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Today's edition of quick hits:
* COVID: "While states across the country have had a startling rise in new Covid cases, the South, including Arkansas, Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee, has re-emerged as a troubling hot spot, driven by the highly contagious delta variant and lax or resistant attitudes toward vaccinations, public health officials say. Some hospitals are bracing for a rise in Covid cases not seen in months."
* An especially notable Jan. 6 arrest: "A federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was on leave and about to resign was arrested Tuesday for illegally entering the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, according to filings in a Washington federal court. He is the first federal law enforcement official arrested in connection with the Capitol siege."
* The Bootleg Fire "in Southern Oregon, spurred by months of drought and last month's blistering heat wave, is the largest wildfire so far this year in the United States, having already burned more than 340,000 acres, or 530 square miles, of forest and grasslands. And at a time when climate change is causing wildfires to be larger and more intense, it's also one of the most extreme, so big and hot that it's affecting winds and otherwise disrupting the atmosphere."
* Frank Caporusso: "A New York man received an 18-month prison sentence on Monday for threatening to kill the judge who handled the criminal case against Michael Flynn, an aide to former President Donald Trump."
* Better late than never: "House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) got his first dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine Sunday, calling it 'safe and effective,' Nola reports."
* A lot of progressives cheered this news: "President Biden plans to nominate Jonathan Kanter, who has long opposed Big Tech companies as an antitrust lawyer, to lead the Justice Department's antitrust division, according to a White House official. It's the latest sign of the administration's willingness to crackdown on the power and influence of Silicon Valley titans."
* This seems like a misguided idea: "The Justice Department is pushing for rule changes that would put a 50-year delay on when courts can consider releasing material from federal grand juries, according to documents and interviews, and would separately allow gag orders to be applied more broadly to witnesses."
See you tomorrow.