| Trump tax troubles CNN reported on Thursday that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has taken possession of a massive cache of Trump’s tax records. This comes days after the Supreme Court ruled that Vance could legally obtain Trump’s tax information for his grand jury investigation into the Trump Organization and the ex-president’s possible financial crimes.
The documents reportedly number in the "millions of pages" and it is expected that the DA's office will take weeks, if not months, to comb through them.
Moderna booster
Pharmaceutical company Moderna announced that it was testing a variety of booster shots for its Covid-19 vaccine for effectiveness against the B1351, or “South African” variant of the virus.
It's welcome news as yet another variant has been discovered in New York, and spreading quickly.
"I actually went back and read it"
Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) told CNN's Poppy Harlow that elements of a $1.9 trillion stimulus proposal set to pass the House of Representatives on Friday were “embarrassing," criticizing the bill for several items she deemed wasteful and/or unrelated to pandemic relief.
Espaillat described several parts of the bill with which she was "not comfortable," and told Harlow that she had "actually went back and read" the bill -- the type of foundational due diligence we would like to see from our congressional representatives, regardless of party, but has become increasingly challenging in this era of multi-thousand page bills.
CPAC
The annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) kicks off Thursday, relocated from the D.C.-area to Orlando, Florida to take advantage of the Sunshine State's more lax pandemic restrictions.
This year's theme, "America Uncanceled," already raised eyebrows even before CPAC ended up canceling one of their own speakers for his tweets containing blatantly anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Follow Mediaite's coverage of CPAC 2021 here.
Roll the tape
The View's Meghan McCain was swiftly fact-checked Thursday when she claimed that her late father, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), had never spoken at CPAC and had never been invited to the annual conservative conference.
In fact, the elder McCain did give a speech at CPAC in 2008, when he was running for president, and thanked the event organizers for inviting him. We've got the video here.
Meghan vs. Media
Meghan McCain's criticism of the media for their silence regarding recent scandals involving Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) was more on the mark, as she highlighted the conflict between Cuomo's own past words regarding believing women and the refusal of many media outlets to cover the on-the-record accusations made by a former Cuomo staffer.
"If he keeps his mouth shut" Former GOP Senate staffer Amanda Carpenter offered a harsh assessment of former Vice President Mike Pence's future, saying he could have a "safe, comfortable life" in the conservative movement -- but only "if he keeps his mouth shut" and doesn't complain about the mob of Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol chanting "hang Mike Pence!"
Dognapping Two of Lady Gaga's French bulldogs were stolen Wednesday evening, and her dog walker was shot by the dognapper. The dog walker was taken to an area hospital and is fortunately expected to recover, but the pups are still missing. The pop star, who is shooting a film in Rome, has offered a $500,000 reward for the safe return of her beloved pets. 6.5.0 | 
