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The Latest
Welcome to your snow emergency. The Capital Weather Gang now expects “less pure snow, more sleet,” with maybe an inch or three of ice on top of the powder. Fun.
- FEMA so abruptly paused terminating disaster-response employees that 30 people who were terminated early Thursday were un-terminated by the end of the day.
- DHS told FEMA officials not to use the word “ice.” “Officials told staff they worry that certain phrasing — like ‘“watch out for ice’ — could be misinterpreted or quickly turned into internet fodder,” CNN reports.
- The White House is promising a “whole-of-government” response to the storm. The president cited the cold as proof that global warming is fake.
New on NOTUS: Lobbyists are cashing in on crime. Taylor Giorno reports that lobbyists took in more than $2 million last year “from criminals and other legally imperiled people” looking for a pardon or clemency from Donald Trump.