Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Stay tuned: “A redacted version of the affidavit used to secure the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate is set to be unsealed Friday under a judge’s order.”
* More deadly brutality in Ukraine: “Russian forces Wednesday launched a rocket attack on a Ukrainian train station on the embattled country’s Independence Day, killing 25 people, Ukrainian officials said after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Moscow might attempt “something particularly cruel” this week.”
* Some decent economic news: “The U.S. economy contracted at a more moderate pace than initially thought in the second quarter as consumer spending blunted some of the drag from a sharp slowdown in inventory accumulation, dispelling fears that a recession was underway.”
* DACA: The Biden administration finalized a rule Wednesday to fortify the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program as it faces legal challenges, aiming to preserve protections for hundreds of thousands of ‘Dreamers.’”
* The White House gets some good news in Idaho: “A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked part of Idaho’s strict abortion law that’s scheduled to take effect Thursday, handing the Biden administration a narrow courtroom win in its first lawsuit to protect reproductive rights since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.”
* The White House gets some dreadful news in Texas: “”A federal judge in Texas blocked the Biden administration late Tuesday from enforcing new guidance in the Republican-led state requiring hospitals to provide emergency abortions to women regardless of state bans on the procedure.” (The jurist, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, is a Trump appointee.)
* Speaking of important developments in the Lone Star State: “Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo was fired Wednesday by the Texas city’s school board. The board voted unanimously to oust the embattled chief after a recommendation from the school district superintendent.”
* Secret Service leadership: “President Joe Biden said Wednesday he is appointing Kim Cheatle as the new director of the Secret Service as it faces scrutiny over missing text messages related to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
* Many scholars will benefit greatly from this: “The White House has updated its policy on federally funded research. Going forward, the results of studies funded by the government must be made public right away. Until now, researchers who receive federal funding have been allowed to publish their findings in academic journals exclusively for one year, effectively adding a paywall to their work.”
* The closer one looks at what happened in this mess, the worse it appears: “Two Florida residents pleaded guilty Thursday to federal charges of scheming to sell the stolen diary of President Joe Biden’s daughter Ashley Biden, according to prosecutors and law enforcement officials. Aimee Harris, 40, and Jonathan Kurlander, 58, admitted to stealing the diary from a home in Delray Beach and then selling it to the conservative media company Project Veritas for $40,000, prosecutors and law enforcement officials said.”
* This should never happen to anyone: “Police got called to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) for the second time this week for a false report, according to a report obtained by POLITICO from the Rome, Ga. police.”
See you tomorrow.
CORRECTION (Aug. 29, 2022, 2:39 pm E.T.): A previous version of this blog post misstated Delray Beach’s location. It is in Florida, not Delaware.
