Short Takes – 9-21-22

GOP faces internal rift on government spending. TheHill.com article. And the GOP radicals don’t even trust the rest of their conference. Pull quote: “In an attempt to prevent House Republican leadership from relying on Democrats to broker spending deals in the future, the Freedom Caucus has called for House GOP rules to require any legislation that passes in a GOP-controlled House to have support from a majority of the Republican conference.”

Business groups take aim at chronic rail disruptions after strike threat. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““Service failures are contributing to higher prices and supply chain disruptions for food, fuel, and countless other products,” the Rail Customer Coalition wrote in a recent letter to lawmakers. “The proposal [HR 8649] contains many common-sense provisions that would improve service and create a more balanced system for railroads and their customers.””

How Dangerous Is Too Dangerous? A Perspective on Azide Chemistry. Pubs.ACS.org JOC editorial. Interesting look at chemical safety at the lab scale. Pull quote: “A recent article in this journal [Journal of Organic Chemistry] authored by Gazvoda et al. describes a procedure for preparing triazoles from alkynes using stoichiometric sodium azide, stoichiometric acid, and catalytic copper, followed by a workup that may include dichloromethane. As industrial chemists with decades of experience safely scaling up azide chemistry, we feel compelled to share with the research community our three major safety concerns with this procedure.”