Top of the Fold

• Texas and Mississippi to lift mask mandates, let all businesses reopen at full capacity (Politico)

“We must now do more to restore livelihoods and normalcy for Texans by opening Texas 100 percent. Make no mistake, COVID-19 has not disappeared, but it is clear from the recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations, and safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed.” —Texas Governor Greg Abbott

• Neera Tanden withdraws from nomination as Biden budget chief (CNBC)

“Tanden’s nomination was in doubt after three senators — Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and Maine Republican Susan Collins — said they would vote against her because of her history criticizing lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.”

• Supreme Court ruling on Arizona election case likely to shape states’ rights (Washington Times)

“The Supreme Court on Tuesday delved into the Democratic Party’s lawsuit to ease Arizona’s restrictions on ballot harvesting and other election conduct, putting the high court at the center of a growing battle over how Americans vote. … Arizona’s legal battle gives the justices a chance to bolster a state’s right to determine how it runs its elections against a push from Democrats to relax voting requirements. The Democrats’ effort was largely successful ahead of the 2020 elections with lawsuits in several states to extend early voting and loosen rules for mail-in ballots.”

Government & Politics

• Senate confirms Gina Raimondo as commerce secretary (AP)

• Biden State Department nominee Victoria Nuland is a defender of Chinese propaganda (Free Beacon)

• Actual unity: “Squad” amendment to restore voting rights to felons, incarcerated individuals fails (Fox News)

“The measure went down in bipartisan defeat with just 97 Democrats voting in favor of the amendment compared with 328 members who voted against — 119 Democrats and 209 Republicans.”

Double Standards

• Kamala Harris tweet celebrating Dr. Seuss in 2017 resurfaces after Biden’s “Read Across American Day” omission (Fox News)

• Nancy Pelosi tweet from 2015 shows her on panel with Cuomo discussing sexual misconduct (Fox News)

• Twenty-three embarrassing Andrew Cuomo takes that just didn’t age well (Disrn)

National Security

• Michigan Guardsmen complain of undercooked, contaminated meals while serving in DC (Fox News)

• Base with U.S. troops in Iraq attacked with rockets after being targeted by Iran (Jerusalem Post)

• ICE conducting human smuggling investigation after California crash that killed more than a dozen (Fox News)

• ICE locks Twitter account that alerted public of illegal immigrants freed by sanctuary cities (Washington Times)

• Treasury Department sanctions Russian officials in response to the poisoning of Aleksey Navalny (Treasury.gov)

Business & Economy

• Home prices surged by 10% in January, the largest annualized jump since 2013 (Forbes)

• Prices at the pump are going up thanks to Texas’s epic cold snap (Examiner)

Culture & Heartland

• Governor Cuomo to be stripped of pandemic emergency powers in legislative deal (NBC New York)

“We certainly see the need for a quick response but also want to move toward a system of increased oversight, and review. The public deserves to have checks and balances. Our proposal would create a system with increased input while at the same time ensuring New Yorkers continue to be protected.” —NY Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins

• Poll finds more Americans concerned about Black Lives Matter riots (55%) than Capitol riot (45%) despite the Leftmedia’s ignoring the former and obsession with the latter (Disrn)

An Inconvenient Truth

• Earth’s green vegetation has increased 10% since 2000 (Disrn)

“Captain Obvious” Headline Awards

• Kids more likely to binge eat the more they stare at screens (HealthDay News)

• Skipping mammograms raises odds for breast cancer death in women (HealthDay News)

Belly Laugh of the Week

• Amazon tweaks app icon after comparisons made to Hitler (NY Post)

• BBC apologizes for interview with fake Cory Booker (The Hill)

Evidently, in addition to “fact-checkers,” we need “face-checkers.”

Closing Arguments

• Policy: Bringing back pork would be a disaster (National Review)

• Policy: Can the U.S. borrow endlessly? (City Journal)

• Humor: Texas removes mask mandate to scare all the Californians away (Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.

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