Axios

President Trump on Thursday nominated his former deputy surgeon general Erica Schwartz for director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and moved to fill several other top positions at the beleaguered agency.

Why it matters: The CDC has been without a permanent political leader since Susan Monarez was fired in August after serving in the role for less than a month.

Supreme Court justices are trading barbs over the court's direction, breaking from their usually private and civil decorum.

Why it matters: The recent remarks have offered a rare public display of the deep ideological divides within the most secretive branch of the U.S. government.

The U.S. has built roughly 50 miles of primary border wall along the southern border, 5.5 miles of buoy barriers in the water and 13.2 miles of secondary barriers, Customs and Border Protection commissioner Rodney Scott told Congress on Thursday.

Why it matters: The $46 billion project has been stalled by contracting issues and community resistance. But Scott told Congress the effort is now "ahead of schedule and we're below budget."