Jason Collins to sign with Nets, will be first openly gay athlete in major professional sports history

On Friday, CNN reported that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has lost his patience with Republican House members demanding he appease them in return for electing him speaker down the line — and issued a threat to these members in a December meeting.

"The House Republican leader cast off his typically sunny demeanor during a December 8 meeting of the GOP conference to deliver a stern warning to his most raucous members: Quit trying to hold your vote for speaker over my head," reported Michael Warren and Melanie Zanona. "'He said, 'If any of you come to me and tell me that you're not going to vote for me unless I do something, I'm going to do exactly the opposite, even if I agree with you,'' said Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who was there at the time. A second Republican member told CNN McCarthy punctuated his threat with, 'I mean it.'"

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday endorsed Jessica Cisneros' campaign to oust Rep. Henry Cuellar, a right-wing Democrat whose Texas home and office were raided this week as part of a sweeping federal investigation related to Azerbaijan and U.S. businessmen.

In an email, Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) team pointed to reporting that "the Department of Justice's Public Integrity unit is involved with the investigation—a unit that handles cases involving elected officials including campaign finance and corruption cases."

The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was the focus of an exposé by Jane Mayer in The New Yorker titled, "Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to the Supreme Court?"

"The claim that the Justices’ opinions are politically neutral is becoming increasingly hard to accept, especially from Thomas, whose wife, Virginia (Ginni) Thomas, is a vocal right-wing activist. She has declared that America is in existential danger because of the “deep state” and the “fascist left,” which includes “transsexual fascists.” Thomas, a lawyer who runs a small political-lobbying firm, Liberty Consulting, has become a prominent member of various hard-line groups," Mayer reported. "Ginni Thomas has held so many leadership or advisory positions at conservative pressure groups that it’s hard to keep track of them. And many, if not all, of these groups have been involved in cases that have come before her husband."