TOP STORIES
(And want to get The Morning Email each weekday? Sign up here.)
WHAT ALL THE WHITE HOUSE LEAKS SUGGEST “While leaks typically involve staffers sabotaging each other to improve their own standing or trying to scuttle policy ideas they find genuinely problematic, Donald Trump’s 2-week-old administration has a third category: leaks from White House and agency officials alarmed by the president’s conduct.” [HuffPost]
INSIDE THE SENATE FLOOR SCUFFLE OVER SILENCING ELIZABETH WARREN Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) invoked Senate Rule XIX to silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) during a speech she was giving in opposition to the nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) as attorney general. Warren had begun reading a letter Coretta Scott King wrote in 1986 to protest Sessions’s appointment to a federal judgeship when McConnell called a Senate vote to bar her from speaking, saying she had gone over the line. Take a look at the letter from Coretta Scott King Warren was attempting to read. And here’s why you saw #ShePersisted trending on Twitter. [HuffPost]
9TH CIRCUIT HEARS ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST TRAVEL BAN A ruling from the trio of federal appeals judges is expected later this week, but in the initial hearing they seemed skeptical of the Justice Department’s arguments for the constitutionality of the ban and its feasibility within Trump’s executive powers. [HuffPost]
ARMY ABANDONING ENVIRONMENTAL STUDY AND GOING AHEAD WITH DAKOTA ACCESS PIPELINE Following Trump’s executive order at the end of January to push forward construction. [HuffPost]
THIS CRACK IN AN ANTARCTIC SHELF GREW 17 MILES IN TWO MONTHS “Since December, the crack has grown by the length of about five football fields each day.” [NYT]
SEVERAL TORNADOES HIT LOUISIANA Dozens are injured and thousands are without power after a series of tornadoes touched down in southern Louisiana. [HuffPost]
YEMEN: NO MORE ANTI-TERROR RAIDS “Angry at the civilian casualties incurred last month in the first commando raid authorized by President Trump, Yemen has withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terrorist groups in the country, according to American officials.” [NYT]
FACEBOOK INTRODUCES A GROUNDBREAKING LEAVE POLICY The tech giant will be offering all of its employees six weeks of family leave to care for ailing family members, as well as 20 days of bereavement leave. [HuffPost]
MELANIA TRUMP FILES $150 MILLION LAWSUIT OVER ESCORT STORY “’There has never been a first lady of the United States who insinuated that she intended to make a lot of money because of the “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity of being first lady,’ Richard Painter, who served as President George W. Bush’s White House ethics counsel, told The Washington Post.” [HuffPost]
ALL THE WOMEN THAT COULD PLAY TRUMP’S ADMINISTRATION ON ‘SNL’ Why stop at having Rosie play Steve Bannon? [HuffPost]
JAMIE LYNN SPEARS’ 8-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER IS ‘AWAKE AND TALKING’ After an ATV accident in which she reportedly nearly drowned. [HuffPost]
SO A MINISTER, A RABBI AND A BUDDHIST TOOK DRUGS FOR SCIENCE... We couldn’t make this up if we tried. [HuffPost]
THIS BEAUTY VLOGGER WANTS YOU TO APPLY MAKEUP WITH A CONDOM That recoiling feeling you have? We’re with you. [HuffPost]
SPOTIFY AND ACCUWEATHER TEAMED UP TO TELL US WHAT WE LISTEN TO WHEN THE WEATHER CHANGES And it’s kind of crazy to see the difference a few clouds make. [Weather With Spotify]
IS THIS THE NEXT STEP CLOSER TO MALE BIRTH CONTROL? “In a years-long study involving 16 adult rhesus monkeys, scientists found that a gel-like polymer called Vasalgel, injected into ducts in the monkey’s testes, successfully blocked their sperm and prevented female monkeys from conceiving.” [HuffPost]
~ Judy Garland’s ex-husband is alleging she was molested by the munchkins while filming “Wizard of Oz.”
~ Looks like the Defense Department is about to shell out some cash to rent space in Trump Tower.
~ One-third of Americans don’t know that the Affordable Care Act and Obamacare are the same thing.
~ In honor of the 30th anniversary of “Dirty Dancing,” did you know its best line was considered a throwaway?
~ Pay close attention to the women in the background of this photo of Alyssa Milano getting cornrows.
~ “SNL” might just get the spinoff we all need right now.
~ This is what you learn when you’re ghosted three times in a year (and no, this does not mean someone snuck up behind you wearing a sheet).
~ So it turns out Jake Gyllenhaal can sing.
~ We all want to be as carefree as Barack Obama kitesurfing.
~ Matthew McConaughey is starring in a movie titled “The Beach Bum” that is not an autobiography but might as well be.
~ That 84 Lumber Super Bowl ad wasn’t about the border wall?
~ A Playboy Club (with the bunny tails) is opening in NYC. Is this 2017?
~ Meet the man who has hunted the Loch Ness monster for a quarter century.