Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The latest devastating strike: “More than 30 people have been killed after two Russian rockets hit a railway station in Kramatorsk, a city in the Donetsk region, as thousands of Ukrainians tried to flee the region on Friday, Ukraine’s state railway company has said.”
* Military aid: “The U.S. will send a Patriot missile battery to Slovakia in the coming days as a backfill for the Slovakian government giving an S-300 air defense system to Ukraine, a senior defense official said.”
* This is not the outcome many expected, but in the mistrial, charges will be refiled: “A federal jury failed to convict four men accused of plotting to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, whom they despised for the restrictions she ordered early in the pandemic.”
* A beautiful event: “President Joe Biden hosted Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at the White House on Friday to celebrate her historic confirmation by the Senate to serve as the first Black woman on the Supreme Court.”
* The acquitted Jan. 6 defendant had a judge who was appointed by Donald Trump: “A man charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol backed out of a planned plea deal with the government Thursday, a day after a federal judge acquitted another defendant.”
* 5th Circuit ruling: “President Joe Biden’s requirement that all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19 was upheld Thursday by a federal appeals court.”
* Part of an ugly pattern: “The Alabama Legislature passed two bills Thursday that are mash-ups of similar bills in other states that target LGBTQ classroom discussion and transgender youths.”
* Putin’s unintended consequences: “In Sweden, support for joining NATO among the population as a whole has risen from around 35 percent to 46 percent over the past month. In Finland, it has spiked to over 60 percent.” * Hmm: “The State Department says it is unable to compile a complete and accurate accounting of gifts presented to former President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials by foreign governments during Trump’s final year in office, citing missing data from the White House.” * If you haven’t seen Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz take Republican Sen. Josh Hawley to task for his Pentagon obstructionism, it really was a satisfying set of remarks. 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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