Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The process shouldn’t be this dramatic: “The Michigan State Board of Canvassers voted Monday to certify the state’s presidential election results, a victory for President-elect Joe Biden and a major blow to President Donald Trump’s withering effort to contest the results.”
* Vaccine news: “The pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said Monday that its Covid-19 vaccine could be up to 90 percent effective in preventing the disease — a third breakthrough in the fight against a pandemic that has killed nearly 1.4 million people worldwide.”
* Remember when the right celebrated Sweden’s light coronavirus response? “[A]s the numbers of deaths and infections surge, Sweden’s government has been forced to introduce much tougher regulations to prevent the virus from spreading.”
* CDC: “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention upgraded cruise ship travel to the highest possible risk level for spreading COVID-19 – weeks after the agency gave cruises the green light to set sail. As coronavirus cases continue to rise across the country, the CDC raised the travel risk for cruises to level 4, recommending that all people avoid travel on cruise ships, including river cruises.”
* GM clearly sees which way the winds are blowing: “General Motors is withdrawing from litigation led by the Trump administration against California over the state’s right to set its own fuel economy and emissions regulations, distancing itself from President Donald Trump.”
* If nothing else, he’s predictable: “Russian President Vladimir Putin said he won’t recognize President-elect Joe Biden’s projected victory in the U.S. election until the results are confirmed ‘in a legitimate, legal way’ or until the former vice president’s win is ‘recognized by the opposing party.’”
* Quite a mess in Ohio: “The front-runner to be Cincinnati’s next mayor was arrested at home this week by federal agents for allegedly accepting $40,000 in bribes, casting his once-bright political future into doubt and further tainting a city council beset by corruption charges. Alexander Sittenfeld, known as P.G., is charged with two counts each of honest services wire fraud, bribery and attempted extortion, federal prosecutors said.”
* A possible mess in Texas: “Rep. Lance Gooden reimbursed himself over $280,000 in campaign funds since 2018, a CQ Roll Call review of Federal Election Commission records shows.” * Speaking of the Lone Star State: “For the first time in more than two decades, Texas’ Board of Education voted Friday to make major changes to the state’s sex education standards, expanding the teaching of birth control beyond abstinence-only education for middle school students.” * An update on a story that generated a lot of attention: “Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) spent $9.46 million in state funding to import 500,000 coronavirus tests from South Korea that turned out to be flawed and weren’t used, emails, documents and interviews show.” * Twitter: “The presidential @POTUS Twitter handle will automatically transfer to President-elect Joe Biden the moment he’s sworn in at noon on Inauguration Day — whether or not President Donald Trump has conceded, the company confirmed to POLITICO on Friday.” See you tomorrow.
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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