Today’s edition of quick hits:
* I’ll have more on this in the morning: “President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a deal on a bipartisan infrastructure package but warned he would not sign it unless it was passed ‘in tandem’ with a separate budget reconciliation bill that invested in social infrastructure and other Democratic priorities.”
* Miami-area disaster: “Nearly 100 people were unaccounted for Thursday afternoon after a high-rise condo building partially collapsed near Miami Beach, leaving at least one person dead and 10 injured, officials said. Authorities got a call about the collapse at the 12-story building in Surfside, a town in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, around 1:30 a.m. ET, officials said during a morning news conference.”
* Afghanistan: “The Biden administration agreed to relocate thousands of Afghans who worked with the U.S. military as interpreters and translators while their visa applications are vetted, according to a senior administration official.”
* This will make a difference to many: “The Biden administration said Thursday that it would extend the temporary bans on evictions and foreclosures for another month as the country continues to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.”
* An important legislative initiative: “The House Judiciary Committee voted early Thursday to block the hugest tech companies from buying their competitors — part of a series of bipartisan moves by the panel, stretching well past midnight, aimed at hobbling Silicon Valley’s reigning powers.”
* Border Patrol: “The Biden administration asked Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott to step down on Wednesday, two sources familiar with the decision told NBC News, the end of a tenure many had expected would not outlast the Trump administration.”
* Discouraging: “A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked the Biden administration from making loan forgiveness payments to minority farmers as part of a $4 billion program intended to address a long history of racial injustice in American farming.”
* Mark Calabria: “The Biden administration ousted the head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency after the Supreme Court ruled it was structured unconstitutionally, dealing the latest blow to investors betting that mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would be returned to private hands after more than 12 years of government control.” * I remember when Republicans were preoccupied with local control: “The strategy used in Arizona has been employed with new intensity by Republicans in states like Texas, Florida and Georgia, where lawmakers over the past year passed legislation preempting the ability of city — and state — leaders to enforce their own regulations. The bigfooting of local officials accelerated as the pandemic turned public health decisions into political minefields, but it also touched on other wedge issues, like police funding, gun control and climate change.” * In the not-too-distant past, this would’ve been difficult to predict: “Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont (D) signed a bill on Tuesday legalizing the use and sale of marijuana for adults 21 and older…. Connecticut is now the 19th state in the country, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize marijuana for non-medical use.” 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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