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Today's edition of quick hits:
* Joe Manchin already opposes him: "President Joe Biden nominated Robert Califf to head the Food and Drug Administration, a long-awaited nominee to run an agency key to combating the Covid pandemic, according to people familiar with the process."
* Fascinating economic news: "More than 4.4 million workers quit their jobs voluntarily in September, the Labor Department said Friday. That was up from 4.3 million in August and was the most in the two decades the government has been keeping track."
* COP26 is not inspiring confidence: "Anxious energy filled the halls of the exhibition center in Glasgow on Friday, where diplomats from nearly 200 countries blew past a deadline for striking a global climate accord. Just before 6 p.m. — the hour at which Alok Sharma, the British politician leading the climate conference, had for days insisted that diplomats would wrap up — negotiators and observers said hours of closed-door discussions still remained."
* More Jan. 6 fallout: "A Capitol riot suspect from Alabama — who drove to Washington in a truck packed with guns, ammunition and 11 Molotov cocktails — pleaded guilty to felony weapons charges Friday. Lonnie Coffman, 71, was among the most heavily armed suspects arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 attack."
* Another encouraging step: "The Biden administration is rescinding a Trump-era rule that broadened religious exemptions for the massive workforce of federal contractors, an effort to bring anti-discrimination protections more in line with previous decades."
* More book banning: "South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster urged his state Department of Education this week to remove a book about gender identity from school shelves, calling it 'obscene and pornographic,' and to 'investigate' similar content."
* What a strange story: "Evan Neumann of Mill Valley, California is the newly minted star of state television in Minsk, Belarus. Neumann, who is wanted in the U.S. on six criminal charges related to the attempted insurrection on Jan. 6—including two felonies for assaulting an officer—was featured in the Belarusian state TV special, 'Goodbye, America,' which aired in full on Thursday."
Have a safe weekend.