MONDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* It’s always best to keep hopes in Middle East peace talks in check: “Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu offered on Monday to extend a freeze on building in West Bank settlements if the Palestinian leadership declares that it recognizes Israel as the Jewish state. The offer was promptly rejected by the Palestinians.”
* Criminal negligence in Hungary: “The managing director of the company whose reservoir unleashed a lethal torrent of red sludge on three villages last week has been arrested, the Hungarian prime minister announced before Parliament on Monday.”
* Progress in the rescue efforts in Chile: “Rescuers on Monday finished reinforcing the hole drilled to bring 33 trapped miners to safety and sent a rescue capsule nearly all the way to where the men are trapped, proving the escape route works. That means that if all goes well, everything will be in place at midnight Tuesday to begin pulling the men out of their subterranean purgatory.”
* Just what our discourse needs: a 10-stop Dick Cheney speaking tour.
* Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) told a right-wing crowd over the weekend “that he would support a federal constitutional amendment that would allow two-thirds of the states to collectively repeal a federal enactment.” That’s a pretty horrible idea.
* On a related note, Dave Weigel was on hand for the under-covered event, and has a fascinating, albeit disturbing, report.
* Fingers crossed: “Doctors have injected millions of human embryonic stem cells into a patient partially paralyzed by a spinal cord injury, marking the beginning of the first carefully designed attempt to test the promising but controversial therapy, officials announced Monday.”
* Happy 10th blogoversary — sure, that’s a word — to Andrew Sullivan.
* And finally, much of the media and a few too many political observers spent the day obsessing over a book that was tossed on stage at President Obama’s rally in Philadelphia yesterday afternoon. Many took this as a sign of protest and anger at the president. In reality, the book was thrown by “an overzealous author who just wanted to toss his book into the president’s reading list.” The media’s fascination — the far-right blogs’ hyperventalating — was for naught. Again.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
