By
Today’s edition of quick hits.
* The latest on the weekend’s mass shooting in Texas: “A social media page appearing to belong to a gunman who killed eight people at a Dallas-area outlet mall shared extremist beliefs with rants against Jews, women and racial minorities posted on the account since September, as well as posts about struggling with mental health.”
* Also in Texas: “The man who rammed an SUV into a group of migrants at a bus stop in this Texas border city has been charged with eight counts of manslaughter, police said Monday, describing the driver as a local with an ‘extensive rap sheet.’”
* More than one per day? “Mass shootings — where four or more people, not including the shooter, are injured or killed — have averaged more than one per day in 2023, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. Not a single week has passed without at least four mass shootings.”
* Closing arguments: “E. Jean Carroll was ‘exactly’ Donald Trump’s type, and the former president didn’t show up at her civil trial accusing him of rape because ‘he knows what he did’ to her, her attorney alleged in closing arguments Monday in Manhattan federal court.”
* Jan. 6 sentence: “A federal judge on Friday sentenced a man who was armed with a wooden tire knocker and engaged in a series of assaults on officers during the Jan. 6 attack to 14 years and two months, the longest sentence for a Capitol rioter yet. Peter Schwartz, who has 38 prior convictions, said he regretted the riot’s damage.”
* Consumer-focused governing: “The Biden administration on Monday announced plans for new regulations to require airlines to provide compensation and cover expenses for meals and hotel rooms to stranded passengers when the companies are at fault for travel disruptions.”
* This lawsuit, filed by the National Association of Government Employees (NAGE), is worth watching: “A union of government employees on Monday sued Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and President Joe Biden to try to stop them from complying with the law that limits the government’s total debt, which the lawsuit contends is unconstitutional.”
* Hmm: “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has blasted President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan as ‘very unfair.’ Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has decried the policy as ‘unconscionable,’ ‘wrong’ and ‘out of touch.’ ‘Un-American’ and ‘socialism’ are the words Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has used. Yet, all three Republican governors offer at least one state program for student loan forgiveness or repayment. They’re far from the only ones.”
See you tomorrow.