Today’s edition of quick hits:
* California: “Residents of San Francisco and surrounding cities woke to inhale terrible air on Friday, choking on smoke from the deadly Camp Fire more than 150 miles away, officials said.”
* Education Secretary Betsy DeVos today unveiled new guidelines on how schools should address sexual assault allegations: “[A]dvocates for sexual assault survivors say they’re worried that the guidelines would actually make campuses more dangerous, deter victims from coming forward and put them in traumatizing scenarios.”
* On a related note: “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos began receiving around-the-clock security from the U.S. Marshals Service days after being confirmed, an armed detail provided to no other cabinet member that could cost U.S. taxpayers $19.8 million through September of 2019, according to new figures provided by the Marshals Service to NBC News.”
* Of these two, the Democrat isn’t returning to Congress, but the Republican is: “Reps. Ruben Kihuen, D-Nev., and Mark Meadows, R-N.C., have been formally sanctioned by the House Ethics Committee over sexual harassment allegations, the panel announced Friday in reports released to the public.”
* VA: “Officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs testified Thursday before a House committee that they still don’t know when their information technology system will be updated to address issues preventing tens of thousand’ of veterans from receiving their GI Bill benefit payments on time, if at all.”
* A case to watch: “The Supreme Court agreed Friday to take up an aspect of the legal battle over the Trump administration’s plan to put a question about citizenship on the 2020 census form.” * The sentencing reform bill’s success is not a foregone conclusion: “Acting attorney general Matthew G. Whitaker has privately voiced concerns directly to President Trump about a new bipartisan criminal justice reform bill, according to a GOP senator Whitaker met with Thursday, amid growing opposition to the legislation Trump endorsed with much fanfare this week.” * The Trump administration probably won’t have a problem with this: “Ernesto Araújo, newly named to be Brazil’s next foreign minister by incoming president Jair Bolsonaro, believes that climate change is a false idea invented by ‘cultural Marxists.’” 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
