Good morning and Happy Presidents’ Day! No. Scratch that. Society’s lying to you. Since 1879, the federal holiday celebrated near G. Dub’s birthday (Feb. 22) has been called Washington’s Birthday. It’s never been legally called Presidents’ Day by the feds, though some states do refer to associated state-level holidays by that name.

2024

🏷️ No Labels has no candidate

The dream of a bipartisan unity ticket just got even less realistic. Independent moderate group No Labels was courting West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D).

And until last week, he seemed like a shoo-in. Manchin went on a nationwide “listening tour” and even publicly floated Utah Sen. Mitt Romney (R) as a running mate (despite Romney's disdain for No Labels).

• But allies of President Biden have been waging a months-long pressure campaign to convince Manchin to pull the plug.

• They worry a No Labels campaign would eat up just enough anti-Trump votes to throw the election to Trump.

It seems the pressure worked. Manchin’s out. He says he doesn’t want to “be a deal breaker or a spoiler.” Instead, he'll run his own group dedicated to moderate politics. So it’s back to the drawing board for No Labels as they work on gaining ballot access in all 50 states.

In honor of George Washington's birthday — since he remains America's only independent president — let's take a look at who else No Labels might look to:

• Jon Huntsman (R): He's the former governor of Utah and ambassador to Singapore, China, and Russia. He worked under both Obama and Trump and just so happens to be filthy rich.

• William McRaven (D): He's a retired four-star Navy admiral who gave the famous 2014 "Make Your Bed" speech. He's never held office but is associated with Democrats. McRaven was a potential running mate for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and endorsed Biden in 2020.

• Kyrsten Sinema (I): The moderate Arizona U.S. senator left the Democratic Party. She could parachute out of her tough three-way reelection race into a presidential campaign.

They could also look at any number of moderate current or former governors (there are plenty), another military figure or a well-known CEO.

No Labels swears they're talking to "several exceptional leaders" about running. We're picking up some real middle school girlfriend vibes ("she’s totally real, she just goes to a different school").

NEWS STORY

😲 Trump owes New York $355 million

Former President Donald Trump owes the State of New York $355 million. State Attorney General Letitia James sued him on the state's behalf. She claimed he committed fraud by overinflating his net worth when applying for bank loans. State Judge Arthur Engoron agreed.

Here's the punishment:

• Trump owes the state a $355 million penalty for cash he made on these deals.

• His sons, Eric and Don Jr., each owe $4 million.

• Trump himself is banned from doing business in New York for three years. His sons got two-year bans.

Trump also owes interest that could bring his total up to $450 million. His net worth is about $2.6 billion.

The judge noted that while no banks were hurt by Trump's actions, the next bank to make a loan based on false valuations "might not be so lucky."

Trump’s side: Trump claims there were no victims here since the banks made money. Some even testified in his defense during the trial. Deutsche Bank said they loaned him cash based on their (lower) valuations of his wealth, not his.

Trump is, of course, appealing. His lawyers claim the law in question here wasn't meant for this, the judge was biased, and the statute of limitations has passed.

In other news totally unrelated to the above story: Trump stopped by Sneaker Con to hock his $399 Never Surrender High-Tops.

POLITICS

🔵 A new poll has Rep. Colin Allred tied in his uphill U.S. Senate race against Sen. Ted Cruz. Both men have 44% support. Texas is a tough state for Democrats, but it’s one of the party’s few opportunities in this year’s Senate races. One-third of Senate seats are up every two years. And this year’s bunch happens to be pretty Republican-leaning. It’s not all good news for Allred, though. Nearly 60% of Texans have no clue who he is. And the state hasn’t elected a new Democrat to the Senate since 1970.

🔴 Nikki Haley is still fighting her exceedingly uphill battle against former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination. Her home state of South Carolina holds the next primary this Saturday. And, after she requested it recently, a Congressional panel has recommended she get U.S. Secret Service protection. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas has the final say.

TRIVIA

We typically think of tech stocks as the ones that will make you filthy rich off of a tiny investment. But that’s not always the case. What is the highest-performing stock over the last 30 years?

Hint: It’s a beverage company.

WORLD

🇷🇺 Russia: Jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny died in a Siberian prison aged 47. Navalny was a Putin critic who was serving a 19-year prison term for extremism. Prison officials say he died of “sudden death syndrome” but most observers see this as an assassination. Navalny survived a poisoning incident back in 2021.

🇺🇦 Ukraine: As Ukraine pulls out of the besieged city of Avdiivka, President Volodymyr Zelensky says he wants Trump to visit the front lines with him. Trump has recently opposed more U.S. funding for Ukraine. But Zelensky says Ukraine desperately needs American support to win the war.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom: Prince Harry says he's up for temporarily resuming his (surely challenging) royal duties while his father, King Charles III, undergoes cancer treatments. But palace sources put the kibosh on that. It seems Harry made his choice and there’s no going back.

🇮🇷 Iran: The commander of Iran's elite Quds Force paid a visit to Iran-backed militants in Iraq. His message: cool it. In the two weeks before his visit, militants attacked U.S. forces in the region more than 20 times. Since February 4? Zero. Sources claim Iran wants to avoid further provoking the U.S. to avoid a broader conflict.

🇺🇳 United Nations: The U.S. will veto a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, citing risks to ongoing peace talks. Countries on the Security Council rotate, but five are permanent members with veto power: the U.S., the U.K., France, China, and Russia. They agree on about as much as you’d expect.

BRIEFS

• Air Canada must honor the overly generous refund policy its chatbot made up

• Because golf is weird, PGA star Jordan Spieth was kicked out of a tournament for accidentally filling out his scorecard wrong

• House moderates are pushing a new, smaller $66 billion foreign aid bill that has some border protection provisions

• Reddit will allow an undisclosed AI to train on its content in a $60 million deal ahead of a likely IPO

• Mexico is likely to elect its first female president this year, as the top two leading candidates are both women

• Eccentric rich people and chefs (mostly chefs, we’d think) can now 3D print chocolate

• President Biden visited the site of last year’s hazardous train derailment in East Palestine, OH

QUOTE

SNACKS

🦜 Parrots: A zoo in England has a peculiar problem. Its parrots won’t stop swearing at children. Adding new birds to the mix didn’t work — they started swearing, too. The new plan is to overwhelm the birds with kindness by adding 92 clean parrots to the 8 swearing birds. Surely that doesn't backfire...

👨‍🚀 Mars: Do you have a STEM background, a sense of adventure, and nothing to do in 2025? NASA wants you. They're recruiting four people to spend a full year in a 3D-printed 1,700-square-foot Mars simulation.

💬 Read: Many Americans used to read George Washington’s presidential farewell address every year on his birthday. The U.S. Senate still does it. If you’re interested in what he had to say, you can read it here.

ANSWER

Apple schmapple. Between February 1994 and February 2024, Monster Energy’s stock rose by 200,000%. If you put $1,000 into it 30 years ago, you’d have $2,000,000 today.