Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The first sentence of this excerpt matters, but so does the second: “The Ebola crisis in East Africa is rapidly escalating, with cases now confirmed in major population centers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda. Public health experts around the world and health workers on the ground say that the response has been significantly hindered by the near-absence so far of the United States, historically the leader in any major outbreak.”
* An evolving fiasco: “A Republican revolt over the Trump administration’s proposed anti-weaponization compensation fund abruptly derailed the GOP’s agenda on Thursday, forcing congressional leaders to delay votes on a reconciliation package for immigration enforcement as lawmakers rebelled against the president’s $1.776 billion proposal — which one GOP senator derided as a ‘payout pot for punks.’”
* A delayed execution: “Tennessee called off the execution of Tony Carruthers, convicted in connection with three 1994 murders, after staff members were unable to find a vein to administer lethal injection drugs. The State Department of Corrections said in a statement on Thursday that medical staff members were unable to find a ‘suitable vein’ to administer the drugs after a series of attempts.”
* A heartening revolution the White House wants no part of: “Wind and solar combined generated more electricity than gas globally in April for the first month ever, data analyzed by UK-based think tank Ember showed on Thursday.”
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* Conditions get worse for a sidelined task force: “The Trump administration has fired the two leaders of an influential health group that determines when insurance must provide free preventive care, like mammograms and colonoscopies, for millions of Americans. In letters dated May 11, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. notified the two doctors who chaired the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that he was terminating their appointments immediately, before the end of their multiyear terms.”
* Larry Bushart, a retired police officer spent 37 days behind bars, because his local sheriff didn’t like a social media message he wrote: “Tennessee officials will pay $835,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by a man who was jailed for more than a month over a Facebook post he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.”
* If you’ve seen some recent problems with the social media platform Bluesky, it’s apparently because it’s been targeted by Russian influence operations.
* If Carmen Lineberger didn’t work for Jack Smith, would she have been charged? “A former federal prosecutor in Florida sent to her personal email account a special counsel report from the investigation into President Donald Trump’s hoarding of classified documents despite a judge’s order that it was to remain sealed, according to an indictment made public on Wednesday.”
I’ll be away from my desk over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, but I’ll return to a normal publishing schedule on Tuesday, May 26. See you then.
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."
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