Unforgiven: Reporters at the Supreme Court yesterday said several conservative justices appeared skeptical as to whether President Biden has the power to forgive $500 billion in student loans.

  At stake is up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness for 40 million people. The larger issue is the question of when and how the executive branch can act without legislative approval.

  The court heard arguments in two lawsuits challenging Biden’s loan forgiveness. Lawyers for six Republican-led states argued that the administration exceeded its authority using the pandemic as a pretext for fulfilling a campaign promise to erase student debt. 

  The other suit brought by just two people argues that the government failed to follow proper rulemaking. 

  Justice Amy Coney Barrett, although she’s one of the conservatives, questioned whether the Republican-led states have the standing to challenge student-loan forgiveness, making a point similar to questions raised by the Court’s three liberals. 

Sunshine Man: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy announced that he’s going to make Capitol security video from the January 6^th insurrection available to defendants arrested for their role in the attack.

  He already gave the video exclusively to Tucker Carlson at Fox News. Speaking to reporters, McCarthy defended giving the video to Carlson exclusively, “Because I think sunshine matters. I don’t care what side of the issue you are on, that’s why I think putting it out all to the American public you can see the truth, see exactly what transpired that day and everybody can have the exact same information.”

  The rest of the press is annoyed at the exclusive given to Carlson. “It almost seems like the press is jealous,” McCarthy told The Washington Post. “And that’s interesting because every person in the press works off exclusives on certain things.”

  The Speaker said he would release the video to the general public after Carlson has reviewed it and done his own reports.

Train Wreck: At least 36 people in Greece died in the head-on collision of a passenger train with a freight train just before midnight. The passenger train was carrying 350 people and rescuers are using cranes to find anyone alive in the wreckage.

  The passenger train was as travelling north from Athens to Thessaloniki. Some of the passengers were thrown through the windows on impact.

The War Room: Russia has lost a three-week tank battle around the southern Ukrainian coal-mining town of Vuhledar. The Russians made the same mistake they did at the opening of the war, attacking in columns of tanks picked off by Ukrainian tanks, artillery, and anti-tank rockets.   

  Speaking of tanks, the decision for European countries to give German-made Leopard tanks to Ukraine has exposed a lack of preparedness for land war in NATO and neighboring countries, The NY Times reports. 

  There’s a shortage of parts and working tanks. Some armies have had to pull trainers out of retirement to teach Ukrainian soldiers how to use older tanks. There’s even been some internal political opposition after the decision was made to give tanks to Ukraine.

  The Times says that, “Believing that large-scale land war was a thing of the past and basking in the thaw of the Cold War, nations chronically underfunded their militaries.” 

Chicawgo Politics: Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot yesterday lost her bid for re-election in a city unhappy  with her handling of crime that in the depths of the pandemic escalated into daylight looting of high-end stores on the city’s Magnificent Mile 

  Four years ago, all 50 wards elected Lightfoot to be the city’s first Black woman mayor. Two surviving candidates head for a runoff vote in April. One of them is a hardliner who would bolster the police. The other  is a former teacher who once said he would reduce the police budget.

The Obit Page: Linda Kasabian, the member of the Charles Manson cult family who was the lookout while other members carried out two nights of horrific murders in August of 1969. She kept a low profile the rest of her life and last used the name Linda Chiochios. She was 73. 

  Aug. 9, 1969, Ms. Kasabian waited at the car while the others killed five people, including the actress Sharon Tate, the wife of the director Roman Polanski. The next night the crew tied up then stabbed to death Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

  Kasabian turned state’s witness against the others. She said years later she had joined the group “looking for God,” but instead found drugs, sex, and murder. At trial she said of the hypnotizing allure of Charles Manson,  ““He just had something, you know, that could hold you.”

The Spin Rack: The US Marshals Service revealed it was the victim of a cyberattack last week in which hackers stole sensitive information. — Marianne Williamson, the spiritualist who’s written a string of self-help books, has declared herself a candidate for president. She has run for president before and you’d know it if she had won. — The Navy is changing the name of the guided-missile cruiser Chancellorsville, which honored the Confederate victory, to “Robert Smalls,” after a former slave and sailor. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has published the requisite memoir that goes with being a candidate for president, although he has yet to declare. It’s called “The Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival.” The title “War and Peace” was already taken.

Below the Fold: Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who shouted “Liar!” at President Biden during his State of the Union message, tweeted that she was “attacked in a restaurant tonight by an insane women and screamed at by her adult son.”

  She said, “They are self righteous, insane, and completely out of control.” And she said, “People used to respect others even if they had different views. But not anymore. Our country is gone.”

  For readers who did not watch the State of the Union, we question whether Greene accurately identified which was the truly insane woman in the restaurant.

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