about the size of his White House renovation project, including his surprise demolition of the East Wing, wrote on social media that the ballroom would be 'The Greatest of its kind ever built!!' It 'replaces the very small, dilapidated, and rebuilt many times, East Wing, with a magnificent New East Wing,' he said, adding that the ballroom would not be taller than the Executive Mansion of the White House.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It appears to me that if the Greatest Ballroom Ever Built won't be taller than the White House, it's because the ballroom will be situated at a lower elevation than the White House proper. That's like saying the Washington Monument is not taller than Colorado's state capitol building -- which sits on bedrock a mile above sea-level. 

So much Trump does is motivated by racism. ~~~  

~~~ Dan Diamond & Olivia George of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump is planning to install a statue of Christopher Columbus on White House grounds, according to three people..., in his latest effort to remake the presidential campus and celebrate the famed and controversial explorer.... The piece is a reconstruction of a statue unveiled in Baltimore by then-President Ronald Reagan and dumped in the city’s harbor by protesters in 2020 as a racial reckoning swept the country. A group of Italian American businessmen and politicians, working with local sculptors, obtained the destroyed pieces and rebuilt the statue with financial support from local charities and federal grant funding. Bill Martin, an Italian American businessman who helped recover the remnants of the original sculpture and organize a campaign to rebuild it, said the statue is expected to be transferred from a warehouse on Maryland’s Eastern Shore to the Trump administration in coming weeks.... Some U.S. states now recognize Indigenous People’s Day instead of Columbus Day; Joe Biden in 2021 became the first president to mark the holiday. Trump campaigned in 2024 on promises to celebrate Columbus Day, and in October he signed a presidential proclamation to recognize Columbus as 'the original American hero' and mark the annual holiday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Columbus never set foot in what is now the United States mainland. In 1493, he did land on Puerto Rico, which he named San Juan Bautista. About 525 years later, Don Trumpo landed in Puerto Rico, too, whereupon he threw paper towels at the islanders. During his first term, Trump wanted to give Puerto Rico to Denmark in exchange for Greenland because "Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor." So it's pretty obvious Trump isn't celebrating Columbus for his discovery of the U.S. or even to honor Italian-Americans. He's doing so to denigrate the indigenous peoples.

David Yaffe-Bellany of the New York Times: “At 15 feet tall, the statue of ... [Donald] Trump [a/k/a 'Don Colossus,'] mounted on its 7,000-pound pedestal, is about the height of a two-story building — a giant effigy cast in bronze and finished with a thick layer of gold leaf. For more than a year, the golden statue has been at the center of one of the stranger moneymaking ventures of the Trump era. A group of cryptocurrency investors paid $300,000 to have a sculptor create it as a tribute to Mr. Trump, an outspoken crypto proponent. Then they used it to promote a memecoin called $PATRIOT. Now, improbably, the project appears close to fruition. A pedestal made of concrete and stainless steel was installed last month on the grounds of Mr. Trump’s golf complex in Doral, Fla. Pastor Mark Burns [MB: no relation, isweartagod], one of the organizers of the effort and a friend of Mr. Trump’s, told his collaborators that the president planned to attend the statue’s unveiling there.... 'It LOOKS FANTASTIC,' Mr. Trump wrote to Mr. Burns in December.”

Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: Donald “Trump's determination to blow up the current global order has spawned a cottage industry devoted to explaining his view of how the world works and America’s role in it.... There is a new theory ... [that] argues that Mr. Trump’s reign most closely resembles that of 16th-century royal families like the Tudors and the Hapsburgs. A key feature of this 'neoroyalist'  approach is that global economic policymaking is based on personal, family and business ties rather than national interest, competitive advantage, shared prosperity or long-term growth.... The theory has much in common with the kind of crony capitalism practiced by authoritarians like Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines and Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.... Policy decisions driven primarily by personal profit or pique undermine growth. The Nobel in economic science in 2024 was awarded for research that showed how concentrating power, resources and opportunities in the hands of a small political elite limits development and prosperity.”

Erica Green, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump doubled down on his extraordinary call for the Republican Party to 'nationalize' voting in the United States, even as the White House tried to walk it back and members of his own party criticized the idea. Mr. Trump said on Tuesday ... that the federal government should usurp state laws by exerting control over local elections. If states 'can’t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over,' he said in the Oval Office, accusing several Democratic-run cities of corruption. 'Look at some of the places — that horrible corruption on elections — and the federal government should not allow that,' he added. 'The federal government should get involved.' Mr. Trump’s remarks came hours after the White House tried to walk back his comments from a day earlier that his party should nationalize elections. And they were the latest iteration of his unsubstantiated claims that U.S. elections are rigged, as Republicans face potentially big losses this fall.... Under the Constitution, American elections are governed primarily by state law....” ~~~

