Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Family separations: “The U.S. government is reviewing the cases of nearly 3,000 children in its care who say they were separated from their parents when they crossed the U.S. border as it rushes to meet a court-imposed deadline to reunite migrant families, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.”
* Reverberations from the Skripal poisoning: “Tests on two Britons found unconscious in their home determined that they were poisoned by the same nerve agent used against a former Russian spy and his daughter earlier this year, British police said Wednesday.”
* A political crisis in Poland: “Surrounded by cheering supporters, Poland’s top Supreme Court justice took a defiant stand on the courthouse steps here Wednesday morning, hours after the government purged the tribunal. She vowed to keep fighting to protect the Constitution and the independence of the nation’s courts.”
* A strange story gets stranger: “It looks like life is about to get even more complicated for President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen. New York Times politics reporter Maggie Haberman reported on Twitter Thursday that former Clinton operative Lanny Davis has been retained by Cohen, as he prepares for an onslaught of White House abuse while facing a probe by federal prosecutors.”
* On a related note: “Michael Cohen appears to be distancing himself publicly from President Donald Trump, as legal pressures on the attorney intensify amid a wide-ranging probe into the president’s links to Russia. On Twitter, where Cohen has been an active user, the lawyer removed the reference on his biography to being Trump’s personal lawyer.”
* An outside-the-box recommendation: “Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) privately urged President Trump in a phone call earlier this week to nominate federal Judge Merrick B. Garland, then President Barack Obama’s third nominee to the Supreme Court who was summarily shunned by Senate Republicans in 2016, to replace retiring Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.” * Have I mentioned lately that Brexit was a very bad idea? “Britain’s economy has gone from a leader to a laggard internationally, as GDP growth has slowed sharply” * My best wishes to Ed’s friends and family: “Broadcasting personality Ed Schultz, whose career took him from quarterbacking at a Minnesota college to national radio and television, has died. He was 64.” 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
