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tracking operation.
• A sitting attorney general never has been held in contempt and Republicans picked an odd day to set a precedent. They scheduled the votes the same day the Supreme Court was deciding the legality of President Barack Obama's health care law.
• Passage of the contempt resolutions was not in doubt. Republicans control the House, and are likely to pick up Democrats who support the National Rifle Association. The NRA said it's keeping score on how members vote, partly because the gun owners' group believes the Obama administration wanted to use the program -- called Operation Fast and Furious -- to make the case for more gun control.
• Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., the longest serving House member and normally an NRA supporter, said Wednesday he would not back the contempt resolutions but instead wants the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to conduct a more thorough investigation.
• The criminal contempt resolution would send the matter to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, who is under Holder. The civil contempt resolution would allow the House to go to court in an effort to force Holder to turn over documents the Oversight Committee wants. In past cases, courts have been reluctant to settle disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government.
• ___

• If you're feeling hot this week, it's not a mirage. From Montana to Louisiana, hundreds of heat records have been slashed as harrowing temperatures leave cornfields parched and city sidewalks sizzling.
• On Tuesday 251 new daily high temperature records were set, boosting to 1,015 the number of records set during the previous week. Many more records were expected to have been set Wednesday.
• The consequences range from comical-- a bacon-fried driveway in Oklahoma -- to catastrophic, as wildfires consuming parts of the Rocky Mountains are fueled by oppressive heat and gusty winds.
• The record-breaking numbers might seem big, but they're hard to put into context -- the National Climatic Data Center has only been tracking the daily numbers broken for a little more than a year, said Derek Arndt, head of climate monitoring at the center.

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