Today’s edition of quick hits:
* He raised the specter of 100,000 new cases per day: “Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the nation’s leading health officials, suggested Tuesday the number of COVID-19 cases diagnosed each day could rise dramatically unless the nation can control the spread of the coronavirus.”
* Related news: “White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that U.S. health officials are keeping an eye on a new strain of flu carried by pigs in China that has characteristics of the 2009 H1N1 virus and 1918 pandemic flu.”
* The Booking.com case was interesting: “The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a company can get a federal trademark by tacking on the dot-com domain name to a common word if enough people think of the result as a distinctive brand name, in a decision applying the 74-year-old law governing trademarks to the Internet age.”
* China: “Beijing formally enacted security laws for Hong Kong on Tuesday, paving the way for one of the most profound changes to the governing of the territory in decades.”
* Paycheck Protection Program: “The stimulus program that has both infuriated and sustained small-business owners since its launch in April closed on Tuesday with more than $130 billion left unused, prompting lawmakers to consider how to repurpose the money for the still-ailing economy.”
* A case we’ve been watching: “Roger Stone’s underlying health issues are ‘medically controlled’ and the prison he’s being sent to has no documented cases of coronavirus, and therefore he doesn’t merit an additional 60-day delay of his prison term, the judge in his case has determined in a newly unsealed opinion.”
* On Capitol Hill: “Democrats see a boycott motivated by partisan politics. Republicans argue they have legitimate security concerns. Either way, GOP members of the House Intelligence Committee have skipped all but one of the panel’s proceedings, public and private, since before Congress went into its coronavirus-lockdown in early March. And that impasse shows no signs of ending, even as the panel takes up issues like China, Covid-19 and the annual intelligence policy bill.” * In related news: “House Republican leaders Monday named Rep. James R. Comer, R-Ky., as the next ranking member of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Comer was one of several members who expressed interest in the job after Ohio’s Jim Jordan, who had served as ranking member on the Oversight panel since the beginning of the 116th Congress in 2019, was named the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee.” * An unexpected move: “The publication of Mary Trump’s tell-all book about her uncle, President Donald Trump, has temporarily been blocked by New York state Supreme Court Judge Hal B. Greenwald in Poughkeepsie, New York. The judge issued a temporary restraining order requiring Mary Trump, and her publisher, Simon & Schuster, to explain why the publication of the book should not be blocked. A hearing was set for July 10.” 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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