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Tuesday's Mini-Report, 5.6.14

Today's edition of quick hits.
Today's edition of quick hits:
 
* Nigeria: "The White House announced Tuesday that it is going to send a team to Nigeria to help assist its government in finding nearly 300 girls who were abducted from their school by  Islamic extremists last month. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the United States is not sending troops to Nigeria, but will provide military personnel, intelligence and hostage negotiators to help the government."
 
* More brazenness: "Armed extremists in northern Nigeria have carried out another brazen kidnapping of young girls, the United Nations Children's Fund and a local official said on Tuesday, adding to the international uproar over the abduction of more than 200 girls seized from a school in the same part of the country last month."
 
* Ukraine: "Ukraine's interim government appointed a new military commander Tuesday, while other political and military leaders called for volunteers to help restore order ahead of elections that are increasingly threatened by a pro-Russian separatist uprising in the eastern part of the country."
 
* New Jersey: Christina Genovese Renna, who worked for Bridget Anne Kelly at the time of the lane closures ... testified today that "it was hard to picture Kelly as the driving force behind the plan to shut down the access lanes to the bridge. 'I wouldn't say she was the architect, but she was instrumental in the process,' she said."
 
* VA: "The White House is backing Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki after he faced calls to resign Monday over allegations that veterans died waiting for care in Phoenix and other problems in his department."
 
* China: "Six people were injured by knife-wielding assailants at South China's Guangzhou Railway Station, local police reported Tuesday, in the country's third violent attack at a train station in just over nine weeks."
 
* Keep an eye on this one: "If Harvard Law Professor David J. Barron fails to win confirmation as a federal appeals court judge, it won't be because he was 'blocked' by Sen. Rand Paul. If Barron doesn't make it to the bench, it will likely be because Democrats have unease about the legal justifications for drone strikes. In a post-nuclear-option world, Republicans can send letters talking about blocking or delaying nominees but their practical impact is nil."
 
* Ron Fournier's attempt to criticize Paul Krugman really didn't go well. (Also, as a rule, if a pundit is going to accuse the White House of "skewing the truth," he or she should at least try to come up with one example of the White House skewing the truth.)
 
* A "Profile in Courage Award" for Bush 41: "He made a simple promise: 'Read my lips: no new taxes.' Then, as president in 1990, he agreed to a bipartisan budget that increased taxes. Conservatives howled, and the deal helped sink George H. W. Bush's 1992 reelection campaign. But on Sunday, Bush aides and members of the Kennedy family came together to celebrate the former president's willingness to buck party orthodoxy and reach across the aisle, qualities they said are sorely lacking in today's Washington."
 
* No, Fox News, there's no need to create "a men's history museum."
 
Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.