Today’s edition of quick hits.
* I consider it a minor miracle that there were no public dissents: “The Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal from Republicans to halt California’s congressional map, which was passed in response to Texas’ Republican-friendly effort, launched at President Donald Trump’s urging ahead of the November midterm elections. The high court rejection came Wednesday in an unexplained order with no justices noting dissent.”
* A modest step in Minnesota: “The Trump administration will immediately remove 700 federal law enforcement officers from Minnesota, border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday, leaving about 2,000 officers in the state.”
* The Washington Post was one of the world’s best and most important news organizations: “The Washington Post told employees on Wednesday that it was beginning a widespread round of layoffs that are expected to decimate the organization’s sports, local news and international coverage. The company is laying off about 30 percent of all its employees, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.”
* I’ve never heard of anything like this: “A government attorney who was representing the Justice Department in court is no longer detailed to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota after telling a judge her job ‘sucks’ and asking to be held in contempt so she ‘could get 24 hours of sleep.’”
* A case worth watching: “A coalition of immigrants working with an academic labor union on Tuesday sued President Trump over his ‘gold card’ initiative, arguing that a program offering visas for cash takes coveted spots away from scientists, doctors and others whose presence would benefit the United States.” * Working around the administration: “The White House may have pulled the plug on U.S. participation in the World Health Organization, but that doesn’t mean that Americans have to. The Illinois Department of Public Health sidestepped the federal government this week by independently joining the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday. It is the second state to do so, after California joined the network last month.” * An update on a story I last wrote about a couple of years ago: “On Tuesday, something unambiguously positive did happen — and it happened in the most unexpected of ways: the normal order of congressional business. The House of Representatives passed a handful of appropriations bills. In doing so, it sent those bills, which had previously passed the Senate, to the president’s desk, whereupon they were signed into law. Tucked inside one of those bills was the Mikaela Naylon Give Kids a Chance Act, a groundbreaking piece of legislation for kids suffering from cancer.” See you tomorrow.
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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