Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Pay careful attention to the details on this one: “In its first public statement since the deadliest shooting in modern American history, the National Rifle Association on Thursday called for new regulations on bump stocks that rapidly accelerate a weapon’s rate of fire.”
* Niger: “Three United States Army Special Forces were killed and two were wounded on Wednesday in an ambush in Niger while on a training mission with troops from that nation in northwestern Africa, American military officials said.”
* An important ruling: “Rebuffing the Trump administration, a federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Interior Department to reinstate an Obama-era regulation aimed at restricting harmful methane emissions from oil and gas production on federal lands.”
* Attorney General Jeff Sessions has reversed “a federal government policy that said transgender workers were protected from discrimination under a 1964 civil rights law, according to a memo on Wednesday sent to agency heads and US attorneys.”
* The final vote was 65 to 32: “The Senate on Thursday confirmed Randal K. Quarles as the Federal Reserve’s vice chairman for supervision, an important victory for the Trump administration in its campaign to ease some financial regulations imposed after the 2008 financial crisis.”
* Trump-Russia: “The special counsel investigating whether Russia tried to sway the 2016 U.S. election has taken over FBI inquiries into a former British spy’s dossier of allegations of Russian financial and personal links to President Donald Trump’s campaign and associates, sources familiar with the inquiry told Reuters.” * This is a good round-up of the top 10 “career recipients of N.R.A. funding – through donations or spending to benefit the candidate – among both current House and Senate members.” * This Supreme Court dispatch is worth your time: “Ginsburg was saying to Gorsuch that he and his allies might control the future of the Supreme Court, but she wasn’t going to let them rewrite the history of it — at least not without a fight.” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
