
Cruz joins Paul in ditching mask despite CDC recommendations
CNN
Sen. Ted Cruz is no longer wearing a face mask as he walks the halls of the Capitol complex or goes to the Senate floor for debates and votes.
"At this point I've been vaccinated. Everybody working in the Senate has been vaccinated," the Texas Republican told CNN, even though many staff members and reporters in the Capitol have not been vaccinated. Cruz defended his decision to drop using the mask even after being told that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still recommending people who have been vaccinated wear masks in public.
20 states sue after the Trump administration releases private Medicaid data to deportation officials
The Trump administration violated federal privacy laws when it turned over Medicaid data on millions of enrollees to deportation officials last month, California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged on Tuesday, saying he and 19 other states’ attorneys general have sued over the move.

A federal judge in Brooklyn has blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to end temporary protected status for Haitian migrants ahead of schedule, ruling that the Department of Homeland Security violated the law in its rush to strip deportation protections and work permits from over half a million people.

Tennessee has passed a sweeping measure to combat bullying, targeting teenagers where it may hurt the most: revoking their ability to drive. The legislation, which took effect Tuesday, allows courts to suspend the driver’s licenses of minors found guilty of bullying or cyberbullying for up to a year.

House Republican Leadership Chairwoman Elise Stefanik is criticizing Columbia University’s president over past comments that the congresswoman said are a potential violation of the Civil Rights Act, including her call to have an Arab person on the university board, as the university faces continued investigations into its handling of antisemitism on campus.

As a judge is poised to decide whether Bryan Kohberger can accept a plea deal that would allow him to avoid the death penalty in the 2022 killings of four Idaho college students, one victim’s father says he views the deal as a relief from the pain and spectacle of a trial, while two others say they feel blindsided and robbed of desperately sought-after answers in the killings of their daughters.