Today's edition of quick hits:
* Even those accustomed to routine bellicose rhetoric out of North Korea are concerned about recent developments on the peninsula.
* A deadly shooting in Herkimer, N.Y.: "SWAT teams with an armored vehicle and a track-driven robot with a camera on top moved in on a row of shops where authorities believe a gunman who killed four people and wounded two others may have been hiding Wednesday afternoon."
* It's going to get lost in the news shuffle today, but Senate Democrats unveiled a budget plan today. The blueprint enjoys the unanimous backing of caucus members on the Senate Budget Committee, which wasn't necessarily easy.
* Moving forward on a continuing resolution that would prevent a government shutdown: "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday moved forward on a $984 billion spending bill after GOP senators lifted their hold on the measure."
* The quintessential WonkBlog item on a day like today: "Everything you need to know about Pope Francis's macroeconomic views."
* Libya: "President Obama will nominate Deborah K. Jones as the State Department's new ambassador to Libya, the White House announced on Wednesday. If confirmed, Jones would replace Chris Stevens, the ambassador killed in the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya."
* On a related note: "Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan, making his first official trip to Washington six months after the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, publicly promised Wednesday that his government would identify, capture and put on trial those behind it."
* The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), which claims to focus on "curing" gay people, has lost its tax-exempt status (thanks to reader R.B. for the tip).
* And the Republican spokesperson for the House Armed Services Committee actually believes George W. Bush "took responsibility" for the pre-invasion Iraq war lies and the debacle surrounding the governmental response to Hurricane Katrina. He remembers the previous decade far differently than I do.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
