Snippets of news...

From American Progress:

Think Fast

A federal judge "lashed out" at Bush's EPA yesterday "for pursuing industry-friendly regulations at the same time it missed statutory deadlines to control toxic air pollution from small industrial plants." The judge ordered to EPA to finish it's clean air rules by 2009.

A Gallup poll released yesterday "revealed another upward bump in the number of Amercians (55 percent) who now want a complete U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq in the next 12 months."

Condoleezza Rice expressed support Thursday "for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon as the first phase in ending the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah," the "most concrete signal yet that the U.S. may be willing to compromise on the stalemate over how to end the fighting."

Three Senate Judiciary Committee members will block the confirmation of Steven Bradbury, acting head of the Justice Department's office of legal counsel, to protest President Bush's move to squash a probe into the NSA wiretapping program by denying investigators security clearances.

"Heat waves like those that have scorched Europe and the United States in recent weeks are becoming more frequent because of global warming, say scientists," the Washington Post reports. "

The court fight to take Tom DeLay, the indicted former House majority leader, off the November ballot in Texas will be taken to the U.S. Supreme Court," GOP officials said yesterday.

"Eight months after former Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham confessed to taking massive bribes in exchange for providing at least $230 million in questionable defense and intelligence contracts, the Defense Department inspector general still has not determined whether any of those projects were improper." "

Despite recurring speeches touting" President Bush's "ambitious $136 billion 'American Competitiveness Initiative' to boost the country's ability to stay abreast of global competitors," CongressDaily reports the effort "is becalmed in Congress and in danger of foundering as more U.S. jobs are moving abroad."

And finally: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) will play a game of table tennis with an 80-year old pingpong champion "who said he would only donate to the governor's re-election campaign if he agreed to a match," the AP reports. "The odds appear to be stacked against the governor."

Wrap...