Republican Sen. Joni Ernst (Iowa) said that due to the #MeToo movement, she will no longer be doling out her signature hugs to constituents and colleagues. "I do have concerns now that a pat on the shoulder might be taken the wrong way," Ernst told the Daily Times Herald in Carroll, Iowa.

Ernst described herself as "a big hugger" but said that she has "given pause to that now." She was the first ever female combat veteran to serve in the Senate, and has spoken publicly about the harassment she faced there, including unsolicited "comments, passes, things like that." In a statement on her website, Ernst calls sexual assault "a horrendous crime," adding: "We won't tolerate it in gyms, we won't tolerate it on college campuses, and we won't tolerate it in the military. Period." She also teamed up with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, to sponsor a bill aimed at reforming how Congress addresses sexual harassment.

In further comments to the paper, Ernst said the #MeToo movement is "unfortunate in some aspects" because "I don't want to be accused of hugging somebody who didn't want a hug." She added, though, that overall the #MeToo movement has been "very important."

"It is raising awareness, I think, with a lot of women out there that maybe they were afraid to say something," Ernst told the Daily Times Herald. "Now, it's okay to say something." Jeva Lange

As President Trump looks for a new chief of staff candidate after being turned down by his top choice, a former officeholder is offering some advice.

Rahm Emanuel, who was chief of staff for former President Barack Obama, wrote in The Atlantic that no matter who Trump picks to replace outgoing Chief of Staff John Kelly, he or she won't be able to function the way a typical chief of staff does as long as Trump continues to "outsource significant authority to Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and other staffers." In fact, Emanuel suggests that whoever is hired "won't really be the chief of staff" because Trump is "unwilling to give anyone the authority needed to perform that job."

And what does Emanuel see as being needed? Well, he notes that Trump appears to be selecting Kelly's successor based on who can help him win re-election in 2020, which Emanuel sees as the wrong move. After all, there will be "other battles to fight" long before then, namely investigations from House Democrats and the impending report from Special Counsel Robert Mueller into Russian interference in the 2016 election. What Trump really needs, Emanuel argues, is a "true wartime consigliere" who can help him manage "what is likely to be an incredibly damaging set of allegations." In other words, he needs a "steady hand." Whoever it is, Emanuel hopes this person will be "unusually good at protecting the rest of us from the president's penchant for self-destruction."

It's unclear who the president might end up selecting, but it doesn't sound like he's going to heed Emanuel's advice — CNN's Kaitlan Collins reports that Trump "wants his next chief of staff to be all politics, politics, politics." Brendan Morrow

Sports Illustrated on Monday announced the Golden State Warriors as its 2018 Sportsperson of the Year — the first team to win the honor since the Boston Red Sox in 2004, and the fourth overall since the magazine introduced the title in 1954.

The Kevin Durant-led Warriors swept LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers to win their third championship in four years in June. The victory helped the team beat out actual sportspeople for the Sports Illustrated award, such as the Washington Capitals' Alex Ovechkin, snowboarder Chloe Kim, and resurgent golfer Tiger Woods.

"It was impossible to overlook the influence that the Warriors, as a collective group, have had on their sport and the broader culture over the last half-decade," Chris Stone, SI's editor-in-chief, said in announcing the honor. "They are a generational phenomenon, the likes of which we might not see again for decades, if at all." The Phoenix Suns, currently 4-22, could not be reached for comment about the snub. Jacob Lambert

The swamp may be dirty, but it pays well.

The United States contains 3,142 counties, and the five of them with the highest median income levels are all in the Washington, D.C., metro area, the Census Bureau reports, using data from 2013 to 2017. They are Loudoun, Fairfax, and Arlington Counties in Virginia, as well as Falls Church City, Virginia, and Howard County, Maryland.

The lowest income counties tend to be found in the Southeast region, especially in rural areas. The Census Bureau lists McCreary, Bell, and Harlan Counties in Kentucky with Holmes County, Mississippi, and Sumter County, Alabama, as five of the lowest median income counties nationwide.
Bonnie Kristian

Yet another batch of awards nominees brings the Oscars' likely Best Picture list into even greater focus.

