The Russia House: Russia has been trying to intervene in the Democratic primaries to help Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, The NY Times reports. Sanders said that intelligence officials recently briefed him about it.

  The disclosure follows the revelation that US intelligence agencies also believe the Russians interfering to help President Trump win re-election. It’s as if they want to setup the crazy vs. the unelectable — Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster.

“The intelligence community is telling us they are interfering in this campaign right now in 2020,” Sanders told reporters in Bakersfield, California. “And what I say to Mr. Putin: ‘If elected president, trust me, you are not going to be interfering in American elections.’”

  President Trump, on the other hand, denies the assessment of his own intelligence agencies and blames the Democrats. “Another misinformation campaign is being launched by Democrats in Congress saying that Russia prefers me to any of the Do Nothing Democrat candidates who still have been unable to, after two weeks, count their votes in Iowa,” he wrote on Twitter. “Hoax number 7!”

  At a rally in Las Vegas he said, “I was told a week ago. They said, ‘You know they’re trying to start a rumor.’ It’s disinformation. That’s the only thing they’re good at. They’re not good at anything else. They get nothing done. Do nothing Democrats.”

  He didn’t say who told him that. He never does.

Outbreak: The US now has 34 cases of the coronavirus with more expected as the disease spreads around the world.

  At least four people have died in Iran, where there’s growing concern.

  An alarming number of cases has been linked to the secretive Shincheonji Church of Jesus in South Korea, where there have been 346 cases. The government is shutting down shutting down day-care centers, nursing homes, community centers and even banning outdoor political rallies. 

 One of the reactions to the epidemic is that commercial flights within China, more than 12,000 every day in normal times, have been cut by about 85 percent.

  As of this morning, 2,361 people are dead and 77,917 have been infected.

Democracy Now: The Nevada caucuses are today and polling has Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders far in the lead among Democratic candidates with 30 percent or more support. Vice President Joe Biden is third in one poll and fourth in another.

 This morning though, Pete Buttigieg still has the most allocated convention delegates, 22 to Bernie’s 21. 

  Don’t be surprised if there are problems with the Nevada results. Like Iowa, the Nevada Republicans were planning to use a new electronic reporting system, but they junked it after the Iowa disaster. They’re going to use a paper “Math Poster” worksheet hung on the wall at precinct locations, and an off-the-shelf Google Forms app loaded onto an iPad.

 It’s Nevada. What are the odds it’s going to work? 

Mother of the Year: The mother of two missing children asked a friend to tell investigators that she had the woman’s son, even though he hadn’t been there for months.

  Court records clam there’s no evidence that Lori Vallow put her children, Joshua Vallow, 7, and Tylee Ryan, 17, in anyone else’s custody. Vallow was arrested Thursday in Hawaii for failing to produce her children to a court.

  The 46 year old Vallow waived her right to fight extradition from Hawaii to Idaho. She’s being held on $5 million bail.

  People in Vallow’s life have a tendency to die and disappear. Her two children went off the radar in September. Her previous husband, Charles Vallow, was fatally shot by her brother, Alex Cox, during a July 11^th confrontation in Chandler, Arizona. Before Charles Vallow died, he had filed for divorce, claiming his wife believed she was reincarnated as a god sent to lead during the second coming of Christ in July 2020, and that she told her husband  if he got the way, she would kill him.

  The wife of Vallow’s current husband, Chad Daybell, was found dead in her home in October. Vallow’s third husband, Joseph Ryan, also expressed fears for his life in divorce papers. Ryan died of an apparent heart attack in 2018.

The Purge: Following his impeachment, President Trump has ordered his staff to identify and force out officials administration officials who are not seen as sufficiently loyal, The Washington Post reports. 

  Johnny McEntee, director of presidential personnel, has begun the work of weeding out political appointees who have not proved their loyalty, the paper reports.

  On another front, Trump has told aides that he wants to completely block publication of the book written by former National Security Adviser John Bolton because all his conversations with Bolton were classified, the Post reports.

  President Trump has told aides that he wants to completely block publication of the book written by former National Security Adviser John Bolton because all his conversations with Bolton were classified, the Washington Post reports.  

The Bulletin Board: The jury in the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault trial sent out word that they are split on the two most serious charges, but unanimous on the others. The judge told them to keep deliberating. — Under extreme pressure, Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg says he’s releasing three women from their nondisclosure agreements in sexual harassment cases. Presumably these will be the least damning cases for Bloomberg. — — NASA yesterday released stunning satellite pictures of the effects of ice melting on the norther Antarctic Peninsula. About a quarter of the peninsula that was white with snow and ice on Feb. 4^th is now melted and brown.

Beach Blanket Bingo: The Rooney Report will be taking some time out of the office in the next week. Depending on world events, we may file a report here and there, or we might just stay in the bar. 

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