Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The latest in today’s big story: “A Florida man was charged in connection with the series of bombs found this week addressed to critics of President Donald Trump, law enforcement officials said shortly after more devices were found. Cesar Sayoc Jr., 56, who has been arrested before, was in custody, law enforcement officials said.”
* Another package was identified today “at a Sacramento postal facility and addressed to Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., two law enforcement officials told NBC News. It wasn’t immediately clear if that package was connected to the others.”
* And another “was addressed to California billionaire, philanthropist and liberal activist Tom Steyer and was found at a Burlingame, California, postal sorting facility, two law enforcement sources said.”
* Officials just “discovered” this fact? “The Trump administration said it recently discovered 14 more migrant children who had been separated from their parents at the border and were not in the official count of separated minors. The discovery raises the official number of children separated from families when the administration carried out its zero-tolerance policy to 2,668.”
* I’d love to hear the explanation for this: “The Trump administration is drastically cutting back on who on Capitol Hill gets to see intelligence reports on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, according to multiple congressional sources.” * I seem to recall Dick Cheney once doing something similar: “As one of President Trump’s top compliance and ethics attorneys in the White House, Uttam Dhillon had urged several candidates for Drug Enforcement Administration chief to withdraw from consideration, citing concerns about their background checks. Then, he accepted the job himself.” * And I promised readers months ago that I’d let you know what happened in this dispute: “Arizona’s state school board approved by a 6-to-4 vote a new draft of science and history standards on Monday, capping a tumultuous few months of policymaking. The final draft restores language related to the teaching of evolution and climate change, some of which had been removed or weakened in earlier versions of the science standards.” 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