The 2019 Critics Choice Awards nominees, which are selected by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, were announced Monday morning. The group's Best Picture picks are Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, First Man, Green Book, If Beale Street Could Talk, Mary Poppins Returns, Roma, A Star Is Born, and Vice, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Based on how the awards season has been shaking out, don't be surprised if the Oscars' nominees for Best Picture are essentially this exact list; every one of the films here was nominated at the Golden Globes last week except for First Man. Since 2000, the Oscars' eventual Best Picture winner has been nominated at the Critics Choice Awards every single year, and the two groups often pick the same film.

The category of Best Actor consists of Christian Bale (Vice), Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born), Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate), Ryan Gosling (First Man), Ethan Hawke (First Reformed), Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), and Viggo Mortensen (Green Book), while the Best Actress nominees are Yalitza Aparicio (Roma), Emily Blunt (Mary Poppins Returns), Glenn Close (The Wife), Toni Collette (Hereditary), Olivia Colman (The Favourite), Lady Gaga (A Star Is Born), and Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?).

The Favourite received the most nominations: 14, while the second most nominated film was Black Panther with 12. First Man also received 10 nominations after being mostly shut out at the Golden Globes. Read the full list of nominees at The Hollywood Reporter. Brendan Morrow

A pair of reports published Monday by Gallup and Pew Research show global interest in migration is rising while support for it is falling.

The Gallup survey found about 750 million people, 15 percent of the world's adults, said in the 2015 to 2017 polling period they would like to permanently move to another country. That's up from 13 percent in 2010 to 2012, though slightly lower than the 16 percent interest in 2007 to 2009. Interest in migration is on an upward trend in every region but Oceania and Asia, where it has held steady since 2010.

(Gallup)

Pew's report, meanwhile, found a majority in 27 nations would prefer to maintain or lower the number of immigrants permitted to come to their country. Spain was the only nation polled in which more than a quarter of respondents said more immigrants should be allowed to move in, though the United States was a close second at 24 percent.

Concern about emigration is also high, Pew found, with a 27-nation median of 64 percent saying "people leaving their country for jobs in other countries is a very or moderately big problem." These emigration worries were around 80 percent or higher in Greece, Spain, Hungary, Italy, Tunisia, Argentina, and Mexico. Bonnie Kristian

In an embarrassing public rejection, President Trump's reported pick to replace White House Chief of Staff John Kelly has turned him down.

Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Nick Ayers, was reportedly Trump's only choice to replace Kelly to the point that an announcement of his selection had been drafted, The New York Times reports. But on Sunday, Ayers said he would not take the job and would instead return home to Georgia.

So why did Ayers turn down what should be a highly-desired job? Here are some possible explanations.

1. The Times and CNN report that Trump asked Ayers to commit for two years, but he was only willing to take the job on an interim basis. When they couldn't agree on a timeline, Ayers decided to decline. CNN notes that Ayers has young kids, and thus didn't want to stay in the White House until 2020.

2. Conservative columnist John Podhoretz speculates that Ayers wanted to avoid being in the White House during the impending wave of Democratic investigations and possible indictments, per Talking Points Memo. Politico reports that Ayers plans to run for office in Georgia, and perhaps he sensed that staying on staff amid such chaos could only hurt those chances.

3. Similarly, The Washington Post reports that Ayers was "skeptical of taking the job based on the challenges" his predecessors, Reince Priebus and Kelly, faced. Kelly and Trump reportedly stopped speaking in recent days.

4. The Times reports that Ayers, whose net worth is more than $12 million, may have wanted to avoid "scrutiny of his personal finances." Ayers is now reportedly going to make a whole lot of money running a pro-Trump Super PAC.

5. Finally, The Times' Maggie Haberman writes that Ayers was essentially being used by those opposed to Kelly to push him out of the job, and "toward the end, he may have realized that." Brendan Morrow