Good morning and Happy Groundhog Day! Remember that we get the extra six weeks of winter if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow. Gotta get that straight.

If you’ve got $3,499 burning a hole in your pocket and want to block out the world and watch “True Detective” in peace (while everyone stares at uncanny digital versions of your eyes), the Apple Vision Pro comes out today. If you’re lucky, you might be able to snag a demo appointment at the Apple Store.

 CONGRESS 

🪙 Legislators legislated

A bipartisan tax reform bill sailed through the House this week. The (deep breath) Tax Relief For American Families and Workers Act of 2024 passed on a 357 to 70 vote. If you have kids, you might get a tax break.

• It boosts the child tax credit from $1,600 to $2,100 over the next three years and ties future raises to inflation.

• Proponents say that could help lift 500,000 kids out of poverty.

• It also reforms some research and development tax deductions for businesses.

• Remember, tax deductions reduce the amount of your income that can be taxed. Tax credits reduce your tax bill itself.

House Speaker Mike Johnson supported the bill. He said the “bottom-up process is a good example of how Congress is supposed to make law." The TRFAFAWAO24 (came up with that ourselves) came from the tax-writing committee. In recent years, most bills like this have come from House leadership.

Slightly more Democrats supported the bill than Republicans. Some of the House’s more conservative members opposed the bill for budgetary reasons. And some more moderate New York Republicans threatened to oppose it over a disagreement on a different tax deduction. They negotiated a standalone vote on that for next week.

Future: It heads to the Senate now. Some Republican senators oppose it on both policy and political grounds. If it passes there, it’s likely to be heavily modified. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY and Amy's cousin) wouldn't say when he'd bring it up for a vote.

But he did say the Senate will vote on the combo border security-Ukraine aid bill next week. After that, the Senate's on vacation recess for two weeks.

 FLORIDA 

⚖️ DeSantis defeats Disney

A federal judge tossed Disney’s lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Disney said DeSantis violated its freedom of speech rights. But the judge said the House of Mouse lacks standing.

• Having standing means proving you have a connection to the situation and were harmed by it. This prevents random people from suing everything that moves.

• The judge said DeSantis’ actions here were obviously constitutional. So Disney couldn’t have been harmed. Thus, no standing.

Recap: Disney World has (basically) served as its own local government since 1967. Disney appoints every member of the board that approves building permits, runs fire stations, and more.

DeSantis and the Florida legislature took that power away. Now, Florida’s governor (whomever that may be) appoints the board.

Disney sued. They claimed the change was retaliation for their opposition to DeSantis' social policies. That’s where they got their free speech argument.

Appeal: Disney's already filed an appeal. If the appeal is granted, the case will be heard by a higher (appellate) court. If not, the current decision stands.

Related: Gov. DeSantis says he’ll send up to 1,000 Florida National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to assist “based on Texas’s needs.”

 POLITICS 

🔵 Tomorrow, the South Carolina Democratic primary kicks off the (party-sanctioned) presidential nominating process. Usually, South Carolina is fourth on the calendar. But Democrats rearranged their calendar for diversity’s sake. Biden boycotted last month's New Hampshire primary (but won anyway). So this is the first time he'll be on the ballot. He'll share that ballot with two challengers: Rep. Dean Phillips and author Marianne Williamson. Biden is strongly favored to win this thing. Not only because he's the incumbent president. He also enjoys particularly strong support among South Carolina Democrats. He won this primary in 2020 (after losing both Iowa and New Hampshire) and credits his presidency on that victory.

🔴 South Carolina Republicans don't vote until Feb. 24. Despite what the Trump camp would prefer, the Republican contest is not over. Former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is still in the race. But a new poll shows her not enjoying much of a home-state advantage. Trump leads her in South Carolina 58% - 32%.

🔵 The Biden campaign is ramping up. It spent $19.3 million in the last three months of 2023. That's more than it spent in the first nine months of the year combined. The campaign is based in Wilmington, Delaware. By the end of December, it had 80 people on the payroll. Biden's campaign and associated fundraising groups have over $117 million on hand right now. But that haul is dwarfed by an outside group supporting the president's reelection. That group, Future Forward, just bought $250 million in TV ads — the largest political ad buy ever.