     ~~~ Michelle Stoddart, et al., of ABC News: "'If a state can't run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it,' Trump said as he held a bill signing in the Oval Office surrounded by Republican lawmakers. 'Because, you know, if you think about it, the state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don't know why the federal government doesn't do 'em anyway.'... He repeated unfounded claims about the 2020 election, listing Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta after raising what he alleged to be 'rigged, crooked elections.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Rick Hasen in Slate, writes an article titled, “I Wrote a Book in Support of Nationalizing Elections. Trump Changed My Mind.” The article is firewalled, by Hasen excerpts it on his Election Law Blog.

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: “Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, is running her own review into the 2020 election with Donald Trump’s approval, working separately from a justice department investigation even as she joined an FBI raid of an election center in Georgia last week.... The review led by the office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), authorized on the basis that it is assessing election integrity, has been focused for months on potential vulnerabilities in voting machines and the possibility of foreign interference.” MB: That is to say, Tulsi is looking for long-dead Hugo Chavez of Venezuela fixing voting machines and Italians shooting laser beams to screw up said voting machines. (One would think these two conspiracy theories would negate each other, but reasonable inferences are not applicable to conspiracy theories, I presume. Two completely contradictory theories evidently can coexist in one big, crazy worldview.) (Also linked yesterday.)  

Christopher Harris of CBS News: "Fulton County plans to file a motion challenging what local leaders call an unprecedented and improper seizure of 2020 election records, following an FBI search of the county's elections office last week. Fulton County Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. announced the legal action Monday in response to a federal search warrant executed Jan. 28 at the Fulton County Elections Hub and Operations Center in Union City. FBI agents seized hundreds of boxes of ballots, voter rolls, ballot images, and other election records from the 2020 presidential election.... Arrington, the only practicing attorney on the Fulton County Commission, said the county intends to challenge both the scope of the warrant and how it was carried out. He said the FBI was authorized under a separate court order to copy election records, but instead took physical custody of original ballots ... along with voter rolls.... Arrington said[,] 'Now we cannot verify that we've received everything back because there was no chain-of-custody inventory taken at the time the records were seized.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Megan Mineiro of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Tuesday appeared likely to temporarily block the Trump administration from disciplining Senator Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, for criticizing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and reminding active-duty service members in a video that they did not have to follow illegal orders. During a preliminary hearing in Mr. Kelly’s lawsuit against Mr. Hegseth and the Pentagon, Judge Richard J. Leon, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said the Trump administration was asking him to break with precedent in extending the free speech restrictions applied to active-duty service members to a retired member of the military.... He also raised questions about punishing a member of Congress for statements made in connection with his legislative responsibilities.... As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee with oversight authority over the Pentagon, [Mr. Kelly's attorney Benjamin Mizer said, Mr. Kelly had been well within his rights to publicly question Mr. Hegseth’s policy and personnel decisions.”

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Margaret Sullivan, on Substack, criticizes the gullible media for publishing -- in credulous headlines, too -- Trump's fake promises: "Somehow, the idea that Trump is ordering ICE to soften up — whether at protests or in yanking people out of their homes or by rearranging the hierarchy — ... should not be believed.... He doesn’t believe in reform or learning anything. He believes in distraction and denial and moving on to the next atrocity." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

Ryan Mancini of the Hill: “House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday listened to the testimonies of U.S. citizens who said they were assaulted, injured or shot by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officers, starting with the brothers of Renee Good, a Minneapolis woman shot and killed by a federal immigration officer last month.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Nearly one month after a federal immigration agent shot and killed Renee Good, 37, in Minneapolis, two of her siblings, Brent and Luke Ganger, appeared on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and urged lawmakers to move to rein in the deportation crackdown. 'In the last few weeks, our family took some consolation thinking that perhaps Nee’s death would bring about change in our country,' Luke Ganger told members of Congress, using a nickname for his sister. 'And it has not.' Reading from the eulogy he said he had given for his sister days earlier, Brent Ganger called Ms. Good 'unapologetically hopeful.'” ~~~ 

Emily Baude of KSTP 5 Minneapolis: “Eight more federal prosecutors in Minnesota are 'in the process of leaving' the U.S. Attorney’s Office, multiple officials have confirmed to ABC News. Their exit comes after six prosecutors, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thompson, recently departed due to mounting pressure from the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate Renee Good’s widow. Frustrations inside the office have also been mounting because of how the office is handling the killings of Good and Alex Pretti, ABC says. Ana Voss is one of the eight prosecutors included in this second wave of resignations, according to multiple reports. Voss, the civil division chief, was the point person for most wrongful detention petitions the office has handled, of which there have been hundreds.” ~~~

