Friday's Mini-Report, 3.31.17

Today's edition of quick hits:* Michael Flynn: "The Senate Intelligence Committee turned down the request by former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn's lawyer for a grant of immunity in exchange for his testimony, two congressional sources told NBC News."* North Korea: "After years of North Korea thumbing its nose at the international community, on Friday Defense Secretary James Mattis appeared to signal enough was enough. 'Right now, [North Korea] appears to be going in a very reckless manner ... and that has got to be stopped,' Mattis said at a press conference in London."* A key vote: "Another potential Democratic swing vote announced Friday that she will vote against Judge Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's nominee for the U.S. Supreme Court. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) admitted it was 'a really difficult decision for me' but that she will vote against Gorsuch when his nomination comes up for a vote in the Senate next week -- and will support a Democratic filibuster of him."* This may get ugly: "Two days after Britain filed its divorce papers, the European Union made clear Friday that it will be the one to set the pace and terms of talks on the British decision to leave the bloc."* Syria: "Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, declared Thursday that the Trump administration does not consider it a priority that Syrian President Bashar Assad be removed from power -- overtly signaling a U.S. policy shift that observers say quietly began under the Obama administration."* Russia hacking: "Two high-profile Republican members of Congress may have been targets of Russian social-media campaigns to discredit them as recently as this past week, an expert in Kremlin influence-peddling told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday."* That's an aggressive killing schedule: "Jason McGehee is one of the eight men Arkansas intends to execute between April 17 and April 27.... Arkansas will execute more people in that 11-day period than every state except Georgia did all of last year."* He should've shown better judgment: "Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin told the Office of Government Ethics on Friday that he did not intend to promote 'The Lego Batman Movie' when he recommended it during an interview last week."* VW's fallout continues: "Volkswagen took another step Thursday to move past its emissions-cheating scandal by agreeing to pay $157 million to 10 states to settle environmental lawsuits. The agreement is the latest move by the German automaker to resolve the legal fallout of its decade-long scheme to cheat on diesel emissions tests in the United States and elsewhere."Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.