Short Takes – 7-3-23

In Small Victory, Signs of Grueling Combat Ahead in Ukrainian Counteroffensive. NYTimes.com article. Urban warfare in a small town. Pull quote: “One machine gun nest, constructed in a stairwell with sandbags and a small firing slit, pointed toward the north-south road that provided the only access to the village. The position was littered with hundreds of shell casings, a clear indicator that the school remained occupied and defended following the HIMARS strike.”

Supreme Court delivered big conservative wins, and a mixed message. WashingtonPost.com article. Pull quote: “Those cases [two voting issue cases], plus a challenge to the federal law that gives tribe members preference in custody and adoption of Native American children, “attracted huge amounts of doom-and-gloom prognostications from people unhappy about where they expected the court to go, and the court defied those predictions,” Harris said.”

Three DC businesses hit with explosive devices, Molotov cocktail. TheHill.com article. Pull quote: ““In each of these offenses, it appears the suspect targeted commercial establishments and it does not appear the suspect was targeting any members of the public. The establishments were closed at the time of the offenses,” MPD said in its news release, adding that no injuries were reported in those incidents.” No word on types of explosives used. Odd target list.

McCarthy confronts a spending mess that will test his speakership. Politico.com article. Pull quote: “Most Republicans say it’s unlikely that the spending debacle will be entirely solved by the funding deadline Sept. 30. Instead, many believe Congress will probably wind up with its usual post-Christmas deadline. Few are ruling out a September showdown entirely, however, since both parties would need to agree on a short-term extension until Jan. 1 — when the debt deal could trigger some small automatic cuts.”

U.S. Department of Energy Releases Plan to Ensure Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research. NewsWise.com article. Pull quote: “DOE’s public access plan supports the August 2022 White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) memo that called for Federal agencies to “make publications and their supporting data resulting from federally funded research publicly accessible without an embargo on their free and public release.” The new plan describes the steps DOE will take to enable equitable access to the unclassified and unrestricted results of its multi-billion dollar annual investments in climate, energy, environment, and basic and applied research and development.”

Utility Companies Sell Wind, Solar Farms to Shore Up U.S. Power Grid. WSJ.com article. Pull quote: “Jehangir Vevaina, managing partner in Brookfield’s renewable power and transition group, said developers are better positioned for that. “It’s right in our wheelhouse,” he said, adding that Brookfield can retrofit and update existing plants, add battery storage to some projects and “optimize them on a commercial basis, but then also develop the assets in the pipeline and bring them to fruition,” he said.” No discussion about potential cybersecurity implications.