Today’s edition of quick hits:
* New details out of Virginia: “The woman accusing Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of a sexual assault in 2004 detailed her allegation in a lengthy statement issued Wednesday through her legal team.”
* A story we’ve been following: “Any honeymoon President Donald Trump expects after his second State of the Union address Tuesday is proving to be short lived, as newly empowered House investigators make their first significant moves to scrutinize his administration and advance special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.”
* At the border: “Hundreds of migrants in a new caravan that just reached the U.S. border may have to wait in Northern Mexico for months, because the U.S. agents in the tiny Texas town where they want to cross can only currently process fewer than 20 migrants a day, according to Customs and Border Protection officials.”
* In related news: “The governor of New Mexico ordered the state’s National Guard to withdraw a majority of its troops from the southern border…. ‘New Mexico will not take part in the president’s charade of border fear-mongering by misusing our diligent National Guard troops,’ Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in a statement.”
* The climate crisis: “New government data on temperatures around the world offers cold comfort to those who hope that global warming is on the wane. The data, released on Wednesday by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows that 2018 was the fourth-hottest year since 1880, the earliest year for which reliable global temperature data is available. The three hottest years on record were 2015, 2016 and 2017.”
* In the wake of Trump’s moves on the INF treaty: “Russia said it was working to develop new missile systems, including a hypersonic long-range rocket, in the first concrete indication of its response to the breakdown of a Cold War-era nuclear treaty.” * Mark your calendars: “President Donald Trump will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Vietnam on Feb. 27 and 28, the latest sign of thawing tensions between two leaders who had publicly traded insults and threats of military confrontation.” * This decision is already the subject of local protests: “A police officer who shot and killed a black man during a shootout inside an Alabama mall will not face criminal charges.” 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
