January 1, Impeachment Inquiry Turns to Pence

Romney Blasts Trump for Calling on China, Ukraine to Investigate Biden…

Iranian Hackers Targeted U.S. Politicians…

Supreme Court Will Hear Landmark Abortion Case Amid 2020 Election…

This Day in History | 1962

The first James Bond film “Dr. No” opens in theaters.

Hello Middle Americans!

House investigators want Vice President Mike Pence to give them documents that could shed light on whether he helped President Donald Trump pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. The White House is preparing to formally object to Democrats’ impeachment inquiry as soon as Friday. Sen. Mitt Romney is criticizing President Donald Trump for calling on China to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden
  
Microsoft says Iran-linked hacking group tried to penetrate hundreds of accounts associated with U.S. politics, government, media and prominent ex-pat Iranians.
  
Also, the Supreme Court said Friday it will plunge into the abortion debate in the midst of the 2020 presidential campaign, taking on a Louisiana case that could reveal the more conservative court’s willingness to chip away at abortion rights.

Read all about it.

– Fraser Dixon

Impeachment inquiry turns to Vice President Mike Pence

(NBC News) – House committees conducting an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump want Vice President Mike Pence to turn over any documents he might have about the president’s attempts to get Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and the 2016 U.S. election.

“Recently, public reports have raised questions about any role you may have played in conveying or reinforcing the president’s stark message to the Ukrainian president,” the heads of the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees wrote in a letter Friday.

Read more from NBC News here

Mitt Romney Blasts Trump’s ‘Brazen’ Request for Foreign Probes Into Biden Family

(Fox News) – Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who has at times been a critic of President Trump, on Friday accusing the president of “appalling” behavior in his call for China and Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.

“When the only American citizen President Trump singles out for China’s investigation is his political opponent in the midst of the Democratic nomination process, it strains credulity to suggest that it is anything other than politically motivated,” Romney tweeted.

He added: “By all appearances, the President’s brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden is wrong and appalling.”

Read more from Fox News here

Microsoft: Iranian hackers Targeted a US presidential Campaign

(CNET) – Iranian hackers made more than 2,700 attempts to break in to email accounts belonging to a US presidential campaign, current and former US government officials, as well as journalists and prominent Iranians living outside the country, according to a post Friday by Microsoft’s corporate vice president on customer security and trust, Tom Burt.

Microsoft declined to name whose presidential campaign the Iranian hackers targeted. Reuters reported Friday that the hackers were targeting President Donald Trump’s campaign, noting that his campaign’s official website is the only candidate’s page linked to Microsoft’s cloud email service.

Learn more from CNET here

Supreme Court Revisits Abortion With Louisiana Case

(NPR) – The U.S. Supreme Court has jumped headlong back into the abortion wars. The court said Friday that it will hear arguments in a case from Louisiana that is nearly identical to a Texas case decided by the court three years ago.

Like the Texas law that the court previously struck down, the Louisiana law requires any doctor performing an abortion to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital; it also requires that clinics that provide abortions be, in effect, mini-hospitals, with everything from wide corridors to expensive equipment.

Read more from NPR here