THURSDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Yet another rough day on Wall Street, with the Dow falling more than 200 points, and the other major indexes down about 2% each.
* The Bush administration is considering an “orderly” bankruptcy for the ailing U.S. auto manufacturers.
* The news comes on the heels of Chrysler announcing its plans to shut down production at its 30 U.S. factories for at least a month, starting tomorrow.
* The Maliki government, reportedly breaking up a possible coup attempt, arrested dozens of officials from Iraq’s Ministry of the Interior yesterday, including four generals. Was Maliki simply getting political rivals out of the way?
* Muntader al-Zaidi, the infamous shoe-hurler, apologized to Maliki in writing yesterday and asked for leniency.
* Chuck Todd will be the new chief White House correspondent for NBC News. Todd is generally a very sharp and knowledgeable political analyst, but is he a beat reporter?
* Don’t look now, but Al Franken’s chances for success look pretty good.
* Obama held a press conference earlier, and there wasn’t a single question about Blagojevich. Good.
* Howard Dean deserves a really good job somewhere.
* Will the NYT give Kristol a contract extension?
* R.I.P, Majel Barrett Roddenberry.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.