~~~ “This Job Sucks!” Ryan Reilly & Raquel Uribe of NBC News: “An attorney for the federal government expressed frustration at her job during an immigration hearing Tuesday in Minneapolis, where the Trump administration is carrying out a sweeping immigration enforcement operation. 'The system sucks. This job sucks. I wish you could hold me in contempt so that I could get 24 hours of sleep,' said Julie Le, an attorney representing the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota, Lou Raguse of NBC affiliate KARE reported. Raguse, who was in the courtroom, reported that Le said it was like 'pulling teeth' to get the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Justice Department to follow court orders.... She made the remarks after U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell asked the government to explain why it had not followed court orders in immigration proceedings, including not releasing several immigrant detainees he had ordered be let out.”

Callie Ferguson & Sawyer Loftus of the Bangor Daily News: "Federal authorities demanded information about those employed at the Cumberland County jail a day after Sheriff Kevin Joyce blasted immigration agents for arresting one of his guards. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement served the county with a subpoena for the employment data on Jan. 23.... The request sought information about everyone who has worked at the jail since January 2025, the sheriff said. The county complied. The reason for the subpoena, which has not previously been reported, is not entirely clear. It adds new detail to how ICE responded to the sheriff’s criticism of its tactics during the agency’s surge in Maine last month. Joyce excoriated ICE during a press conference on the third day of the raid, a day after agents arrested an Angolan immigrant who worked as a corrections officer....  In a June interview, Joyce said the jail employed about 25 immigrants, all of whom passed background checks and required work permits to get hired."

Adam Serwer of the Atlantic: "Put succinctly, [Border Patrol and ICE] deal with people the American system has frequently treated as barely human. Now these agents have been unleashed on Americans. Putting masks on people in agencies with internal cultures like these was always a recipe for catastrophe. The Trump administration took the most corrupt, poorly trained, and impulsive law-enforcement agencies in the country, gave them masks, and turned them against American cities.... The public has a right to know the identity of the people who wield power in their name, so that they can withdraw that power from those who abuse or misuse it. If people can wield power over life and death without showing their face, we have a gang of criminals — not a police force. The unhinged behavior that we have seen from federal immigration officials, including the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were shot while drawing attention to or recording agents’ behavior, is a direct consequence of power without accountability." Thank you to akaWendy for this gift link.

Becky Dernbach of Sahan News: "A Columbia Heights fourth-grader [-- Elizabeth Zuna Caisaguano --] and her mother have been released from a Texas detention center after school officials and the governor called for their release. Luis Zuna, the child’s father, told Sahan Journal that his wife and daughter had been released from the Dilley Immigration Processing Center Tuesday evening [after having been detained for nearly a month].... They are currently in a shelter, and he hopes they will return to Minnesota tomorrow. Zena Stenvik, the superintendent of Columbia Heights Public Schools, said in a statement that the timing of their return might be uncertain, given the measles outbreak in Dilley and the possible need for a quarantine period. Earlier in the day, at a news conference at the Minnesota Capitol, school officials and Gov. Tim Walz had called for Elizabeth’s release.... In Columbia Heights Public Schools alone, six students have been taken by ICE."

