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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Difficult diplomacy: “Some American officials have grown more optimistic that a deal to release Israeli hostages held in Gaza in return for a cease-fire is at hand. But people briefed on the talks say it will be days until it is clear whether a breakthrough has been achieved because of difficulties in communication between Hamas officials in Qatar and the group’s leaders in Gaza.”
* Giuliani’s troubles keep getting worse: “A judge has dismissed Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy case, nearly seven months after the disgraced lawyer filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. ... The dismissal of Giuliani’s case does not absolve him of his debts, and his creditors can now go after his assets to try to recover some of the money they’re owed. It also means that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the Georgia election workers whom he defamed after the 2020 election and whom he was ordered to pay nearly $150 million, can begin to collect on that sum.”
* In New Jersey: “A jury began deliberating Friday afternoon in Sen. Bob Menendez’s bribery trial following four days of closing arguments in which prosecutors accused the New Jersey Democrat of ‘corruption on a massive scale,’ delivering favors for businessmen who showered him and his wife with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gold.”
* Gun policy: “A federal judge in Kansas has refused to block the nationwide enforcement of a Biden administration rule requiring firearms dealers to do background checks of buyers at gun shows, leaving Texas as the only state so far where a legal challenge has succeeded.”
* Speaking of firearms, I suspect ammunition vending machines aren’t common in most other advanced nations: “A Texas-based company has started making vending machines for gun ammunition, arguing that this is the safest way to sell it. The company, American Rounds, has already had six of those machines installed at grocery stores in Texas, Alabama and Oklahoma. Two more are set to be installed by the end of the month in Texas and Colorado, said Grant Magers, the chief executive of American Rounds.”
* All is not well in Texas: “For more than a year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has owed the state over $11,000 in fines for filing late campaign finance reports. Now, his office is charged with collecting the money. The situation presents a clear conflict of interest for enforcement of the state’s campaign finance laws, said Anthony Gutierrez, executive director of Common Cause Texas, a government watchdog group.”
* The latest on Klobuchar’s health: “U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Friday that she remains cancer-free following her bout with breast cancer in 2021, but doctors recently removed a small calcification and that she’ll get radiation treatment as a precaution. The Minnesota Democrat, who chairs the powerful Rules Committee, was successfully treated for early-stage breast cancer three years ago.”
Have a safe weekend.