Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The Kakhovka dam: “Ukraine has accused Russian forces of blowing up a vast dam in a Russian-controlled area on the front lines of the war, threatening hundreds of thousands of people across the region and potentially endangering Europe’s largest nuclear power plant. Water surged through the critical Kakhovka dam Tuesday, according to videos verified by NBC News and local officials, unleashing flooding across the war zone in southern Ukraine, sparking evacuations, and triggering warnings of an ‘ecological disaster.’”
* In related news: “The United States government has intelligence that is leaning toward Russia as the culprit of the attack on the dam in Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials and one Western official. President Joe Biden’s administration was working to declassify some of the intelligence and share it as early as Tuesday afternoon.”
* Scandal watchers turn their attention to the Sunshine State: “The latest twist in the inquiry into former President Donald J. Trump’s handling of classified documents is the surprise revelation that a previously unknown federal grand jury in Florida has recently started hearing testimony in the case.”
* Overdue investments in Mississippi: “Jackson’s water system has been served its first slice of a promised $600 million federal investment in the public utility that for decades has been plagued by issues and more recently has seen nationally publicized system-wide failures. The Environmental Protection Agency and President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the city, through its federally appointed third party water manager and the corporation he oversees, will be receiving $115 million of that total.”
* Apparently, some in the pharmaceutical industry aren’t on board with reducing prices for seniors: “Merck said it sued the U.S. government on Tuesday, seeking an injunction of the drug price negotiation program contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, which it argues violates the Fifth and First Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.”
* The right call: “A federal judge temporarily blocked portions of a new Florida law that bans transgender minors from receiving puberty blockers, ruling Tuesday that the state has no rational basis for denying patients treatment.” * Keep an eye on this one: “A Texas sheriff’s department has recommended that the district attorney in Bexar County bring criminal charges over the first iteration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ so-called migrant relocation program. Those flights last September sent 49 asylum seekers, most of them Venezuelans, from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.” * This is a good move from Team Biden: “The White House on Tuesday is launching a website to map and track tens of thousands of infrastructure projects and private manufacturing investments, an effort by the administration to show the positive impact of its policies on the U.S. economy to a skeptical public. The site, Invest.gov, documents roughly 32,000 infrastructure projects and more than $470 billion worth of investments in the production of electric vehicles, batteries, computer chips, biotech, clean energy and other sectors.” See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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