Zack Whittaker of Tech Crunch: "The Department of Homeland Security has been quietly demanding tech companies turn over user information about critics of the Trump administration, according to reports. In several cases over recent months, Homeland Security has relied on the use of administrative subpoenas to seek identifiable information about individuals who run anonymous Instagram accounts, which share posts about ICE immigration raids in their local neighborhoods. These subpoenas have also been used to demand information about people who have criticized Trump officials or protested government policies. Unlike judicial subpoenas..., administrative subpoenas are issued by federal agencies, allowing investigators to seek a wealth of information about individuals from tech and phone companies without a judge’s oversight. While administrative subpoenas cannot be used to obtain the contents of a person’s emails, online searches, or location data, they can demand information specifically about the user...." MB: This report is a follow-on to a Washington Post article, linked yesterday, about a 67-year-old retiree named Jon who wrote a letter urging a DHS attorney to show some mercy to an Afghan immigrant.

Kelly Cho of the Washington Post: “An Oregon judge on Tuesday temporarily banned federal agents from using tear gas at protests outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Portland, days after agents deployed the chemical agents during a largely peaceful demonstration in the city that included children. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon ordered federal officers to refrain from using chemical or projectile munitions for at least 14 days 'at or in the vicinity of' the ICE office in Portland’s South Waterfront neighborhood. The building has become a focal point for protests against ... Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, with recent demonstrations there sparked by outrage over the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Simon also barred federal agents in the area from firing any munitions or using any weapons — including less-lethal arms — on anyone’s head, neck or torso, 'unless the officer is legally justified in using deadly force against that person.'” Politico's story is here.

Heather Cox Richardson has more on "Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s termination of Haiti’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation, [which] U.S. District Court Judge Ana C. Reyes stopped ... until a pending court case worked its way through the courts." MB: It's too bad Noem won't read Judge Reyes' order, because Reyes seems to have explained not just what was wrong with Noem's order but with Noem herself.

Katie Mettler, et al., of the Washington Post: “Maryland is poised to bar local law enforcement agencies from formally facilitating federal immigration arrests, joining several other states who have sought to use their local authority to curtail the Trump administration’s ramped-up enforcement effort. At least eight other states have already either prohibited or set restrictions against local police and sheriff’s offices entering into what are known as 287(g) partnerships, which enable those agencies to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement take into custody people they say are in the country illegally. New Mexico, New York, Hawaii and Virginia are considering similar bans during their 2026 state legislative sessions.... Naureen Shah, director of immigration policy at the American Civil Liberties Union, said there is no evidence to suggest that in states with more 287(g) agreements, there is less street enforcement [by federal agents]. 'It’s always been about getting them to bend the knee,' Shah said of the Trump administration’s approach to local officials.”

“Never Again.” Roxane Gay of the New York Times: “Trump’s surrogates — JD Vance, Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, Tom Homan — are gleefully indulging not only the president but their own cruelty, racism and xenophobia. They are drunk on power, trying to dictate a warped version of reality to suit their toxic narrative.... We do not have to adopt their tactics or mimic their lack of character or decency to stymie their efforts.... When the tables turn, and they will, these bad actors will be held to account. We should afford them the due process they so willingly deny to their perceived enemies, and we will, I hope, ensure that these abuses of power can never happen again.” ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times visited Springfield, Ohio, in anticipation of ICE's racist foray into that town, where many Haitian immigrants live, an attack a federal judge has delayed partly because of Kristi Noem's “hostility to nonwhite immigrants.” (This is the town, and the Haitians, about whom Trump falsely claimed during a debate with Kamala Harris, “They’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats.”) 

