RETALIATION: The US struck back yesterday against Iran-backed militias, hitting 85 targets at seven sites in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for a drone attack that killed three US soldiers and injured 40.

  An Iraqi general said, “These strikes constitute a violation of Iraqi sovereignty,” while the US said more strikes are coming. The Iraqi government said that 16 people, including civilians, had been killed and 25 wounded.

  The Syrian defense ministry called the attacks a “blatant air aggression.”

  Some of the munitions used were delivered by American B-1 bombers. The US said the targets were linked to specific attacks against U.S. troops in the region over the past several months. The US said they hit command and control and intelligence centers, weapons facilities, and bunkers used by the Quds Force, the foreign legion of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards. 

  President Biden appeared with families of the three dead service members yesterday as their bodies were returned to Dover Air Force Base.

ECON 101: The labor market added 353,000 jobs in January, far more than expected, as US economic growth remains strong. The unemployment rate remains at 3.7 seven percent.

  Despite the robust economy and historically low unemployment rate, the perception remains out there that the economy is in bad shape, largely because prices for everyday items took a leap during a year or more of high inflation.

  Wages are rising, but millions of people are still on the employment sidelines. The number of people not working who want a job has has surged to 5.8 million, suggesting that they would take a job if the pay outweighed the cost of childcare or commuting.  

RESPONSIBLE PARENTING: Testimony ended yesterday in the Michigan case against Jennifer Crumbley, the mother charged with criminal responsibility after her son, Ethan, shot and killed four people at his high school.

  In a tense exchange that ended cross-examination of Crumbley intended to imprint an image of negligence on the jury, Assistant Prosecutor Marc Keast referred to Crumbley’s decision not to take her troubled son home from school the day of the shooting saying, “On November the 30th of 2021 at 12:51 p.m., you could have been with him

  “I could have, yes,” she said.

  “And you didn’t,” Keast said.

  “No,” she answered.

  The jury gets the case on Monday.

PROSECUTORIAL CONDUCT: Georgia prosecutor Fani Willis publicly admitted yesterday that she’s been having an affair with Nathan Wade, the lawyer she hired to run the election interference case against Donald Trump and originally 18 other defendants.

  Willis said the affair did not begin until after she hired Wade and that doing so should not disqualify her from the case. Nonetheless, at least one defendant is trying to get Willis off the case. A court filing on Willis’s behalf said, “While the allegations raised in the various motions are salacious and garnered the media attention they were designed to obtain, none provide this Court with any basis upon which to order the relief they seek.”

  Willis is primarily up against Donald Trump, who appears to have inexhaustible resources to fight and delay the legal proceedings against him. Jesse Wegman, a member of the NY Times editorial board, wrote, “Let me get this straight: You are prosecuting the former president of the United States — a man who is better than anyone alive at exploiting his opponents’ weaknesses — and you give him the gift of a romantic affair with the lead prosecutor of his case?”

ORANGE ALERT: The federal election interference trial for Donald Trump originally set for March 4^th appears to have been put on indefinite hold while a federal appeals court considers Trump’s claim that he is immune from criminal prosecution.

  The delay is a big win for the former president, who has fought to postpone the trial until after the 2024 presidential election, although there’s still a chance he’ll be sitting in court before then.

  In the meantime, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is set to take Trump to trial in late March on charges of falsifying business records to conceal the hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election.

THE OBIT PAGE: Carl Weathers, a former linebacker for the Oakland Raiders who went on to become the boxer Apollo Creed in the series of “Rocky” prizefighting movies, died yesterday at age 76.His family said he died in his sleep.

  Weathers had a long career, appearing in as many as 80 movies and television shows. In the 2000s, he parodied himself as an acting coach on the sitcom “Arrested Development.” He was the voice of Combat Carl in the animated “Toy Story 4” and played Greef Karga in the “Star Wars” television series “The Mandalorian.” 

  But it was the original “Rocky” and his chiseled-body character who entered the ring decked out in American flag motif that imprinted Weathers in the American mind. He lost the fight and won a great career. 

THE SPIN RACK: Utah Gov. Gov. Spencer Cox signed a bill that limits diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at the state’s educational institutions and government offices. The law prohibits any program, office or initiative that has “diversity, equity and inclusion” in its name or “asserts that meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist.” — The Black Lake sturgeon fishing season in Michigan has been cancelled because the ice is too thin to accommodate fishermen and environmental officials monitoring how many fish are caught.  

BELOW THE FOLD: They all look alike. Republican members of Congress, that is.

  This week at the hearing in which senators grilled tech bosses, Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton repeatedly asked TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew whether he is Chinese and a member of the Chinese Communist Party.

  “Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?” Cotton asked.

  “Senator, I’m Singaporean, no,” Chew replied.

  “Have you ever been associated or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?” Cotton asked.

  “No, Senator, again, I’m Singaporean.”

  Singapore is 1,600 miles from Hong Kong. 

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