Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Keeping the pressure on: “Students from hundreds of schools across the country began a wave of walkouts Friday morning in a unified voice for tougher gun laws.”
* Sometimes, the news takes an ironic turn: “One person was injured in a shooting at Forest High School in Ocala, Fla., Friday morning, a short time before a planned student walkout to protest school violence. The injured person, a 17-year-old male student, had a nonlife-threatening ankle injury, Sheriff Billy Woods said at a news conference.”
* How is it EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt still has his job? “Pruitt has adopted a determined strategy to placate the president and lay low. On his frequent travels, including a Midwest trip Thursday, he has given up first class for coach when possible, according to aides. And he made a point of honoring a White House request for Cabinet officials to stop by a memorial to opioid victims installed on the Ellipse.”
* In related news: “The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general on Thursday said he plans to examine Administrator Scott Pruitt’s use of his round-the-clock security detail while on personal trips, including a family visit to Disneyland and attendance at sporting events, such as the Rose Bowl and a University of Kentucky basketball game.”
* Diplomacy: “North and South Korea established for the first time a direct telephone line between their leaders, a move aimed at building trust and momentum one week before the two men are slated to meet at the inter-Korean demilitarized zone.”
* It’ll probably take a miracle to stop him now: “Mike Pompeo secured his first Democratic senator’s endorsement on Thursday, putting his nomination as the next secretary of state on stronger footing. Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D., N.D.) said she would vote to confirm the current Central Intelligence Agency director as the nation’s top diplomat.”
* All of the judges who ruled against the White House were Republican appointees: “President Donald Trump’s effort to crack down on sanctuary cities suffered another legal setback Thursday as a federal appeals court in Chicago upheld a nationwide injunction against making federal grant funding contingent on cooperation with immigration enforcement.” * The debate is changing: “The Senate’s top Democrat announced Friday that he is introducing legislation to decriminalize marijuana, the first time that a leader of either party in Congress has endorsed a rollback of one of the country’s oldest drug laws. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) in a statement called the move ‘simply the right thing to do.’” * D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr., who recently suggested Jews control the weather, visited the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. It apparently didn’t go especially well. Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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." Recommended
