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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest from Utah: “The suspect arrested in Charlie Kirk’s shooting is expected to be charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury and obstruction of justice, according to a probable cause affidavit. The offenses are all state charges.”
* Cox’s condemnation of social media was especially interesting: “In a week when Americans witnessed a public political assassination, oceans of angry words and a collective sense of horror and exhaustion, one man stepped up to a microphone and said something that stood out: It doesn’t have to be like this. That man, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, appeared weary, emotional, at times angry and on the verge of tears Friday. While he had the country’s attention, he used the moment to ask his fellow Americans to turn down the temperature.”
* Wednesday’s other school shooting: “The 16-year-old who shot and wounded two students at his high school in Evergreen, Colorado, before turning the gun on himself was ‘radicalized by an extremist network,’ the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday.”
* Poland sets Trump straight: “Polish leaders on Friday rejected President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the Russian drones that invaded NATO airspace this week might have been a ‘mistake.’ ‘We would also wish that the drone attack on Poland was a mistake,’ Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, posted on X. ‘But it wasn’t. And we know it.’”
* In related news: “NATO’s top leaders announced new efforts on Friday to step up air defenses in the alliance’s eastern flank after Russian drones that flew into Poland this week revealed how easily the war in Ukraine could spill over borders. Increased air patrols, ground-based interceptor systems, sensors and heightened surveillance will be mobilized, officials said. The military operation, called Eastern Sentry, will initially focus on Poland but can be shifted elsewhere in the region as needed.”
* Unmasking matters: “California state lawmakers have passed legislation that would ban most law enforcement officers from covering their faces while carrying out operations, a response to recent immigration raids in Los Angeles. But even if the governor signs the measure into law, it’s unclear whether the state could enforce it on the federal agents who have been carrying out those raids.”
* A discouraging economic projection: “President Donald Trump’s tariff policy, immigration crackdowns and sweeping tax and spending law are expected to increase jobless rates and inflation and lower overall growth this year before they improve next year, according to a new report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. The CBO on Friday released new economic projections for the next three years, updating the outlook it originally released in January, before Trump’s inauguration.”
* These are not encouraging choices: “Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) on Thursday officially appointed five Republican members to serve on a new GOP-led House select subcommittee reinvestigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Johnson appointed Rep. Barry Loudermilk (Georgia) to lead the committee. Reps. Morgan Griffith (Virginia), Clay Higgins (Louisiana), Troy E. Nehls (Texas) and Harriet Hageman (Wyoming) will also serve on the eight-member committee.”
Have a safe weekend.