QUICK HITS

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Alligator ban lawsuit: California’ s ban on selling alligator products probably violates federal laws and the state cannot enforce it while various legal challenges remain in court, a federal judge has ruled. The state of Louisiana and companies in California, Florida and Texas are suing the state of California over its decision toban the import and sale of alligator products. 2

Seeing Venus: A spacecraft bound for Mercury swung by Venus, using Earth’s neighbor to adjust its course on theway to the solar system’s innermost planet. Launched almost twoyears ago, the European- Japanese-probe Bepi Colombo tooka black- andwhite snapshot of Venus froma distance of 10,560 miles, with some of its own instruments in the frame. 3

Editor suspended: C- SPAN suspended its political editor Steve Scully in defifinitely Thursday after he admitted to lying about his Twitter feed being hacked when hewas confronted about a questionable exchange with former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci. 4

Tony nominations: The sobering musical “Jagged Little Pill,” which plumbs Alanis Morissette’s 1995 breakthrough album to tell a story of an American family spiraling out ofcontrol, earned a leading 15 Tony Award nominations Thursday, as Broadway took the fifirst steps to celebrate a pandemic- shortened-season that upended the theater world. 5

Four years inprison: The former room mate of a woman accused of hacking Capital One banking company and at least 30 other organizations has been sentenced to fouryears inprison for illegally possessing firearms, according to federal prosecutors. Park Quan, 67, was sentenced Wednesday in U. S. District Court in Seattle after pleading guilty to being a felon in possession of guns, according to U. S. Attorney Brian Moran.