Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Europe: “EU and IMF inspectors will return to Greece on Thursday to decide whether Athens has done enough to secure a new batch of aid vital to avoid bankruptcy, while Germany suggested a new bailout may have to be renegotiated.”
* Terror threat: “A Massachusetts man was arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting to destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol by attacking the buildings with large, remote-controlled aircraft armed with lethal amounts of explosives.”
* Syria: “Tanks pounded a Syrian town that has become a refuge for army deserters for a second day on Wednesday, residents said, in the first major battle with defecting soldiers since a six-month-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began.”
* Making the health care appeal official: “[T]he Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Affordable Care Act’s individual responsibility provision. We strongly disagree with their decision and today, the Obama Administration will ask the Supreme Court to hear this case, so that we can put these challenges to rest and continue moving forward implementing the law to lower the cost of health care and make it more secure for all Americans.”
* Speaking of health care, premiums for employer-sponsored insurance, spiked last year. Jonathan Cohn takes a look at the larger context.
* No one should listen to them: “Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) are pressing the deficit-reduction supercommittee to consider their proposal to cut more than $500 billion in Medicare spending over 10 years.”
* On a related note, Dems seem to have learned a few things from recent months: “Democrats on the new deficit Super Committee are determined to be better negotiators than their predecessors in earlier deficit discussions leading up to the debt limit fight.”
* This might explain a few things: “Google may be the largest search engine in the world, but when it comes to driving traffic to Politico, it’s no match for Matt Drudge.”
* Predictors of college success: “It turns out parts of the ACT predict college success quite well, but other parts are essentially irrelevant.”
* Remember when Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) forced his Department of Labor to remove a mural depicting the history of the struggle for labor rights in the state? Six months later, LePage is making up bogus explanations for his actions.
* And in case Rush Limbaugh’s hostilities towards minorities weren’t quite offensive enough, the right-wing radio host is also complaining about “the chickification of the news,” in part because a woman reporter wrote an AP article on the president.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
