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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Today’s mass shooting near the Mississippi-Tennessee border: “A suspect was arrested after six people were killed in gunfire Friday afternoon in a small Mississippi town outside Memphis, officials said. The shootings happened about 12:30 p.m. CST in Arkabutla, Tate County, which is about 40 miles south of downtown Memphis, Tennessee, officials said.”
* At the Munich Security Conference: “Nearly one year into the brutal and costly war in Ukraine, Western leaders pledged to remain steadfast in their support for Kyiv amid worries about whether their unity can survive what France’s president called ‘a prolonged conflict.’ As dozens of leaders convened in Germany, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine opened the annual Munich Security Conference with a warning against ‘fatigue’ and by emphasizing that speed is of the essence if his country is to hold off a renewed Russian onslaught.”
* EPA: “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday reaffirmed the basis for a rule that requires ‘significant reductions’ in mercury and other harmful pollutants from power plants, reversing a move late in former President Donald Trump’s administration to roll back emissions standards.”
* Child labor? “The Labor Department said Friday it found 102 children as young as 13 working hazardous overnight jobs cleaning slaughterhouses in eight states in what it called a ‘corporate-wide failure’ by one of the largest food sanitation companies in the country, Packers Sanitation Services Inc.”
* Good to know: “A small circle of intelligence officials at the Pentagon during the Trump administration monitored a series of mysterious objects—now suspected to be balloons—but the incidents were never reported to the White House because it wasn’t clear what they were, former U.S. officials said.”
* The latest out of Memphis: “The five former Memphis, Tennessee, police officers accused in the death of Tyre Nichols have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges.”
* This seems very easy to believe: “Television provider DirecTV has responded to GOP senators’ requests to explain their decision to drop the conservative news network Newsmax, saying the cut was part of a ‘routine’ business dispute after criticism that the move was political.”
* Republicans looking for evidence of politicized law enforcement should certainly care about reports like these: “Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued President Joe Biden on Wednesday for signing last year’s federal government funding package, arguing it was unlawfully passed out of Congress.”
Have a safe weekend.