Today's edition of quick hits:
* Ferguson: "SWAT teams swarmed a house on Dade Avenue here around midday and detained people for questioning as law enforcement continued their search for a gunman who shot and injured two police officers at a demonstration late Wednesday night.... St. Louis County police confirmed that people had been taken in for questioning as 'part of the investigation into the events from last night,' but said no arrests had been made yet."
* Related news: "The two officers, one of whom sustained a bullet wound to the face, were released from the hospital Thursday morning, NBC News reported."
* Holder speaks out: "Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday condemned the violence that exploded late Wednesday night in Ferguson, Missouri, where two police officers were shot after a rally in the streets took a nasty turn. 'What happened last night was a pure ambush. This was not someone trying to bring healing to Ferguson; this was a damn punk,' the attorney general said on Thursday."
* More on this on tonight's show: "Two Secret Service agents suspected of driving under the influence and striking a White House security barricade disrupted an active bomb investigation and may have driven over the suspicious package itself, according to current and former government officials familiar with the incident."
* ISIS: "Iraqi government forces and allied militias took control of the western neighborhoods of Tikrit on Thursday, military officials said, leaving only one area, including a palace complex once used by Saddam Hussein, in the hands of Islamic State militants."
* Boko Haram: "Hundreds of South African mercenaries and hired fighters of other nationalities are playing a decisive role in Nigeria's military campaign against Boko Haram, operating attack helicopters, armored personnel carriers and fighting to retake towns and villages captured by the Islamist militant group, according to senior officials in the region."
* Ahmed Al-Jumaili: "An Iraqi man who fled violence in his homeland to reunite with his wife in the United States had been in Texas just three weeks when he was fatally shot while taking photos of his first snowfall, his father-in-law said."
* Immigration: "The Department of Justice has now called on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals to lift a Texas judge's injunction on Obama's executive actions on deportations, which had put those actions on hold and left millions in limbo. This significantly ratchets up the legal battle over one of the most controversial and contested initiatives of Obama's second term."
* This seems entirely out of hand: "The Georgia Senate voted Wednesday to suggest the state should all but ban Advanced Placement U.S. history courses statewide, saying state officials needed to protect students from a 'radically revisionist view' of American history conservatives have deemed left-leaning and biased."
* Is the climate crisis the result of "cosmic rays"? Actually, no.
* A sound bill facing an uphill climb: "Democrats have introduced new legislation in the House that would ban forms of armor-piercing ammunition. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) is pushing the Armor Piercing Bullets Act following the Obama administration's decision earlier this week to withdraw a controversial proposal that would restrict a bullet used in AR-15 rifles."
* Best wishes to John Aravosis as he wraps up a long and successful career in blogging.
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.