Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The newest spike: “New cases of Covid-19 climbed above 242,000 in the U.S. on Wednesday, according to data compiled by NBC News, pushing the seven-day average to 167,683 — higher than the peak of the delta variant in early September.”
* She was convicted of first- and second-degree manslaughter: “A Minneapolis jury on Thursday convicted former police officer Kim Potter on all charges she faced for fatally shooting Black motorist Daunte Wright earlier this year.”
* He’s starting to sound desperate: “Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to turn the tables on the West at his annual end-of-year news conference Thursday, blaming the United States and its allies for soaring tensions over Ukraine and suggesting ‘the ball is in their court’ to respond to Moscow’s demands.”
* The congressional vote on this was overwhelming: “President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law legislation that bans imports from China’s Xinjiang region over concerns about forced labor, the White House said. The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act is part of the U.S. pushback against Beijing’s treatment of the China’s Uyghur Muslim minority, which Washington has labeled genocide.”
* SCOTUS news: “The Supreme Court said on Wednesday evening that it would hold a special hearing next month to assess the legality of two initiatives at the heart of the Biden administration’s efforts to address the coronavirus in the workplace.”
* Terrifying: “Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., was carjacked at gunpoint in a park in Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon, her spokeswoman said in a statement. The incident occurred around 2:45 p.m. at FDR Park in South Philadelphia, where Scanlon had been attending a meeting earlier.” * Not just Philly: “Illinois State Sen. Kimberly Lightford and her husband were the victims of a carjacking in a Chicago suburb Tuesday evening, authorities said. The Broadview Police Department said three masked people driving a Durango SUV hijacked a black Mercedes Benz SUV with Lightford, the Senate majority leader, and her husband inside just before 10 p.m.” * Sounds like an impressive kid: “An 11-year-old saved a choking student at his school this month, then sprung into action a second time that day when he escorted an elderly woman from a burning home, according to Oklahoma officials. For most people, let alone a child, the selflessness displayed by Davyon Johnson on Dec. 9 amounts to more than a lifetime of heroics.” 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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