Colby Smith & Tony Romm of the New York Times: “Stephen Miran, who took a leave of absence from advising ... [Donald] Trump so he could become a governor of the Federal Reserve, said on Tuesday that he would resign from his White House post. Confirmed for a short, unexpected vacancy at the central bank in September, Mr. Miran initially opted for an unorthodox arrangement that would have allowed him to reprise his role as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers once his term as a Fed governor concluded. That term officially came to an end on Saturday, though Mr. Miran has continued to serve at the Fed, which he may do until the president names and confirms a replacement.... Mr. Miran’s resignation severs an explicit tie with the White House that had dogged his confirmation, as Democrats raised alarm that his continued relationship with the president might influence his decision-making on the nation’s politically independent central bank. Over the past four months, Mr. Miran has endorsed far steeper interest rate cuts than those that his colleagues have adopted. That has frequently made him an outlier at the Fed, an institution he has criticized repeatedly over its stewardship of the economy, sometimes echoing complaints made by Mr. Trump.”

Riley Beggin & Kadia Goba of the Washington Post: “The U.S. House passed a set of spending bills Tuesday that will end the partial government shutdown while buying time for bipartisan negotiations over new accountability measures for immigration enforcement. The measures now go to President Donald Trump to sign into law and reopen the government. The agreement kicks off a 10-day sprint for Republicans and Democrats to agree on policy changes to how Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents operate during immigration raids.... The vote was 217-214. House Democrats pledged not to help House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) kick off the process of considering the legislation, though 21 voted for the final bill Tuesday afternoon. Twenty-one Republicans, meanwhile, voted no.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~ 

