Day 1177: "Out of step."

1/ The EPA finalized the first-ever national limits on toxic “forever chemicals” in drinking water, a group of human-made chemicals that are considered especially harmful because they don’t degrade, can accumulate in the body and the environment, and pose a health risk to people at even the smallest detectable levels of exposure. The new rule is expected to reduce drinking water exposure to these per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, for about 100 million people and prevent thousands of related illnesses and deaths. This is the first time the EPA has set a drinking water standard for a new contaminant since 1996. (Associated Press / NPR / Axios / Washington Post / New York Times / The Verge / Politico / Bloomberg)

2/ Judge Aileen Cannon agreed to shield the names of potential witnesses in Trump’s criminal classified documents case. Special counsel Jack Smith has been arguing since January that witnesses would likely face threats and harassment if their identities were revealed publicly. Among the people Smith was seeking to protect were FBI agents, Secret Service agents, “career civil servants and former close advisers” to Trump, including one who was so concerned about potential threats from “Trump world” that he refused to permit investigators to record an interview with him. Cannon, however, refused to categorically block witness statements from being disclosed, saying there was no basis for such a “sweeping” and “blanket” restriction on their inclusion in pretrial motions. (Washington Post / New York Times / Politico / CNN / Associated Press)

3/ Hours after Arizona’s Supreme Court upheld a 160-year-old law banning nearly all abortions, Republicans in the state attempted to distance themselves from the ruling. Kari Lake, an Arizona Republican running for the U.S. Senate, denounced the ruling, saying it was “out of step with Arizonans” and called on state lawmakers to “come up” with a “solution that Arizonans can support.” Lake, a Trump ally and a 2020 election denier, however, had voiced support for the law in 2022, calling it a “great law” and an example for other states. Despite having supported abortion restrictions in the past two Arizona Republicans in the ...