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Tuesday's Mini-Report, 1.5.16

Today's edition of quick hits.
Today's edition of quick hits:
 
* Afghanistan: "One U.S. service member died and two others were wounded during operations in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the Pentagon said. The Department of Defense did not name the casualties, saying only that the incident took place near Marjah in Helmand Province."
 
* Crisis in Flint, Michigan, takes a turn: "Governor Rick Snyder has declared a State of Emergency in Genesee County due to the health and safety issues surrounding the lead in Flint's drinking water."
 
* In related news: "Flint's contaminated drinking water is now the subject of an investigation by the U.S. Justice Department. Gina Balaya is a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office for the Eastern District of Michigan. She confirmed the investigation today."
 
* Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge: "In the pivotal fourth day of armed occupation on federal land here, militants held tight to a cluster of small buildings behind a blockaded access road as the FBI mulled its next move."
 
* A changing relationship with Saudi Arabia: "Today, with American oil production surging and the Saudi leadership fractured, the mutual dependency that goes back to the early 1930s, with the first American investment in the kingdom's oil fields, no longer binds the nations as it once did."
 
* ISIS: "The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group said Tuesday that the militants have lost 30 percent of the territory they once held in Iraq and Syria."
 
* Feel safer? "More guns were sold in December than almost any other month in nearly two decades, continuing a pattern of spikes in sales after terrorist attacks and calls for stricter gun-buying laws, according to federal data released on Monday."
 
* Texas: "The Obama administration on Monday urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down a Texas abortion law that has shuttered nearly half the clinics in the state, saying the Republican-backed regulations would harm rather than protect women's health."
 
* This ought to be entertaining: "The British parliament will formally debate a petition later this month from backers wishing to prevent Donald Trump from entering the United Kingdom."
 
* Can the drama surrounding the Adelsons' purchase of the Las Vegas Review-Journal get any worse? As it turns out, yes.
 
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.