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Almanac for Feb. 5, 2026

Today is Thursday, Feb. 5, the 36th day of 2026. There are 329 days left in the year. Today in history: In 2020, the Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump in his first impeachment trial. Most senators expressed unease with Trump's pressure campaign on Ukraine that prompted the impeachment, but just one Republican, Mitt Romney of Utah, broke party ranks and voted to convict. In 2021, the Senate acquitted Trump in a second trial for allegedly inciting the violent Jan. 6 siege of the Capitol. Also on this date: In 1917, the U.S. Congress passed the Immigration Act of 1917 ...

Classy trees

All forestry schools teach tree classification as a basic course. Lots of Latin names. Groups of similar trees, in at least some ways. It’s kinda fun but not for everybody. When Carolus Linnaeus (nee Carl von Linné) began naming living things with Latin terms, there needed to be a method ...

Tax the dog (walker)

At first it seemed like something from the satirical website Babylon Bee. The new governor of Virginia, the “moderate” Democrat Abigail Spanberger, has proposed a tax hike on services such as dog walking and grooming. Additional proposed tax hikes include levies on guns and ammunition, ...

Clintons agree to testify in House Epstein probe

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton finalized an agreement with House Republicans on Tuesday to testify in a House investigation into Jeffrey Epstein this month, bowing to the threat of a contempt of Congress vote against ...

Almanac for Feb. 4, 2026

Today is Wednesday, Feb. 4, the 35th day of 2026. There are 330 days left in the year. Today in history: In 1997, a civil jury in Santa Monica, California, found O.J. Simpson liable for the deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman, ordering Simpson to pay $33.5 million to the victims' families. Also on this date: In 1789, electors unanimously chose George Washington to be the first president of the United States. In 1801, John Marshall took office as chief justice of the United States, a position he would hold for 34 years. In 1945, ...

Trump can’t stop backing down

Does it sometimes seem as though too many people have never learned the lessons of the schoolyard? If you capitulate to a bully, you will be bullied forever. If you stand up to him, he will back down. What's true on the playground is also true in the office, in politics and in international ...