Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest from Lansing: “Yet another American community was grappling Tuesday with the aftermath of a deadly mass shooting, this time on the campus of Michigan State University. Police searched for a motive, survivors recounted their brush with death, politicians denounced the mayhem and expressed condolences, a heartbroken doctor broke down in tears as he tallied up the latest losses — three dead, five wounded, all students targeted by yet another suspect with an unknown grudge and a gun.”
* It seems hard to believe, but there have been some miraculous rescues in Turkey in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake.
* Flying objects: “A top White House official said on Tuesday that three unidentified flying objects shot down in the past several days might turn out to be harmless commercial or research efforts that posed no real threat to the United States.”
* A heartbreaking report out of Ukraine: “Russia is running a sprawling network of camps as part of a systematic effort to relocate and re-educate thousands of children from Ukraine, according to a United States government-sponsored study released Tuesday.”
* A Jan. 6 guilty plea: “A Jan. 6 rioter who allegedly used an ‘electroshock weapon’ to assault Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone and then bragged about the attack to friends pleaded guilty to related charges Tuesday.”
* Inflation news: “Inflation turned higher to start 2023, as rising shelter, gas and fuel prices took their toll on consumers, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The consumer price index, which measures a broad basket of common goods and services, rose 0.5% in January, which translated to an annual gain of 6.4%. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for respective increases of 0.4% and 6.2%.”
* Not what Trump wanted to hear: “A New York state appellate court on Tuesday upheld a contempt order against former President Donald Trump for failing to provide documents as part of a fraud investigation into the Trump Organization’s business dealings. The contempt order, handed down in April, directs Trump to pay a fine of $110,000 to the state attorney general’s office.”
* White House economic team: “President Joe Biden on Tuesday named Federal Reserve Vice Chair Lael Brainard as the new director of his National Economic Council, making the Ph.D. economist a key point person for coordinating policy, talking with business leaders and negotiating with Congress. Biden also nominated longtime adviser Jared Bernstein to be chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.”
* Imagine if they took as intense an interest in gun violence: “Early in the 2023 legislative session, at least 26 bills have been introduced in 14 states by Republican legislators taking aim at drag events — an abrupt movement that has emerged this year amid a wider conservative backlash to expanded LGBTQ rights.”
* All is not well in Florida: “A plan by Gov. Ron DeSantis to transform New College, which is known as progressive and describes itself as ‘a community of free thinkers,’ into a beacon of conservatism has left students, parents and faculty members at the tight-knit school reeling over what they see as a political assault on their academic freedom. Mr. DeSantis’s education commissioner has expressed a desire to remake the school in the image of Hillsdale College, a small Christian school in Michigan that has been active in conservative politics.” * In related news: “The newly remade board of trustees at New College of Florida voted Monday to give the Sarasota school’s interim President Richard Corcoran a pay bump of nearly $400,000 over his predecessor. The board decided that Corcoran, a former Florida House speaker and state education commissioner, will receive a base salary of $699,000, plus an annual housing stipend of $84,000, a $12,000 automobile stipend and an annual retirement supplement of $104,850.” * Important research that’s worthy of national conversation: “Teen girls across the United States are ‘engulfed in a growing wave of violence and trauma,’ according to federal researchers who released data Monday showing increases in rape and sexual violence, as well as record levels of feeling sad or hopeless.” * An overdue honor: “President Biden will award the Medal of Honor to a Black Vietnam War veteran who’s been waiting to receive the military’s highest honor since he was first nominated for it in 1965. The White House said Biden called retired U.S. Army Col. Paris Davis on Monday to inform him that his ‘remarkable heroism during the Vietnam War’ will finally be celebrated, decades after the military lost paperwork documenting his nomination.” 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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