Today’s edition of quick hits.
* At the border: “In a win for the Biden administration, a federal judge Wednesday ordered Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to remove a floating barrier his state placed in the Rio Grande River to deter illegal migrant crossings. U.S. District Judge David Ezra, a Reagan appointee, issued an order for the swift removal of the 1,000-foot barrier near Eagle Pass, Texas, granting the Justice Department’s request for a preliminary injunction while the case is litigated.”
* In Alaska: “The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday said it would cancel oil and gas leases in a federal wildlife refuge that were bought by an Alaska state development agency in the final days of former President Donald Trump’s administration.”
* Jan. 6 arrests are ongoing: “Federal authorities continue to arrest alleged Jan. 6 participants more than 2½ years after the Capitol attack, with a Virginia man being taken into custody Wednesday and charged with being part of a group that attacked D.C. police Officer Michael Fanone.”
* It’s not just out-of-state abortions that Texas Republicans will start worrying about: “Mexico’s Supreme Court threw out all federal criminal penalties for abortion Wednesday, ruling that national laws prohibiting the procedure are unconstitutional and violate women’s rights in a sweeping decision that extended Latin American’s trend of widening abortion access. The high court ordered that abortion be removed from the federal penal code. The ruling will require the federal public health service and all federal health institutions to offer abortion to anyone who requests it.”
* There’s a Democratic majority at the FCC for the first time in a long while: “The Senate confirmed Anna Gomez to the Federal Communications Commission with a 55-43 vote, sending the body a 5th commissioner and restoring it to full strength for the first time in Joe Biden’s presidency.”
* Speaking of important confirmations: “The Senate confirmed Democrat Gwynne Wilcox to a second five-year term on the National Labor Relations Board Wednesday after a lengthy 50-49 procedural vote that dragged on for an hour and twenty minutes. Another close 51-48 vote clinched her confirmation, but neither was along party lines.”
* One more item on confirmations: “The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed World Bank economist Adriana Kugler to the Federal Reserve, filling the last open seat at the U.S. central bank’s governing board as policymakers near a potential crossroads in their fight against inflation. Colombian-born Kugler, whose research has focused on labor markets, is the first Latina to join the Fed Board in its 109-year history.”
* Really? “SpaceX cut off Starlink satellite internet service to Ukrainian submarine drones last year just as they were launching an attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet, according to a new biography of SpaceX founder Elon Musk.”
* Republican state Attorney General Austin Knudsen apparently has some questions to answer: “Montana’s ultra-conservative attorney general has been accused of professional misconduct on allegations his office tried to undermine the state’s Supreme Court in defending a law that allows the Republican governor to fill judicial vacancies without the input of a long-standing commission that vets candidates.”
* I’m always interested in CISA news: “The Biden administration has hired former Twitter cybersecurity chief Peiter Zatko for a part-time role with the Cybersecurity Infrastructure and Security Agency. The news, first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday, caught my attention — not because it’s shocking necessarily, but because it may be a stroke of genius on the government’s part.”
See you tomorrow.
