Today's edition of quick hits:
* To put it mildly, the political road ahead for Egypt will not be easy: "Egypt's new defense minister warned on Tuesday that it would not allow any group to interfere with the interim government's road map toward the restoration of democracy."
* On a related note: "Egypt's military-led interim government laid out an accelerated six-month timetable on Tuesday for a return to civilian democracy, and chose a liberal economist as temporary prime minister, part of an intensified effort to assure Egyptians and the world about its intentions in the aftermath of the mass killing of more than 50 Islamist protesters."
* The Quebec town where "runaway railroad tank cars filled with oil derailed and exploded over the weekend still did not know the full extent of the devastation on Monday as dangerous conditions limited the movements of investigators. The provincial police said they had found eight more bodies in the town, Lac-Mégantic, on Monday, raising the death toll to 13.... The police also increased the estimate of the missing people, who are presumed to be dead, to 50."
* Force feedings: "The U.S. prison at Guantanamo has sufficient military medical staff to synchronize forced-feedings to the Ramadan fast and will only feed hunger strikers after sunset and before dawn, a prison spokesman said Tuesday."
* In related news: "The State Department's new special envoy for closing the prison at Guantánamo began work this week with a one-day trip to the U.S. Navy base in Cuba and said Wednesday that closure was a national priority."
* Overdue: "The Air Force has pulled a brochure circulated at a South Carolina base after a lawmaker complained about some objectionable advice to sexual assault victims – such as submitting to an attack rather than resisting."
* More on this tomorrow: "Senate Democrats will huddle Thursday to determine whether to trigger the 'nuclear option' to ram through nominees with a simple majority vote."
* A case worth watching: "Less than two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled the U.S. government could not deny federal benefits to legally-married same sex couples, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a challenge to Pennsylvania's ban on same-sex marriage in federal court."
* Illinois today adopted a law "allowing residents to carry concealed guns, becoming the last state in the nation to permit some form of possession of guns in public."
* I heartily endorse Greg Sargent's thesis: the more the concept of "sabotage governing" is taken seriously by the political establishment, the better.
* No, Republicans, winning more white voters won't save your electoral fortunes. Nate Cohn digs deep into the data.
* Heartbreaking: "The sole survivor of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, Brendan McDonough, read the 'Hotshot Prayer' at a memorial service Tuesday for his 19 fellow squad members who were killed June 30 while fighting the Yarnell Hill fire."
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.