Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The latest on the Russia/Ukraine crisis: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that the U.S. had formally responded to Russia’s security demands in a letter he described as a ‘serious diplomatic path forward’ to de-escalating threats against Ukraine.”
* The Fed: “The Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it would hold the line on short-term interest rates, with an eye toward raising them ‘soon,’ and said it would pare down the rate of its asset purchases, bringing them to a halt in early March.”
* To meet the administration’s target, officials will have to keep adding to this total: “The Biden administration said that by the end of Wednesday it will have sent 400 million COVID vaccine doses worldwide…. ‘To put America’s leadership in perspective, we have shipped four times more free doses to the world than any other country,’ White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said during a press briefing Wednesday.”
* A rather serious sentence: “A U.S. judge on Thursday imposed a 44-month prison sentence on a man who pleaded guilty to a felony charge after throwing objects at police during last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol and boasting about his actions on social media. The defendant, Nicholas Languerand, has been jailed since his arrest in April in South Carolina and will receive credit for time served.”
* Sounds like the White House isn’t done just yet trying to generate support for BBB: “As President Joe Biden keeps beating the drum for his Build Back Better package, analysts are saying parts of it still have a good chance of becoming reality even after last month’s big setback. Biden met Wednesday with 10 private-sector executives, as a White House official said the execs would ‘highlight what they see as the key benefits of BBB for the American economy and American business.’” * Notable arrest on federal charges: “A man who allegedly sold a weapon in the Dallas area to the gunman who took four hostages in a North Texas synagogue earlier this month has been charged with a federal firearm crime, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.” * An update on a story I flagged last week: “Mike Jones, the chief of police in the small Alabama town of Brookside, resigned today in the wake of revelations by AL.com that he turned the department into an aggressive traffic trap that by 2020 received half its revenue from fines and forfeitures, many on minor offenses from those who drive by the town on Interstate 22.” 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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