WEDNESDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Not surprisingly, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was indicted today.
* Something to keep an eye on: “The White House says that an unclassified version of the review of intelligence failures that led to the failed Christmas Day attempt to explode Northwest Flight 253 will be released Thursday. The review, conducted by White House homeland security adviser John Brennan, will pinpoint the various failures of the intelligence community to ‘connect the dots,’ as President Obama put it on Tuesday.”
* The formal conference committee on the health care reform bill has officially been scuttled. The plan is to complete the process in a few weeks.
* My kind of initiative: “President Barack Obama announced Wednesday a $250 million public-private initiative designed to improve national math and science education. Specifically, the money will be used to promote five new partnerships intended to help train over 10,000 new math and science teachers over the next five years. It will also be used to support the professional development of more than 100,000 current math, science, technology and engineering teachers, according to the White House.”
* The Congressional Native American Caucus was not pleased with RNC Chairman Michael Steele’s “honest Injun” comment during an appearance on Fox News.
* A group of 39 House Republicans hope to crush marriage equality in the nation’s capital.
* The White House wouldn’t mind Congress pushing off the SOTU to Feb. 2. That’s probably a good idea.
* Holocaust Museum shooter James Von Brunn died today in a prison hospital.
* Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who appears to be stark raving mad, told a conservative talk-radio show yesterday that President Obama has “not kept a single promise to the American people…. All the promises he’s kept are the ones that endanger our lives.”
* The unemployed are straining community colleges across the country.
* Matt Yglesias takes a look at the “looming public pension disaster.”
* I get the distinct impression that Sean Hannity doesn’t know what the word “cold” means.
* Glenn Beck told his radio audience today that Ted Kennedy lived “a long and evil life.” Stay classy, Glenn.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
