Today's edition of quick hits:
* Another mass shooting: "Four people were killed, including the gunman, and 14 others were injured after a series of shootings Thursday in rural Kansas, authorities said."
* On a related note, the suspected gunman, Cedric Larry Ford, began his rampage "not long after he was served with a restraining order aimed at barring him from contact with someone he had abused.... [I]nvestigators did not know on Friday morning how Ford, who had a criminal record in Kansas as well as Florida, obtained the guns he had during the shooting."
* Major developments in the Flint scandal: "New email disclosures that show top Gov. Rick Snyder aides were urging that Flint's emergency manager switch the city back to Detroit water three weeks before Snyder's 2014 re-election are drawing swift fire from Democrats."
* Alabama: "Birmingham, Alabama, raised the city's minimum wage to $10.10 an hour on Tuesday. Two days later, the state took it away. Alabama passed a bill Thursday, largely along party lines, that bars cities and counties from raising the minimum wage or requiring employers to provide leave or other benefits. Because the law applies retroactively, it wipes out Birmingham's raise."
* The new, official state rifle of Tennessee: "The Barrett .50 caliber rifle is a powerful gun. Originally designed for military use, its rounds can 'penetrate light armor, down helicopters, destroy commercial aircraft, and blast through rail cars,' according to a report from the Violence Policy Center, a gun safety group."
* Syria: "A ceasefire in Syria's long civil war went into effect, at least on paper, at midnight in Damascus, with no initial signs of whether it would be observed by Russia, Syria or the scores of opposition groups fighting there."
* Oregon: "Less than two weeks after the armed occupation of an Oregon wildlife refuge ended, people charged with seizing the federal facility pleaded not guilty on Wednesday."
* Economic news: "The U.S. economy got a double dose of good news Friday. Economic growth in the final three months of 2015 didn't slow as much as previously estimated, and consumers roared back to life in January, spending at the fastest clip in eight months."
* CDC: "Health officials said Friday they have confirmed nine cases of Zika virus among pregnant women in the U.S., and say they are investigating 10 more suspected cases."
* Texas: "The University of Texas at Austin's longtime architecture dean announced on Thursday he is leaving, saying the state's new campus carry law played a major role in pushing him out."
* At some point, after a respectable amount of time passes, it'd be worth having a conversation about this: "When Justice Scalia died two weeks ago, he was staying, again for free, at a West Texas hunting lodge owned by a businessman whose company had recently had a matter before the Supreme Court."
* The latest changes at TNR: "Win McCormack, a liberal political activist and publisher, has purchased The New Republic, a century-old political and cultural magazine that's weathered multiple relaunches and a staff exodus in recent years."
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.