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WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says President Barack Obama is acting unlawfully and showing disregard for the Second Amendment with his actions on gun control. Obama today is unveiling steps aimed at expanding background checks to cover more firearms by requiring more people to register as federally licensed gun dealers. In an op-ed in Iowa's Cedar Rapids Gazette, Bush is comparing the gun actions to Obama's executive action on immigration. He says Obama is flouting the proper constitutional process for lawmaking. Bush says it's even more important to defend gun rights because of attacks linked to the Islamic State, and the mass shootings in Paris and California.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense officials say a number of U.S. special operations troops have been killed or wounded in fighting in southern Afghanistan. The fighting today against the Taliban was in an area of Helmand province where the Taliban have made recent gains. One U.S. official says a U.S. helicopter was sent to the scene to evacuate casualties but did not immediately take off because a mortar landed nearby.
BAGHDAD (AP) — The U.S.-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group says the militants have lost 30 percent of the territory they once held in Iraq and Syria. Baghdad-based spokesman Col. Steve Warren says the extremists have lost 40 percent of their territory in Iraq and 20 percent in Syria, saying they are now in a "defensive crouch." The U.S.-led coalition has been launching airstrikes since 2014 in support of Iraqi forces and Kurdish fighters.
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The airport in Spokane, Washington, is temporarily closed after freezing rain caused a United Airlines 737 to slide off an icy taxiway. No injuries were reported. An airport spokesman says the slide happened as the plane was preparing to take off for Denver. The front wheels of the plane slid off the taxiway.
BALTIMORE (AP) — Authorities have arrested a man they say barricaded two people inside a Baltimore home on New Year's Day and set it ablaze, killing a 61-year-old woman. They say Alan Floyd was arrested at a vacant home this morning. He'll be charged with murder. Police say Floyd barricaded two people inside the house on Friday and set it ablaze, but one person escaped. They say Floyd had a dispute with someone who lived at the home, but the woman who died wasn't his intended target.
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