Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Good for them: “Following the mass shooting at a Florida high school, one of the nation’s largest sporting goods stores announced Wednesday that it will enact tougher gun sale restrictions — including no longer selling assault-style rifles.”
* Today’s school shooting: “An armed teacher who fired his weapon at a Georgia high school was in custody Wednesday afternoon. No students at Dalton High School were hurt directly in the incident or remained in danger after they were evacuated as the crisis unfolded, Dalton police tweeted.”
* Russia scandal: “Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team is asking witnesses pointed questions about whether Donald Trump was aware that Democratic emails had been stolen before that was publicly known, and whether he was involved in their strategic release, according to multiple people familiar with the probe.”
* Mark your calendars now: “A judge in Washington on Wednesday set a Sept. 17 trial date for former Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort on charges from special counsel Robert Mueller, including money laundering and failing to register as a foreign agent.”
* If Trump is bragging about the low number of illegal border crossings, then why does he think he needs a wall?
* GDP: “U.S. economic growth slowed slightly more than initially thought in the fourth quarter after the strongest pace of consumer spending in three years depleted inventories and drew in imports as businesses struggled to produce enough goods and services.”
* Judge Gonzalo Curiel clearly doesn’t hold a grudge: “A federal court judge once accused by President Donald Trump of being biased against him because he’s ‘Mexican’ and a ‘hater’ paved the way for construction of a section of Trump’s proposed wall along the U.S. southern border.” * A lingering scandal: “A former chief of staff to Republican Rep. Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania has resigned following an Ethics Committee announcement that it had begun a full-scale investigation into sexual harassment allegations. Brian Schubert had moved on from Meehan’s office to work as the chief of staff for Rep. Neal Dunn, a first-term Republican lawmaker from Florida. A spokeswoman for Dunn’s office says Schubert ‘chose to resign this morning.’” * To my friends at USA Today: your paper does a lot of fine work, but publishing a piece from Jerome Corsi was a mistake that I hope the editors will learn from. 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
