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Thursday's Mini-Report, 11.7.19

Today's edition of quick hits.

Today's edition of quick hits:

* Another damaging transcript: "State Department official George Kent, a key witness in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, told House investigators last month he created contemporaneous memos of specific conversations he'd witnessed related to the White House's attempted quid pro quo that he said were 'injurious to the rule of law, both in Ukraine and the U.S.' according to a transcript of his testimony made public Thursday."

* I plan to follow up on this in the morning: "President Donald Trump must pay a $2 million judgment for improperly using his Trump Foundation charity to further his 2016 presidential campaign, a New York state judge ruled Thursday."

* William Roebuck: "The top American diplomat on the ground in northern Syria has criticized the Trump administration for not trying harder to prevent Turkey's military offensive there last month -- and said Turkish-backed militia fighters committed 'war crimes and ethnic cleansing.'"

* In case you were wondering why the stock markets had a good day: "The United States and China have agreed that an initial trade deal between the two countries would roll back a portion of the tariffs placed on each other's products, a significant step toward defusing tensions between the world's largest economies."

* NOAA: "Internal emails at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released Thursday showed how the agency scrambled to respond to President Donald Trump's inaccurate claims about Hurricane Dorian and Alabama."

* The mistake is thinking this White House comes up with plans: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and other top Democrats are sending a letter to President Donald Trump on Thursday demanding he develop and brief Congress on a plan to stop the Islamic State from returning in Syria now that most of the American forces have been pulled out of the country."

* EPA: "Environmental Protection Agency officials are in a standoff with the agency's independent watchdog over a probe of EPA chief of staff Ryan Jackson's efforts to influence a scientist ahead of her congressional testimony."

* Noted without comment: "After a FoxNews.com article drew howls and derision online for claiming the Obama White House received complaints from top CIA officials for holding weekly 'political correctness' meetings, the author of the book admitted that he didn't understand that the initials 'PC' actually stood for 'principals committee.'"

See you tomorrow.