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Monday's Mini-Report, 2.27.17

Today's edition of quick hits.
Today's edition of quick hits:* Wave of anti-Semitism: "Police were trying to identify the vandals who knocked over or damaged at least 100 headstones at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia as the nation grappled Monday with yet another wave of anti-Semitic incidents. Meanwhile, bomb threats forced the evacuations of Jewish Community Centers in New York and in 10 other states."* Kansas: "Adam Purinton, the 51-year-old man accused of hurling racial slurs before opening fire on two Indian men in a Kansas bar last week, appeared calm and composed during a brief court appearance Monday."* Afghanistan: "At least 10 police officers and the wife of a police commander were killed in an ambush by Islamic State militants in the northern province of Zawzjan, a provincial official said on Saturday."* North Korea: "Plans for back-channel talks in New York between government representatives from North Korea and former U.S. officials were scuttled Friday after the State Department withdrew visa approvals for Pyongyang's top envoy on U.S. relations, according to people familiar with the matter."* This isn't surprising, but it is disheartening: "Reversing a position the Justice Department has maintained for years, the Trump administration's Civil Rights Division will state in federal court this week that the federal government no longer claims Texas legislators acted with discriminatory intent in 2011 when they passed one of the strictest voter ID laws in the nation."* House Republican leaders are going to have a problem: "Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told CNN on Monday that he will vote against a draft of the GOP Obamacare repeal bill that was leaked last week."* Oops: "Vice President Mike Pence stands with Israel -- but flies flags for Nicaragua. As Pence declared his unequivocal support for Israel during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on Friday night, one of his staffers tweeted out Nicaraguan flags from the official Vice Presidential account -- twice."* The last Republican president takes issue with the current Republican president: "George W. Bush on Monday broke with President Trump and called the media 'indispensable to democracy.' In his first in-depth interview since Trump's inauguration, the former president took aim at the current White House occupant's oft repeated claim that the mainstream media is the 'enemy of the people' -- but took care not to mention Trump by name."Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.