Today's edition of quick hits:
* Today's mass shooting in Tennessee: "Thirteen people were shot and one killed in what Police Chief Dale Lane called 'the most horrific event that's occurred in Collierville history.' The shooter is also dead, killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Lane said. Law enforcement are still working some active scenes, including waiting on equipment to search the shooter's car and some property of the shooter."
* Vaccine news, Part I: "The Food and Drug Administration authorized a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine Wednesday for emergency use in people ages 65 and up, as well as those 18 and older at high risk of exposure to the coronavirus or severe illness. Boosters are to be given at least six months after people get their second doses of the Pfizer vaccine."
* Vaccine news, Part II: "A key Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory group voted Thursday to recommend distributing Pfizer and BioNTech's Covid-19 booster shots to older Americans, nursing home residents and other vulnerable Americans, clearing the way for the agency to give the final OK as early as this evening."
* A major departure: "The U.S. special envoy for Haiti, Daniel Foote, has resigned over what he called the administration's 'inhumane' treatment of Haitian migrants."
* And speaking of departures: "The top State Department official overseeing the response to 'Havana Syndrome' is leaving her position after only six months on the job, three officials said."
* Capitol Hill: "Top House and Senate Democrats are claiming an early agreement on a package of tax increases that could finance broad swaths of their still-emerging, up-to $3.5 trillion spending package, though unresolved squabbles over some of the specifics still threaten to scuttle the nascent deal."
* Combatting the climate crisis: "The Biden administration has finalized a rule to phase down the use of a powerful planet-warming chemical used in air-conditioners and refrigerators, its latest effort to put climate change at the center of its agenda ahead of a pivotal United Nations summit."
* The Fed: "Federal Reserve officials indicated on Wednesday that they expect to soon slow the asset purchases they have been using to support the economy and predicted they might raise interest rates next year, sending a clear signal that policymakers are preparing to curtail full-blast monetary help as the business environment snaps back from the pandemic shock."
* I hope you saw Rachel's coverage of this last night: "Alaska, once a leader in vaccinating its citizens, is now in the throes of its worst coronavirus surge of the pandemic, as the Delta variant rips through the state, swamping hospitals with patients."
* A highly discouraging change: "The United States in 2020 experienced the biggest rise in murder since the start of national record-keeping in 1960, according to data gathered by the F.B.I. for its annual report on crime."
* Remember when this guy had an important and powerful White House job? Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn appears to be peddling a new conspiracy theory that the Covid-19 vaccine might be being placed in salad dressing.
* Who comes up with this stuff? "A leading asthma patient group has issued a warning against an unproven coronavirus treatment circulating on social media that is leading some people to post videos of themselves breathing in hydrogen peroxide through a nebulizer."
See you tomorrow.
