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Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Expect changes at the CDC: “The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday said the agency must make drastic changes to respond better and faster to public health emergencies, following missteps during the Covid pandemic.”
* The war’s newest phase: “Crimea is now at the heart of what appears to be an audacious Ukrainian effort to target Russian supply lines and morale. A series of blasts hit a Russian military depot in the annexed peninsula Tuesday — rocking the relaxed summer holiday destination for the second time in a week and suggesting a growing Ukrainian ability to strike deep behind enemy lines.”
* I’m curious if Giuliani pleaded the Fifth: “Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday spent more than six hours at a courthouse in Atlanta to provide testimony before a grand jury that’s looking into possible 2020 election interference, days after being informed he’s a ‘target’ of the criminal probe.”
* In related news: “A judge in Colorado on Tuesday ordered a legal adviser for former President Donald Trump’s campaign to travel to Georgia to testify before a special grand jury that’s looking into whether Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia.”
* Water management matters: “The federal government will impose deeper cuts on the drought-stricken Colorado River, officials said Tuesday, reducing water deliveries to Arizona and Nevada starting in January.”
* Canceling some additional student debt: “Students who used federal loans to attend ITT Technical Institute as far back as 2005 will automatically get that debt canceled after authorities found ‘widespread and pervasive misrepresentations’ at the defunct for-profit college chain, the Biden administration announced Tuesday.”
* This remains one of the most stunning corruption stories I’ve ever seen: “Two former Pennsylvania judges who orchestrated a scheme to send children to for-profit jails in exchange for kickbacks were ordered to pay more than $200 million to hundreds of people they victimized in one of the worst judicial scandals in U.S. history.”
* What an unhealthy society looks like: “Boston Children’s Hospital has warned employees about mounting threats and is coordinating with law enforcement after far-right activists on social media began targeting the hospital with false claims about its treatment of young transgender people.”
See you tomorrow.