🔴 The (fever) dream ticket of dozens of people online is officially dead. Former President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to slam JFK's nephew and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. He's "by far the most Radical Left person running for office, maybe ever!"

🔵 Wild story. Former Missouri Sen. Jean Carnahan passed away at 90. Why is that wild? It’s not. But how she got to the Senate is. Her husband Mel was Missouri’s popular Democratic governor. He ran for U.S. Senate against incumbent Republican Sen. John Ashcroft. Tragically, Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash three weeks before the election. He then proceeded to win that Senate race. His wife Jean was later appointed to fill the empty seat. But wow. How unpopular was Ashcroft that he lost the election to a literal dead man?

🔴 The Oregon Supreme Court ruled that 10 of the state’s 12 Republican state senators can't run for reelection. These senators participated in a tried-and-true legislative strategy of...leaving. Legislatures need a certain percentage of members to be there (to prevent like two guys from passing laws). This level is called a quorum. Sometimes when a minority party can't stop a bill they don't like, they'll stage a walkout to deny quroum. Oregon voters in 2022 passed a state constitutional amendment to stop this by preventing overly absent lawmakers from running again. Last year, Oregon Republicans staged a long walkout and questioned the phrasing of the walkout rule. The Oregon Supreme Court upheld that law.

 TRIVIA 

Black History Month began yesterday in the United States. In what year was it first celebrated?

 WORLD 

🇺🇸 USA: Militants killed three U.S. Army soldiers in Jordan on Sunday. U.S. intelligence blames the attack on a group called the Islamic Resistance in Iraq. Now, the Biden administration has a plan to fight back — and it's holding Iran responsible for funding the attack. Spokesman John Kirby said the retaliation "won't be a one-off."

🇵🇸 Palestine: The U.S. is reportedly looking at officially recognizing the State of Palestine. Official recognition is a big deal in the diplomatic world and would grant the Palestinians much broader acceptance on the world stage. The deal would have strings (like demilitarization) to ensure it could never be a threat to Israel. The State Department is denying this, but it's allegedly part of a big new Biden Doctrine.

🇪🇺 European Union: The European Union agreed to a $54 billion Ukrainian aid package after Hungarian leader Viktor Orban lifted his veto. Hilariously, part of that cash could come from Russia itself. When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, the European Union froze $218 billion in Russian financial assets held in the EU. Those assets have since earned billions in interest. Now the EU wants to use that cash to fund part of its aid deal.

 BRIEFS 

• Microsoft has plugged the loopholes used to create the viral, AI-created nude pics of Taylor Swift

• The world’s biggest record label, Universal Music Group, pulled its music from TikTok (including Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and Ariana Grande)

• Donald Trump’s various fundraising groups spent ~$50 million on lawyers last year

• Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin is “deeply sorry” for hiding his hospital stay from the public and President Biden

• Mexico City’s 21 million people are rapidly running out of water amid a drought

• House committee voted to impeach Homeland Security Sec. Mayorkas, sending the bill to the House floor

• Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was humiliated by the U.S. Senate (but had great hair doing it?)

• A Delaware court just cost Elon Musk $56 billion when it voided the company’s 2018 pay package to its CEO

• Elon Musk says he will push to move Tesla’s corporate registration from Delaware to Texas (where it’s HQed)

• Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy is exacting revenge on the Republicans who overthrew him last year

• Rep. Ilhan Omar says the allegedly treasonous video of her claiming to represent Somalia's interests is a mistranslation

 QUOTE 

 SNACKS 

💰 Super Bowl: The cheapest Super Bowl tickets this year cost $8,188. Somehow that almost makes last year’s price of $5,997 seem like a bang-up deal. A single 30-second ad goes for about $7,000,000.

🎬 Streaming: Worlds are colliding! The “Game of Thrones” guys (Benioff and Weiss) are making a show for Netflix about the weird life, six-month presidency, and assassination of President James Garfield.

🦜 Beakiation: Scientists have determined that some weird kind of parrot (the rosy-faced lovebird) uses its beak to swing on branches, monkey style. They’ve dubbed this move “beakiation.”

 REVIEWS 

 ANSWER 

Black History Month originally began as a weeklong celebration in 1926 near the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. In its present form, Black History Month was first celebrated at a university in Ohio in 1970. It’s since grown into a global celebration of the African diaspora. It’s typically recognized in February, but the Brits do it in October.