Today’s edition of quick hits.
* A big win for law enforcement: “In the wake of the surprise arrests of two alleged Mexican drug lords in Texas, three law enforcement officials say that investigators believe one of the men may have fooled the other into getting on a plane to the U.S. The son of jailed Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera and a cartel co-founder who helped lead it for three decades were arrested Thursday in El Paso, Attorney General Merrick Garland said.”
* At Mar-a-Lago: “Former President Donald J. Trump, who has for months urged Israel to end the war in Gaza as quickly as possible, insisted that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel were on good terms after the two met on Friday in Palm Beach, Fla.”
* The Federal Prison Oversight Act: “President Joe Biden signed into law on Thursday a bill strengthening oversight of the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons after reporting by The Associated Press exposed systemic corruption, failures and abuse in the federal prison system.”
* Supreme Court ethics: “Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday became the first member of the Supreme Court to call publicly for beefing up its new ethics code by adding a way to enforce it. In her first public remarks since the nation’s highest court wrapped up its term earlier this month, Kagan said she wouldn’t have signed onto the new rules if she didn’t believe they were good. But having good rules is not enough, she said.”
* The demise of DeSantis’ so-called Stop WOKE Act: “A judge issued a final order Friday to overturn a Florida law pushed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that attempted to limit diversity and race-based discussions in private workplaces. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker previously ruled the law is unconstitutional. That decision was upheld by an appeals court in March. Walker’s latest order makes his temporary injunction permanent.” * A societal scourge: “New data on threats and harassment toward public officials in the United States show a 15 percent rise in such incidents during the first half of 2024 compared with 2023. Fully 42 percent of the reported events were death threats, according to the Bridging Divides Initiative at Princeton University, which has been conducting the rolling study since January 2022. Its authors noted that racially motivated threats were reported at higher rates so far this year than those focused on gender, sexual orientation and identity.” * Kudos to The Washington Post for taking a deep dive (so to speak) into this strange story: “Over the past 10 months, former president Donald Trump has periodically unspooled a nonsensical tale involving a sinking electric boat, a potential electrocution and a ferocious shark attack.” 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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