• Top aides to President Joe Biden have begun talks with a group of moderate Senate Republicans and Democrats on a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package as Biden faces increasing headwinds in his effort to win bipartisan backing for the initial legislative effort of his presidency.
• Lawmakers on the right question the wisdom of racking up bigger deficits while those on the left are urging Biden not to spend too much time on bipartisanship when the pandemic is killing thousands of Americans each day and costing more jobs amid tightening restrictions in many communities.
• At least a dozen senators met for an hour and 15 minutes in a virtual call with White House National Economic Council director Brian Deese and other senior White House officials Sunday.
• One key Republican, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, said afterward, “It seems premature to be considering a package of this size and scope.”
• Read more from Lisa Mascaro HERE.

• As the House prepares to bring the impeachment charge against Donald Trump to the Senate for trial, a growing number of Republican senators say they are opposed to the proceeding, dimming the chances that former president will be convicted on the charge that he incited a siege of the U.S. Capitol.
• House Democrats will carry the sole impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection” across the Capitol this evening, a rare and ceremonial walk to the Senate by the prosecutors who will argue their case. They are hoping that strong Republican denunciations of Trump after the Jan. 6 riot will translate into a conviction and a separate vote to bar Trump from holding office again.
• But instead, GOP passions appear to have cooled since the insurrection. Now that Trump’s presidency is over, Republican senators who will serve as jurors in the trial are rallying to his legal defense, as they did during his first impeachment trial last year.
• “I think the trial is stupid, I think it’s counterproductive,” said Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla.. He said that “the first chance I get to vote to end this trial, I’ll do it” because he believes it would be bad for the country and further inflame partisan divisions.
• Arguments in the Senate trial will begin the week of Feb. 8. Leaders in both parties agreed to the short delay to give Trump’s team and House prosecutors time to prepare and the Senate the chance to confirm some of Biden’s Cabinet nominees.
• Full story HERE.

• A recent review of the state’s suicide prevention efforts found a “fragmented” system in need of more focus and dedicated funding.
• The suicide death rate of Alabamians increased an average of 34.6%, and as high as 85% for some groups, between 1999 and 2018, the state report said.
• “No single organization is responsible for coordinating the state’s suicide prevention efforts, resulting in no fewer than four state agencies and multiple partners implementing a fragmented system,” said the September report from the Alabama Commission on Evaluation of Services.
• The report is the first for the commission, referred to as ACES, created through legislation in 2019 “for the purpose of advising the Legislature and the governor regarding the evaluation of services, which may include evidence-based policymaking, within the state.”
• Rep. Rich Wingo, R-Tuscaloosa and Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, sponsored the legislation.
• Read more from Mary Sell HERE.

• Parents, caregivers and teachers now have a one-stop online destination for an array of resources that can help build stronger families through the remainder of the pandemic and beyond.
• Alabama Family Central offers education materials, child care listings, health information and services of state agencies and nonprofits.
• The website is free, can be easily accessed by mobile phone and is meant to help those who care for children by streamlining sometimes disparate information and resources, Gov. Kay Ivey said.
• “Great parents need strong partners. I thank the state agencies and other partners for this wonderful new resource,” Ivey said at a news conference announcing the site’s relaunch.
• The effort came about as the result of discussions between State Sens. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, and Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, during last year’s education budget negotiations. Given how many parents had been suddenly forced to provide additional care and instruction to children, Figures wanted to find a way to get helpful resources into the hands of those who could use them. Utilizing an existing entity in Alabama Family Central and working with the A+ Education Partnership, a $500,000 line item was set in the Fiscal Year 2021 budget.
• Information about the site will be communicated on agency partner websites, the Alabama Family Central Facebook page, online videos, radio, and billboards throughout the state.
• Read more HERE.

Birmingham VA expands vaccine program; more doses still key

• BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Birmingham VA Health Care System is expanding its ability to vaccinate veterans against the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, provided it can get enough doses of the vaccine.
• A partnership with the United Way of Central Alabama will allow the agency to provide as many as 1,000 shots a day beginning today to veterans who are at least 65 years old, the VA said. That’s up from the current daily total of 300 people.
• The change comes because the VA’s vaccine clinic is moving into a United Way building in downtown Birmingham. Chief executive Stacy Vasquez said the system will schedule as many veterans as it can for shots, but obtaining additional vaccine is key.
• “Right now, I have enough vaccine to take care of 5,000 people next week. But then after that, unless I get another shipment, I don’t know,” Vasquez told WBRC-TV.
• The VA’s vaccination program operates on a separate track than the one administered by the Alabama Department of Public Health, which is offering vaccines for people 75 and older. It, too, is in need of additional vaccine.

Father arrested in abduction of 2 kids from NY foster home

• GREECE, N.Y. (AP) — The father of two children who were forcibly taken from their western New York foster home and later found in Alabama has been arrested in the kidnapping, police announced.
• The Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester reports that Dimitri Cash Sr. was arrested Saturday on charges of second-degree kidnapping, first-degree burglary, and second-degree robbery in the abduction Monday of his children, Dimitri Jr., 5, and Shekeria, 3, from their home in the Rochester suburb of Greece.
• The brother and sister were taken from their foster home after two men wearing ski masks broke through a window and tied up a woman and two other children, Greece police said. The children were located Wednesday after authorities tracked a rental car to Montgomery, Alabama and found them on the floor of the back seat under a blanket.
• Cash Sr., 29, is is being held in the Monroe County Jail on $100,00 cash bail or $300,000 bond. Police said Kimara Pluviose, 32, who was driving the car the children were found in, has also been arrested and is being held in Alabama. It’s not clear if Cash or Pluviose has an attorney who can speak for them.

Ex-cop avoids federal lockup, faces state charges in beating

• MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — A federal judge in Alabama has given five years probation to a white ex-policeman who admitted trying to obstruct investigators looking into charges that he beat a Black driver.
• Former Selma police officer Matthew Blaine Till pleaded guilty in September to three counts of obstructing justice. Although prosecutors asked for prison time, U.S. District Judge Matthew Beaverstock put him on probation, a U.S. Justice Department news release said.
• “As part of his plea agreement, Till will no longer be able to work in local, municipal, state or federal law enforcement, nor as a corrections officer or private security guard,” the statement said.
• Till and former Dallas County sheriff’s deputy John Matthew Taccone face state charges of felony second-degree assault and misdemeanor unlawful imprisonment and obstructing governmental operations.
• Their state trial is scheduled in September, Al.com reported.
• News outlets reported in September that Till’s wife called him April 30 after a road rage dispute with a “black guy in a red Charger,” which the two officers chased down and pulled over.
• A physical struggle started after Till tried to handcuff the man, Al.com reported at the time. While the man asked what he had done, the two on-duty officers hit his face and head, and Till pulled out his gun and threatened to kill him, Dallas County District Attorney Michael Jackson said when the assault charges were announced.
• The state charges were brought a week after Till pleaded guilty to the federal charges. As part of that plea, he admitted that he had “used force against a citizen while on duty,” then told another law-enforcement officer multiple times not to tell investigators about his wife’s call.