Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Striking findings from the CDC: “Booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines aren’t just preventing infections with the contagious Omicron variant — they’re also keeping infected Americans from ending up in the hospital, according to data published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
* This came from a Trump-appointed judge, of course: “A federal judge in Texas issued a preliminary injunction on Friday blocking the White House from requiring federal workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, though the ruling came months after the White House said that 95 percent of federal workers were already in compliance.”
* Devastating airstrikes in Yemen: “Three children and more than 60 adults are reported to have been killed in air strikes in Yemen on Friday, Save the Children said. A Reuters witness said several people including African migrants were killed in a raid in Saada province.”
* Devastating attacks in Iraq and Syria: “ISIS unleashed its biggest attack in Syria since the fall of its ‘caliphate’ three years ago…. Across the border in Iraq, gunmen stormed an army barracks north of Baghdad before dawn Friday while soldiers inside slept, killing 11 before escaping — the deadliest attack in months on Iraq’s military.
* A big deal: “President Joe Biden used an announcement Friday by Intel that it would be investing more than $20 billion in new chip manufacturing plants in Ohio to push Congress to pass legislation incentivizing companies to make chips in America.”
* An important arrest: “A Texas man was arrested early Friday and charged with threatening to kill Georgia election officials. FBI agents took Chad Christopher Stark into custody early Friday in Leander, Texas. He was indicted in the Northern District of Georgia on one count of making interstate threats.”
* An update on a story we’ve reported on: “Rep. Henry Cuellar’s home and campaign office in Texas were raided as part of a federal investigation into the country of Azerbaijan and a group of U.S. businessmen who have ties to the country, a senior law enforcement official said Thursday.”
* Many will benefit from this: “Federal agencies have been directed to raise the minimum wage for government employees to $15 an hour, according to a new guidance from the Office of Personnel Management. The directive will impact almost 70,000 federal employees most of whom work at the Departments of Defense, Agriculture and Veteran Affairs, OPM said in a statement on Friday.” * She’s right: “Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Thursday called the Supreme Court case involving Texas’ restrictive abortion law a ‘disaster’ and a ‘grave disservice to women in Texas’ in a dissent that ripped into state officials and criticized some of her fellow justices.” * Seriously? “Rep. Lauren Boebert left a group of Jewish visitors to the Capitol bewildered Thursday morning when she asked them if they were doing ‘reconnaissance’ after seeing them at an elevator at the Capitol.” * This report out of Alabama is well worth your time: “Months of research and dozens of interviews by AL.com found that Brookside’s finances are rocket-fueled by tickets and aggressive policing. In a two-year period between 2018 and 2020 Brookside revenues from fines and forfeitures soared more than 640 percent and now make up half the city’s total income. And the police chief has called for more.” Have a safe weekend.
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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