Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The latest from Minnesota: “The police officer identified in the shooting of 20-year-old Daunte Wright and the police chief in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota have resigned, officials announced on Tuesday.”
* Vaccine news: “Federal health authorities recommended Tuesday that providers temporarily stop administering the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine while they investigate a potential link to very rare blood clots.”
* In related news: “Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday that his company has ramped up production of its two-shot vaccine and will be able to deliver a total of 300 million doses to the U.S. ahead of schedule. Bourla said Pfizer can deliver 10% more doses to the U.S. by the end of May than it had previously agreed to produce.”
* Day 12: “The prosecution in Derek Chauvin’s murder trial in the death of George Floyd rested its case Tuesday morning, allowing the defense to begin to present its side. Chauvin’s attorney called five witnesses before court broke for lunch, including a park police officer who was called to the scene at Cup Foods and a woman who was in the car with Floyd when police arrived.”
* Census Bureau: “In a historic move, President Biden is naming Robert Santos, one of the country’s leading statisticians and the American Statistical Association’s president, as his intended nominee to head the U.S. Census Bureau. If confirmed by the Senate, Santos, who is Latinx, would be the first permanent director of color for the federal government’s largest statistical agency.”
* Speaking of breakthrough personnel choices: “President Joe Biden plans to nominate Pentagon veteran Christine Wormuth to be the first female Army secretary, the White House announced on Monday. Wormuth, a former top policy official at the Defense Department during the Obama administration, recently led Biden’s Pentagon agency review team through one of the most contentious transitions in modern history.”
* Sometimes, reform movements advance quickly: “The US is nearing a tipping point of sorts on marijuana legalization: Almost half the country — about 43 percent of the population — now lives in a state where marijuana is legal to consume just for fun. The past two months alone have seen a burst of activity as four states across the US legalized marijuana for recreational use: New Jersey, New York, Virginia, and, on Monday, New Mexico.”
* A bill worth watching: “Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday that he plans to bring a bill targeting anti-Asian hate crimes to the floor this week and urged Republicans not to block it.” * Promising: “The Biden administration announced Monday that it had reached agreements with the governments of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala for those countries to increase enforcement against migration toward the United States border.” * One of those obscure stories I actually care about: “The Biden administration’s fiscal 2022 defense budget request would eliminate the so-called Overseas Contingency Operations account, a seemingly bottomless box of money that had become emblematic of Washington’s fiscal flimflammery.” 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."
Latest Post
Recommended
