Today's edition of quick hits:
* Quite an indictment: "A federal grand jury in San Francisco on Friday indicted four members of a militia group associated with the right-wing Boogaloo movement of conspiracy to obstruct justice in connection with an investigation into the shooting of two federal agents last year, the U.S. Justice Department said."
* Day 10: "Testimony on Thursday in Derek Chauvin's murder trial turned to medical experts discussing the cause of George Floyd's death. Both doctors testified that Floyd died of a lack of oxygen after he was pinned to the ground with his hands cuffed behind him and Chauvin's knee on his neck."
* The "skinny" budget: "President Joe Biden on Friday released the outlines of his first budget proposal to Congress, a $1.5 trillion blueprint that calls for a significant increase in nondefense spending in areas ranging from climate change to gun violence."
* Seth Aaron Pendley: "The FBI arrested a Texas man Thursday on charges of hatching a plan to blow up an Amazon data center in Virginia.... Court documents say he was also present at the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot, but a law enforcement official said there's no indication that he entered the building."
* An exasperating report about the Trump-era CDC: "Trump appointees in the Department of Health and Human Services last year privately touted their efforts to block or alter scientists' reports on the coronavirus to more closely align with then-President Donald Trump's more optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to newly released documents from congressional investigators."
* Discouraging: "U.S. intelligence officials have little comfort to offer a pandemic-weary planet about where the world is heading in the next 20 years. Short answer: It looks pretty bleak. On Thursday, the National Intelligence Council, a center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that creates strategic forecasts and estimates, often based on material gathered by U.S. spy agencies, released its quadrennial 'Global Trends' report."
* That's an ambitious timeline: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told reporters she hoped the House would pass Biden's infrastructure package before July 4, and she defended the scope of the measure against critics who say it's too large and those who say it's too small."
* I think the CDC is entirely right: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday labeled racism as a serious threat to public health and said it would take steps to address the matter. 'What we know is this: racism is a serious public health threat that directly affects the well-being of millions of Americans,' Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said in a statement. 'As a result, it affects the health of our entire nation.'"
* Everything about this amazes me: "On a flat, barren expanse of Martian real estate, a tiny helicopter is poised to make aviation history. NASA's experimental Mars helicopter, known as Ingenuity, is scheduled to take its much-anticipated first test flight on the red planet on Sunday. If successful, the joyride will be the first powered, controlled flight conducted on another planet."
Have a safe weekend.