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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Expect a spirited legal challenge to this: “Idaho has become the first state to pass a law explicitly restricting some out-of-state travel for abortions. The new legislation makes helping a pregnant minor get an abortion, whether through medication or a procedure, in another state punishable by two to five years in prison. Gov. Brad Little, a Republican, signed the bill on Wednesday night, and it goes into effect after 30 days.”
* I’ll have a report on the final outcome in Tennessee in the morning: "Republican lawmakers in Tennessee voted Thursday to expel the first of three Democratic legislators from the state House over their protests on the chamber floor against gun violence."
* Biden's latest veto: "President Biden issued the second veto of his presidency Thursday to protect a rule issued by his administration that set new bounds for which bodies of water are protected under the Clean Water Act."
* SCOTUS: “The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected an attempt by West Virginia to prevent a transgender student from participating in girls’ sports.”
* International diplomacy: “The foreign ministers of Iran and Saudi Arabia met in Beijing on Thursday for the first formal gathering of their top diplomats in more than seven years, after China brokered a deal to restore relations between the top regional powers.”
* On a related note, this strikes me as the right attitude to have: “As Washington denizens look toward the Middle East and see China brokering diplomatic deals between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the surprising general response has been: One less thing for us to worry about.”
* Quite a defection: “A former officer with President Vladimir Putin’s elite security unit has defected and labeled the Russian leader a paranoid “war criminal” who has lost his grip on reality.”
* Middle- and low-income tax filers will remain unaffected: “The IRS hopes to increase tax audits on the wealthiest taxpayers tenfold under the Biden administration’s plan for the agency, according to a senior administration official and the IRS’s new strategic operating plan.”
* The latest in a series of avoidable disappointments in Mississippi: “For the fourth year in a row, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has signed a proclamation declaring April as Confederate Heritage Month in Mississippi, keeping alive a 30-year-old tradition that former Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice first began. Black people make up 38% of Mississippi’s population, which is the highest for any state.”
See you tomorrow.