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GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he's looking at ways to keep President Biden off the ballot due to the "invasion of 8 million" at the southern border — though he said he also believes efforts to bar former President Trump from the ballot are wrong. "I do think the US Supreme Court is going to have to take the case," DeSantis told reporters following a campaign event in Iowa Friday . "I do think they're going to have to rein this in, because I just think if you look at it, it just becomes too different." But DeSantis said in the meantime that Florida is looking at whether it could block Biden from the ballot for policies he says have led to an "invasion" of immigrants into the U.S. over the southern border . "You could make a case — we're actually I'm actually looking at this in Florida now. Could we make a credible case that Biden, because of the invasion of eight million?" DeSantis said...

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica : Hands-on with Midjourney v6: generates highly detailed images that sometimes seem unrealistic, a different approach to prompting compared to v5, and more   —  As Midjourney rolls out new features, it continues to make some artists furious.  —  In December, just before Christmas …

Ann Carrns / New York Times : The US IRS starts testing its free, “mobile friendly” direct e-filing system with some low- and moderate-income taxpayers in 12 US states   —  Residents of 12 states are eligible to participate if they meet certain criteria.  But the agency's plans have already met resistance from tax preparation companies.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is warning Friday that the U.S. is "witnessing a deeply disturbing spike in threats against those who serve the public," as the country continues to battle a "scourge in violent crime."   Garland spoke in Washington, D.C., as he gathered leaders from the Justice Department’s law enforcement components – including the FBI, ATF, DEA and U.S. Marshals Service – to discuss combating violent crime and prosecuting and deterring those who would criminally threaten public servants.  "Violent crime is not just a threat to people's physical safety, it is a threat to their ability to freely go about their daily lives. Violent crime isolates people and communities. It deepens the fractures in our public life, and when it is not addressed can undermine people's trust in the government and in each other," Garland said. "This department and our state and local partners will not rest until every community in our country is...

Emma Roth / The Verge : A developer finds that Google seems to be working on an upgraded version of Bard called Bard Advanced that will be available through a Google One subscription   —  Google appears to be working on an upgraded version of Bard called “Bard Advanced” that will be available through a paid subscription …

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy went viral on social media for his response to a reporter's question asking him if he condemns "White supremacy and White nationalism." "Of course I condemn any form of vicious racial discrimination in this country. But I think that the presumption of your question is fundamentally based on a falsehood that really is the main form of racial discrimination we see in this country today," Ramswamy told a reporter from the Washington Post on the campaign trail in Iowa on Wednesday. "Institutionalized racism is institutionalized racial discrimination that we see that doesn’t come from somehow discriminating against people on the basis of some tentative White supremacy," Ramaswamy continued. "It’s based on affirmative action. It’s based on actually discriminating against people on the color of their skin in a way that’s actually institutionalized today." Ramaswamy said that "questions and f...

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called out Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Wednesday, labeling his migrant busing policy "a remarkable failure of governance."  Mayorkas, who faces impeachment proceedings in the House for his handling of the illegal immigration crisis, blamed Abbott, a Republican, for failing to cooperate with officials in Democrat-led cities that have been overwhelmed by migrant arrivals.  "Let me identify one fundamental problem here, and that is the fact that we have one governor in the state of Texas who is refusing to cooperate with other governors and other local officials," Mayorkas said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." Emphasizing the need for the country to "stand united" on immigration, Mayorkas said, "it's a remarkable failure of governance to refuse to cooperate with one's fellow local and state officials."  HOUSE HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE SETS FIRST MAYORKAS IMPEACHMENT HEARING Abbot b...