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Tomorrow on Capitol Hill: A High-Stakes State of the Union Address Just Got Harder for Trump (Politico)
The president’s primetime address to Congress coming up on Tuesday was supposed to set the stage for a tough but disciplined midterm campaign focused on the administration’s efforts to lower costs for everyday Americans and tout his first-year accomplishments. Instead, he heads to the Hill amid a torrent of negative news.
The address will take place at 9 PM ET and viewers can watch on PBS.
Travel Disruptions: DHS Reverses Suspension of PreCheck as It Takes Shutdown Steps (Bloomberg)
The Transportation Security Administration said it will continue to operate the PreCheck program after the Department of Homeland Security earlier said it will temporarily pause several programs that speed up some travelers’ progress through airports, such as Global Entry.
Funding for DHS lapsed a week ago, sending the department into a shutdown, after US lawmakers deadlocked on a spending bill ahead of a Feb. 13 deadline. Democrats have demanded new limits on immigration enforcement, which have been rejected by the White House and Republican leaders in Congress.
Winter Storm Alert: NYC Isolated by Snowstorm as Thousands of Flights Canceled (Bloomberg)
A powerful winter storm has cut off New York City, grounding thousands of flights and straining transport networks, as 41 million people along the US East Coast are hit by blizzard conditions in what could be one of the city’s worst storms on record.
For New York City, Long Island, New Jersey, most of Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts, it has the potential to bring extreme impacts, topping the five-step scale used by the agency to predict winter systems.
Heavy snowfall, combined with high winds could lead to cascading travel delays on the ground too, as well as power outages that will likely spread across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. US natural gas futures jumped as much as 6.8%, with the colder weather set to boost demand for heating.
Intense bands of snow peaking at 2 to 3 inches per hour fell in the city early this morning, according to the National Weather Service. The forecaster said the snowfall was expected to slow, but blizzard conditions are expected to last through daybreak.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced that highways, bridges and streets into New York were closed as of 9 PM on Sunday, with schools staying shut on Monday. Meanwhile, train and bus services have been crimped by the threat of more than 18 to 20 inches of snow falling from roughly Philadelphia to Maine.
Security Breach: US Secret Service Says Armed Man Shot, Killed at Mar-a-Lago (Bloomberg)
Mexico Escalation: Mexican Army Kills Leader of Powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel During Operation to Capture Him (Associated Press)
Ukraine Latest: Russia Hits Kyiv Overnight as War About to Enter Fifth Year (Bloomberg)
Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s capital and other targets with missiles and drones overnight this weekend, days before the Kremlin’s full-scale war on its neighbor enters its fifth year.
Space News: NASA Delays Moon Mission to Fix Rocket, Rules Out March Launch (Bloomberg)
In Memoriam: Willie Colón, a Luminary of Salsa Music, Dies at 75 (New York Times)
Willie Colón, a trombonist, singer, bandleader, composer and producer whose driving musical energy and mischievous bad-boy image — he was long promoted as “El Malo” — helped make him a luminary of New York salsa music, and whose 1978 collaboration with Rubén Blades, “Siembra,” became one of the top-selling salsa albums of all time, died on Saturday. He was 75.
Raised in the South Bronx by his Puerto Rican grandmother, who encouraged his early interest in music, Colón showed virtuosic ability on the trombone and was working professionally by his early teens. He arrived on the scene in the mid-1960s, at the vanguard of rapidly changing musical tastes among the young in a politically charged era.
Colón was also an activist, serving as NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s representative advisor and liaison to the Latin Media Entertainment Commission.
"Willie Colón was a giant of salsa, a kid from the South Bronx who helped spark a musical movement that reverberated around the world," Mike Bloomberg wrote in a statement.
"I was honored to have his support in my campaigns, and his love for New York - and for his roots in Puerto Rico - shaped his art and his advocacy, which will continue to inspire people for many years to come," Mike wrote.
A photo of Mike and Willie marching through the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in 2009:
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