FiveThirtyEight’s top stories this week

1 A [FiveThirtyEight]( email [Popular This Week] Sunday, February 24, 2019 [1. Could Congress Block Trump’s Emergency Declaration?]( [U.S.-WASHINGTON D.C.-SENATE MAJORITY LEADER-MITCH MCCONNELL]( President Trump has declared a national emergency in order to pay for physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, but will Congress block it? That’s a long shot — but we can’t rule it out either. [Read more]( [2. How Bernie Sanders Could Win The 2020 Democratic Nomination]( [TOC-SANDERS-4×3]( Bernie Sanders is a famous, successful loser. [Read more]( [3. Wait … Is LeBron James Actually Going To Miss The Playoffs?]( [DENVER NUGGETS VS LOS ANGELES LAKERS, NBA]( LeBron James has been so good for so long that it’s easy to forget just how astounding some of his accomplishments are. For example, he currently owns one of the greatest ongoing streaks in sports: His team has made the NBA Finals in eight straight seasons, starting in 2011. That’s mind-blowing in a league where a single finals appearance can be the highlight of a player’s entire career — and he’s done it for two different franchises. [Read more]( [4. How Much Trouble Could Bill Weld Cause Trump In The 2020 GOP Primary?]( [Weld In Boston]( Here’s a blast from the past: Bill Weld is running for president. Speaking in New Hampshire on Friday, the former Massachusetts governor announced that he was forming an exploratory committee to seek the Republican nomination for president. Weld ran for vice president in 2016 on the Libertarian Party ticket, but he’s working within the two-party system this time. That’s smart in one sense — it’s extremely hard to win as a third-party candidate in the United States — but Weld also faces steep odds in challenging the sitting president in a GOP primary. [Read more]( [5. How Bernie’s 2020 Map Might Change Without The #NeverHillary Vote]( [US-SAUDI-DIPLOMACY-YEMEN-CONFLICT]( Bernie Sanders picked up support in some unusual places during his 2016 campaign to be the Democratic presidential nominee. The self-described democratic socialist won states such as Oklahoma and Nebraska that are typically associated with right-of-center policy views. He also did surprisingly well with self-described conservative voters — granted, a small-ish part of the Democratic primary electorate — picking up almost a third of their votes. Perhaps less surprisingly given that Sanders isn’t technically a Democrat, he performed really well with independent voters, winning them by roughly a 2:1 margin over Hillary Clinton. [Read more]( [6. Would It Be Weird If Biden Didn’t Run?]( [Democratic National Convention: Day Three]( Former Vice President Joe Biden is arguably a 2020 front-runner. He has led or tied for the lead in almost every Democratic presidential primary poll he’s appeared in so far. The catch? He isn’t running — at least not yet. [Read more]( [7. Foul Balls Are The Pace-Of-Play Problem Nobody’s Talking About]( [Los Angeles Dodgers v Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim]( Major League Baseball is eager to speed up our national pastime. In the past few offseasons, MLB has tried to combat the slowing pace of play by targeting pitching changes, intentional walks and mound visits. But another significant culprit behind the sport’s sluggish pace of play may be something that no pitch clock or simple rule change can fix: the foul ball. [Read more]( [8. Who Will Be The Obama Of 2020?]( [SlackChat-0221-4×3]( Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. [Read more]( [9. Trump’s National Emergency Policy Is Unpopular, But Not Really Unpopular]( [0222_POLLA-4×3]( Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup. [Read more]( [10. Here Are The NBA Storylines You Should Be Following]( [Boston Celtics v Houston Rockets]( Thursday night marks the return of NBA hoops, with teams entering the homestretch of their season. A few are fighting for their playoff lives, while others will try to avoid a late-season collapse. And for a handful of others, just playing basketball again figures to be a good thing, if only to shift the conversation from off-court turmoil that could bubble over. [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Weekly Listen [Play]( [Politics Podcast: Bernie Sanders’s Path To The Democratic Nomination]( [FiveThirtyEight] [View in browser]( [ABC News]( [Unsubscribe]( Our mailing address: FiveThirtyEight, 147 Columbus Avenue, New York, NY 10023.