After a brief redemption as minority whip, Sen. Trent Lott — of the Strom Thurmond for President campaign — will announce today that he will leave the Senate before the year’s end, in the middle of his term. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican, will appoint Lott’s replacement.

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.