Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Vaccine news: “Moderna will submit its coronavirus vaccine for regulatory approval on Monday, the company said — the second leading drug to pass the milestone this month.”
* SCOTUS: “The U.S. Supreme Court seemed wary on Monday of approving President Donald Trump’s plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census figures that are used to calculate each state’s representation in Congress and share of billions of dollars from a host of federal programs.”
* One of the big developments from the holiday weekend: “A leading Iranian nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated Friday near Tehran, Iran’s Defense Ministry said…. Fakhrizadeh has long been suspected by the West of having masterminded a covert atomic bomb program that was halted in 2003.”
* On a related note: “A day after the dramatic assassination of the country’s leading nuclear scientist in a roadside attack, Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday vowed to retaliate and pledged to continue Iran’s nuclear work.”
* Team Biden, Part I: “President-elect Joe Biden on Monday tapped Neera Tanden to lead the Office of Management and Budget and Cecilia Rouse to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, his presidential transition said in a statement. He also said he would nominate Adewale ‘Wally’ Adeyemo to serve as deputy Treasury secretary alongside Janet Yellen, who he officially said he would nominate as his Treasury secretary.”
* Team Biden, Part II: “President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announced an all-female communications team Sunday aimed at bringing “diverse perspectives” to the White House.”
* Shouldn’t this have been done before? “Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will temporarily suspend in-person lunches for the GOP caucus, amid a nationwide spike in coronavirus cases.”
* Florida: “Health experts and local leaders were stunned Wednesday when Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis extended his order barring towns, cities, and counties from enforcing local mask mandates even amid a disturbing spike in COVID-19 cases. DeSantis extended an earlier order prohibiting localities from fining people who refuse to wear masks, effectively rendering mandates unenforceable.”
* FCC: “Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will step down from his post on Jan. 20, the day President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, he announced Monday.”
* New DOJ rule: “The Justice Department has created new regulations allowing for the use of more methods for federal executions, including firing squad and electrocution.” * OMB: “The outgoing Trump administration is racing to enact the biggest change to the federal civil service in generations, reclassifying career employees at key agencies to strip their job protections and leave them open to being fired before Joe Biden takes office.” * Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy: “The King of Trump TV Thinks You’re Dumb Enough to Buy It.” * A friend of mine told me the other day how important this is: “For decades, physicists have dreamed of discovering a material that could effortlessly convey electricity at everyday temperatures, a feat that would save gargantuan amounts of energy and revolutionize modern technology. Writing in the journal Nature, a team of researchers announced on Wednesday that they have done just that. They have made a superconductor that works at 58 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature of a cool autumn day.” 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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