Today’s edition of quick hits:
* President Obama briefly addressed the mass shooting at the Navy Yard in D.C. this morning.
* As of now, the confirmed death toll is 13, including the suspected gunman, Aaron Alexis, 34, of Fort Worth, Texas.
* Out of “an abundance of caution,” the Senate complex of the United States Capitol was “partially locked down Monday after a mass shooting at Washington’s Navy Yard less than two miles away.” It was lifted soon after.
* Syria: “Rockets armed with the banned chemical nerve agent sarin were used in a mass killing near Damascus on Aug. 21, United Nations chemical weapons inspectors reported Monday in the first official confirmation by nonpartisan scientific experts, saying such munitions had been deployed ‘on a relatively large scale’ in the Syria conflict.”
* Colorado: “Rescue crews in Colorado, mounting what was called the largest civilian helicopter mission since Hurricane Katrina, were en route to hard-hit towns Monday afternoon in hope of reaching hundreds of people trapped by catastrophic floods.”
* CDC: “Federal health officials reported on Monday that at least two million Americans fall ill from antibiotic-resistant bacteria every year and that at least 23,000 die from those infections, putting a hard number on a serious and growing public health threat. It was the first time that federal authorities quantified the effects of organisms that antibiotics are powerless to fight.”
* Crime data: “Violent crime in the United States remained close to two-decade lows last year but the murder rate was higher than in virtually all other developed countries, official figures showed Monday.”
* Organized labor sought an Affordable Care Act exemption related to the “Taft-Hartley plans.” The Obama administration disappointed unions by concluding that such an exemption is not a legal option. The White House also disappointed the right, which had predicted the opposite would happen, and which desperately hoped for something new to complain about. * Fox News viewers were told over the weekend that fracking is “actually incredibly good for our environment.” The guest who made the claim did not appear to be kidding. * And the latest from Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-Ky.) media buddy: “Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speculated that the attack on the Washington Navy Yard may have been a false flag operation committed by disguised government agents in pursuit of some obscure goal to restrict liberty.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
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." Recommended
