Today’s edition of quick hits:
* California: “Rescue crews waded through thick mud in Southern California on Wednesday to extricate stranded residents and clear roads made impassable by mudslides that have left at least 15 people dead and destroyed around 100 homes.”
* ICE: “U.S. immigration agents raided dozens of 7-Eleven stores before dawn Wednesday and arrested 21 people in the biggest crackdown on a company suspected of hiring undocumented workers since President Donald Trump took office.”
* This doesn’t sound like a team that’s nearly done: “Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III has added a veteran cyber prosecutor to his team, filling what has long been a gap in expertise and potentially signaling a recent focus on computer crimes.”
* Fortunately, the damage appears to have been limited: “One of the strongest earthquakes to hit the Caribbean in modern times struck off the coast of Honduras on Tuesday night, shaking the mainland and setting off tsunami warnings that were canceled about an hour later.”
* In case you missed Rachel talking about this last night: “A senior National Security Council official proposed withdrawing some U.S. military forces from Eastern Europe as an overture to Vladimir Putin during the early days of the Trump presidency, according to two former administration officials.”
* This would be less discouraging if there was any reason to believe Trump understood what it is about NAFTA he doesn’t like: “Canada is increasingly convinced that U.S. President Donald Trump will soon announce that the United States intends to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, two government sources said on Wednesday.”
* A case to keep an eye on: “Michael Cohen, longtime attorney for President Donald Trump, filed defamation lawsuits Tuesday evening against research firm Fusion GPS and BuzzFeed.” * A Secretary of State using a private and unsecured email account? “A federal judge has rejected the federal government’s bid to toss out a lawsuit demanding official action to recover emails former Secretary of State Colin Powell sent during his four years as America’s top diplomat more than a decade ago.” * American babies “are 76 percent more likely to die before they turn a year old than babies in other rich countries, and American children who survive infancy are 57 percent more likely to die before adulthood, according to a sobering new study published in the journal Health Affairs.” 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
