1/ Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen backed Biden’s position that a recession is “not inevitable.” Yellen acknowledged, however, that she expects some economic slowing as the Federal Reserve aggressively tries to curb inflation with increased interest rates. The year-over-year inflation rate is currently at 9.6% – a 40-year high – and the major stock market indexes are all down more than 20% from their highs. Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, however, said all the “precedents point towards a recession,” adding that the unemployment rate would need to rise above 5% for a sustained period in order to curb inflation. Biden, meanwhile, suggested pausing the federal gas tax as a way to reduce prices for Americans. The gas tax adds 18.4 cents total per gallon of gasoline, which currently cost about $5 a gallon on average. Biden is also considering lifting Trump-era tariffs to slow inflation. (Washington Post / Politico / ABC News / Bloomberg)

2/ The Supreme Court ruled that Maine cannot exclude religious schools from a state tuition program that lets parents to use vouchers to send their children to public or private schools. The program that does not allow public funds to go to schools that promote religious instruction. The court, however, ruled that if the state used taxpayer money to pay for students attending nonreligious private schools, it must also allow the use of taxpayer funds to pay for attendance at religious schools. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court’s three liberal justices in dissent. (New York Times / NPR / Washington Post / CNN)

3/ The Jan. 6 committee revealed evidence that Trump had a “direct and personal role” in pressuring state and local officials to overturn the 2020 election results, as well as involved in a scheme to put forward slates of fake pro-Trump electors in states won by Biden. The panel’s fourth hearing featured testimony from Republican officials on the receiving end of Trump’s outreach after the election, which showed that Trump knew that his claims of election fraud were unfounded and risked causing violence. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Trump asked to “find” enough votes to flip the election in Georgia, testified that Trump received fewer votes than expected because roughly 28,000 Republicans who voted didn’t choose a president that year. “The numbers are the numbers,” he said. “The numbers don’t lie.” Arizona House of Representatives Speaker Rusty Bowers testified that Rudy Giuliani – despite acknowledging that he didn’t have any evidence – pressed him to allow a state committee to study evidence of voter fraud and to look into potentially removing Biden’s electors in the state. Bowers also said Trump lawyer John Eastman inquired about decertifying the electors. ...