Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Busted: “A jury on Monday convicted Rod R. Blagojevich, the former governor of Illinois, of trying to personally benefit from his role in selecting a replacement for President Obama in the United States Senate.” He was found guilty of 17 counts of wire fraud, attempted extortion, bribery, extortion conspiracy, and bribery conspiracy.
* A wanted man: “The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants on Monday for the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, one of his sons and his intelligence chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity during the first two weeks of the uprising in Libya that led to a NATO bombing campaign.”
* Another discouraging 5-4 ruling on campaign finance: “[T]he Supreme Court on Monday struck down an Arizona law that provided escalating matching funds to candidates who accept public financing.”
* The news from the high court wasn’t all bad: “The Supreme Court on Monday struck down on First Amendment grounds a California law that barred the sale of violent video games to children.” It was a 7-to-2 decision.
* Remember Georgia’s misguided anti-immigrant law we talked about on Friday? Thanks to a federal judge, it’s on hold.
* Whether Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser (R) grabbed a colleague by the neck is now under investigation by the Dane County sheriff and the Wisconsin Judicial Commission.
* Ohio’s anti-voting proposal is so radical, Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State announced that he cannot support it. “I want to be perfectly clear, when I began working with the General Assembly to improve Ohio’s elections system it was never my intent to reject valid votes,” Jon Husted said in a statement.
* Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) loves oil industry subsidies, though he’s having trouble offering a coherent defense for his position. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) is in the same boat.
* Republicans keep pretending the McKinsey and Company study is reliable. We can say definitely that the GOP is wrong.
* Good post from Daniel Luzer: “Something needs to change, dramatically, in American higher education if this country is to thrive and remain economically successful. This is according to two recent reports about the state of higher education. Exactly what needs to change, however, is debatable.”
* CNN ran a segment the other day on what psychics think about the economy and unemployment. I’m not kidding.
* And reader R.P. passed along this fun one from late last week: “Actual News Headlines Vs. Fox News Headlines.”
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