     ~~~ Jennifer Scholtes, et al., of Politico: “But what’s left unfinished — funding for the Department of Homeland Security — will be a doozy, with partisan tensions over ... Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda threatening another lapse for the embattled department that also includes TSA, FEMA and other crucial agencies.... Trump is expected to swiftly sign the legislation, ending the partial government shutdown that began early Saturday morning after the Senate passed the altered package, punting the measure back to the House. But if Republicans don’t concede to enacting significant new mandates for DHS by the new Feb. 13 deadline, the department many Democrats have called 'rogue' will face another funding lapse or short-term patch. 'We have a list that we want done, and we aren’t settling for half-measures,' Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), the No. 3 party leader, told reporters Tuesday.” (Also linked yesterday.)  ~~~

~~~ So Then. Rema Rahman of the Hill: Donald “Trump on Tuesday signed a bill to end a partial government shutdown after the funding legislation was held up by lawmakers who have been agitated over the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) immigration enforcement efforts.” (Also linked yesterday.)   

Frank Thorp, et al., of NBC News: "Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said he was 'not in favor' of federalizing elections a day after ... Donald Trump said on a podcast that Republicans 'ought to nationalize the voting.'... 'That’s a constitutional issue,' [Thune] added.... Thune ... emphasized that he is 'a big believer in decentralized and distributed power.... It’s harder to hack 50 election systems than it is to hack one,' he added.  'So it, in my view, at least, that’s always a system that’s worked pretty well.'... House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said that 'it’s always been the responsibility of the states to administer elections and it’s a system that works well, so long as the states make it a priority to ensure the integrity of our elections. And we have real concerns about some of the blue states, frankly, that have not been doing that well.' He said that Trump was 'expressing that frustration' and added, 'We're looking for solutions.'" Related story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Annie Karni of the New York Times: “House Republicans on Tuesday canceled a planned vote to hold Bill and Hillary Clinton in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to testify in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, after the Clintons agreed to be deposed on camera this month and requested that they be allowed to do so at public hearings. The agreement marked a tense resolution to a bitter monthslong feud between Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the Oversight Committee, and the Clintons, who had resisted testifying and accused the G.O.P. of targeting them as part of a political vendetta. 'Once it became clear that the House of Representatives would hold them in contempt, the Clintons completely caved,' Mr. Comer said in a statement, adding that his panel looked forward to questioning them as part of the investigation into the  'horrific crimes' of Mr. Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019, and his longtime companion, Ghislaine Maxwell.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some of you will recall that more than 10 years ago, Hillary Clinton testified for 11 hours before a select committee on Benghazi! and she more than stood up to the savage attacks of a phalanx of Republicans then. Whether she can still do it today, I don't know, but it is quite possible that Jim Comer will discover that he doesn't have much to gloat about. He just may come off looking like a rude farmer not showing proper respect for the aged former secretary of state and her elderly husband president.

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: “Two days before he killed himself in a federal jail, Jeffrey Epstein signed a document that gave away much of his once vast estate, a total of $100 million, to his girlfriend at the time. In the document, the registered sex offender said he had contemplated marrying his girlfriend, Karyna Shuliak, and wanted to give her his 33-carat diamond ring. A copy of the 32-page document — called the 1953 Trust — was included in the roughly three million pages of investigative files about Mr. Epstein that the Justice Department released on Friday. It is unclear just how much Ms. Shuliak and the other 40 people mentioned as potential beneficiaries will get from his estate, which has shrunk considerably over the past seven years after paying taxes, restitutions to victims and hefty lawyers’ fees. The trust, named for the year Mr. Epstein was born, had never been made public before.” ~~~

      ~~~ Marie: This does suggest Epstein anticipated his imminent death, either at his own hand or someone else's. 

Marcie Jones of Wonkette has the latest on Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), which with any luck signals the last of Nancy Mace as a public figure. Mace, Jones writes, has been “undone by evidently being not just pretend crazy for TV, like Marjorie Taylor Greene, but real crazy, as in 'Something’s broken. The motherboard’s fried. We’re short-circuiting somewhere,' ratted a staffer who’d recently jumped ship.”  

Billy Witz of the New York Times: “The ex-husband of the former first lady Jill Biden was arrested and charged with murder in the death of his current wife, the police in New Castle County, Del., said on Tuesday. The ex-husband, William Stevenson, 77, was arrested on Monday after a grand jury indictment charged him with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, Linda Stevenson, 64, on Dec. 28. Mr. Stevenson was married to Dr. Biden from 1970 until their divorce in 1975.... The police have provided no details about how Mrs. Stevenson died.” ~~~

     ~~~ Mingson Lau & Maryclaire Dale of the AP: “Police were called to the home for a reported domestic dispute after 11 p.m. and found a woman unresponsive [-- Linda Stevenson --] in the living room, according to a prior news release. Life-saving measures were unsuccessful.”

Michael Rosenwald of the New York Times: “Virginia Oliver, a feisty, salty-tongued lobster boat skipper who fished off the New England coast wearing earrings, hot-pink lipstick and an occasional scowl for more than 80 years, until she was 103, died on Jan. 21 in Rockport, Maine. She was 105. Her death, in a hospital not far from her home in Rockland, was confirmed by her sternman, Max Oliver Jr., who was also her son. On the frigid and crustacean-filled waters of Penobscot Bay, Mrs. Oliver was known as the Lobster Lady. She was a folk hero to Mainers — an enduring, if fading, emblem of the state’s hardy, matter-of-fact work ethic.”  

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U.K. Danika Kirka of the AP: “The former Prince Andrew has moved out of his long-time home on crown-owned land near Windsor Castle earlier than expected after the latest release of documents from the U.S. investigation of Jeffrey Epstein revived questions about his friendship with the convicted sex offender. The 65-year-old brother of King Charles III, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, left the Royal Lodge in Windsor on Monday and is now living on the king’s Sandringham estate in eastern England.... British media reported that Mountbatten-Windsor will live temporarily at Wood Farm Cottage while his permanent home on the estate undergoes repairs. Mountbatten-Windsor’s move to Sandringham was announced in October when Charles stripped him of his royal titles amid continuing revelations about his links to Epstein. But the former prince was expected to remain at Royal Lodge, where he has lived for more than 20 years, until the spring.”

~~~ Ben Quinn & Jessica Elgot of the Guardian: Prime Minister “Keir Starmer will attempt to get ahead of the widening scandal over Peter Mandelson’s conduct with the expected release of files relating to his appointment as Britain’s US ambassador.... The Conservatives had been preparing to force the publication of the records – including what Mandelson may have told Starmer about his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein before being appointed to Washington – with a motion in the Commons. Rather than face a difficult vote amid anger among his own MPs, the prime minister has ordered the publication of those records – emails, documents and messages – apart from those deemed prejudicial to national security or that could damage diplomatic relations.... Scotland Yard has formally launched a criminal investigation into allegations that Mandelson leaked Downing Street emails and market sensitive information to Epstein.”