We’re still waiting to find out the significance of the fact that Edward Snowden was not on the Russia to Cuba flight that he was booked on today and that many journalists (now on a pretty long flight to Cuba) thought he was going to be on. But one thing this should do is bring down to earth, to some degree, how much of the “national security/surveillance state” is a good deal more mundane, rule based and bureaucratic than you might think if your point of reference is one of the Matrix movies or an episode of 24.

For those of you who imagined that key foreign relations and national security decisions like the Snowden case don’t get made in Beijing, good luck with that.

And in fairness to the players involved here. It has always been understood, de facto and de jure, that Hong Kong is part of China on matters of national security and foreign relations.

5 year old girl fatally shoots herself in the head with gun she found in home while parent was out running errands.

For Prime Members, Sen. Angus King is going to join us at 3:15 PM eastern today to answer your questions on anything and everything. NSA, student loans, filibusters and quite possibly whatever the Supreme Court sends our way this morning. Get your questions in now and join us at 3:15.