Today’s edition of quick hits:
* AP: “The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative’s top executive called a ‘massive and unprecedented intrusion’ into how news organizations gather the news.”
* Related question: will conservatives who spent years celebrating the executive branch’s warrantless-surveillance powers suddenly and conveniently switch sides?
* A car bomb exploded in eastern Libya today, killing at least 10 people.
* Guilty: “Philadelphia abortion provider Kermit Gosnell was convicted Monday of three counts of first-degree murder for the death of three babies that prosecutors said were delivered alive and subsequently killed.”
* Post-election Pakistan: “Former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif moved confidently to form a new government in Pakistan on Monday, announcing the next finance minister even as votes from Saturday’s election were still being tallied and protests continued over alleged vote-rigging in some cities.”
* Turkey: “Turkish authorities said Sunday that nine people had been detained in twin car bombings a day earlier in southern Turkey that killed 46 people and injured at least 155.”
* Bangladesh: “Nearly three weeks after a Bangladesh garment-factory building collapsed, the search for the dead ended Monday at the site of the worst disaster in the history of the global garment industry. The death toll: 1,127.”
* In related news: “Swedish fashion retailer H&M said Monday that it will sign up to a legally binding fire and building safety plan drawn up by unions in Bangladesh, following the deaths of more than a thousand garment workers in a building collapse there last month.” * Congress sure can move fast when it wants to: “The House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing Friday to look into allegations the Internal Revenue Service staff had targeted groups based on their political leanings.” Legislation has been written, too. * The Legacy of Tailhook: “Military sexual assault is not a new phenomenon. A second look at the Tailhook scandal in 1991 reveals what happened then. And what it all means now.” * Very soon: “The Minnesota Senate is expected to give final approval on Monday to a bill that would make the state the 12th in the United States to allow same-sex couples to marry and only the second in the Midwest.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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