In the news
House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is a polio survivor, came out in favor of childhood vaccinations while speaking at separate Washington news conferences held amid a measles outbreak in the U.S.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a freshman lawmaker from North Carolina who is among some Republicans challenging several health regulations, suggested at a Washington event that restaurants shouldn’t have to make their employees wash their hands after bathroom visits but added that establishments would have to prominently disclose that decision and then would probably go out of business.
Marcus Paulk, 28, a former child star on the 1990s sitcom Moesha, was arrested in Arizona on Super Bowl Sunday on suspicion of drunken driving and possession of marijuana.
David Neal, 61, an Ohio man who sold synthetic urine and other products intended to help people pass workplace drug tests, pleaded guilty before a federal judge in Pennsylvania and faces up to six years in prison when sentenced.
Kevin Bollaert, 28, of San Diego faces up to 20 years in prison after being convicted of running a “revenge porn” website where people posted nude pictures of their ex-lovers, who then had to pay Bollaert to take down the images.
Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of the Pacific island nation of Fiji said his country will replace its national flag this year to remove symbols of British colonialism.
Laurent Leger, a journalist for Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper that was the target of an attack in Paris last month that left 12 people dead, said the next edition will be out Feb. 25, but he did not say what would be on the cover.
Bassem Youssef, Egypt’s most popular satirist, joined Harvard’s Institute of Politics at the John F. Kennedy School of Government as a resident fellow for the spring semester, almost a year after his program was taken off the air in Egypt for lambasting that nation’s presidents and military men.
Kevin Lee Barbour, 37, of Florida, suspected of stealing a car, took off on foot after a traffic stop and briefly eluded deputies by hiding under a trailer, authorities said, adding that they found him by following the sound of a “snorting wild boar” that turned out to be a snoring Barbour.