Matt Gagnon discussed the Texas Democrats’ absence from the state to prevent a quorum and delay GOP efforts to redraw congressional maps. Texas Speaker Dustin Burrows authorized arrest warrants for absent lawmakers, and Governor Greg Abbott ordered their arrest. The Illinois Democratic Party supported this move, highlighting the irony of Democrats criticizing gerrymandering while using similar tactics. Gagnon criticized the Democrats’ actions as political theater, noting their hypocrisy given their past gerrymandering efforts. He also pointed out the gerrymandered nature of the Illinois 13th District, drawing a comparison to historical gerrymandering practices.
Days of downpours have begun in Hawaii. The Southwest will soon bake with day after day of record 100-degree-plus (38 Celsius-plus) heat. Two storms will dump snow by the foot over northern Great Lakes states. And the dreaded polar vortex will again invade the Midwest and East with soul-crushing Arctic chill. This forecast of extremes comes as weather whiplash has already hit much of the East.
An inflation gauge closely monitored by the Federal Reserve moved higher in January in the latest sign that prices were persistently elevated even before the Iran war caused spikes in oil and gas costs.
A man with a rifle who crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials are saying was an attack had lost four family members in an Israeli airstrike in his native Lebanon last week, an official said Friday.
House lawmakers were digging into Jeffrey Epstein's sprawling financial portfolio on Wednesday as a committee deposed his former accountant and tried to understand his connections to some of the world's wealthiest men.
