Silencing Elizabeth Warren Backfires On Senate GOP:
And by doing so, majority Republicans just handed the liberal firebrand a megaphone — further elevating President Donald Trump’s fiercest and most prominent critic in the Senate and turning her into a Democratic hero.
The rebuke of Warren came after the Massachusetts Democrat
read a letter written 30 years ago by Coretta Scott King, the widow of Martin Luther King Jr., opposing the nomination of Jeff Sessions for a federal judgeship.
Warren cited the letter during a debate on the nomination of Sessions — now an Alabama senator — as Donald Trump’s attorney general. Reading from King’s letter to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1986, Warren said: “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome power of his office to chill the free exercise of the vote by black citizens in the district he now seeks to serve as a federal judge.”
Betsy DeVos Confirmed As Education Secretary:
The 51-50 vote ends Trump’s toughest confirmation battle yet. Senate Democrats debated through the night and into Tuesday morning in a last-ditch attempt to derail DeVos, buoyed by support from Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine.
DeVos was sworn into office shortly after 6 p.m. ET. Pence administered the oath of office and said his confirmation vote earlier in the day was “the easiest vote I ever cast.”
Queen Elizabeth II Marks 65 Years On British Throne With Sapphire Jubilee:
Her Sapphire Jubilee has being marked with ceremonial gun salutes at London’s Green Park and the Tower of London, and in several other locations across the United Kingdom. The bells at Westminster Abbey in central London were also rung in honor of the occasion.
A photograph taken by British photographer David Bailey in 2014 has been reissued to celebrate the anniversary. In the photo, the Queen is wearing sapphire jewelry that was given to her as a wedding gift by her father King George VI in 1947.
Why Opioid Overdose Deaths Seem To Happen In Spurts:
At least 14 people
died of opioid overdoses in Cuyahoga County over the weekend, CNN affiliate WEWS reported.
Already this year,
more than 60% of the autopsies conducted at the Montgomery County Coroner’s office in Ohio involved drug overdose deaths — and the office is running out of room for the bodies.
Many of these overdoses were related to the
abuse of opioids, a class of drugs that includes powerful prescription painkillers and heroin.
Why do so many opioid overdose deaths across the country appear to occur at once? Experts warn that the answer is more complicated than it may seem.
13 Incredible Rooftops Around The World:
More than 50 rooftops designed by some of the world’s most renowned and up-and-coming architects and landscape designers is featured in “Rooftops: Islands in the Sky,”
Taschen’s photography book releasing February 15 in the United States.
The book features forests reaching for the skies, blooming gardens, pools flowing to a building’s edge, art installations and outdoor spaces that switch easily from serving lunch to pouring drinks as nighttime hot spots.
“There may be as many ways to design and convert rooftops as there are buildings in modern cities,” writes the book’s editor Philip Jodidio.
“The attraction of the roof, the high place, is ancient, surely going further back in the human psyche than even the Old and New Testaments or the Qur’an,” he goes on. “Simply put, the roof offers a view, a place to contemplate the city, or to escape from its bustle and noise, at least for a time.”
