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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Failing delay tactics: “A New York appeals court judge Tuesday denied Donald Trump’s bid to halt his hush money trial while he appeals a gag order, a ruling that came less than 24 hours after another judge rejected the former president’s request to delay his impending criminal trial on other grounds.”
* Targeting Rafah: “Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that despite the troop pullout [from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis], a date had been set for an offensive on Rafah, a plan that has raised global alarm. The Israeli leader said today that ‘no force in the world’ could stop an Israeli operation on the city.”
* Difficult diplomacy: “Hamas said that it was studying a new proposal for a cease-fire deal after talks in Cairo, but said the plan did not meet any of its demands for a truce that would secure the release of more hostages being held in Gaza.”
* Fourteen months later: “Norfolk Southern has agreed to a $600 million settlement to resolve class action lawsuits filed after a freight train derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, spilling toxic chemicals into the community.”
* EPA: “More than 200 chemical plants nationwide will be required to reduce toxic emissions that are likely to cause cancer under a new rule issued Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency. The rule advances President Joe Biden’s commitment to environmental justice by delivering critical health protections for communities burdened by industrial pollution from ethylene oxide, chloroprene and other dangerous chemicals, officials said.”
* A story that’s been percolating for a while: “A federal judge in Manhattan sentenced a Florida woman on Tuesday to a month in prison for her role in a brazen scheme to steal the diary of President Biden’s daughter and sell it to a right-wing group in the hope of disrupting the 2020 election.”
* Another story that’s been percolating for a while: “Two right-wing political operatives must pay up to $1.25 million in fines after they were found liable for launching a robocall campaign designed to keep Black New Yorkers from voting in the 2020 election, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday. Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, who have a history of concocting conspiracy theories to try to smear Democrats, were found liable last March of orchestrating a robocall campaign that reached about 5,500 predominantly Black New Yorkers in the summer of 2020.”
* The judicial confirmation process matters: “Senate Democrats have teed up floor action this week on three more of President Joe Biden’s judicial nominations, whose confirmations would catch up to the pace set by former President Donald Trump at this point in his presidency. But the Biden administration still faces a tricky confirmation process to surpass Trump’s record overall on filling the federal bench, in part because Democrats hold a slim 51-49 advantage and Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., has put a caveat on his support for Biden judicial nominees.”
See you tomorrow.