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Monday's Mini-Report, 5.19.14

Today's edition of quick hits.
Today's edition of quick hits:
 
* This is a story with limitless potential: "The Department of Justice said on Monday it had charged five individuals in China's People's Liberation Army in connection with stealing trade secrets from some of the largest American companies, including Westinghouse, United States Steel and Alcoa."
 
* Turkey: "Eighteen people, including company executives, have been detained as Turkish officials investigate the mining disaster that killed 301 people, a domestic news agency reported Sunday."
 
* It's almost as if Putin's claims aren't believable: "The Kremlin announced Monday that President Vladimir V. Putin had ordered Russian troops conducting exercises along the Ukrainian border to return to their home bases at the conclusion of the drills.... However, the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, said the Western allies had not seen any sign of a withdrawal of Russian forces."
 
* Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) opposes Michael Boggs: "The Georgia Democrat and civil rights leader's forceful statement Monday could torpedo Boggs, the key to a larger deal cut by the White House with Georgia's two Republican senators for a slate of judges."
 
* VA: "President Barack Obama is 'madder than hell about the problems facing the Department of Veterans Affairs but still supports its embattled chief, Secretary Eric Shinseki, according to the president's chief of staff."
 
* In an interesting twist, Shinseki received support today from former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), among others.
 
* Racism: "Embattled Wolfeboro Police Commissioner Robert Copeland has resigned. He and other town officials have been bombarded with phone calls and emails from around the country from people upset that he used a racial slur to refer to President Obama. People had been threatening to cancel summer plans in the lakeside resort town if Copeland, 82, did not step down."
 
* Smart speech: "Racism in America is characterized less by the kind of outlandish statements that capture media attention and more by a subtler web of policies and assumptions -- including restrictions on the right to vote -- that work against equality, Attorney General Eric Holder argued Saturday in a commencement speech."
 
* In the case of MERS, there are now three: "An Illinois man has become the third person in the United States infected with the virus that causes a deadly disease and has killed dozens of people around the world, federal officials said Saturday."
 
* Why won't Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) say whether he's ever smoked pot? In an interesting explanation, it has to do with his poor grades in high school.
 
* And Bill Kristol complained about the New York Times' Arthur Sulzberger yesterday on one of the Sunday shows. "Why does he run the New York Times?" Kristol said. "Because he inherited it." Um, Bill? Do you really want to go there?
 
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.