FRIDAY’S MINI-REPORT…. Today’s edition of quick hits:
* New mass protests in the streets of Cairo: “Cracks in the Egyptian establishment’s support for President Hosni Mubarak began to appear Friday as jubilant crowds of hundreds of thousands packed the capital’s central Tahrir Square to call for his ouster, this time unmolested by either security police or uniformed Mubarak loyalists.”
* The White House’s not-so-subtle hints to the Mubarak government: “The Obama administration, encouraged by the relative calm in Egypt on Friday, is urgently trying to persuade opposition groups to participate in a dialogue with Vice President Omar Suleiman in a meeting scheduled for Saturday morning.”
* A federal judge in Mississippi, appointed by George W. Bush, dismissed a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act — yet another legal win for the law — but it wasn’t on the merits. District Judge Keith Starrett rejected a lawsuit because the plaintiffs lacked standing. At least 14 lawsuits have been tossed on procedural grounds. (thanks to reader V.S. for the tip)
* How can the unemployment rate go down when so few jobs are being created? Annie Lowrey offers an explanation.
* Good advice: “The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, warned Congressional Republicans on Thursday not to “play around with” a coming vote to raise the government’s legal borrowing limit.” He added that lawmakers shouldn’t view the debt ceiling as a “bargaining chip.”
* Good question: “Why is Live Action doctoring its Planned Parenthood audio?”
* Remember the 1099 problem in the Affordable Care Act? A fix was approved this week in the Senate, 81 to 17.
* Rush Limbaugh yesterday mocked violence towards journalists at the hands of Egyptian thugs. Veteran war correspondents and those who monitor journalist safety overseas were not amused.
* The law needs to be enforced: “New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Monday announced the results of an undercover investigation into a gun show in Arizona — and that those results show just how simple it is to buy a gun there with minimal oversight.”
* Is the famously lucrative Master of Business Administration just another useless, overpriced degree? It’s a reasonable question.
* “Press Secretary School” actually sounds pretty fun to me: “Incoming White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, in preparation to replace Robert Gibbs, has been conducting mock press briefings, with press staffers such as Gibbs and deputies Bill Burton and Josh Earnest conducting the grillings.”
* I’m sorry to see Open Left go, and I wish the best for Chris Bowers and the rest of the team that did such great work at the site over the last several years.
* The “dumbest narrative of the year so far“? That’s an easy one — Politico has now run two separate pieces on First Lady Michelle Obama praising the barbecue n Charlotte, N.C., which the publication insists on calling a “gaffe.”
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
