- Ready to respond. The State of the Union is coming up on Feb. 4, and Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will deliver the Democrats' response. Whitmer is known for her efforts to expand access to health care; Sen. Amy Klobuchar mentioned Whitmer on stage in a recent debate. (You may remember Klobuchar struggling to recall Whitmer's name!) Rep. Veronica Escobar (D–Texas) will deliver the Democrats' Spanish-language response. CNN

- Rest in peace. Leila Janah was a serial entrepreneur, known for her efforts to end global poverty and as the founder and CEO of the machine learning training data company Samasource. She died at 37 from the cancer Epithelioid Sarcoma, her company said. Read about Janah's legacy here: TechCrunch

- The beauty in surrogacy. Girls Who Code CEO Reshma Saujani writes about her journey with surrogacy. After several miscarriages, she turned to a surrogate to have her second child. "I entered the surrogacy process to have a son, and what I found was a sister, a family, and a renewed belief that people are fundamentally good," Saujani writes. Vogue

- A forgotten warehouse. Puerto Ricans last week called for the resignation Governor Wanda Vázquez after a warehouse of supplies meant to help residents recover from Hurricane Maria two years ago was found unused. "I respect the constitutional right of citizens to demonstrate," said Vázquez, who herself replaced a governor forced to resign last year, after she fired three officials because of the discovery. CNN

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Eve Tahmincioglu will join the Economic Policy Institute as communications director. 

- Trump vs. CA. The Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding for some health programs from California if the state does not stop requiring all private insurers to cover abortions. The announcement is also being seen as a warning to other states, including New York, Oregon, Washington, which have the same requirements. New York Times

- Game, set, match. Tennis phenom Coco Gauff won her Australian Open match against reigning champ Naomi Osaka on Friday, but Gauff was knocked out of the tournament by Sofia Kenin on Sunday. "I really didn’t think I would be such a favorite," Gauff said, after the stadium chanted, "Here we go, Coco, here we go." NBC News

- On the record. NPR journalist Mary Louise Kelly interviewed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and after she asked about the treatment of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, Pompeo shouted at Kelly and asked her to point to Ukraine on a map. The State Department then released a statement accusing Kelly of lying about the exchange.  NPR

- An American scandal. American Dirt  is Oprah's book club pick, a highly anticipated novel about a Mexican mother and son who flee for the United States border that sold for seven figures in 2018. But author Jeanine Cummins is now the story, accused of exploiting the experiences of migrants—a criticism not helped by a book party that featured barbed wire decorations and Cummins's barbed wire manicure (it resembles the cover of her book). "Voices of color, and women’s voices have been hijacked for a very long time ... but I don’t feel like I’m responsible for the problem," Cummins said at a recent book event.  New York Times