Not So Special: A panel of three federal appellate judges yesterday ruled that Donald Trump should never have been granted his request for a special master to review materials, many of them highly classified, seized in the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida.

  The appellate judges shut down the review that was slowing the Department of Justice investigation into whether Trump broke the law by taking government documents to his home. This will result in a speedier decision by  the Department of Justice on whether to seek an indictment of Trump regarding the classified documents. 

  The judges said in their ruling that no ordinary citizen would be granted such an ability to stall a federal investigation and they were not going to make a special exception for a former president. 

  They were also very critical of  District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who granted Trump’s request for the special master, saying she had no authority to do so.

Track 5: The senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday to impose a contract agreement on the freight rail unions, averting a strike within days. President Biden has vowed to sign it into law, taking the risk of angering organized labor in the country.

  An accompanying bill that would have granted the rail workers an annual seven days of paid medical leave failed to pass. It was largely the lack of paid leave that moved the rail workers to vote down the proposed contract.

  Biden got a little stiff yesterday when a reporter asked why he did not negotiate paid leave, saying he had “negotiated a contract no one else can negotiate.” 

The War Room: President Biden yesterday said he’s willing to meet with Russia’s Vladimir Putin only if the Russian president expresses a willingness to end the war on Ukraine. 

  Following a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron, Biden said, “I’m prepared if he’s willing to talk to find out what he’s willing to do, but I’ll only do it in consultation with my NATO allies. I’m not going to do it on my own.”

  After a private meeting, Biden and Macron were cordial with each other in front of the press, but there’s friction between the two countries over how to handle the war and US economic policies that are not favorable to France. Macron wants to negotiate with Putin.

  In Ukraine, the liberated yet devastated city of Kherson has been the target of shelling that took down the power grid that only recently had been restored to service. Across Ukraine, as many as six million people were without power yesterday.

  In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated the Kremlin’s claim that line that Ukraine’s power grid a legitimate military target, even though the war itself is not. The United Nations has said such attacks could be a war crime.

  In the economic war, the US is moving to seize the $156 million superyacht Madame Gu , which appears to be owned by the Russian steel magnate and legislator Andrei Skoch.  The US has already sanctioned the yacht, blocking it from employing American companies for upkeep, employing US citizens, or even using the dollar. 

The Obit Page: Gaylord Perry, the Hall of Fame pitcher who won 314 games, struck out more than 3,500 batters, and knew how to cheat like a pro, died at home in Gaffney, SC. Perry caught the coronavirus last year and never fully recovered. He was 84.

  Perry pitched for eight teams from 1962 to 1984. He could throw everything; curves, sliders, sinkers, changeups, forkballs and, of course, a blistering fastball But he is known in baseball history for mastering and concealing the spitball, which was outlawed in 1920. Any substance on the ball, or scuffing it, can make the ball fly erratically, becoming harder to hit.

  In his book, “Me and the Spitter: An Autobiographical Confession,”  Perry reveled in getting away with it. He wrote that he had thrown “the mud ball, the emery ball, the K-Y ball, just to name a few.”

The Spin Rack: CNN has begun significant layoffs to cut costs despite being comfortably profitable. Among the on-air people to go are  correspondents Alison Kosik, Martin Savidge, Alex Field, Mary Ann Fox, and Chris Cillizza — Arizona’s two Republican Cochise County supervisors gave up their election protest and voted to certify the November results. — Tesla delivered its first electric semi-trucks to customers this week. — Elon Musk says he suspended Kanye West’s twitter account for violating the rule against promoting violence and tweeting a swastika. — At least 1.1 million Georgia residents have already voted in the runoff between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker for Senate from that state. Early votes tend to skew Democrat. Former President Barack Obama campaigned for Warnock yesterday, but it appears Donald Trump will not appear for Walker.  — The Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to President Biden’s plan to forgive student debt, further delaying implementation.

Below the Fold: Lurking in the ancient ice are unknown dangers to the world’s population.

  European researchers  say that the thawing permafrost of Russia’s Siberia is releasing a store of prehistoric viruses. They say they have found 13 previously unknown pathogens trapped in Russia’s previously turf they call “zombie” viruses.

  The scientist say they found one virus that they estimate had been stranded under a lake more than 48,500 years ago. Jean-Michel Claverie, a former professor of virology at Aix-Marseille Université in France, told NPR, “We know that every time we’re going to look for viruses, infectious viruses in permafrost, we are going to find some.”

  You can bet someone is already writing the script for the horror movie about zombie viruses.

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