In the news
Paula Broadwell, the biographer and ex-paramour of former CIA Director David Petraeus, said “it was a bit of a shocker” to learn the retired four-star general convicted of giving her classified information was being considered by President-elect Donald Trump for a Cabinet position.
Ed Papsis of the Pony X-Press Zoo petting zoo in Winslow, Maine, said a 5-year-old camel named Caesar has become a guide for a blind horse named Dolly, which follows the camel around and whinnies if it’s not nearby, drawing reassuring bellows from the camel.
Alex Trebek, host of television’s Jeopardy game show, said contestant Cindy Stowell of Austin, Texas, died of colon cancer a week before her episode is to air Tuesday, and the prize money she won will go to cancer research as she wished.
Kendal Scheid, 22, a student at Ohio’s University of Akron, pleaded innocent in the slaying of his roommate, who was stabbed in the chest in an off-campus apartment during what police said was an alcohol-fueled fight over fast food.
James Jordan, 33, of Robertsville, Mo., was arrested on domestic-assault, felonious-restraint and other charges after a delivery driver noticed a message scrawled on a package he had just picked up: “Contact 911,” written by a woman trying to get help.
Sally Keyes, with the Moscow Ballet, famous for performing The Nutcracker, said the dancers’ bus and equipment trucks wouldn’t start in Casper, Wyo., where the temperature plummeted to minus 31 degrees, and had to be defrosted for several hours before they could be driven to Colorado for the next performance.
David Penner, 68, of Liberty Township, N.J., said the return of his wedding ring, lost 15 years ago and found recently by a Christmas-tree farmer as he rode his tractor and spotted something shiny, was bittersweet because his wife of 42 years died in September.
Jonathan Steffy, 23, was arrested on a warrant after a police officer in Ephrata, Pa., who was searching for Steffy noticed a black cat staring intently at a shed where Steffy was hiding.
John Condrey, city manager of Forest City, N.C., said a man the city has hired for the past decade to portray Santa Claus has resigned under criticism for telling a 9-year-old boy to “lay off” the burgers and fries right after the child told him what he wanted for Christmas.