What started out as a dreadfully slow news day where everybody was writing about stuff I wrote about yesterday is picking up smartly. Here are some mid-day updates in the form of lightly fried nuggets:
* Grassley amendment to immigration bill, which goes even further than Cornyn amendment by making initial legalization of the undocumented contingent on enforcement benchmarks, loses 43-57, with two Democrats (Manchin and Pryor) voting with Grassley and the four Republican Gang of Eight members plus Lisa Murkowski voting against it.
* SCOTUS unanimously holds companies cannot patent naturally occurring human DNA.
* Chief Justice John Roberts orders rare judicial misconduct review after complaint over 5th Circuit Judge Edith Jones’ inflammatory Federalist Society speech. Jones has regularly been on conservative SCOTUS nomination lists.
* House Oversight Committee Democrats set Monday deadline for Darrell Issa to explain exactly why he’s refusing to release full transcripts of witness testimony on the IRS “scandal.”
* Wisconsin Senate cuts off debate and passes bill requiring ultrasounds and detailed findings of results before any abortion.
And in non-political news:
* Watch the excitement build: Paris Hilton’s new album (for Cash Money Records) almost finished!
Back after some more news gathering.
